Supports standard Internet technologies

Since G2S uses standard Internet transports and security, any technologies that have been created for the Internet will find a home on your G2S gaming floor. Not just the ones that are approved by your proprietary system provider, but any technologies you find relevant. (Of course, you’ll need to have adequate bandwidth, so don’t be cheap when installing your floor network.)

Lets you easily add new server functions to your G2S network

As long as your EGMs can accommodate multiple G2S hosts (early ones may be challenged with this, but soon it will be the standard practice), you’ll be able to get anyone to build a new application for your floor that takes advantage of the incredible power of G2S. Tournament servers that work with any games, bonusing systems that you design, progressive systems that work in-property (or across your enterprise) – all are possible with G2S.

Lets you add Internet functions to the mix

Folks in their 30s aren’t really enamored with the traditional slot machine – after all, they’re totally into multi-tasking (simultaneously carrying on multiple texting or IM sessions, while participating in multi-player gaming experiences on the web). While you probably don’t need to host texting (after all, anyone who wants a texting device already has a phone), it might be nice to let interested players know which of their “friends” are currently playing in the casino. An interactive PUI with a bit of web technology makes this all possible. And while you’re at it, how about an interactive multi-player gaming environment? I’m sure you can make it more compelling and engaging that sitting at home (or in a coffee shop) interacting with a PC, or a MAC, or a Smartphone.

The new Player User Interface (PUI)

So, G2S is out the door. Most EGM and System vendors are hard at work building G2S 1.0.3 implementations for their devices, and the GSA technical committees are working hard at finishing up the certification programs (essentially the final exam to make sure you’ve implemented G2S correctly).  Next step – standardizing the Player User Interface – you know that window that slides in from the side of the EGM screen when requested by the player that will soon replace the 3”x6” state of the art display that was all the rage 5 years ago?

A group of operators joined GSA and took over GSA’s Operator Advisory Committee and, during the last year, they’ve come up with over two dozen Use Cases for this new display, including hotel and restaurant reservations, interactions with online gaming sites, requests to hosts, gaming tutorials, etc. Once your new network is in place, layering on new applications that allow you to interact with your players will be effortless – as long as you don’t have to deal with the hurdles of a proprietary network.

These are just the leading benefits. As G2S development matures, there will no doubt be many more benefits from the G2S-based products to come.

In the earliest slot floor management systems (circa 1975), accounting and security were all that was important, so system manufacturers came up with the concept of the Slot Machine Interface Board (SMIB), which they could stick into every slot machine (many were mechanicals or electro-mechanicals). These early SMIBs connected to a wiring harness that would detect when hard meters incremented, and had a number of mechanical door switches to tell when doors were opened. SMIBs worked and life was good.

A bit later (mid 1980’s), gaming machines got a bit more advanced and were able to start sending data through a serial connection to the SMIB. Even today, most Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) speak an old (but good) protocol call SAS (IGT’s Slot Accounting System protocol). This protocol, created over 20 years ago, uses a slow serial link (19,200 bits per second) in which the host polls the EGM for information multiple times per second. For example:

HOST: “Do you have anything to tell me?”

EGM: “No”

HOST: “Do you have anything to tell me?”

EGM:“No”

HOST: “Do you have anything to tell me?”

EGM “No”

HOST: “Do you have anything to tell me?”

EGM: “Yes. Here’s a hex poll code that you need to understand so you can send me other hex codes to request more detail. If you get it wrong, or don’t get back to me at exactly the frequency that I’m expecting, I’m going to stop talking to you.”

These serial protocols (like SAS) worked fine for getting meters and tilts from the EGM, but they didn’t have the capacity to allow you to interact with your player or send configuration data to the EGM. So, system vendors were compelled to react by beefing up their SMIB and adding a card reader and a small display to identify employees and display tilt codes. In the late 1980s, SMIBs were expanded again to allow the casino to track players at the EGM. Over time, new and more advanced player peripherals were added to the SMIB – first keypads and buttons, then bigger displays, followed by lighted bezels around the card reader. Once again, life was good.

More recently, however, the general public has become tech savvy (especially with all of the cool new stuff happening on the Internet), making the rather static player experience supplied by the SMIB vendor a bit boring. System vendors have reacted with snappy 3”x6” displays that allow secondary games on them and menus of choices for the player. While these changes mark continual improvement, they’re not really up to the experience I get through my browser or on my iPhone. It really is time for another radical change.

And that’s where G2S comes in – a protocol that, from the ground up, was designed to communicate all of the accounting and security information from SAS, handle all of the player tracking communications that are currently happening with your SMIB, add in remote configuration of the EGM (downloading and installing new software) and access to all of the data that’s been locked inside the slot machines (you know, all of those metrics you now have to read at the EGM). Plus, it has been designed to run over a high-speed network that also accommodates streaming media, video conferencing, instant messaging, and anything else you can do on the Internet. And coolest of all is that the interactions with the player can occur on those two really big high def displays that are on most EGMs.

That concludes the history lesson. Next time, we’ll dive under the covers to see how easy G2S really is.

In short, G2S moves your casino from a closed-system world (where you can only get new applications from your system provider) to an open network, where anyone can write an application that lets you have all sorts of amazing new interactions with your players. The applications taking the lead these days are remote game configuration and downloading new code to run on your gaming machines. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Much like e-mail and file sharing were the tip of the iceberg for the Internet – and now look where we are!

As you (and your slot floor) move into this new world, it is critical that you are an intelligent consumer – making sure that the solution you implement (or is installed for you) can take advantage of future applications. I suspect there may be some pressure from your current solution providers to make sure you don’t go shopping around for solutions from just anybody. This might cause your casino to become as flexible and innovative as (gasp!) the Internet.

So, what do you do? Concede that your current solution providers are the best at what they are doing now – the highly regulated, incredibly important applications that are the bread and butter of your casino – and let them know they will continue to be an important part of your future. But, imagine going to a gaming show, seeing a cool new application that might be just perfect for your players, and then having it up and running a month or so later. And, if it’s not quite right, having the vendor iteratively update their application until it’s just perfect for your players. In the G2S world, a gaming machine (EGM) can talk directly to multiple servers at the same time! This means that your current system provider can continue to do what they do best (all of the important stuff), while your EGMs also talk to other applications that are not as highly regulated (since they are just “marketing” apps).

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be exploring various aspects of networked gaming, and ways that you can prepare yourself and your slot floor for future innovation. In addition, I would be happy to explore specific networked gaming topics that interest you. So, what you would you like to talk about?