Inside Asian Gaming

March 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 19 Supplier Awards be switched from automatic play at quieter times to dealer- or attendant-supervised play during busy ones. Winner: Aruze – Lucky Sic Bo The judges praised the wide appeal of Aruze’s Lucky Sic Bo , with its ability to draw in seasoned sic bo players and newcomers alike. It features a high-impact display designed to be seen easily across the floor. A 32-inch wide, high-resolution LCD screen prominently displays the progressive amounts, game results and past data. The display acts as a quick ‘educational’ for novice players and helps to draw in those already familiar with sic bo as a game. The centre unit of Aruze’s Lucky Sic Bo features large (3.5 inch) dice and a light-based presentation on the unit corresponds with the action of the game. Each station unit offers ample foot room and emphasises ease of play with a 22-inch wide LCD game screen and a monitor angle that allows easy recognition from any play position. The touch panel offers comfortable and precise control. Honourable Mention: Royce and Bach - Roulette Royce & Bach’s electronic roulette products entered Asian markets in July 2007 with the deployment of three multiplayer roulette stations to Holiday Casino group in Cambodia. Since then, its products have been introduced successfully into a range of markets including the Philippines, Vietnam and Macau. As a result, the brand has earned a well-deserved reputation for player excitement, high quality build, software stability and excellent support via its local representatives. Best Innovation in Electronic Games Selection of this category was at the judges’ discretion and features any product or product area they felt had provided an outstanding contribution to the development of electronic gaming in the Asian casino industry in the last year. Winner: Aruze – Lucky Sic Bo Aruze Lucky Sic Bo topped the judges’ list because of its genuine ability to add excitement and player value to one of Asia’s oldest betting games. In Aruze’s game, the highest better per round gets to press a large red button and give the dice one last big hit, in the manner that the person making the highest bet in live table baccarat gets to squeeze cards. “All other [ sic bo ] products are just auto bounce after ‘last bets call’,” explained one of the judges. “This one gives a bit of player incentive to bet up and makes players feel they have some effect on the outcome Aruze Lucky Sic Bo also has an ante bet side feature that offers a mystery progressive jackpot. It also has minimum bet requirements and separate side bets to the game. Honourable Mention: IGT Multi-Layer Display Slots IGT’s Multi-Layer Display® (MLD) widescreen upright machines provide an excellent presentational setting for the company’s ‘REELdepth’ 3-D effect reels. IGT’s MLD can switch from a video slot game to a 3-, 4-, or 5-reel virtual spinning reel game and back to a video slot game—all on the same G-series MLD machine. Nominees: Manufacturer Title Aruze Lucky Sic Bo Elaut Roulette & Sicbo Jumbo Technology Sic Bo Royce and Bach Roulette Nominees: Manufacturer Title Aruze Lucky Sic Bo IGT Multi-Layer Display Slots Novomatic Multi Live-Baccarat Novomatic/ TCS JOHNHUXLEY Novo Unity II IGT’’s 7 Storm Slots featuring Multi-Layer Display ELECTRONIC GAMING PERIPHERALS Lucky Sic Bo The term ‘peripherals’ could imply this equipment is only a bit part player in the daily drama of casino gaming. That’s not the case. Digital technology has allowed slot peripherals such as printers and bill acceptors to become increasingly ‘smart’. It has also allowed them to become increasingly reliable and increasingly flexible and integrated with the operator’s floor. All these qualities help to maintain and build casino profitability by reducing machine down time and reducing revenue leakage from technical error or fraud. These capabilities also make for a better player experience because there are fewer frustrating ticket-in- ticket-out (TITO) breakdowns or bill acceptance errors. The judging criteria are: * Operator floor feedback based on software stability, quality of hardware build, ease of servicing and upgrade, modularity (weighted at 60% of the final assessment). * Player friendliness based on ease of use, robustness, level of intelligence, player interaction (weighted at 20% of the final assessment). * Interoperability and integration based on ability to plug and