SERVER-BASED GAMING The reasons why What are the benefits? Most importantly, the
games available on each cabinet can be changed at any time without physically touching the cabinet, not only making upgrades far simpler but also allowing operators to fine-tune the game mix for specific customer demographics on different days or at different times. This is a feature common to all server- based gaming systems.
Server-based gaming also provides many
opportunities for customising the gaming experience, because a central database can store information on individual players and then deliver appopriate instructions to whichever machine they’re standing at. For example, a player could leave one cabinet, move to another, insert a card that identifies them, and find that it knows all their gaming preferences. They could even spread the same gaming session over several units. As our boxout on the major vendors shows, this kind of customisation and player messaging is a focus of several suppliers.
Server-based gaming is also fundamental to inter-
player competitions, whether in one venue or over several, and facilitates site-wide or business-wide progressive jackpots. It allows customers to play more than one game simultaneously if they wish – a practice that’s popular with younger gamblers, already familiar with juggling multiple digital devices. And it lets the same game be distributed through several channels: not just cabinets, but handheld devices, mobile phones, and the Internet.
From a management perspective, the centralisation
of server-based gaming also improves monitoring, security and record-keeping. And for regulators, in turn, this improves their view of operations. The recent large rollouts in Italy of video lottery terminals (VLTs) from companies like Inspired and Videobet, for example, are all server-based and give the Italian
rewards to members of a player loyalty scheme, again while they are actually in play; and Lucky Seat Slots, another mechanism for issuing customer rewards, configurable by quantity, value and time.
Inspired Gaming An impressive demonstration of the
flexibility permitted by server-based gaming came recently in Britain not from the casino sector but from the amusements business, when the government doubled the maximum stake allowed on Category B3 gaming machines, from £1 to £2.
These machines are found mostly in adult gaming centres (AGCs) and Bingo venues, although they are also permitted in casinos and retail betting outlets. Inspired Gaming
34 SEPTEMBER 2011
regulator, the AAMS, a very accurate window on VLT activity.
The downside However, one of server-based gaming’s biggest
strengths – centralised control over the whole floor, or at least a large part of it – has also proved an obstacle to adoption for many operators. While it is true that server-based cabinets should not have to be replaced as often as conventional ones, because the game content can be completely changed at the server, nevertheless the initial capital cost of conversion to the server-based model is huge. That’s not necessarily a fatal flaw for new casinos, but it’s an off-putting factor for many with a large existing investment in machines that server-based gaming will render obsolete.
Says Marcus Prater, Executive Director of the
Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers: “The Holy Grail of server-based gaming has not taken hold because suppliers have not given operators a compelling reason to change their entire floor. With the recession it’s too expensive, casinos can barely afford replacement machines never mind rip up the floor, rewire it with high-speed cables, then replace all the boxes on top of that.”
Group has 14,000 such units in operation in the UK and adjusting them manually would have been a massive operation. But because they are linked to Inspired’s server-based system, Open SBG Core, games supporting the new higher stake could simply be downloaded across the estate.
Novomatic Server-based gaming products offered by
Novomatic include the Flexi-Link jackpot system, produced by Australian firm Independent Gaming. Supporting 24,000 different parameters for multi-level mystery jackpots, it can be configured to deliver what Novomatic calls “community jackpots”, where the main prize is won by one player and a second prize is shared between multiple players.
Videobet With its Edge system, Playtech’s Videobet
unit takes server-based gaming to its logical conclusion: Edge not only provides control and configuration of slots, but also a complete casino management system, including floor management, jackpots, cashier functions, player tracking and tournaments.
WMS WMS is another vendor stressing
interoperability and standards in the server- based gaming field, where its principal product is Wage-Net. For example, it recently signed a partnership deal with Konami Gaming, allowing Wage-Net to configure and download to Konami machines as well as WMS’s own, via a single interface.
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