GSA Shifts to G2S

The Gaming Standards Association announced that with the end of 2009, the organization-formed to support open communication among the equipment of various manufacturers-formally ended its support for the former industry-standard SAS communication protocol.

Beginning this year, the organization will focus its resources on helping operators migrate away from SAS toward the G2S, or game-to-system protocol.

“While SAS will continue to be an important protocol for some years yet, GSA has decided to focus on G2S as the sole protocol to be used from the electronic gaming machine to the back-of-house systems,” said GSA Technical Director Marc McDermott. “The new features and capabilities available with G2S will provide the building blocks that will move the gaming industry to a new level of technology. As the new technology will definitely have an impact on any gaming operation, we want to help operators prepare for tomorrow with some questions they should be thinking about today. The answers to these key questions provide the first step in moving an operation towards the technology of the future and the pathway to success.”

The GSA says it can answer three key questions concerning protocols: where operators can go now that SAS is no longer supported; which suppliers provide non-SAS products; and how to get IT teams up to speed on GSA protocols.

Operators can join the GSA’s Operator Advisory Committee to discuss the questions. For a look at brief answers to these questions, visit www.gamingstandards.com.