Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2013 30 SUPPLIER AWARDS The key to its success is Contact Image Sensor Technology, which delivers better than a 99% acceptance rate on valid banknotes and near-total counterfeit protection. Two high-speed processors, a sealed note path and patented, removable stacker mechanism keep the money moving. The RFID ICB cashbox ably handles the data capture and transmission. Best Electronic Gaming Peripheral — Printer Winner: FutureLogic – GEN2 Universal Developed with feedback from OEMs and casinos, the GEN2 enjoys a reputation for reliability, interoperability and ease of integration that were the key considerations for its No. 1 ranking by this year’s judges. Its Intelligent Ticket Handling technology ensures that tickets are fully printed and automatically burst before being released from the slot machine, and its IntelligentBezel scans for obstructions and waits for a clear path before a ticket is ejected, significantly reducing paper Best Electronic Gaming Peripheral — Bill Acceptor Winner: MEI – CASHFLOW SC The CASHFLOW SC celebrated its 10th birthday last year and it’s still going strong. Combined with the RFID-powered data- gathering and transmission capabilities of EASITRAX Soft Count, which is operating on about 85,000 games around the world, the security, speed, acceptance rates and cost efficiencies of the SC remain unparalleled. Best of all, the platform is backwards-compatible with the new SC Advance, which MEI says delivers the industry’s best first-time acceptance rate for valid street-grade notes and is packed with valuable features that include faster bill-to-bill speed, comprehensive bar-code recognition, expanded memory to allow more currencies and denominations to be recognized and a USB 2.0 upgrade to speed up communications with the host machine and allow for the addition of even more functionalities. Honourable Mention: JCM – iVIZION The iVIZION is the standard-bearer of JCM’s “intelligent validation” technologies and a fixture on slot floors worldwide. CASHFLOW SC Lucky BigWheel iVIZION Nominees: Manufacturer Title FutureLogic GEN2 Universal TransAct Epic 950 Nominees: Manufacturer Title JCM iVIZION MEI CASHFLOW SC ELECTRONIC GAMING PERIPHERALS The people who design and deliver machine gaming’s critical supporting technologies are truly the industry’s unsung heroes, engineering peripherals such as printers and bill acceptors to be more reliable and more flexible and increasingly “smart”. These qualities are vital to maintaining and building casino profitability by reducing machine down time and the losses in revenue that result. They also make for a better player experience, which of course is the bottom line. Likewise, casino signage has transformed itself from a straightforward advertising and directional tool to become an integral part of the marketing magic and worthy of recognition on its own. For peripherals, the judging criteria naturally were determined by the growing sophistication of the technology itself. Operator floor feedback figured prominently in the results. It took into account software stability, the quality of the hardware components and the ease of servicing and upgrade. Interoperability and integration were also weighted heavily based on factors like plug-and-play capability and compatibility with back-of-house operations. Finally, consumer friendliness had to be taken into account, assessed on the basis of the overall robustness and intuitiveness of the technology and the consistent strength and integrity of that all-important interface with the end-user, the player. GEN2 Universal Honorable Mention: Aruze Gaming – Lucky BigWheel Amember of Aruze’s innovative G-Station series, Lucky BigWheel incorporates an array of features that add up to a really fresh take on the popular wheel-spinning numbers game, like vivid illumination and crisp sound effects and an eye-catching, super-sized wheel. The player interface is centered on an extra-spacious 22-inch-wide, high- resolution LCD monitor and offers an automatic lever for spinning. Up to 50 stations can be linked to a single game for maximum yield and profitability.