Simon Liddle discovers the important role played by management systems.
Casinos are becoming increasingly sophisticated places, where information relating to all aspects of gaming and entertainment operations is recorded, forming the basis of future strategy, new games, customer loyalty offers and security initiatives. Capturing this data accurately can be crucial to targeting customers more effectively and reducing overall operational costs. A comprehensive casino management system, therefore, is one of the most powerful tools at an operator’s disposal.
"The benefit of having a comprehensive casino management system in place is that it should be capable of overseeing and driving efficiency, security, revenue and profitability gains across all basic casino operations," Helen Hedgeland, of UK-based company Octavian International, told InterGaming.
"Management systems unlock the business value of information by becoming a reliable and accurate decision-making tool," said Austrian manufacturer Atronic. "They help operators reach their desired security level and meet business and regulatory requirements."
Atronic’s systems division is headquartered in Graz, Austria, and maintains offices in Monaco, Peru and Argentina. Over 50,000 slot machines and 1,300 tables are driven by the company’s systems solutions in more than 60 countries. In Europe alone, its systems connect approximately 18,000 machines.
"Atronic’s systems division constantly develops innovative ideas to offer customisable management solutions for both slot and table game operations worldwide," the company said. "By delivering innovative technology combined with intelligent solutions and competent professional services, Atronic supports customers in streamlining their processes, generating savings and increasing revenues."
The company’s Crystal Web slot management solution, which connects thousands of slot machines globally, is to be superseded by the Crystal.net casino floor network. Launched at the London show in January, Crystal.net represents the next generation of online platform and multimedia LCD player tracking, according to the company. Societe des Bains de Mer of Monaco has already chosen to equip its four luxury casinos with the system.
"Crystal.net is what operators need today, here and now, but is also adaptable to market developments supporting all new technologies," the company stated.
Meanwhile, Atronic’s Galaxis modules offer an effective casino management tool for both single and multi-site operations, including solutions for slot and floor management, cashless configurations, cage and credit management, jackpot management, table management, player and bonusing features, and linked gaming concepts.
"The combined strength of the online Crystal.net slots and Atronic’s table floor networks integrated with the Galaxis range of software modules, offers a powerful and diverse casino management package."
American slots manufacturer International Game Technology has developed a range of management systems covering slots, the gaming floor and customer loyalty schemes.
"All are designed to improve the value of systems to the operator’s bottom line," a spokesperson for the company said.
Its sbX Tier One Package management solution offers an extensive G2S game library, while its IT Professional Services gives operators the ability to introduce server-based technology. Its sbX Media Manager, meanwhile, optimises media distribution by storing, scheduling and delivering media to the service window or any other G2S device on the casino floor, such as top boxes, plasma displays and kiosks.
"The products represent technologies that can dramatically reduce operational costs while providing new opportunities to grow revenue," IGT’s spokesperson said. "IGT pays special attention to existing customers as a way to offer them opportunities to take advantage of products that can provide them with a sustainable competitive edge during these challenging economic times."
One emerging trend within casino management systems is the development of cashless platforms that span the breadth of the gaming floor. Enabling players to transfer credit from one machine to another, without the time-consuming process of cashing in and out, has obvious benefits for both customers and operators.
US-based Bally Technologies offers an array of casino management, slot accounting, bonusing, table management and digital media solutions for the gaming industry, as well as cashless technology. Its Version 11 is a powerful slot accounting and play-tracking system that works across Windows, UNIX and iSeries platforms.
"The cashless revolution began with ticketing and continues with player bonusing and banking solutions," commented Ramesh Srinivasan, executive vice president - systems at Bally Technologies. "The trend to move towards cashless environments continues, and players being able to conduct various secure electronic fund transfers and other transactions at the slot machine is both efficient in reducing labour and more convenient for players who are accustomed to this type of transacting in non-casino environments.
"Casinos find that the use of cashless technology is both cost effective with an easy return-on-investment justification and a competitive advantage for attracting players."
Evona’s Pavel Blumel believes that a number of operators are seeing the advantages of moving towards cashless operations, as are their players.
"The major operators around the globe are already turning cashless, and the smaller operators are following this trend," he told InterGaming.
"Cashless systems are attractive for players, because it gives them more freedom to move around the machines without assistance of croupiers or spending time on crediting the machines through acceptors.
"At the same time, it brings a certain discreetness to the process of moving around the casino. Cashless systems simplify the gaming experience and bring better revenues to the locations."
Zlatko Waiss, general manager of Slovenian company Advansys, claimed that cashless systems - such as the company’s own SlotScanner Cashless module - also help to boost casino security.
"The Cashless module simplifies and accelerates the flow of money in the casino and makes transactions less expensive, more reliable and secure," he said. "The system offers full control and safety of all cash transactions and it instantly provides complete analysis of all financial parameters on slot machines.
"SlotScanner also increases comfort by using individual or generic plastic cards for all money transfers on the casino floor."
Increasing security is a key objective for operators, and Waiss stated that management systems improve the transparency of all activities taking place in the casino, either among personnel or players. The reliability of a management system therefore, contributes greatly to a casino’s overall level of security.
Guarding against fraudulent activities, Bally’s Srinivasan said, requires the integration of a variety of cutting-edge technologies across the gaming floor.
"Security comes in many forms in a casino environment," he said. "Bally systems provide state-of-the-art user access security and software authentication methods to ensure the integrity of data and protect both casino assets and customer privacy. In addition, many security features are built into the system to prevent casino employees and customers from committing fraud. Add to that specialised software that triggers automated alerts to management and surveillance, and you can see that Bally’s solutions provide comprehensive security in all facets of the operations."
Atronic has installed its Chip Cash cashless technology in 100 venues throughout the world, which it claims offers maximum player convenience and higher revenues. Using the same encryption technology as bank cards, the system is among the most secure cashless technologies currently available on the market.
"With Chip Cash, casinos can run single and multi-site operations with one card only," the company explained. "Chip Cash has been developed towards recognised industry standards on proven hardware that drives real results for operations of every size and scale."
With so many opportunities to capture data, identifying areas worthy of attention and making the most effective use of the information can be a significant challenge, particularly for casinos with limited resources. The global economic downturn has also placed additional strain on operators’ finances, highlighting the need to cut out waste and improve overall efficiency. Octavian International offers a variety of casino management solutions - from the entry-level Octavian EasyStart system to the full service Octavian e2e Gaming Management System.
EasyStart provides a step-by-step route to the company’s high-end slots and tables system solutions. Both systems are based on the same Octavian modular components: the Accounting, Control, Progressives slots management system, the GateManager reception system, CashManager cash desk system and Business Intelligence Manager.
"This means that smaller casinos, or those deploying a system for the first time, only pay for the functionality they need," explained the company’s Hedgeland. "This considerably reduces both software and hardware costs but doesn’t limit the operator’s ability to add more comprehensive systems functionality, should the business need it in the future. This approach to systems can work particularly well in markets where governments are compelling casinos to move to computerised systems."
Just as cost continues to be a barrier for many companies, manufacturers have in turn, been impacted by falling revenues. This has prompted a number of casino management systems providers to re-assess their business strategies.
"The revenue decrease is significant, showing that customers now are less likely to invest in upgrading their equipment with new machines," Evona’s Blumel said. "For Evona, it is an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of its operation, and gives us time to prepare new products to roll out when the first signs of improvement will appear. In the meantime, we are working closely with our existing customers to help all of us overcome this troubling period and prepare for the near and better future."
Evona was established in 1990, originally supplying non-gaming products, such as pool tables and darts. Having begun manufacturing slot machines a few years later, the company has since developed its own casino management system, Gamenet.
Gamenet provides access to cash desk management, monitoring, accounts control, statistics and reporting, bookkeeping and jackpot management data. All information is displayed on a monitor and can be stored for future use.
"The remote functionality of Gamenet is of vital importance for different levels of casino employees, starting with the croupiers, through to managers and ending with the owners," Blumel said.
Atronic is keenly aware of the pressure on operators to reduce costs in the face of financial instability and has launched initiatives aimed at enabling customers to update their gaming floors less expensively.
"To assist customers with these challenging times, Atronic has reviewed its portfolio to give more options and better processes to customers," it said. "To underline our commitment to our customers and help them ease some of the financial pressures, the company is also offering very attractive combined machines and systems packages, resulting in the best overall offering.
"By continuously developing new value-driven and cost-effective solutions, Atronic is supporting its customers to weather these economically challenging times."
Hedgeland explained that Octavian has taken steps to minimise its own exposure to the global downturn, while also providing practical assistance to its customers.
"All markets are subject to upturns and downturns," she said. "To guard against this we have in recent years reduced our dependence on a few individual markets and continued to enter new emerging markets. During this period we have also invested significant amounts of time and money in developing our systems so that they are well suited and flexible to new markets and market areas.
"At the same time, we have shifted the company’s focus away from one-time equipment sales to a business model based on participation and recurring revenues. In parallel with this transition, our teams continue to develop innovative solutions that meet the needs of our customers. We work extremely closely with our customers to deliver solutions that add value, efficiency and profit opportunity to their particular businesses."
As games manufacturers continue to develop new and exciting games to entice a greater number of people to spend more money on the gaming floor, the need for ever-more sophisticated management systems grows.
"The efforts to further improve the casino management process will lead casino owners to take into account not only the need to attract players and promote the casino," Advansys’ Waiss said, "but also to look for the best solutions how to make casino operations even more efficient, improving business and having complete control over all processes."
