Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2010 28 GLI Test Bed Gaming Laboratories International Asia is seeing ever-greater levels of interoperability between gaming software and hardware T he push for increased interoperability between casino gaming equipment developed by different manufacturers is creating new business opportunities for gaming test laboratories. Ian Hughes, Managing Director – Gaming Laboratories International Asia, spoke to Inside Asian Gaming during G2E in Las Vegas to explain how the company is helping move this exciting industry development forward and how GLI is expanding in Asia. Inside Asian Gaming : Can you give us an update on your business in Asia Pacific following GLI’s acquisition of Technical Systems Testing (TST) earlier this year? Ian Hughes : Everybody that was working for TST both in the Philippines and in Hong Kong now works for GLI Asia. Our Macau office has doubled in size and continues to be a great base for our Asian manufacturers. The suppliers based out of Taiwan and Korea are looking to sell product not only to traditional large Asian markets like Macau, but also markets likeCentralandSouthAmerica. They really have a global focus in terms of what they’re doing out of Asia. GLI Asia is able to help these Asian regional manufacturers. Quite often we try and test close to where the content is developed, to have a close relationship with the R&D team. If there are any issues to discuss, it’s easier to consult with the manufacturer in their own time zone and language. The manufacturer has a lot of say in terms of where they would like things to be tested and evaluated. Of course, we can’t always do that. We have certain restrictions, particularly in some jurisdictions in the United States where we may not be allowed to test a particular type of product. But that’s changing in the US. We are doing a lot of testing for online in the Macau office now. Before, we weren’t doing that. So with that TST acquisition came some expertise, and they were able to continue that with the online gaming, and also transfer some of that over, which has contributed to our growth in Macau. About 30% to 40% of our work in Macau is testing of online gaming products. “We try to work with jurisdictions to narrow the room for interpretation. If something’s not clear, the last thing we want is for the regulator to understand it to mean one thing, the manufacturer to understand it to be something else, and the test lab something else again.” A number of traditional slot manufacturers are talking about or actively pursuing development of game content for use online. What impact has this had on GLI’s role? Ian Hughes, Managing Director, GLI Asia