Casino Enterprise Management

If you have thermal printers in your casino (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), odds are you have FutureLogic thermal printers in your casino. After all, the company has been a market leader in cashless gaming since the very first TITO installation in 1999. With a majority market share and more than 900,000 printers operating in casinos around the world, FutureLogic has certainly earned its leadership position in the gaming industry. And it has certainly come a long way from the engineering design house it began as in 1983. Now, as FutureLogic celebrates a quarter century in business, the company is not only enjoying a look back at how far it has come in those 25 short years, but it is also continuing to look forward to the next 25 years and beyond as No. 1 in thermal printing.

Originally a provider of overflow engineering and services, FutureLogic Co-Founder and Co-Chief Technology Officer Mark Meyerhofer says he considered the new Glendale, Calif.-based company as a creative outlet for his talents. “I was a young engineer and very interested in technology, especially microcontroller applications,” he said. “I was working for a keyboard company at the time and was looking for greater exposure to other applications.”

Thermal printing was among those “other applications,” and Meyerhofer says that FutureLogic actively pursued the privilege to develop it. “I became aware of a thermal printer design opportunity at a company that we had been doing work for,” he explained. “We approached their upper management about the possibility of providing a new design concept, and they agreed. This was to become our first thermal printer design, and it opened our eyes to the wide range of opportunities for thermal printing and to the niche markets we eventually tapped.” (Which today include medical, RTAL, voting booths, pay-at-the-pump, grocery store at-register couponing, kiosks and industrial applications, in addition to gaming.)

That was 1988. More than 10 years and several thermal printing applications later, when FutureLogic had the opportunity to submit a proposal to IGT for a cashless gaming printer, the company jumped on the chance to tap that as-yet-uncreated niche. Meyerhofer says he didn’t entirely realize what he was getting into with that proposal, but he knew from the start that TITO could have a great future in the casino environment — if it could catch on.

Long story short, IGT awarded the project to FutureLogic, EZ-Pay launched at G2E 1999, and the rest is TITO history … although FutureLogic CEO and Co-CTO Eric Meyerhofer admits it wasn’t entirely that simple. “Kicking it off was a bit iffy,” he recalls. “I remember the first installation at a local Las Vegas casino where players were very confused and didn’t know what the tickets were. We wondered how players would react to the loss of the coins in the game. … Frankly, at the end of the day, the people that everybody was most worried about — the elderly who loved the bucket of coins — generally prefer the tickets.”

Players across the board quickly adapted to the technology, and the advantages of TITO were immediately evident to casino operators, slashing an estimated 40 percent off operational costs and increasing the speed of play. “We understood the potential [of TITO], but we were pleasantly surprised by the steep adoption rate,” Mark Meyerhofer said. “This technology truly started an industry-wide replacement cycle.”

FutureLogic was well-poised to ride the revolution. Already first to market, the company’s previous advancements in custom thermal printing for other industries put it in a strong position to cater to the specific needs of gaming suppliers from the very beginning — a strategy the company maintains to this day. “All of our products, features and functions are developed in very close collaboration with our game OEM and casino customers,” Eric Meyerhofer said. “Our focus on developing technology that meets and exceeds their expectations has kept us on a very strategic development path.”

“Before any new product is considered, we conduct extensive market research to determine the needs of the market,” Vice President of Sales and Marketing Nick Micalizzi elaborated. “After evaluating this feedback, we work diligently to ensure that the feature set we deliver will give our customers maximum value and return for their money. We’ve also been fortunate that FutureLogic innovations in one industry have in some cases lent themselves to other industries.”

Thanks to this attention to real market wants and needs, Meyerhofer’s “strategic development path” may be more aptly called The Road to Success. Today, FutureLogic printers are still the default for IGT equipment, the company works with more than 35 other gaming OEMs worldwide, and many of the thermal printing features and functions FutureLogic has developed and introduced over the past decade are now industry-standard. This is an accomplishment that Micalizzi is particularly proud of. “Everything we’ve done to date as a company has translated into a leadership position in gaming. You could say it’s like the ‘perfect storm,’ or a coming together of a number of factors that has led to our success,” he said. “This was not by chance, though. This has been planned and executed by a company that is dedicated to producing the best quality products and services in the market.”

Of course, any ol’ company can claim its products are the best, but FutureLogic has the awards to back it up. The company has won 10 industry achievement awards in the past five years, an astounding feat for any company, but particularly for a peripheral manufacturer that produces unseen — and often unsung — technology for the inside of a game. “It means that FutureLogic’s products don’t just look and feel good, they actually deliver, time after time — performance, reliability and value,” said Vice President of International Sales and Marketing John Edmunds. But he and others on the FutureLogic team remain humble about the honor.

“My mother always told me that achievement is its own reward, so you needn’t go looking for prizes,” Edmunds said. “Having our customers specify our technology always feels like an achievement, and winning an award is the icing on the cake. However, when we get the chance to accept an award and share it with the team that works so hard to develop and deliver FutureLogic technology, it’s always exciting.”

“Being recognized in this manner never gets old, and it has helped develop a corporate culture of innovation and excellence that few companies can match,” Micalizzi added. “We continually strive to raise the bar!”

And although FutureLogic’s past is certainly impressive, from its vast experience to its market penetration and industry recognition, it’s this constant look to the future that ensures the company’s continued success. “We are excited about celebrating our 25 years in business and proud of all our accomplishments during those years, but we are not resting on our laurels,” Eric Meyerhofer said. “We have achieved leadership in the TITO gaming market by making a better product and being first to market with the latest technology. Looking to the future, we will continue to focus on developing technologies that improve reliability, add value and expand printer functionality.”

That is, after all, what FutureLogic does best.

“In short, we just expect more from our printers, and our customers have come to expect the same,” Micalizzi explained. “FutureLogic printers are engineered to outlive the game. Our first generation gaming printers were installed in 1999, and many of those same units are still being used today. People understand that when they choose FutureLogic printers, they’ve chosen the best quality available that will give years of dependable service with a low cost of ownership.”

Edmunds agrees, crediting the company’s focus on product performance and reliability for casinos around the world choosing FutureLogic printers for their gaming floors. “Those responsible for management and operation of slot machines don’t want to be bogged down with printer jams, failures or refills,” he explained. “With the GEN2 Universal™ printer’s ITH® (Intelligent Ticket Handling) technology, for example, customers receive a perfectly printed ticket 100 percent of the time. FutureLogic printers also provide standard storage space for up to 300 tickets — that’s 50 percent more than competitor products. This simple advantage helps reduce support costs and maximizes up-time on the game.”
Speaking of the GEN2 Universal printer, one of the latest additions to the FutureLogic product line, Eric Meyerhofer says it is also a great example of how the company anticipates trends and works with OEM customers to enable new technology. The GEN2 Universal printer supports all existing communications protocols and provides a migration path for the next generation of server-based games. It also anticipates promotional couponing via GSA standards, which Meyerhofer calls a “hot new application” for the gaming industry. “With non-gaming revenue becoming more important to casino resorts and complexes, linking reward programs across multiple leisure experiences, as well as casino floors, will provide operators with new marketing opportunities,” he explained. “Our printers will play an important role in those initiatives.”

Just as it was for the introduction of TITO, FutureLogic is at a distinct advantage for bringing promotional couponing applications to the slot machine, having helped pioneer the technology in grocery stores over 15 years ago. It’s an advancement that Edmunds believes will once again revolutionize the casino environment, this time in terms of player loyalty and reward programs. “Using TITO printers to deliver marketing messages directly to players’ hands will enable targeted, player-based marketing campaigns,” he explained. “By directly linking promotional pre-designed campaigns to specific player actions, activities or behavior, the printer becomes a multifunctional marketing tool. This technology allows casinos to automatically trigger a marketing campaign based on game play metrics, player tracking information, POS systems and redemption terminals. For instance, a player who has just hit a number of pre-determined triggers may be issued a bar-coded voucher that can be used for additional play, or played at another machine, or redeemed at any of the bars or restaurants within the resort.”

This FutureLogic innovation has its roots in what Mark Meyerhofer considers the company’s proudest accomplishment: the development of its printer template language (TCL™). “As I look at it now, it was a foundational achievement that allowed us to develop our deep understanding of the power of promotional printing and has spawned several products that facilitate promotional efforts in the gaming industry, as well as in other market sectors,” he said.

“I expect that FutureLogic will continue its growth as a ‘solutions provider’ rather than just as a printer company — I think that is where we bring the most value,” he added. “This can take many forms, but as many of our customers will attest, they came in asking for a printer and left with features and solutions they hadn’t envisioned.”

Meanwhile, the adoption of server-based gaming is sure to open up even more opportunities for TITO advances, and FutureLogic is taking proactive steps to ensure it is strongly positioned when casinos begin the conversion from traditional networks. As a Platinum Member of GSA, a member of its Board of Directors and Chair of the Gaming Device Standards Committee, FutureLogic is actively participating in the development of communications standards and reference designs. “Game peripherals have very special requirements in this new environment,” Eric Meyerhofer said. “They must be downloadable and secure so the technology, as opposed to going into the printing, is going into the system interface. That is where the bulk of the engineering work in our industry is right now.”

And while Micalizzi believes promotional printing and server-based gaming will provide the next big lift in gaming over the next several years, and that TITO applications will remain dominant for years to come, FutureLogic is looking even further to the future of thermal printing on the casino floor: rewritable card applications. “Rewritable cards are similar to smart cards in that both have a magnetic strip that contains important player information,” Micalizzi explained. “The difference is that a rewritable card can be fed into a thermal printing device and updates are actually printed on the card. This takes information, such as the amount of money remaining on the card, out of the virtual world.  People tend to be more comfortable when they can actually see this information, rather than just trusting that it’s on the card. Cards such as these may also someday serve multiple functions, such as players club cards and room keys.”

But for now, TITO is here to stay — and it’s expanding. TITO can be found in more than 500 casinos in 40 countries around the world, from Albania to Uruguay, and FutureLogic is at the heart of this growth. To keep up with the rapidly increasing demand for FutureLogic thermal printers, the company has opened offices in the United Kingdom (in 2004 with the founding of FutureLogic Europe Ltd.) and Macau (in 2006) to support the international casino market and, according to Edmunds, “provide local knowledge right where it’s needed.”

And “where it’s needed” is continuing to become a larger and larger area. “FutureLogic’s international growth targets for 2008–2010 remain aggressive as ever, particularly given the success we have already seen over the last five years,” Edmunds said. “To support our global customers, we have expanded our Service and Support Teams in Europe and Asia, set up local partnerships that help keep us close to the market, and continued to invest in research and development. 2008 will see the trial and launch of new technologies that will improve our value to the customer. This is important in both well-established TITO markets and in developing markets where TITO technology may only just be getting established or is still awaiting legislative approval.”

“The trust and support shown by our shareholders over the last five years have given us the flexibility and freedom necessary to establish the FutureLogic brand around the world, growing the business into a profitable multi-national company,” he added.

But this is one multi-national company that doesn’t forget that business is all about people, from its customers to its customers’ customers to everyone who makes up the FutureLogic team. “Great people build great companies, and we are fortunate that FutureLogic has great people who are passionate about our company, our products and our customers,” Edmunds said. “It is also very opportune that in a technology-driven industry, so many members of our management team have technical backgrounds. This keeps us focused on product innovation and delivering added value to our customers.”

“I think that keeping a customer-centric focus helped us form the long-term relationships that we enjoy today with the vast majority of our customers,” Mark Meyerhofer added. “Keeping customers happy and satisfied offers us the best chance that we will be asked back again for future business.”

He is also quick to acknowledge his team. “I just want to say how very proud I am of the fine group of men and women that make up FutureLogic,” he said. “Their efforts, dedication and continued commitment to excellence have made us the company we are today” — a company that is surely looking forward to another 25 years of innovation and excellence.

Mary Huyck is an Associate Editor at Casino Enterprise Management. She can be reached at (701) 293-7775 or editor5@aceme.org.