Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2008 52 base game, they need to feel like they’re still having a great experience by winning something else on their trip. “Bally Live Rewards™ is another kind of second chance to win. These products look much more like a game as opposed to a marketing program.We’re going to continue to develop these and get them displayed on the iVIEW display or as we move towards display manager, on the main game or the second string, as long as there’s a touch screen involved.” Flexibility In the digital environment ‘content’ becomes a fluid concept. Games can morph into marketing exercises and marketing exercises can become entertainment. This has been going on in the ‘real’ world for years. Think about paper beer mats in bars with quiz-style questions printed on one side and the answers on the reverse. “Where wewant to end up as wemove to networked gaming is that we have strategic delivery of both data and information to particular employees as well as particular guests, so we can differentiate by type of customer, by day of week and time of day— anything we want, even in terms of the way we communicate through mailbox and marketing,” says Mr Rowe. Peripheral software downloading and game content download via server will be available from the second quarter of 2008, says the company. Another feature of digital control, the ability to interrogate individual gaming machines, allows for more effective floor management when it comes to regulatory compliance, says Mr Rowe. “The Advanced Code Analyzer allows us to go into the slot master file and look at approved microchips and chips that are soon going to be disapproved. If there are any on the revoked list, the operator can take them off the floor before the property is put in jeopardy.” Download Configuration Manager is a scheduling system for being able to download and change games by time of day and day of week, adds Mr Rowe. “Whether we turn games on or off or whether we change the configuration of a game is critical.” Multiple functions With these increasing levels of interactivity, operators’ horizons may be limited only by a regulator’s tolerance for innovation. In terms of the customer service offer, Bally iVIEW delivered via media server has the potential to offer not just gaming entertainment but also online banking, ‘what’s on’ listings and point of sale functionality including issuing of tickets for casino shows and even the ordering of drinks. “Slot machines in many cases don’t have slots any more,” says Mr Rowe. Point of sale “In our demo system in Las Vegas we have iVIEW connected to a point-of-sale system so you can order a drink. If five drink orders come up, the system will dispatch the drinks waiter in the order the operator decides based on the operator’s rules for business. So the most valued customer might get their drink first, based on the priorities set up under the system. The operator might also negotiate deals with the drinks manufacturers in order to get some marketing money back because the operator is now advertising their brands.” iVIEW can also turn a gaming machine into a miniaturised box office. “If you have a show in your theatre you might want to offer your most valued customers two free tickets. For a brand new player you might not offer them a free ticket, but if you have a few hundred seats left over after 5 p.m.on the day of the show, those seats are going to go empty whether you put anyone in them or not. It’s your choice—you as an operator paid for them. You may want to link that customer into the value of your property by giving them a free ticket because you know it’s their first time there.” Customised offer By programming a player database to record a customer’s likes and dislikes, operators can not only advertise to them, but can customise the advertising by focusing on products or services that appeal to their known tastes. iVIEW can also be used as a public announcement system. “For example, if you have a convention group you may automatically have a display that comes up and reminds them they have a special event,” says Mr Rowe. “You can do this with any number of people. If you have retail partners on site, they may also want to advertise on it. “Whether or not these things make sense to an operator is something they have to figure out. Changing times “We’re starting to think about new definitions that apply to all different parts of gaming,” says Mr Rowe. Digital gaming devices are any gaming device that uses a digital infrastructure to both deliver and manage content, communications and security for the gaming device. We don’t know exactly what these are going to look like in the future but we’re pretty certain they won’t always look like traditional gaming devices.” Bally Systems