Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | November 2011 40 “T he marriage is beautiful, but the divorce is ugly. That’s the problem.” Peter DeRaedt is not a divorce lawyer, but he probably has some of the necessary professional skills. Essentially one of his roles in life is to counsel casino operators to get the industry equivalent of a ‘prenup’ when they tie the knot with technology suppliers. “Unless vendors offer products that are Gaming Standards Association- certified, operators cannot be assured that the solutions are truly interoperable. That restricts the functionality that allows operators to grow,” says Mr DeRaedt, President of the GSA. The GSA is an international trade association set up in 1998 for the benefit of gaming manufacturers, suppliers, operators and regulators. It defines its aims as to “facilitate the identification, definition, development, promotion, and implementation of open standards to enable innovation, education, and communication for the benefit of the entire industry”. If that sounds like something of a talking shop, think again. Mr DeRaedt and his management team are very results- focused and don’t shrink from knocking industry heads together where they feel it’s necessary. “In essence, what the vendors do in practice is to create a symbiotic relationship that is not necessarily beneficial to the operators. Sometimes the operator is unaware of this. But the operator is then married to the system vendor. If the operator wants to change his system vendor, it can become an expensive endeavour.” Mr DeRaedt delivers this message in a cheery if slightly weary tone—rather like an attorney who has seen umpteen formerly loving spouses traipsing to his office for advice. His cheeriness is all the more surprising given that in some respects he is biting the hand that feeds—and largely funds—his organisation; namely, the relatively close-knit community of gaming technology suppliers. “In essence, what the vendors do in practice is to create a symbiotic relationship that is not necessarily beneficial to the operators. If the operator wants to change his system vendor it can become an expensive endeavour.” But he insists that ultimately his message—the promotion of truly open technical standards in the casino gaming industry—is a win-win for everyone. It will allow the whole industry to grow by creating the kind of blossoming of functions and applications that the world has seen in the personal computer and smart phone industries. One of his favourite analogies is that no-one now thinks twice about the ‘plug and play’ capabilities of USB (Universal Happy Ever After The Gaming Standards Association on why casino operators and their suppliers should have an industry version of a prenuptial agreement