NEWS Sneak peeks
Trade shows aren’t just about new product; they let us glimpse the future’s technology, too
It’s that time of year again – the time when casino suppliers, recovered from the exertions of Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, start packing their tea chests with new product and head for the other big western-world show, London’s ICE Totally Gaming.
And despite the brief gap between the two events, there’s no shortage of bold claims for kit making its debut at Earls Court. Server-based gaming specialist Inspired Gaming Group, for example, is launching an electronic Roulette terminal which it claims provides the best yet simulation of the table-gaming experience.
Multi-Win Roulette 4.0, housed in the Sabre slant-top cabinet and customisable with leather and wood options, “is the first electronic table game to recreate the full sensory experience of playing at a live table, while providing the comfort of sitting at a private terminal”, according to Inspired. It employs haptic touch technology that provides tactile feedback to the player as well as responding to their actions. The main display is a 26-inch HD screen with all four wheels visible simultaneously, while a separate seven-inch touchscreen provides game analysis and data. This screen could also be used for marketing, promotions, Inspired suggests. “We know from extensive research that our new Multi-Win Roulette 4.0 will be an instant hit with players,” said Lee Gregory, MD for Casino and Bingo at Inspired, adding that it would be “commercially competitive on price”. But events like ICE aren’t just a chance to
Haptic touch technology gives tactile feedback
see stuff you can buy now. For the astute visitor, they also offer a sneak peek at the underlying technologies that will form the next generation of gaming products.
Quixant, for instance, is bringing to ICE a device based on AMD’s Fusion technology just weeks after the chipmaker launched it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier in the month. The QXi-200 gaming controller uses an AMD Fusion chip – termed by its maker an accelerated processing unit, or APU – combining 64-bit processor and Radeon graphics controller. It is available in single-core 1.5GHz and dual-core 1.6GHz designs. “The new advanced cores and the cutting edge Radeon HD6310 GPU
present in AMD’s processors brings previously unheard-of functionality and performance at this price point,” said Quixant Managing Director Nick Jarmany. The controller is also said to have power requirements sufficiently low that it doesn’t need a fan, and can run on a single 12V supply. “AMD has managed to come up with a platform that provides the ideal solution for high-volume, mainstream gaming applications. Quixant has taken that base and delivered it in an optimised product for gaming and released it just one week after the technology became available to the consumer market. That is a first for gaming,” said Richard Jaenicke, Director of Embedded Client Business at AMD. “The combination of lower-power CPU cores and a discrete-level GPU core in the APU provides the high-resolution 3D graphics and media-rich experience needed for the latest gaming titles,” he added. The QXi-200 employs the same architecture as the existing QXi-100, allowing an easy upgrade for customers. Quixant said pricing for the new controller would be much as for the QXi-100, still in production. On its own, the QXi-200 is just a chunk of electronics of not much value to the end user. But wait for the next major trade event, and you’ll surely see it in ready-for-market products – even-more-realistic video Roulette, maybe?
4 FEBRUARY 2011 INBRIEF
PARTY PLACES Online Poker and casino games site
GR88.com named the Crown Casino in Melbourne as the best gaming location to see in the New Year. In second place came the Las Vegas Palms, followed by Macau’s Venetian; Sun City in South Africa; the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas; Casino de Monte Carlo; Casino Metropol in Moscow; and the St. James’s Club in Mamora Bay, Antigua.
BY THE SEASIDE Unidesa Gaming opened its Las Palmas Casino in December. The 1400-square-metre venue is in the SABA building near the harbour of the Gran Canaria capital.
ZURICH SCHEME Swiss Casinos is reported to be planning an upmarket casino and entertainment centre for Zurich. Gaming – along with some non-gaming leisure activities – will cover 4500 square metres of the facility in the Ober-Haus, while another 6500 square metres will be given over to retail, catering and further entertainment businesses, according to the casino operator’s plan.
VIRGIN TERRITORIES Fiji is seeking proposals from casino developers and operators to build and run its first venue, while the parliament of Sri Lanka has also given the okay to casinos in the island nation.
SOOOO UNFAIR Denmark is to tax online gaming operators at just 20 percent, while land-based casinos pay up to 75 percent. The European Commission is investigating.
DOWN, DOWN UNDER New Zealanders’ spend on gaming dropped dramatically in 2009-10, according to the country’s department of internal affairs, falling 5.7 percent from about NZD2bn ($1.54bn) to about NZD1.9bn ($1.46bn). Casino gambling fell 5.8 percent and Lottery takings plummeted 14.25 percent, while spending on non-casino gaming machines was down about 4.5 percent. Only sports betting was up, by 3.4 percent. Economic conditions were blamed for the decline by the ministry.
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