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Bruce Rowe Of Bally Technologies Talks With Roy Katz
he first thing I do when I walk into a casino is to close my eyes and I smell and listen to the sounds of the casino,” says Bruce C. Rowe, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business
Development at Bally Technologies in Las Vegas. “I do this because I think that as humans we have some very quick decisions regarding comfort, satisfaction and safety issues when we walk into a location.”
“The next thing I look at is how the Slot
Director merchandises his product on the casino floor. How they lay out the games, how they use signs and what the casino puts next to each other, but how they think about what games go together and which ones don’t. I look at the casino in regards to comfort, do the people feel comfortable walking thru the aisles or is it a very crowded casino? So basically it is the same thing anyone would do to evaluate a retail environment,” Rowe says.
“I love to people watch and talk to other players in casinos, “says Rowe with a big smile on his face. “I love to play and sit next to other players to see what they like and don’t like about a game. I like the excitement and the noise of a hectic casino on a Friday night.” He also believes that most of the good ideas in casinos probably originated with players. “If you listen to them they know what they like and what they don’t like.” He makes it a point to play games made by
Bally Technologies competitors. “I play with my own money not with Bally money because I want to know what it feels like to win and loose using my own money. You don’t have the same feeling of excitement if it is not your own money!” Rowe has been with Bally Technologies for about four years. “I have been working with a team to help establish a strategy for Bally to take us into the future by evaluating technology and helping to identify companies that we want to acquire or have strategic relationships with.” He also points out that he had a rather unusual
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career path. “I was a theater major in college and that’s how I got into the casino business. I was in the entertainment side. Actually, I was in the technical theater where I was responsible for producing and putting on shows as opposed to being in them.”
Rowe also worked for casino operators before coming to Bally Technologies. “There are some very fundamental differences between the two sides of the business. When you are on the buyers side, your job is to evaluate purchase and games and to spend money well. However, when you are on the manufacturing side, the job is to make revenues for the shareholders in this case the Bally shareholders by designing games and systems that people want to buy and add value to their business. So there is a big difference, but one of the reasons I wanted to join a game manufacturer after I left Harrah’s was to take some
Technology in Casinos
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