An upcoming University of Nevada Las Vegas educational series will outline a strategy for casinos and slot manufacturers to “make peace” and offer a preview of upcoming technology that will rock the gaming floor.
Operators vs. Manufacturers: Making Peace is scheduled for March 21st at 9 a.m. on the UNLV campus.
The session focuses on how communication between the casino industry and slot developers has worsened over the years, according to Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, one of the sponsors of the series.
The tension, Gros says, stems from manufacturers building games that offer bonus levels and operators subsequently setting the payback percentage too high for players to reach those bonus levels.
David Patent, CEO of VizExplorer, will give a talk about how to optimize communication between the two parties.
Buddy Frank, president of Slot Strategies, will moderate a wider panel discussion looking at how to create an extraordinary game experience. AGEM Executive Director Marcus Prater wraps the day up with a panel looking at how technological advances will impact floor layout.
Gros said slot manufacturers are constantly coming up with inventive themes, great game play, favorable payout math, and appealing cabinets. Casinos are captivated by those games, but reticent about both the costs involved and about dialing up hold percentage, he said.
Panelists will discuss strategies for giving players an entertaining experience, with more time on device, while at the same time allowing operators to recoup the cost of the machine in a reasonable time period. The panel will also discuss what role regulators play in this communication breakdown.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and it’s a little bit controversial,” Gros said. “There isn’t a lot of cooperation between manufacturers and operators in a lot of cases. I thought it would be helpful to bring the issue to the forefront and let them talk it out and see what kind of common ground there is. Manufacturers are making these great slot machines with great graphics, math and all kinds of stuff, but that all ends up costing quite a bit of money so they have to bump up the hold percentage to pay for the machine. So the players lose their money, don’t get to the bonus rounds where all the fun begins, and move on. And the operators don’t think the machines work, but they’re the ones that keep the hold percentage high. It’s a vicious circle.”
The Frank panel, The Great Debate: Creating the Extraordinary Gaming Experience, features Kathleen McLaughlin, vice president of marketing and product management for NOVOMATIC Americas; Jeff Jordan, executive director of loyalty and rewards for PlayStudios; Richard Schuetz, a former gaming operator, supplier and regulator; Gavin Isaacs, a non-executive chairman with SBTech; and Bob Boughner, a partner with Global Market Advisors, a member of the Boyd Gaming board of directors, and the former president and CEO of The Borgata.
“The people on the debate session are extraordinary,” Gros said. “Kathleen worked for Las Vegas Sands as the head of their slot department. Buddy is a legend in the business, and he knows what the challenges are for operators. Jeff has worked at the Bellagio and MGM Grand and went on to work for IGT and Aristocrat. Gavin is a legend on the manufacturing side. Bob knows how gaming works with non-gaming because there are a bunch of companies that make systems for the non-gaming side. Richard has worked for Shuffle Master, and his last two jobs have been regulatory. A lot of times the regulators get in the way of this relationship in terms of games testing, and it takes so long you lose enthusiasm.”
The day’s final panel, The Future Is Now: New Technology That Will Rock the Floor, focuses on how, despite the widespread introduction of higher-tech games, the casino floor hasn’t changed all that much in decades. With expanded artificial intelligence, data analytics, skills games, blockchain and crypto, mobile gaming and esports, that will soon change, according to the session.
“We’ve talked about how quickly the casino floor is changing,” Gros said. “This panel will talk about technology.”
Marcus Prater, executive director of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, will moderate; the panel features Georg Washington, president of Synergy Blue; Brian Wyman, senior vice president of operators and data analytics with The Innovation Group; and Robert Rippee, director of the hospitality lab and esports lab at the UNLV International Gaming Institute.
The series is a cooperative effort between the UNLV William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, Casino Connection Intl., LLC, publishers of Global Gaming Business (GGB) Magazine, and Applied Management Strategies.
https://conferences.regfox.com/unlv-gaming-hospitality-education-series-2019
