On May 20, 2015, the gaming industry was shocked to learn of the death overnight of Jens Halle, an iconic figure in the global industry and probably one of its best-known characters.
Halle had been taken suddenly ill in Florida and was rushed into hospital to undergo surgery before succumbing to his illness. He leaves a wife, Marietta, and son Jordi. He is also survived by his mother and sister.
A memorial was held to Jens at the Hard Rock Casino in Seminole, Florida, on Saturday, May 30, prior to a private family cremation in Florida. A memorial was also held close to the Novomatic headquarters in Gumpoldskirchen, Austria, on Wednesday, June 10. Both events were well attended by the international community.
Jens Halle was born in Lübeck, north-east of Hamburg, in Germany. He underwent no formal university education but garnered a taste for travel and the international world through student travel, including an exchange visit with California, US. He began his working life as a shipping forwarding agent, but quickly found a love for the wider gaming and entertainment industry, joining the German manufacturing company Bergmann and Co, which was a significant maker of change machines and gaming devices. He was to stay with Bergmann for two years. Today, Bergmann has been amalgamated into Crown Technology, which is itself part of the wider Novomatic company – which was to form such a significant part in Halle’s career.
He moved on to Bally Gaming, representing the big US slot machine manufacturer in Europe, rising to head their sales operation before he was head-hunted by Johann Graf 15 years ago. Graf had seen in Halle the ideal vehicle to head the expansion of his Novomatic group from a leading Austrian-based manufacturer with significant operations outside its own country, to one of the strongest and most rapidly-expanding gaming organisations in the world.
Halle was to prove an able lieutenant and, under his guidance, Novomatic’s influence was to spread and with it came a crop of directorships for Halle after one market or another was successfully opened up. Principal among his roles was the managing directorship of Austrian Gaming Industries, the vehicle for much of the Novomatic expansion, and of Novomatic Americas where he was chief executive officer leading the group’s expansion into North and Latin America.
Personally during this time he met and married Marietta, who was herself from the European gaming industry and they had a son, Jordi, who at the time of Jens’ death had just started higher education in the US. Jens had met Marietta in 1996 when Marietta was with Mikohn, the major games and signs developer. Jens was then still with Bally and was actually Marietta’s customer. Halle never lost his deep affection for his roots, supporting his nearest Bundesliga team, Hamburg SV, and, when involved in the European Champions League, Bayern Munich.
It came as a considerable surprise to the industry when late in 2014 it was announced that Halle was leaving Novomatic to join the group’s big German rival, the Gauselmann Group, to head its expansion plans in North and Latin America.
Our understanding is that the move would permit Halle to become involved in less European travel and more North-South America ventures, which was easily achieved via nearby Miami. He would therefore be able to spend more time with his family than had previously been the case. That ambition was to be cruelly cut short.
Jens Halle - born January 21, 1958; died May 20, 2015
A full version of the article can be found in the July issue of InterGaming
