Inside Asian Gaming

21 providing hundreds of millions of dollars every year to State governments. The rise of racinos has put pressure on ailing US casinos. The opening of several racinos in Pennsylvania since the end of 2006, for example, has taken a bite out of the revenues of Atlantic City’s casinos, exacerbating the recession-driven downturn in their business. Even the Pennsylvania residents who may have sufficient fondness for the casino experience to contemplate continuing to drive across the border to New Jersey to play slots in Atlantic City are now increasingly opting to stay at home because of soaring gas prices. While the racino concept has thus far been introduced in US States that do not have casinos, Atlantic City’s casinos recently faced being dealt a further blow with the introduction of video lottery terminals (VLT) at New Jersey’s race tracks. In order to stop that from happening, as reported in this issue’s International Briefs on page 45, Atlantic City’s casinos signed an agreement last month to pay US$90 million over the next three years in exchange for a moratorium on VLTs being placed at the tracks. Racino in reverse By installing the staple product of casinos, race tracks have expanded their range of offerings and appeal. Casinos now have the opportunity to do the same thanks to a new virtual horse racing product from casino supplier TCS JOHNHUXLEY. Triple Towers Virtual Horse Racing and Triple Towers Virtual Greyhound Racing, on show at this year’s G2E Asia at Venetian Macao, feature stunning graphics.“You can even see the dust from the horses when they’re running,” comments TCS JOHNHUXLEY Corporate Development Director Tristan Sjöberg. Triple Towers was developed by Solidicon, a company founded by three young computer game developers—all previously developers of games for Microsoft’s Xbox console—in Gothenburg,Sweden.They took their creation to Knutsson Holdings, one of Sweden’s leading companies and owner of TCS JOHNHUXLEY.“They said ‘we have this horse racing game. We think it’s applicable to the casino market.’We had a look at it,andwe said‘yes.’We invested somemoney in it,so they can further develop it. We put them in touch with TCS JOHNHUXLEY, and have since been working with them to develop it to this stage here,” says Dr Sjöberg. TCS JOHNHUXLEY distributes Solidicon games and products, and Knutsson Holdings has raised its stake in the developer from an initial 10% to 49%. Solidicon also does some work for IGT. According to the Knutsson Holdings corporate website,“Solidicon has developed a game engine with the capacity to show very detailed 3D environments in real-time. The technology also makes it possible to create an endless number of outcomes for game events such as virtual horse racing. “Furthermore,it allows casino operators to customize the product to make it more personal, such as dynamic in-game advertisement spots.” TCS JOHNHUXLEY Marketing Manager Tracy Cohen comments “the amazing thing about the system is it can be branded. Horses can be named after people. The graphics can be completely integrated and branded with the casino.” Bets can be made either at a counter,where punters can purchase betting slips from an attendant, or at a stand-alone automated kiosk, featuring a ticket printer and bill acceptor. Apart from obvious advantages such as obviating the hefty