G2E ASIA 2011
TransAct’s big announcement, that Galaxy Macau would be using the Epic 950 TITO printer exclusively on its 1100 slots. That’s a big coup for TransAct and the very best shop window any supplier could be in. Also on show for the company was their
ServerPort, an upgrade to existing Epic 950 printers which allows them to take advantage of Epicentral among other things. The Epic 880 roll-fed thermal printer, ideal for VLTs and kiosks, and the Ithaca lines (8000 and 8040), which are suited to food service applications.
security aspect of the games – there’s no dealer collusion possible with an electronic table game, after all. The flexibility of their product offering is the key, with table games able to be classified as either slots OR table games, depending on what the operator needs in that jurisdiction. And with player acceptance of electronic table games well and truly on the rise in Asia, we think you’ll be seeing a lot more of DigiDeal in this part of the world.
Thermal printer specialists FutureLogic had their Gen3 printer on the stand, though it’s not yet available to buy, alongside some other very interesting product. John Edmunds explains: “We’re only showcasing the Gen3 concept today, it’s not yet available to buy. It’s designed to link into promotional couponing, but you want to print a different kind of ticket to a cash-out voucher. With this, you can do a near- photographic quality print, it really makes the ticket more eye-catching. “Gen3 holds 450 tickets, 50% more than
The Crane Payment Solutions team
Crane Payment Solutions, since acquiring
Money Controls, surely has the most complete array of cash handling product in gaming; but how much of that is suitable for Asia? The company had a fair showing of its product suite in Macau, with NRI, Money Controls and CashCode all represented, but the emphasis was on bill acceptors as Bill Murphy, Asia Pacific Sales Director, explained: “Coins in casinos in Asia are very limited now, very few are running coins. What we’re promoting here is the bill acceptors, the CashCode one and the Ardac Elite. We’re Crane Payment Solutions and we have three brands in Money Controls, CashCode and NRI. “This is a big market for a small number of
customers; we’ve had a lot of people visit us though, including people from the Philippines, all over really. It’s been a very good show for us. We’ve had some key decision makers visit us and we have actually taken orders on the stand.”
DigiDeal’s stand focussed on the X-Pod, what the company calls a ‘modular wagering terminal’. It’s basically a way to add player stations to an existing DigiDeal table game setup, up to 99 in fact. Each terminal has its own bill validator, ticket printer and supports full player tracking. The terminal itself is very stylish, and surprisingly compact. With the staffing problems widely reported in Macau and new properties gobbling up available and new staff as fast as they can be trained, a company like DigiDeal should be doing very well in the Asian market, not least because of the
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even the Gen2 printer; we’re thinking if you want to print coupons, you’ll be doubling up some of your print so it keeps maintenance down quite a bit. It also prints twice as fast, so if you’re printing two or three tickets in a go, you don’t want the customer to feel they are hanging around waiting; it prints at eight inches per second.”
an Asia-Pacific region. I’ve been looking after Australia and New Zealand, and there was an expansion of that remit so I now look after the Asia Pacific area too. What IGT has basically done is try to create a more sensible three time zones from a commercial standpoint.” That certainly seems to make sense. But what of the show itself? IGT has often led the line with big licenses but is there any proof that the big names are right for the Asian market? Andrew continues: “There is a role for that high-end product in the market, but it has to be measured. There’s always a role for good core games with strong maths, volatile games, that’s where our Australian product will come in and buttress the high-end products. “The focus this year is really trying to tailor
the products for the market place. We still have a plethora of the US-style slots, the premium end titles like Sax and the City, Dark Night, Ghostbusters, but what we are telling customers here is that we are introducing the Blue Chip Neo products, which is the staple product from the Australia and New Zealand market. We’ve brought in some proven game maths and themes from down there and tailored them to the Asian market here to try and create a tailored product range which is complementary to the US product set; it’s not designed to compete with that range.”
Bill validator company MEI continues its Also of note was the new version of
PromoNet, where the graphical user interface has had a complete redesign; also, and arguably most interesting, FutureLogic were demonstrating a host-assisted couponing system that works from an iPad, so promotional tickets can be triggered just by a member of staff walking the casino floor and selecting a player. FutureLogic’s exhibition space is employed
far more effectively now that the company runs its products on a small network of slots, so customers can really see the printers in action in real time. It’s exceptionally effective.
IGT has undergone a management
restructure and a global rethink in terms of division of territory recently, with Andrew Hely now Vice President, Asia-Pacific. Andrew explains: “The way the world is divided up for IGT has changed; the recalibration is to create
Interblock’s steady rise into Asia has been
marked by key, high-profile installations of their G3 electronic table games. Now, the company is promoting G4, the next generation, and in particular G4 Organic Island, which
success in Asia; last year they tied up the Singapore casinos business, and this year Galaxy opened with 100 per cent MEI validators within. It’s a great advert for any company, when a property chooses your product exclusively, but for the three highest- profile casino openings in the world to do it, it’s pure gold. G2E Asia saw MEI launch their new version of the SC to the international market, as Graeme Lewis told Casino International: “The new international version of the SC bill acceptor brings a number of new features the market is looking for. It’s faster – we think it’s probably the fastest bill acceptor on the market. It has four-way barcode acceptance, increased security, more note capacity, and great support tools.” Also very importantly, it could not be easier for an OEM to upgrade to the new version; Graeme adds: “If an OEM has integrated the SC product and they want to upgrade to the new SC, all they have to do is swap the head over – there’s really hardly any work to do. It’s a nice clean transition.”
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