Casino Enterprise Management

The term “visionary” evokes a host of strong words to describe a person. Dedicated. Inspirational. Ambitious. Innovative. Enthusiastic. Brilliant. Mastermind. The list could go on and on, and they are just some of the qualities that each of our gaming visionaries possess. Hand selected, each for various reasons, this month we honor some of the geniuses behind gaming’s greatest innovations. They each have interesting backgrounds, impressive goals, outstanding resumes, and maybe even a few surprising characteristics. This is an inside look at each of them. It was a pleasure for us to visit with each of these individuals, and to learn about their accomplishments, companies, families and hobbies. We are certain you will learn something from their stories, and be enlightened and inspired.

So read on to learn the stories behind John Acres, John Breeding, Peter DeRaedt, Mike Fields, James Maida, Bruce Rowe, Ali Saffari and Jean Venneman.

In fact, there was so much to say about each of our visionaries that we couldn’t fit it all into the print magazine. Therefore, we invite readers to visit our website to read extended versions of the stories, listen to the audio versions of this article and get additional insight into each.

-Click here to listen to the extended versions of the Gaming Visionaries MP3s
-Click here to listen to a podcast with John Breeding on his first jobs and how Shuffle Master got started
-Click here to read a blog post featuring a best-of quote reel from John Acres
-And simply read on for each of the gaming visionaries extended stories

John Acres

Founder
Acres 4.0

There is no doubt about it, John Acres is inspiring. That’s why CEM picked him as one of our gaming visionaries and as the first-day keynote speaker at our recent event, CasinoFest 9. Hearing him speak calls you to action. He challenges your beliefs in the industry and your practices. But what I think makes him a visionary is that he not only talks the talk; he also walks the walk.

For decades, Acres has been creating innovations that have advanced this industry. Maybe you’ve heard of some of them—player tracking, progressives and bonusing, ticket dispensers—even helping jump-start the Gaming Standards Association. And his newest trick: working with his son’s company, Acres Bonusing, on using the iPad™ as a gaming device for casino operators.

These inventions, now industry staples, were once scoffed at, but Acres stuck with it, and the outcome has made gaming better. That is what he says the industry needs to advance—innovative thinkers that question the status quo and work to create something great. His passion for change is evident, and most of his beliefs are rooted in simple common sense.

But his story begins in the Midwest. Growing up in Indiana with a degree from Ball State, Acres was in the Air Force and was stationed in Las Vegas. After marrying his wife, Jo, and realizing finding good housing on his current paycheck wasn’t promising, he sought a part-time job in addition to his military gig. Taking a position at an electronics place doing TV and radio repair, one of his customers needed a sound system upgrade at a casino. “Before I knew it,” Acres explained, “I was doing the Air Force during the day and working at the casino in the evenings.”

The casino was Mr. Sy’s, a little facility in a shopping center, that just so happened to have the first dollar machines. It was there, he says, that he learned a lot about promotion. “If I hadn’t spent when I was 18 to 21 with Norman, I probably would have been just a regular engineering guy,” Acres said. “His point was that you never design a machine from the inside out; you design it from the outside in. You start with what the user wants then make it happen instead of just grabbing the parts that you like and hoping somebody likes it.”

Returning to Indiana to finish college after the Air Force, with jobs at General Motors and Hewlett Packard, it didn’t take long for Vegas to be calling Acres’ name back. Not wanting to work for anybody, he did consulting for a while, working on progressive jackpots and ticket dispensers, before it turned into his first company, EDT (which stands for Electronic Display Technology).

Referring to Bill O’Hara’s loyalty program that used pieces of paper to award players prizes for jackpots, the problem was there was no way to track them, they were easily lost, not to mention the fraud. And so, he and his team at EDT built arcade-style ticket dispensers to put on the sides of dollar machines for Steve Wynn. “People were complaining about the paper inventory and the cost and complexity of putting them in, so we came up with the idea of making them electronic,” Acres said. “But it was always to create a tighter bond between the player and the casino. Everything we did was about how do we solve a problem.”

EDT was eventually bought by IGT, and Acres then started Mikohn with Mike Stone. Mikohn continued on the road to producing bonuses, but also made the color dot matrix LEDs that you still see in casinos today. “The ability to do mystery jackpots and stuff like that and made it very modular, very configurable, kind of like what a personal computer is now,” Acres commented. “That was very well received.”

Next in the timeline was Acres Gaming, which Acres started up by himself as 100 percent owner. It started in 1992, “right when gaming was really hot,” he said. The company went public in 1993, and after 10 successful years producing such innovations as Wheel of Fortune and bonusing, was sold to IGT.

“When we first did player tracking, it was a one-way street,” Acres noted. “Players, in order to redeem their points, would have to go the players club and wait in line to get a piece of paper that says they’re entitled to something, or they’d get cash or a prize. I was looking at that, thinking, players don’t like to stand in lines, and casinos don’t like payers to stand in lines because they’re not playing the machines … so I said why don’t we just make it so players can convert their points to play right at the machine. It was a good idea, but the machines didn’t have the ability to take commands from the system. We had to go through a multi-year effort to convince the manufacturers to build that into the protocol, and that was very difficult.”

Shortly after that, Acres’ expertise was sought out by another influential man in gaming, Bob Luciano. At the time, Luciano was dealing with some lawsuits over Wheel of Fortune at Bally and turned to Acres for help. “That took about three years, and when I started working on the lawsuit, my intent was not to get heavily involved in gaming again,” Acres explained. “It’s like a smoker giving up cigarettes. You get back to it and say ‘I’ll just try one,’ and then boom, you’re back again.”

It was Luciano who introduced Acres to a man named Rich Fiore, his soon-to-be business partner for his next big thing, Acres-Fiore, a company whose goal was to develop innovative slot product concepts and games and bring them to market faster than the larger manufacturers.

Meanwhile, Talo Nevada—which began in 2000 and is still around today—was working on developing a “personalized” gaming program. Acres still does some consulting through Talo, which curiously stands for “the absolute last one.” 

Acres said there were some licensing issues at Acres-Fiore, which is what lead to the creation of Acres’ newest company, Acres 4.0. He said it holds the gaming licenses, but exists to take the patents from Acres-Fiore.

Not too surprisingly, Acres said his proudest accomplishment is effecting change. “I get a kick out of walking around, seeing player tracking in machines and thinking about the times when people said it’s a lousy idea and won’t work,” he said. “They said the same thing about progressives, they said the same thing about bonuses, and many of them are saying the same thing about what we’re doing now.”

It’s that commitment to trying new things—and sticking with them—that got him where he is now. And it’s what he wants to see more people in gaming do. In fact, what he credits as our biggest challenge is getting people to realize that “sitting on what you’ve done is a guaranteed way to fail.” “It’s not that the industry isn’t advancing as much as it should be; it’s not advancing at all,” he commented. “The bigger our bureaucracy and the more reluctant we are to try things, the more compromised our future becomes.”

However, he admits that not every new idea is going to work. “The problem is that, to a great extent, people perceive mistakes as bad things. Mistakes mean mis-takes. You can’t get a good take unless you have some less than perfect ones. You’re going to try it and learn something and try it again.”

Going against the beliefs of some, Acres contends that gaming will not be OK after the recession. “Supply continues to increase and demand continues to decrease,” he commented. That’s our problem. The recession just diminished demand abruptly. But unlike a rational market where when demand diminishes, you stop increasing supply, we’ve just kept increasing supply all the way through the recession.” The key to our industry’s recovery? You got it—change.

Agree with him or not, there is no doubt Acres has passion and deep respect for the industry. “When I look at gaming, I don’t see it being this sinful industry that causes harm. I see it as a microcosm of life. Life is going to give us a lot of ups and downs, like gambling does. For a lot of people, gambling provides hope. I think that’s an essential itch that must be scratched. If we look back at the history of humanity, gambling has always been a part of it. True, it does cause problems, but we have the technology now to control those things. We can provide that outlet. We are every bit as essential to society as movies or music or any other form of entertainment.”

Acres often compares gaming to the Internet, calling it an “opportunity for communication at low cost that is absolutely wide open. It’s the freest market we’ve ever seen.” Young kids with fresh ideas can write an application for relatively nothing and have it published tomorrow. But for them to sell a new gaming device, they’d have to get licensed, do trials, work with a manufacturer and have lots of money, only for the process to take years. “We need the equivalent of an app store to design our games,” he noted. And referring to his founding of GSA, he looks to the computer industry. You can plug in your printer, there’s a USB port, and a whole bunch of compatibility. “Let’s create the same compatibility in our games so we don’t have this alphabet soup of different protocols.”

“I’m not out here to say what people want to hear,” he said. “I don’t want to just nod my head; I want to challenge people to re-think.” But when Acres isn’t busy changing the industry, you can likely find him spending time with his family (three of his four children also work in the gaming industry) or tending to his indoor aquarium that houses four sharks and two sting rays. Though he loves being able to work with his children, as any good father, he just wants them to be happy.

And that’s John Acres—always inspiring the next generation. AH

John Breeding

Co-Founder
Shuffle Master

One day in July 1982, or more appropriately, one article in the paper that day, changed the course of John Breeding’s life. And more importantly, it led to the creation of a gaming industry innovation and soon-to-be top table game company.

That summer day, Breeding was working as a truck driver in the Minneapolis area. While taking a break, he happened to pick up a Wall Street Journal and read an article about the problem that some Atlantic City casinos were having with card counters. The article resonated with Breeding, and back in his truck, he pondered the article’s main points, even devising his own way to solve it.

“I was thinking, ‘I bet if I could build a little machine that would act as the dealer’s assistant and always have a freshly shuffled deck ready, the casinos would be interested in leasing that,’ ” he recounted. Good observation, and especially so for someone who had never even worked in gaming before.

But Breeding was definitely a budding businessman. Already having gigs selling cemetery plots, check writing machines and encyclopedias, it was when he was selling cars that he’d watch the semis go by and wonder where they’d be going. So he quit the car business, went to Wisconsin to learn how to drive them and ended up driving for Schaper Manufacturing, interestingly named after the man who invented the Cootie game. It was here that the idea for a shuffler was born. Breeding began designing his invention in his head on the road, making a couple sketches and getting in touch with an engineer friend. Schaper later closed, and Breeding stayed behind to liquidate the warehouse. With some extra time on his hands, he made a shop right there, working to bring his shuffler idea to life. Bill Garrity, president of Schaper, came to the warehouse to visit one day, saw a line-up of drills and plywood, and it was then Breeding said, “I knew my goose was cooked.”

But rather than taking the goose—or shuffler—out of the oven, Garrity loved the idea and helped Breeding baste his proverbial poultry. “He knew both of us would be out of work in a year or so, so he invested $15,000 in the company and I made him the chairman of the board,” Breeding explained. “He thought it was wonderful to see an entrepreneur get started. I owe that man so much.” In fact, the letters B and G in Shuffle Master’s first models of shufflers—BG-1, the single-deck shuffler, BG-2, the Pai Gow machine, and BG-3, the double-deck machine—stands for Bill Garrity.

Surrendering his personal money to fund his innovation, he quickly ran out. “I started thinking about it, and I decided I would just form a corporation, and I’ll sell stock in the corporation,” he explained. Eventually finding eight people willing to invest, he then went to an attorney he knew, who said his idea was crazy, but agreed to help.

Ten years and $1.3 million later, the first Shuffle Master machines were leased out. In 1991, Bally’s Las Vegas took the shufflers in on field trial for the Nevada Gaming Commission. Breeding explained: “It was a struggle. It lasted about three months. I lived in their hotel. I only had two machines for this field trial and they broke down a lot. The pit bosses and dealers knew I was trying so hard to get this thing to work. I had a pager and could be at dinner or fast asleep and when the beeper goes off, get dressed, run down, put the back-up machine on the table, take the one that was malfunctioning down, go in the back room, get it to work again.” Finally, the shufflers were approved and they could begin marketing. It just so happens that Bally’s—the site of field trials—were also Breeding’s first customers, ordering several units.

The shufflers picked up steam, going to the El Dorado in Reno and the Mirage, even replacing Steve Wynn’s own machines. By late 1992, a total of 56 machines were leased in Nevada. But, as Breeding explained, “The big problem was they didn’t want a single-deck machine; they wanted a multiple-deck machine.” So he went back to work, developing a multiple-deck machine, during which time his late wife Diane suggested he instead just make a single-deck card game.

Breeding said: “It had only been done once, and that was Caribbean Stud. So it’s not that easy. But, I came up with Let it Ride. It took me 10 years to build a shuffler and 10 minutes to make Let it Ride. Once it was approved, it got legs and took off. That saved the day while we worked on creating a multiple-deck machine and stayed in business. There were a number of close calls that just about took us down.”

It is that persistence Breeding has—and shares with many of our other visionaries—that makes him great. But remaining humble, he credits the work of others around him for his own success. “I had the tenacity, but I had a lot of brainpower behind me,” he said. “Any award I get has to be shared with some 250 people.”

Eventually, though, even great leaders must move on. Though we’re sure some would argue this, Breeding felt he had outlived his usefulness at Shuffle Master. So in 1997, Breeding retired, which he largely credits to the stress of running a public company. Though he misses it, he now enjoys a life of playing with his dogs, traveling with his wife Patty, and of course, lots of golfing (he even lives on the 8th green of a course in his Phoenix-area suburb). But, continuing to make this world a better place, his charity will live on. When Shuffle Master started seeing success, he set up a trust to go to his favorite causes when he passes on, which is in addition to his own Breeding Foundation that helps put local kids into college.

Reminiscing, Breeding said: “I was very proud of what we accomplished … I think most entrepreneurs get caught up in what they consider their genius and don’t want to give up any responsibility or authority, and I think that’s a downfall of what could be a number of thriving companies. Not everybody’s a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates, but they think they are. I never did. I looked in the mirror and knew who was looking back.”

And we like what’s in Breeding’s mirror, too. That’s why we’re calling him a visionary, to which he responded: “I am flattered. I don’t know that I was the originator of the automatic card shuffler. There were several efforts, but they all failed. I was the first one that reached a level that everyone would agree was success. I knew this would save the casinos time and security, make more money. The players embraced it. You look around now, look in any poker room, they’re everywhere. Turned out I was right.”

“I have truly lived the American dream,” Breeding stated. “And it’s because of the people that came into this little company and made it happen. It wasn’t a one-man show, believe me. It was a lot of talented people together that built the company from an idea from a truck driver’s head.” AH

Peter DeRaedt

President
Gaming Standards Association

Similar to many of our other visionaries in this feature, Peter DeRaedt fell into the gaming industry. Now the president of the Gaming Standards Association, DeRaedt’s journey in gaming began more than 25 years ago.

DeRaedt holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and a business management diploma from South Africa. He made his first appearance in the gaming world in 1986, working on a system for roulette to detect wheel bias for a company now known as TCSJOHNHUXLEY. Eleven years later, he moved to Australia and began working for Aristocrat Technologies.

It was when he made the move to the U.S. at the end of 1997 that he got involved with GSA (formerly GAMMA). DeRaedt quickly recognized the need for open standards in the industry, and although he says it’s taken nearly 13 years to reach its full potential, it was worth the wait. “The collaboration between people has advanced significantly,” he says. “It used to be such an individual battle, and GSA helped to open the eyes of the industry by creating a collaborative spirit amongst manufacturers, regulators and operators. It is this industry collaboration that is the foundation to driving accelerated innovation in the marketplace.”

One of the aspects of gaming DeRaedt enjoys most is the people with whom he interacts. He works with a hand-selected group of individuals, and thinks highly of other visionaries in the gaming industry. “I just like the ideas that visionaries bring and how they try to open up people’s eyes,” he says. “I look at what GSA is enabling and see how relatively simple yet powerful it is. GSA is standardizing communication protocols that will be the foundation of tomorrow’s technologies in gaming. Yet not all people seem to be getting it. It’s a frustrating element, but it’s one I enjoy. Interaction is very important to me.”

He spends his days evangelizing the association—attending meetings in different countries, brainstorming with groups of people, putting models in place. He says it’s all about working with people in a creative environment. In fact, after he attended his first golf match during CasinoFest in Tulsa, OK, he says “While I don’t do business on golf courses myself, I can understand why people get things done in that environment, because it’s quiet,” he says. “You’re not disturbed; you’re focused. You have the whole day to reflect on things resulting into new ideas.”

Another aspect of his current position that he appreciates is the frequency of travel. He says he would never be able to sit behind a desk for eight hours, and that he’s fortunate enough to experience different parts of the world on a regular basis. Some of his favorite destinations include Macau, Singapore, Sydney, Cape Town and Venice, but notes that there are definitely pros and cons to every city.

He’s been traveling to Asia on a regular basis for seven years now, and still enjoys each and every visit. “Every time I open a newspaper in Asia, I get very excited and simply love it,” he says. “I love it because you feel the energy, the vibrations. The hard pulse of continuous progress is so exciting and the gaming industry is growing so rapidly there.”

 Being part of an industry where business continuously changes is definitely one of DeRaedt’s favorite aspects. “You want to participate in something that’s growing; be part of this incredibly progressive and lively part of the world,” he says. “That’s why I’m excited and passionate about being in an environment where you can make a difference.”

He says admires Asia and admits that he would not mind living there, because of the energy and aptitude for innovation. “It’s a place where people who have passion; ideas have an opportunity,” he says. In fact, GSA is collaborating with the Macao Polytechnic Institute to create the first baccalaureate degree in gaming technology. Although it is still two to three years away, it’s something that DeRaedt is excited to be a part of.

In an industry where adjustments and advances are common, challenges are inevitable. DeRaedt sometimes finds frustration in the lack of use of technology among suppliers and operators. “Online gaming is going to happen—no question,” he says. “Technology is moving at an incredibly rapid pace, and yet we’re dealing with an industry that’s struggling to put foundational technologies in place and where transformation takes simply too long.”

He says while it’s frustrating at times to witness the slow speed of technology adoption within the gaming industry, he does have ideas about which companies are well positioned to take advantage and “rock the industry to its foundations.”

But as DeRaedt says himself, “The visions are easy; it’s making things happen that’s the difficult part.” In fact, that’s what he says motivates him—the challenge. He thrives on doing things that have never been done before, and finds great satisfaction in completing these endeavors.

One thing that not a lot of people know about DeRaedt is his passion for music. He plays piano, but interestingly enough cannot read music and instead plays by ear. He was in a keyboard band called Flame in high school, and continues to find enjoyment in listening to all types of music.

Experiencing working with people of various ages, from different parts of the world and parts of the industry, his advice for everyone remains the same: “The most important thing is your integrity,” he shares. “This is a very small industry. If you sneeze in Australia, they’ll hear it in Las Vegas. Be honest and true to who you are. Honesty and integrity are true values for anything in life, but specifically in the gaming business.”

His goals for the future of GSA include putting a sustainable revenue model in place. He says that any non-profit organization needs multiple revenue sources, and cannot survive on dues alone. “The industry needs to recognize that if they want an organization like GSA—which I believe provides significant value—there needs to be a funding model developed that supports it into the future.”

He would also like to see the adoption of standards move at a more rapid pace. He would like to bring regulators together, globally, to create a framework for technical regulations. “I’m looking forward to opportunities where I can make a difference,” he says. “Where I can use my passion, my belief and my know-how to advance the industry.”

No matter what his goals include, whether it’s re-forming his band or furthering GSA, there’s no doubt that with a track record like DeRaedt’s, he will succeed and continue to be a visionary. JM

Mike Fields

Executive Vice President
Action Gaming/VideoPoker.com

With a highly successful online gaming business, a long-standing business partner and a son who’s an Olympic athlete, Mike Fields has much to be proud of. As the executive vice president of Action Gaming/VideoPoker.com, his journey has been nothing short of unpredictable and impressive.

A self-proclaimed “Air Force brat,” Fields is familiar with relocating. As a child, he and his family moved every 12 to 24 months. His professional journey was an extension of this relocating pattern, as he and his wife, Lisa, have experienced careers in several different countries. With his position at SpectraVision, an in-room hotel service company, Fields and his wife were relocated to Hong Kong and eventually Australia. It was then that Lisa became pregnant and the company transferred them back to the U.S.

 “I took a job first in Dallas with a hotel company and then in Colorado running a software company,” Fields says. When his son, Connor, was young, Fields looked at his wife and said, “We’ve lived two places and he’s only 3 and a half. How are we going to stop moving around and not put him through the “gypsy” life we had?” Lisa, too, had been raised with parents in the army, and moved every three to four years as a child. “Not that we had a bad life, but there’s a lot to be said about roots,” he added.

It was then that Fields began to think about potential careers, and gaming came to mind. “I went for a long run one day and began thinking, ‘What one industry is really centralized in one place? One you could get into and stay in that location for a while?’” The gaming industry made sense, he says, and so he began reaching out to old friends and allies from the hotel business, and eventually ended up in Las Vegas.

Fields first worked at  Mikohn before landing a job as vice president of sales at Silicon Gaming. When Silicon was purchased by IGT several years later, he was given a unique offer. “They said, ‘We’ve got this inventor, who has got a game he thinks is going to change the poker industry. We want you to run video poker.’” Little did he know, the inventor was Ernie Moody, and the two would soon collaborate, creating and growing a company that would transform the gaming industry.

“The whole idea of a start-up business within a well-funded company like IGT was intriguing to me,” he said, and then in 2005 Moody invited Fields to work for his company, Action Gaming. Fields took the job offer, and the name was changed to VideoPoker.com. Action Gaming/VideoPoker.com still operates through IGT, as the exclusive distributor of the games. Fields, Moody and their team work together to invent, patent and distribute games to keep video poker fresh and exciting.

“I was tasked with trying to breathe life into what everyone thought was just a boring product that had no room for growth,” Fields says. “I was told by an executive when I was hired, ‘Good luck growing video poker; that will never happen.’ Which was fantastic. He turned out to be one of my best friends at IGT and I took it as a great challenge.”

And clearly the company has accepted and overcome that challenge, as they have 16,000 games out in the field, and according to Fields, they are the only product segment that hasn’t declined in the recession.

Although it may sound like an easy journey, Fields assures that there have definitely been challenges along the way. One of those challenges—and perhaps the most common—is getting people to try new things. “Video Poker is a unique and challenging product segment because video poker players are really sort of set in their ways—real ‘meat and potatoes’ people,” Fields says. “To get them to try a new game is not easy. To get them to want to spend money to do so is extremely challenging.”

With VideoPoker.com, people are able to play the games and practice in their homes. This creates a familiarity with the free-to-play games, exposing players to games they wouldn’t normally try when their money is involved. The ideal outcome of VideoPoker.com is that these players then seek out the games in casinos and play them for money.  Their primary mission for the web initiatives is to support brick-and-mortar customers who license their games.

With an enormous community of players—some 230,000 people—Fields says that they are very careful about the regulations of online gaming. “Players must be 21, we don’t take wagers, and we are very careful about the whole regulatory environment.”

Another challenge they face is one that the industry as a whole is up against—making games interesting for the younger players. “How do we make our product interesting to the 20- and 30-year-olds?” Fields asks. “How do we make it relevant? Will the next thing be Wii bowling for money?”

The transition from brick-and-mortar casinos to online gaming is something on the minds of many industry professionals, and Fields is no exception. “You have so much more to work with in a 3-D live environment—lights and sounds all around you,” he says. “With a flat computer screen, you don’t really have those benefits. There’s a difference between watching a rental movie on your couch in your Snuggie, and actually going to the movie theater, getting popcorn and watching a 3-D movie. It’s just a richer experience.”

Fields says it’s very different working for a small company than a large one, and he most enjoys the freedom and fluidity of Action Gaming/VideoPoker.com.

“IGT is a terrific company, but I love not having to go to staff meetings several times a week and having to go to board meetings,” he says. “We can put on shorts and a NASCAR T-shirt and go out into the streets just talking to players.”

Fields says that the industry is fun and entertaining, and some days he has no idea what’s going to happen. “We’re involved in lots of different businesses. We have our traditional inventing of games business, and that’s always interesting. Ernie will sit at my desk with his feet up and we’ll play a game demo for 30-40 minutes. We’ll make some changes, make a phone call, and next thing you know Ernie thinks of a funny quote and we’ll pull up a Caddy Shack scene on YouTube. Then, next thing you know, we’ll call our web people to find out how a current promotion’s going.”

With a professional life that keeps him guessing, his personal life is no different. His 18-year-old son Connor is an Olympic BMX rider, and is No. 3 in the world. Fields and his wife have traveled all over the world with their son, and are now facing hardships that concern his future. With knee issues and a recent surgery, the family is not sure Connor will be able to participate in the 2012 Olympics.

“Everything he’s earned and everything he has to look forward to is kind of at risk right now,” Fields says. “We’ve been through a lot these past few months, and I’m blessed to be a dad to a respectful and smart kid. Our close relationship has enabled us to do a lot of great stuff.”

Connor’s career and the family’s close relationship have taught Fields a lot over the years. “There are times when I’ve pushed him too hard, haven’t been compassionate enough, or when I haven’t allowed him enough space,” he says. “Parents sometimes take the fun out of sports. If you go to a 7-year-old’s soccer game, you can just see some of the crazy, wild-eyed parents. I would love to work with kids and even parents, to get the right combination of trusted parent and Saturday afternoon coach. Every parent should try to get their kid involved in a bunch of stuff until they find something they really love. Actually spending time with them—as opposed to sharing a room and watching a movie—is really important. Kids can make you better people if you let them.”

His wife, gave up her past career as a lawyer, and has begun painting and photographing. “She’s got a weird right brain/left brain thing going on,” Fields says about his wife. “She can memorize law and she’s a vicious litigator, but at the same time she’s incredibly artistic.”

With a very active son and wife, Fields says most of his time is spent admiring and supporting them. “I’m the problem—I need a hobby!”

However, some may consider his dedication to a successful business his hobby, and he says he can’t see himself in any other place. “I’m so happy doing what I’m doing. I really love Ernie and we’ve been working together for 11 years. We get along great; we finish each other’s sentences; we share goals; we don’t have an ego involved in decision making. It’s a pleasure to come to work every day. I’m digging what I’m doing now."

 Customer relationships are something he takes very seriously, and since the company operates out of a hangar, they encounter unique opportunities to form relationships with customers. “One of the things that’s a real pleasure is having customers over for meetings in the late afternoon,” he says. “We have a glass of wine, have a quick meeting, and then go up to the roof at dusk and watch the sun go down while the planes come in. That’s where you really get to know your customers.”

As for the future, Fields doesn’t feel a need for professional changes. The company turned down a multi-million dollar offer for VideoPoker.com a few months ago, but Fields and Moody can’t see themselves doing anything else. As for his personal goals, Fields is focused on his son. “I want my son to be healthy, I want to see him win gold in London in 2012, and bawl my eyes out when they play the stars and stripes.” JM

James Maida

President and Co-Founder
Gaming Laboratories International

“Mediocrity is absolutely not acceptable. While some believe that we have a profound effect on this industry, we know that we should never take that lightly or take that for granted.”

These are the words of Gaming Laboratories International President and Co-Founder James Maida. His attitude toward the company and the industry is nothing short of dedicated and enthusiastic. Since founding the company in 1989 with fellow Co-Founder Paul Magno, the company has grown to 16 laboratories spread across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. 

When he began the company 22 years ago, Maida says he would have never guessed it would grow to the size it is today, serving more than 450 jurisdictions worldwide. At the time, he had finished working for the New Jersey Gaming Enforcement in Atlantic City, N.J., and was attending law school at Rutgers University. “We came up with this idea that there should be a single lab that could test for multiple jurisdictions so that each jurisdiction didn’t have to set up their own lab,” he says. “It would be more efficient and save the industry millions of dollars.”

Maida says he enjoys the gaming industry, and doesn’t picture himself in any other industry. “I probably would be practicing law, probably being really unhappy—knowing that I missed out on this great opportunity to be in the gaming industry.”

While he is extremely dedicated to the company, Maida’s main commitment is to his family. They live less than three miles away from where Maida himself was raised, and his children attend the same high school he did. “I love the hometown feeling,” he says. “It’s very comfortable living; it’s a terrific, small community in western New Jersey.” Maida enjoys spending weekends at home with his family—watching his kids’ soccer games with his wife, Sharon,  racing sailboats  or participating in local charitable events, when time permits.

He says his wife is his biggest supporter, along with their four children—ages 20, 18, 16 and 14— and he admits it’s hard to maintain a balance between family and the demands of a global company. “I make sure I’m home when I can be. I’ll fly across the country to be home every weekend.” In one instance, he had a meeting with an Australian government official in New York City just two days after the birth of his son. “I brought my wife home and told her, ‘I have to go do a two hour business meeting in New York. I’ll be right back!’”

Along with the challenge of balancing work and family life, Maida says one of the other challenges in the industry is understanding how to do business in different parts of the world. “Most people in the U.S. only understand the business customs of one area,” he says. “But I can assure you, as I travel around the world, it’s not always about business; it’s about personal relationships. So many times we’re in a hurry to fly in, get something done, and fly out, and that’s really not the way business is done around the world.”  He enjoys the time he spends with clients learning about their circumstances and not just speaking about business.

Maida says his favorite aspect of the industry is that no two days are the same. “Every day something new is happening,” he says. “Internet gaming, companies buying other companies, new jurisdictions, new equipment, new technologies, new ideas. In the last 22 years, I don’t remember any two days being the same.” Another perk of the business that he enjoys is being able to see new technology two to five years before the rest of the world gets to see it.

Maida says he loves his job and never looks back. What motivates him professionally is his commitment to making a positive difference in making testing globally efficient. He’s dedicated to providing great customer service and verbalizes that to every single team member. “I would talk to my staff every day about that if they’d let me,” he says. “We have to make sure that we do the right thing every single day and that there’s no excuse for failure—whether you’re here for one day, one week or 20 years.”

Being that devoted to the success of a company does not go unnoticed, and Maida says that being recognized by his peers has been the greatest honor. In the early ‘90s, when the company was still young, he received a phone call from a regulator in South Australia. The regulator said, “We need to get a lab down here in South Australia, do you want to come down and visit us?” Maida says it came as a surprise. “It was a proud moment when I realized that people, not only in the U.S., but all over the world really understood what we’re trying to do.” That phone call and visit led to the opening of various offices in Australia.

Maida’s other proudest moments include the expansion of the Las Vegas office to nearly 100,000 square feet, as well as the jump to the new headquarters in New Jersey nine years ago.

His attitude toward the company has remained the same over the years; he treats his GLI team like family. “We have over 600 families; over 2,500 people are reliant on the GLI paycheck. Think about that—going to work every day, knowing there are 2,500 people relying on the management team’s good judgment. Every day we have to make sure we’re doing the right thing and the level of the responsibility is never lost on Paul or me.”

Maida says that one of the company’s goals for the future is beginning the process of cultivating and mentoring the management team from within so that growth and succession is seamless. “We’re starting the initial thought process.” He says it’s important for GLI to not be tied to any individual person or the two founders. “How does GLI transcend that next phase of our development so that we can be here for 50, 60, 80, 100 years from now? We’re grooming our key management personnel, at all levels of the company. It’s important for us, and more importantly for our clients and customers, that they should never have to worry about where GLI will be in years to come.”

Because of Maida’s 22-year-long commitment to GLI, it would be surprising to see anything besides continued success for the company in the future. JM

Bruce Rowe

Senior Vice President of Strategy and Customer Consulting
Bally Technologies Inc.

Bruce Rowe likes a challenge. Actually, he loves a challenge. And it’s safe to say that without a problem to solve or something to fix, he would be a very bored executive. But thankfully, he happens to work in the ever-evolving gaming industry, as Bally Technologies’ senior vice president of strategy and customer consulting.

Rowe’s 30 years of gaming experience come from all over the spectrum of the industry, and start in an environment that many wouldn’t expect: backstage. And it wasn’t the showgirls as much as the technology that brought him. His first job was as a stage technician at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City in 1980, a move that started a 23-year relationship with the company that has now become Caesars Entertainment.

With a college degree in technical theater, Rowe enjoyed and sought out the technical aspects of the entertainment side of gaming. Even after rising to the position of director of entertainment of the property, he noted that his job included a substantial amount of emerging technology that was interesting in the gaming industry. In 1989, he transitioned to a new position as the property’s director of information technology. “Not a classic career move,” he admits, “but it was an exciting one that would change my future in ways I could not imagine.”

And that definitely wasn’t the end of his unique job experiences. Eventually moving from the property to the corporate level at Harrah’s, Rowe participated in the openings of 16 different casinos throughout the U.S. and one in New Zealand. And he has worked on many aspects of these openings from the ground up—concept to blueprints to execution and opening, in the areas of entertainment, technology and gaming. “To have participated in that many openings is unusual in a casino career, and the learning that came from doing those was priceless,” Rowe said. “I also participated in the closings of a couple different casinos, which is even more unusual. Things you learn in a closing are very different from the things you learn in opening.”

Rowe said that the aspects of those closings that kept him awake at night was the impact on the people who depended on that casino, whether as an employee or a customer-based relationship. But it also taught him a lot regarding logistics about physical property, intellectual property, corporate assets and law, and the sensitivity that’s necessary to manage the situation properly from the business, customer and human resources standpoint.

Leaving Harrah’s in 2003, Rowe provided consulting services to operators and manufacturers. He also worked for GTECH for several years before joining Bally four years ago.

Bally has been lucky to have Rowe on its team, as his amalgam of experiences gives him perspective from many areas of the industry. Those experiences help him help Bally improve its products and meet customer needs. “I often serve as the liaison or the advocate for the customer within the company,” he explained. “I can help explain things that might not be easily understood by folks who have not worked on the operations side of the business.”

Based on Bally’s strong position in the systems business, he’s looking forward to the next five to 10 years as technologies converge to produce exciting new possibilities. According to Rowe, the company is the type of place where employees can feel comfortable arguing, but arguing constructively in the name of moving the company and its products and customers forward.

There will, of course, be challenges to face in the future, but the largest one that Rowe sees is something that has also plagued manufacturers in the past. The large number of regulatory environments and the cost of operating within them can really make a big impact on speed-to-market for gaming products. “The amount of entropy that creates in the industry is huge … energy lost in the system that can never be recaptured,” Rowe explained. “And if we can take some of the entropy out of our industry, we can get products to market faster. We can make more money for our shareholders as well as our customers. And we can take that money and energy that we were spending on a process that, in many cases, doesn’t add additional value, and put that back into the products we make.”

Along that same vein of wished improvements for the industry, Rowe cited the stigma that still surrounds gaming in some areas. “I would ask that people see us as a real business with real products that people enjoy,” he said. “I would like us to be recognized as good corporate citizens and as contributing members of the communities in which we live.”

It is Rowe’s unique career moves and uncommon resume that can equip him to meet those challenges moving forward. And that resume even boasts a credit from the White House, as his one-time occupation and continuing hobby is building furniture and restoring 18th century antiques, one of which ended up residing on Pennsylvania Avenue. But even when given the chance to choose the next entry on that resume, Rowe continues to look toward gaming.

His custom-made dream job, meeting the standards of complexity and fun, would involve drawing from the knowledge he has collected through the years in entertainment and technology, and revamping the traditional casino design. “I think, in general, our casinos are built, particularly the casino floors, to meet the needs of people basically from ages 21 to death,” Rowe explained. “There’s an opportunity to start to create areas of floors that have more of a boutique feel, almost like a mall experience, where you meet the needs of different segments. Even though everyone’s there to buy something, they’re there to buy very different things and have different experiences.”

Rowe explained that the needs of customers can change drastically from mid-week to weekends, and from a 28-year-old to a 78-year-old. On the simplest level, an older player needs lighter and larger fonts on a game to experience the product in the best way. On a more complex level, these casinos of the future could stand to take a page out of Rowe’s entertainment background and become like a black-box theater—a blank canvas where the environment could be changed based on the time of week or day and the type of product presented.

This gaming visionary believes there’s plenty of room in the gaming industry for growth, and he hopes to continue to be there, getting his hands on the many issues and exciting evolutions in the future. “I’ve analyzed every job I’ve had since I was a teenager, and I’ve enjoyed all of them, in spite of them being very, very different,” Rowe said. “They had two things in common. I always like to fix things that are broken, and that went back to being a cabinet maker and an electrician … in the earlier part of my life. And I like doing things that have never been done before, either in the history of the world, at the scale in which we were attempting to do them or the speed at which we were attempting to do them. So this combination of things that are complicated or broken, and fixing them, can improve an organization or an experience for customers.”

But the most important thing he’s learned in his years of experience is that a key part of his success has been the support of his family. “My wife and children, and their understanding of what it takes to commit to a career in gaming—the support they’ve given me throughout the years has really been extraordinary and very much appreciated.” TH

Ali Saffari

CEO and Founder
Leap Forward Gaming Inc.

If there were one word to best describe Ali Saffari, it would be passionate. With an exceptional past, ambitious endeavors and exceedingly high goals for the future, Saffari’s passion for creating the next big thing is what carries him through with ease.

He is the CEO and founder of Leap Forward Gaming, a company that is revolutionizing future casino floors with a highly secure wireless “ecosystem.” This solution is proof that Saffari thinks and creates technology above and beyond what is considered standard.

Saffari has background in many different areas. He has three educational degrees—accounting management, computer science and electrical engineering. That, combined with about 96 patents and 24 years of experience at IGT, may be part of the reason he’s found so much success in life.

His journey into the gaming world is an interesting one, and he says he had no original desire of entering gaming. It all began with his first company at the age of 19. Then it was on to the Nevada university system as a computer specialist creating endowments and mutual funds. It was when he and his wife, Golda, decided to move away from Reno that he was offered a job at IGT. “I said goodbye to everyone at the university, and my wife said goodbye to her job running the cosmetics department for a big company,” Saffari says. “A friend of our secretary at the university sent my resume to her husband, and her husband called somebody else. Tuesday they called me to talk, Wednesday we talked, Thursday another call, and Friday they offered me a job at IGT.”

He and his wife then decided to stay in Reno, and Saffari’s 24-year career at IGT began.

It was at IGT that many of Saffari’s proudest moments took place. He played a large part in creating and regulating several industry-changing technologies, including Megabucks, bill validation and ticket-in/ticket-out (TITO). “Bill validators and TITO were two of the biggest replacement products in the market.” Saffari says. “That’s the pride of my 24 years of business. Each technology created important efficiencies for casinos and provided more enjoyable experiences for players.”

These products illustrate Saffari’s creativity and urge to construct the newest and best technologies. “I’m always trying to create the next thing that no one has done,” he says. “It always motivates me when I see a product that has the ability to change, versus being ordinary or one of the many. It is important to me to be a game changer, to add value.”

The tasks that he tackles are not small, and Saffari says he believes in accomplishing those that are difficult. One of his favorite quotes—one that he lives by—was said by John F. Kennedy, “We choose to do things … not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

One of these ambitious undertakings was the creation of a brand new company, Leap Forward Gaming. When management changed at IGT, a group of senior vice presidents was asked to leave, including Saffari. He took a short break at home without working, and after two weeks he decided he had to continue work. “My wife said, ‘Ali, are you staying home?’ I got the hint,” he says. He now works closely with IGT, and has high regards for the new CEO.

Saffari says there is quite a difference working at a small business with 36 employees, versus a large corporation with 800 engineers and a $77 million budget. But his attitude remains the same, treating everyone like family and really getting to know his employees. “Even when I had 800 engineers, I always walked through the offices, having something to say to each of them and getting to know them,” he says. “Here (Leap Forward Gaming) we do not have meetings just for the sake of having meetings—the meetings are in the hallways. We do not sit around for days thinking about ideas, we ask, ‘What do you think?’ ‘I like it.’ Done.” He also added that the atmosphere is very high energy and fun.

His relaxed attitude and love for personal relationships transitions from his professional life into his personal life. He is very close with his family—his wife and his 14-year-old daughter, Persiana. They enjoy traveling together, and visiting big cities to go shopping is one of the things they love to do. His daughter has the same overachieving mindset that Saffari has—she is working toward her second degree black belt and has dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon.

Although he has accomplished many things throughout his career, Saffari says that he had to face challenges, both individually and within the industry as a whole.

“When I started TITO, I saw many faces looking at me, ‘What is he talking about?’” Saffari says. “I go to get a cup of coffee and I hear people say, ‘This thing that guy talked about, it’s going to eliminate many jobs.’ To the contrary, TITO technology created many jobs because it promoted gaming and provided value. The challenge is sometimes getting the message across—getting people to see the value.”

It’s facing these obstacles and overcoming them that motivates Saffari on a daily basis. He says, being a Taurus, he’s naturally stubborn and quitting is never an option.

Even when discussing the economy and the gaming industry, he remains positive. “Today the economy is hurting, but I believe the turnaround is right around the corner,” he says. “The challenge is to be able to provide increased value and functionality to both operators and manufacturers, and that is what we have developed with our turn-key SaffariNet® system, which provides high-value to existing and future machines.”

No matter what happens, it is certain that he will never be 100 percent done with working and creating, as he will continue to be the can-do man he has been his whole life. JM

Jean Venneman

Vice President of Product Management
Bally Technologies Inc.

Any player that has found their favorite movie or TV show represented on a casino floor will most likely tell you it was a thrill to experience it in slot machine form. It’s a thrill to hear that character’s voice calling out the bonus, or finally spinning the big wheel that you’ve imagined spinning every night when you watch your shows at home. Now imagine how big that thrill is for Bally Technologies’ Vice President of Product Management Jean Venneman, the woman who is actually responsible for some of those games’ existence.

In her previous position at IGT, Venneman was asked to start the company’s product management organization, eventually taking over game development as well. But well before those career steps, she led the development team for the original Wheel of Fortune game, now an undisputed player favorite. Thinking back on that process, Venneman said, “We were hopeful that it would do well; we just had no idea what it would eventually become. And I think a lot of people, still today, say it’s one of the most, if not the most, successful game in industry history. So to have been a part of that, I’m certainly proud.”

In fact, the period when Venneman was responsible for game development and licensed brands at IGT is one that she points to when discussing some of her proudest professional accomplishments. This included leading a passionate and motivated team to revamp the company’s video development, and setting the ball rolling on one of the most popular new game brands, Sex and the City.

When HBO first presented the idea of developing the show, many in the IGT management team weren’t exactly excited about it. Having been very selective and careful about which brands to take on, higher-ups even told Venneman, who was in charge of the brand development, not to pursue it. But Venneman had a gut feeling that it would be successful. “I felt that there was something to it as far as creating a more female experience, so I pushed it though and did the deal,” she said. “And after I left, IGT did an amazing game. It’s a great brand, and I think it’s done well for the company.”

Now providing her valuable expertise and experience at Bally, this gaming visionary has been in the industry since 1992. But she got her start in an unexpected way.

After graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in business administration, Venneman had moved to Europe, “basically to experience the culture and have some fun.” She took an office assistant job at the new IGT Europe office in Amsterdam, not really having any knowledge or experience in gaming. “IGT had just started in Europe, and we were based out of an old car dealership,” Venneman said. “So I joined without thinking it would turn into a big career.”

But it did. After only working there for a few months, she was approached about moving to sales. Then, in the mid-‘90s, the company transferred her to its home office in Reno, Nev., where she moved into the development side of the business. It was an exciting time to be in the gaming industry, and Venneman enjoyed being there to witness the expansion into new territories and new technologies.

When she was in her sales position in the early days, Venneman said, “Video slots didn’t exist, nor did the concept of the penny denomination. Then, everything was quarter, dollar, everything was a stepper. The fancy add-on on a casino floor at that time was a progressive.”

Also, the idea of a licensed theme for a slot hadn’t been developed yet, something that Venneman considers to have been a game changer when it finally did happen in 1996 with Wheel of Fortune. “That definitely changed how we developed games and what the players wanted to play.”

During this time, Venneman also had to evolve her own knowledge and adaptability within the industry to ride with the changes. She describes it as a gradual process, moving from more of a marketing position to a position that involved technology and product development.

“Professionally, the thing I’ve learned most in my years in the industry is how to become very flexible and adapt to new situations quickly. I’ve had a lot of different titles and a lot of different bosses. Instead of finding all of that change stressful, I now look at change as an opportunity to grow and learn.”

And that evolved personality trait has been welcome in her personal life as well. Venneman is the mother of two daughters, ages 6 and 10. And like many other parents who are also professionals, she points to splitting her time between the two worlds as one of her greatest challenges. “While I take my career and my role as a gaming executive very seriously, I take my role as their mother even more seriously,” she said. “Trying to give everything I can to both sides can be exhausting, so I’ve learned to become extremely organized and decisive. I want to be as effective as possible at work, so that I can leave that in the evening and be as effective as a mother.”

Any motivation that Venneman can provide for younger women in the industry is welcome, and she hopes that eventually it may lead to more women on the product side of the business. “More than half the player base is female, yet we’re generally being served by a younger, male developer,” she said. “And while they do a great job, it would be wonderful to see more women interested in this area.”

Venneman has also received the honor of being named one of CEM’s 2007 Great Women of Gaming, a distinction based on qualities like commitment, the ability to go above and beyond, mentorship, industry contributions and a strong overall life balance. She is also an active member of the arts community, having been on the board of trustees for the Nevada Museum of Art.

She is also enjoying becoming comfortable in her new home at Bally. “Bally has a wonderful, passionate, talented group of people,” Venneman said. “They are all motivated to do their part to make the company as good as it can be. And I really enjoy the culture. It’s much more open and informal than what I was used to. We have some great technology and game content right now. So I really think we’re in an excellent position for growth. Between the people, the upcoming products and what we’re going to be accomplishing in the next few years, it’s an exciting time to be at Bally.”

Venneman is looking forward to helping Bally overcome what she considers to be one of the industry’s biggest current challenges: manufacturers continuing to differentiate themselves from the competition. With the expansion of gaming came more companies, more innovation and more products launching every day, making it more difficult to come out with big, stand-out games. One idea that she thinks could help is keeping an eye on other technology industries for solutions that could make sense in the gaming sphere. “However, we need to utilize it in a way that keeps the gambling experience at the forefront,” Venneman added. “There’s going to be a lot more change and evolution in the gaming industry, and it will be fun to be a part of it.” TH