Articles

In this article, we’ll analyze the Macau and the Las Vegas markets, but with a twist in time. One of us authors has the privilege of working both in Macau and in Las Vegas. This cross-continent, cross-cultural experience reveals a sharp contrast between the two markets when comparing them in the present day.

An attorney and key figure in Indian country, Jess Green recently passed, and it sure didn’t take long after the news was spread for kind words to come pouring out. Green began practicing law in 1977 and was elected to the Chickasaw Nation Legislature in 1983, going on to become the first chairman there since Oklahoma became a state.

Even in the shuffle of October’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E), attendees were certain to notice a buzz around one company’s booth. Shuffle Master Inc. formally debuted their new company name—SHFL entertainment Inc.—at the heavily attended Las Vegas trade show. According to Julia Boguslawski, G2E was the perfect time and place to debut the brand update.

New Class III slots this month are: Ainsworth—Star Fire, AGS—Arctic Run, Aristocrat—The Mummy, Aruze—ATLANTIS LEGACY, Bally—All That Jazz, Cadillac Jack—Wild Belles, IGT—Dolly Parton Video Slots, Incredible Technologies—Johnny Steel: Operation Heist, Konami—Advantage Revolution Hot Twin Phoenixes, Lightning Gaming—PINK PANTHER, Multimedia Games—Desert Sky, Novomatic—Sizzling Cut, SPIELO International—African Riches and WMS—CHEERS.

In this month's new Class II section, we highlight the following games: Bally—Code Red™, Cadillac Jack—Cat Country™, IGT—The Mighty Atlas™ Bingo, Multimedia Games—Gods & Titans™, and Rocket Gaming—Hot Loves™.

With years of successful experience and an attitude to back that success, Kent Young, a gaming industry veteran, announced the formation of his latest venture, Spin Games LLC earlier this year. Having left Aristocrat after successfully building the Australian company’s presence in the United States, Young founded his first start-up—True Blue Gaming—which he later sold to Aruze Gaming America. ...

Indian country was well-represented at this year’s G2E. It was an honor to host several events for tribal leaders not only at the Sands Convention Center, but also at several other venues in Las Vegas. To see such a large portion of this audience either from tribal nations or affiliated with tribal gaming is an amazing testament to Indian country’s hard work to transform gaming into an economic engine.

Now that we are in the post-G2E time period, we at CEM are hearing various assessments of the health of the gambling business. This happens throughout the year, but it always intensifies after the gaming industry’s largest trade event, G2E. These opinions can and do run the gamut, but the most vociferous groups are polar opposites.

Many operators and suppliers focus on win per unit as the metric by which to measure the success of gambling content in our industry. Suppliers use this metric to measure the performance of their latest slot machines. But as the casino floor continues to change, the challenge is changing our metrics along with it. It’s time to tweak the way we use WPU before our WPU is gone for good.

The last 10 years have been a real roller coaster for gaming equipment suppliers. Purely out of personal interest, I recently undertook an analysis of just how volatile the equipment supply industry has been over the last 10 years. This article looks at two key variables that make accurate forecasting and forward planning in this current market environment very challenging—the size of the market and market share.