Casino Enterprise Management

CasinoFest 9 attendees enjoyed a week packed with golfing, networking, training, inspiring keynotes and good times at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. More than 350 people attended the conference and expo event this year, with many attendees coming from Oklahoma and others coming from across the United States.

The weather was perfect for our inaugural golf tournament, and attendees were in high spirits as they attempted to win the hole-in-one prize sponsored by SCA Gaming. A few attendees got within feet of the big prize, but no one took home the $250,000. Later that day, the pre-conference welcome reception offered an impressive dose of ambiance with an 18th-floor view of the golf course and the smooth sounds of Mick Roemer and friends in a five-piece band.

On Tuesday, the education and training began with an inspiring keynote address from John Acres. Acres’ innovative thinking was evident. He challenged attendees to re-evaluate their thoughts and practices and change the industry. Acres also read a letter he received from a casino operator detailing the loss of one of the casino’s most valuable players who had passed away. He says the industry needs to work hard now to appeal to younger players, meaning the 40 to 50 age group.

Ali Saffari of Leap Forward Gaming addressed the crowd on day two of the event, sharing his take on how to use a wireless system to take advantage of the technology currently being offered for casino floors.

On day three, Professor I. Nelson Rose took the stage. He began with a lesson on the history of legalized gambling. Rose also discussed Black Friday. He said the Internet poker indictments and seizure of the five largest poker sites that were taking money from U.S. players will help tribal gaming operations. He explained: “It helps the local casinos and card clubs to now say, ‘We need to have this here. We need to know who the operators are, have their computers here, have their payment processers here. We can regulate it and we can tax it.’”

Rose also shared his predictions for the future of Internet gaming in the United States. He predicted nothing is going to happen in Congress unless democrats and President Obama win in 2012. Rose said: “2015 is the earliest that anything could happen on the federal level with Internet gambling. Which means it’s all about the action in the states and there are a lot of states that are absolutely desperate for money. And they will let tribes have Internet poker. They’ll let anybody who’s licensed have Internet poker, if they’ll be able to pay in cash up front.”

CasinoFest offered classroom sessions in various different tracks, including Class II & III Operations Management, Compliance, Regulation & Legal Issues Forum, Table Games Management, Casino Marketing, Bally Technical Training Institute, WMS Slot Machine University, Aristocrat’s All-Star Tech Training 2011 and the CEM Class II & III Technical Academy.

The compliance track started the week with a town-hall-meeting style session all about Class II gaming. Panelists discussed one-touch versus two-touch machines, technical standards, godfathering versus full compliance, court orders versus technical standards and what type of impact Internet gaming will have on Class II gaming.

Panelist Robin Lash, attorney and gaming commissioner, says she’s concerned about how tribal operators would compete with large commercial operators and how tribes would regulate i-gaming. She commented: “Everything that we regulate now as regulators we can see and touch. So there’s going to be a whole lot of change for tribes.”

Mick Roemer, senior vice president of sales at Multimedia Games, says he has a lot of thoughts about i-gaming. He believes thin client delivery models within casinos, using intranet systems, will be where tribal gaming operations will find opportunity. He explained: “I think intranet will come first and you’ll see a wider delivery of that in tribal gaming casinos first. I think tribal casinos will lead the way. But I don’t think it’s going to happen next year or the year after. It’s five or 10 years down the road.”

Regarding how the Internet is changing the world, including the gaming industry, Roemer says, “It’s about Angry Birds, it’s about Plants Vs. Zombies, it’s about how we make some of these very interesting games that people are already playing on the Internet into more entertaining gambling games and social games.”

In the session focused on regulating Internet gaming, Ken Golda and Nick Farley from Eclipse Compliance Testing told attendees about all the issues we face when looking at i-gaming and its legalization. The session was of value to attendees as Golda and Farley discussed recent developments regarding i-gaming in Washington, D.C. Also, John Roberts, deputy commissioner at the San Manual gaming commission, was in the crowd and shared breaking news related to i-gaming legislation.

Compliance track attendees also had the opportunity to watch a video presentation from former NIGC Chairman Phil Hogen, which covered the history of federal and tribal relations. After the video, Roberts told the crowd that they now know more about Native American gaming and its regulation and legal issues than most current regulators and lawyers.

One of the biggest attractions, attendees in the table games track were given eight hours of top-notch training from the well-known and respected Max Rubin. Rubin is currently consulting and training exclusively at Barona Resort & Casino, so we were thrilled to offer his expertise to attendees.

Rubin’s two-day workshop-style training focused on maximizing table games operations. To do this, he worked with attendees to teach them valuable lessons and give them the presentation and debate skills needed to create positive change upon returning to their casino. Rubin came up with potential problems that can happen in the pit and challenged attendees to break into groups, discuss the issues and how to solve them, then came back to the larger group to discuss and share.

CasinoFest 9’s marketing track was a popular choice among attendees. Many of the sessions were held in a discussion format, allowing for free-flowing dialogue between the expert speakers, panelists and the attendees. One of the most popular classes was Creating an Effective Marketing Plan, with Jack Breslin and Rick Harshman from Wright Casino Marketing, and Rahul Nawab from IQR Consulting. The room was full as the panel spoke about the importance of developing a brand, analyzing data and determining a market position.

Day two of the marketing track began with Tony Caporicci, vice president of mobile strategies at SkyWire Media. He stressed the importance of Twitter and Facebook, and went into detail about each. Later in the day, Caporicci hosted a session called Interfacing Mobile Barcode Technology. He discussed QR codes and code readers that are available for most mobile phones. Another big draw, the session was co-presented by Warwick Stone, theme consultant to Hard Rock Hotel and memorabilia curator at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The two shared with the group their current social media plan at the casino and how they incorporated QR codes into the displays.

Attendees in the operations track were able to watch industry leaders discuss and debate open protocols, open networks and server-based gaming. The panelists at the table differed on their opinions of when and how “plug and play” will be a reality on casino floors.

One point of view came from Bruce Rowe, senior vice president of strategy and Customer Consulting at Bally Technologies. He reminded the audience that gaming technology companies are not in the “shrink-wrap software” industry, but instead are business-to-business system and game providers to a very small industry. Rowe said: “We build business applications and business solutions for a very specific industry, which means that I believe long-term we will have more integration and more interoperability. That’s easier to do because of the standards we have. But the concept of plug and play everything is probably not practical or likely in the foreseeable future.”

Peter DeRaedt, president of the Gaming Standards Association, took a different point of view. He said, “Plug and play on slot machines is absolutely a reality if you use GSA standards.” DeRaedt encouraged operators to participate in GSA so that they can request or demand manufacturers to create products that are GSA certified and will allow operators the flexibility they desire.

Chris Rowe, associate director of networked gaming at Aristocrat Technologies, took yet one more stance on the concept of “plug and play.” He said that while operators may be able to plug a game or application into a system, that does not mean they’ll be able to put an Aristocrat game to work on Bally’s platform.

Chris Rowe and other panelists agree that their company’s platform or box is what sets them apart. “The makeup of our boxes is very much proprietary at this point, but we use open protocols to communicate with other devices,” he says.

Jason Lowry, senior director of casino operations at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, shared his point of view as an operator with panelists and the audience. He believes operators are on board with the back-end work needed to bring high-speed networks to their casino floors. Ultimately, he said, that’s not what operators are worried about. “What the operators care about most is game content and how that’s going to work and how that’s going to interface with my guest,” he explained. Lowry says operators are wondering what this new technology will allow players to experience, if they’ll care about the new features and if they’ll come back to play more.

Rob Siemasko, vice president of product development at WMS Gaming, says WMS and others are relying on early adopters to move forward with implementing new technology in order to show its value to less aggressive operators. He says the job is in the manufacturer’s hands, to show the value in the new offerings that open protocols and server-based gaming will allow. He explains, “We have to give you a reason and a purpose. We have to show that you’re going to have that ROI return to your floor.”

The value of this session truly became clear in Lowry’s final comments to the group as he said, “There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. It’s discussions like this that are going to push things forward.”

Between and after sessions, attendees were able to network with colleagues and talk one-on-one with industry leaders. The happy hours in the expo hall allowed them to take time learning from the company’s exhibiting their products and services as well. The conversation even continued online as attendees and speakers sent highlights of their week out to the world via Twitter.

CEM also had four interns from Oklahoma State University-Stillwater there to help make the conference run smoothly. They soaked up the opportunity to meet and network with top gaming execs, learn about the industry and help us make the event a success. It was truly a unique opportunity.

Reviews from the event are showing that attendees were extremely satisfied with their experiences and left the event with knowledge, action plans and insight. Our goal each year is to provide inspiring education and technical training to casino staff so that they can be even better at their jobs and move the industry forward. We feel this event was once again a huge success, and we thank all who came out to attend, exhibit or speak. We are already working on plans for CasinoFest 10 in the spring of 2012. Watch for details, coming soon. We hope to see you next time!

Thank you to all of the CasinoFest 9 sponsors!

Gaming Capital Group – Golf Tournament
SCA Gaming – Hole in One Prize
VGT – Cocktail Food and Bar
Multimedia Games – iPad Prizes and Happy Hour
Aristocrat – Keynote Breakfast
Aruze – Lunch
IGT – Attendee Bag
AGS – Networking Breaks
AGEM – Registration Area
WMS – Jump Drive
Bally – Padfolio
Incredible Technologies – Coffee Mug
MEI – Water Bottle
Konami – Business Card Holder
Cadillac Jack – iPod Touch Prize
Eclipse Testing – Lanyard

Sarah Klaphake Cords is the New Media Editor for Casino Enterprise Management. She can be reached at editor3[at]aceme.org.