Casino systems have changed dramatically and the customer’s gaming journey continues to evolve, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence, according to industry experts.
“With igaming, social gaming, and sports betting, the customer journey isn’t just happening on the floor and in front of the machine,” said Jon Wolfe, president of global systems and services at Light & Wonder. “It’s now online and on their mobile phone. Casino systems have evolved tenfold and provide an energized and consistent experience across all of these different touchpoints.
“With the volume and diversity of data that defines that customer, revenue has increased tenfold,” Wolfe said. “It’s making your jobs more interesting and more difficult. It’s certainly changed how we think about systems, interact with customers consistently, and differentiate our experience. The conventional definition of a casino system has changed dramatically and will continue to do so over the next couple of years.”
Wolfe was part of a panel discussion Monday at the TribalNet Conference and Tradeshow in Reno on what’s new with gaming systems. The panel discussion included Chad Hoehne, founder, president, and CEO of Table Trac; Ted Keenan, vice president of product management for gaming systems at Aristocrat Interactive; and Jacob Lanning, IGT’s senior director of business development, payments. The moderators were Tara Fisher, director of IT gaming & hospitality at Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, and Patrick Tinklenberg, vice president of IT at Sycuan Casino.
Keenan said it’s about how to engage the player. They know that they play in other venues as well. With products like Aristocrat’s mobile on-premises solution, they’re bridging the gap between online and brick-and-mortar play.
“That requires that the casino management system become bigger than what it is today,” Keenan said. “It’s not just looking at slot play. It’s got to help you understand what your players expect from these different channels. It doesn’t end with mobile on prem. This is becoming more and more of a revenue driver for our customers, whereas mobile on prem is online sports betting. Lots of different channels are coming into play and giving you all that data to act on accordingly. They’re empowering you to act on those players’ wishes.”
Hoehne focused on table-game management, which his company started with. They’ve worked with table-game systems for 30 years and the evolution has been a roller coaster. But he “sees bright days ahead” for table-games management. AI will help them know the player much better and manage the pit environment for yield management and operations, including staffing levels. “There are a lot of teeny tasks and the talent pool for managing them has gotten a little thinner over the years. This is where AI can step in and allow one person to run 300 tables as easily as a pit boss ran 12 tables back in the day.”
Lanning said IGT has been thinking about what a modernized system is for a modern casino. At the core, it has to be an amazing player experience, seamless and easy to do. “The only way to get there is a combination of a lot of topics and data is where it starts – understanding your player’s behavior. To do that at scale, you need technologies like AI. Then you need to take action for quick and seamless player experiences. A lot of those are driven by integration and what the player experience looks like on the screen.
“Our company has we merged with one of the other powerhouses in the industry (Everi),” Lanning said. “Bringing lots of those different payment, regulatory, loyalty, and marketing technologies together, you’ll see that casino management systems will be vastly different from what they were before. They’ll deliver on that 360-degree vision, so your players will continue to visit your facility. A player-driven and data-driven experience will win the day in the future.”
Lanning said they’re focused on how AI can provide tools that will allow staff to do things at scale they couldn’t do on their own.
“You can impact only a very small percentage of your databases with casino hosts,” Lanning said. “We’ve looked at various ways to use AI and bonusing technology to start impacting players at a much broader level. At G2E this year, you’ll see our new Random Riches version of a bonus that’s been around for a decade. With AI, operators can configure that product, so they can get one-to-one with a player. Each player will have their own goal for point earnings and they’re awarded a random bonus game when they get there. AI determines what those offers are. We’re continuing to find new and different ways to help operators, whether that’s solving problems with fraud detection or slot floor optimization.”
Wolfe said they’re using AI to develop products, making them faster and more reliable, deploying them, and ensuring that outcomes are more surefooted.
“AI is helping us do a better job for you in the products you have to manage and their ability to deliver on their promise,” Wolfe said. “That’s where we’re investing a lot in AI this year.”
Keenan said they look to use AI in how they make their products better and to help customers use products better.
AI can do a lot to help with requirements, test cases, and the entire life cycle of product development. “With AI, we can use natural language processing, so you no longer have to write queries, but can talk in plain language to get the results that you want.”
Hoehne said they’re recognizing tension between generalist and specialist AI philosophies and they’re leaning toward the specialist. They put together proprietary AI that learns the specifics of table-game, slot-floor, and yield management.
“Then we add regs, using your policies and procedures and personalizing to your location,” Hoehne said. “To do that, we don’t want all of that data leaking outside of our building. We’re building it so it all runs on the premises. It’s proprietary and on-prem and integrated.”
When it comes to revenue generation for casinos, Hoehne said it’s about listening to customers. Their latest product, Slot Suite, was the result of a collaboration with customers and has provided impressive results in increasing card usage, time on device, and revenue growth.
Keenan said a lot of the focus for revenue growth is on new channels, whether it’s igaming, sports betting, or mobile on the premises. Even non-gaming channels are part of that. It’s about integrating all of those different channels to have one view of that player and their worth and make offers more effective.
Wolfe said a number of their new products are driving customer engagement at the point of contact. Their display manager can take over the entire face of the slot machine and own every pixel both in and out. They’re doing enhanced bonusing.
“We’ve brought a lot of mechanics from igaming and social gaming directly onto the face of the slot machine and driving direct engagement with the player,” Wolfe said. “Every time the player touches the screen, we’re capturing that touch and how players are reacting to different messages and in-game actions, then keeping that data and using AI to understand that player’s attraction to the game.”
Understanding player behavior at the game and capturing those nuanced points have innovated promotional mechanics that can be measured by game and cabinet type and by age and demographics, Wolfe said.
“Those are really important for your bonusing program to drive lift and revenue on the floor,” Wolfe said. “We’re spending a lot of time and money on those areas for our new products.”
Lanning said IGT is focused on player experience and bonusing, which has been a core for years. They’re also focused on payment systems; getting new funds in the players’ hands on the casino floor has been a challenge. They’ve brought out a lot of payment technology to fund their credit meter or wagering account. Of those players who have adopted that, he said they’re seeing a considerable lift of 30% by VIP players.
The other way they are driving revenue is convenience applications, such as improving the drink-ordering system, helping the players reserve a machine, process a tax form quickie when they hit a jackpot, and self-fund a marker while sitting at a slot machine.
“All of those things ultimately increase revenue,” Lanning said. “They keep the player on the device longer and in play much more quickly. It drives revenue across the board.”
