The networked casino floor and server-based gaming systems are the next great technological advancement set to revolutionize the industry, and 2008 is expected to mark the start of regulatory reviews of these systems throughout the world.
As regulators look at server-based and server-assisted games for licensing, they first have to understand how the systems work.
To help outline what this new technology is, how it works and how it can be exploited to improve system security, industry integrity and slot floor revenues, Gaming Laboratories International held a roundtable conference with regulators and manufacturers-including a panel discussion with representatives from Aristocrat, Bally Technologies, Cyberview Technology, International Game Technology and WMS Gaming-last month at the Tuscany Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The conference was a sales-pitch-free zone where regulators from around the world could meet with manufacturers to discuss their concerns with server-based gaming and networked floors.
The question-and-answer session made it clear that there is still a lot of work to be done in explaining how these systems will work; a number of regulators didn’t grasp how the systems could better protect industry and game integrity and security.
The discussions also pointed out that manufactures have much work to do in convincing operators that the initial outlay necessary to build the infrastructure to support the networked systems will generate greater revenue.
