Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 51 Server-Based Gaming getting the different gaming manufacturers to get along, says Volkert. “To take a lot of different companies— who all have great ideas and different ways of doing business—and try to get them all to agree to one path has been challenging. It took us some time, and you know we decided to make it a collaborative process. We brought all the vendors together and did conference calls every week, and we just walked through every issue together, and we talked about it. It’s the only way to do it.” The conference calls are still going on. “I think we’ve finally gotten to some middle ground to where we can get some things done,”Volkert says. MGM Mirage supports GSA open standards and made them a requirement for doing business at ARIA. “I think it’s important to provide a level- playing field for the whole industry,”he adds. “I’m not looking to create a competitive advantage for any one company. I think that if server-based gaming is going to come to reality we have to be very cognizant that it has to be an open-source system and that we allow other people to be able to compete in that space.” This means telling suppliers they have to be GSA-compatible and that the Service Window is the method the casino will use to communicate to players. “The guest needs to have one interface, one source of contact, one way of doing something,” Volkert explains. “You’ll just confuse them if there are multiple touch points.” This also means that IGT has to ensure its competitors’ machines can work with IGT’s system. “They have a unique obligation to make sure they interface with other manufacturers and make sure their games are interoperable,” Volkert says, “so they’re under more pressure than ever to make sure their systems are open and to make sure they play well with others.” Regulators nationwide will be paying close attention. “Some of the other jurisdictions are watching to see what kind of trouble or lack of trouble they’re going to have,” says Marc McDermott, GSA’s technical director and a former chief of the Electronic Services Division of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. “Having the largest jurisdiction in the country, Nevada, decide that this is OK, and having it working with no problems in Nevada for some time, is certainly a help. There are quite a few places where this is moving, not to the extent of CityCenter, but it’s definitely moving in.” GSA President Peter DeRaedt says he has no illusions that the technology will spread overnight. “I don’t think it’s going to accelerate that fast. I don’t see any big bang.” Still, he adds, “having the ability to innovate more rapidly is definitely going to be there.” And it will be interesting, he says, to see what kind of metrics come out of ARIA to show cost savings, revenues and indications of how players perceive some of the new functionalities. Which may not be quite as sexy as cool new apps, but as he puts it, “immediate cost savings increase the ability to innovate long-term.” In the shorter term, though, as Lerner sees it, the economic realities will find other casinos proceeding slowly. “A number of them are trialing [server-based gaming] as you would expect them to do. Nobody has the budget to do anything meaningful. They have the luxury of waiting.” But he acknowledges the magnitude of the potential. “I think that disruptive technology historically has resulted in accelerated replacement cycles for slot machines. I think ultimately that if you incentivize people on an individual basis at the point of sale, right at the machine, they’ll spend money incrementally on other parts of the property.” Saenz has no doubt that what is happening at ARIA is a turning point for the industry. “Once we start to see the revenue potential on the upside, operators are going to be very compelled to justify the expenditure.” By Marian Green. Reprinted with permission from Casino Journal. Rendering of the soon-to-open CityCenter Rendering of CityCenter’s ARIA Resort & Casino