As a concept, server-based gaming seems the answer to a casino operator’s prayers, offering the ability to download fresh game content, bring new progressive jackpots to established base games and configure a whole floor of machines remotely. So why, a few years down the line, do many remain unconvinced?
Mark Pace, vice president of gaming engineering and operations at WMS, believes that when it comes to server-based gaming, manufacturers have forgotten the lessons of the past.
“If you look back to the most recent new technology to be introduced to gaming in the US, Ticket-in Ticket-out, it took upwards of five years for it to be widely deployed,” he said. “Somehow or other, four years ago we thought SBG was going to be different and would be very widely deployed. Unfortunately, history has been a wonderful teacher once again.” Initially, operators seemed keen to implement server-based technology but a number of things have limited its adoption.
“The most significant of those events has been the economic downturn, obviously both in the US and international markets such as Europe,” Pace explained. “These technologies obviously require new capabilities. Most of our technologies, for example, require GSA standard protocols and new gaming devices will have that capability but legacy gaming devices do not. Given the economic downturn, the replacement cycle of those devices has slowed down and therefore the adoption overall of these new capabilities has slowed down.”
This feature can be read in full in the February 2012 issue of InterGaming magazine.
