The challenging economic climate could prove to be the “catalyst” that sees operators introduce new technologies to their gaming floors, it has been claimed.

In an interview with InterGaming, Craig Churchill, senior vice president of international sales at IGT, said that although the gaming industry has historically been slow to adopt new technologies, things are beginning to change.

Churchill, who joined IGT just over a year ago, has a strong background in technology, having previously worked for the likes of Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics.

“The technology industry runs very, very fast because it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there,” he said. “If you’re not innovating and if you’re not developing open infrastructure and open architectures then you may as well forget it.

“The gaming industry is somewhat different when it comes to introducing new technologies. If I was an operator, I would be very reluctant to change something if it was working. It’s the old adage – if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

“However, I think the catalyst of the challenging economic times in certain situations is causing operators to say ‘hold on a second, there’s got to be an easier, more efficient way of doing this'.”

Pick up a copy of the March issue of InterGaming to read Craig Churchill’s keynote interview in full.