As more and more casinos transition to G2S solutions, the paths they travel to get there are as individual as the casinos themselves. Some, for example, convert a single bank of machines to G2S. This allows the property to test new features, work out the kinks and bring the staff up to speed before converting more EGMs. Others, especially new casinos, jump in with both feet and run a high-speed network across their entire slot floor, making it easy to add a G2S game anywhere on the floor. Most existing casinos fall somewhere in the middle, depending on their individual needs and resources.

Because G2S was envisioned as a multi-host environment, casinos don’t need to put all their faith (and budget) into a single, monolithic system. Small host applications – whether player tracking, game configuration, multimedia or promotions – can augment existing systems with new G2S features. The new data, features and capablities unlocked by the G2S protocol can add efficiency and value without the huge overhead. And, because G2S isn’t all or nothing, solutions can be rolled out at a pace that best suits the casino.

The path you choose with G2S really is your own – and there are many more directions to take than simply right or left (personally, we like going off-road). Where do you think your road to G2S will take you?

- Russ Ristine, G2S: How to Get There from Here

In this month’s Casino Enterprise Management magazine, Russ discusses the current state of G2S and how casinos can transition their current gaming floors to open, high-speed networks.

OK. I know how busy you are. So here’s the Cliff Notes version (which is not nearly as interesting or informative as the actual article that, did I mention, is here and only takes a few minutes to read, should you find the time).

Right now, your gaming floor network probably looks something like this . . .

(You can read about the pros and cons of proprietary gaming floors here.)

Here’s one solution for transitioning to an open, high-speed network . . .

Note that your first step into the world of the open, high-speed networked gaming floors does not have to be the transition of your entire floor – convert a single area or bank of machines with an eye toward transitioning the rest of your floor as it makes sense to do so.

This step is important because it is when you make decisions that will impact your floor for years to come – and you will have lots of decisions to make. Remember, you want your floor to be extensible and to be able to support standard third-party applications as new features are developed. For these reasons, your EGMs must be able communicate with at least six hosts (to accommodate a download server, regulatory server, marketing server, slot performance server and a couple for future innovations).

Once you have the basic network structure in place, you can start adding application servers to bring new features quickly and easily to your floor . . .

And, viola! As your G2S network matures and your team becomes comfortable with the new environment, you’ll be ready to expand the network across your gaming floor when the time comes.

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.

Players of the new Lord of the Rings™ game can now extend their gaming experience outside the casino by logging on (by computer or mobile phone) to playerslife.com, a website that lets EGM players play “casual games” for bonus points. They can then use those bonus points on the casino game, which incentivizes return visits to the casino. Players also have the option of playing the same casual games at the EGM to earn bonus points.

The site creators have done a nice job of creating a community space, with a player forum and developer blog. Real-time game play updates of both casino and online players dynamically display on the home page,providing  a sense of excitement and connection with the game experience.

But my purpose in pointing Player’s Life out to you isn’t to do a review.

What I find exciting about the Player’s Life concept is that it represents a move toward connecting current technologies and trends with the gaming floor. WMS took a good look at casino players and their interactions with both technology and gaming, so they knew exactly where to start.

Some people believe that the technologies that open-standard, high-speed networked gaming make possible will be too much for customers – and that may well be true for certain player segments. But what they forget is that same technology will allow casinos to be many things to many people. If personalization is the way of the future, then open standards are a must because the slot floor will need to be versatile and extensible, making plug-and-play applications indispensable. Monolithic slot floors that simply offer variations of the same type of games and technologies aren’t going to cut it. There are simply too many other entertainment options for perspective players.

The casino players of the future will want entertainment and excitement from the casino experience that they can’t find elsewhere. To succeed, gaming must find a renewed, technologically savvy attraction for players. This will take close collaboration between vendors and casinos, flexible technologies, a clear understanding of players and a vision for what gaming technology could be. Player’s Life is an important first step in that direction.

That is the question being discussed by casino operators worldwide. To facilitate the discussion, it may be useful to step back and take a look at some of the pros and cons of the typical slot floor network on most gaming floors today. As a point of reference, most casino slot floor networks currently look something like this:

The Pros

Comfortable

Like your favorite sweatshirt, your current network may have a few holes, but you know it well and it still serves its intended purpose.

Well-Tested

Most existing slot floors have been around for nearly 20 years, so many of the problems have been found and (hopefully) corrected.

Avoids the Awkwardness and Frustration of Dating

When you commit to a vendor that uses a proprietary slot floor system, for the most part, you only have to focus on that one relationship. Whether it’s calling support, getting training for your team or inquiring about new features, having a single point of contact (and responsibility) can be reassuring. Of course, marriage can have its own share of awkwardness and frustration, but I’ll leave that for another time.

Less Regulation

Since all traffic on a proprietary slot floor goes through a Slot Machine Interface Board (SMIB), new functionality that does not affect the game does not require regulatory approval. (Well, it didn’t until Ticket In/Ticket Out was added to slot floor systems. After that, the system was considered a gaming device, so any change is now highly regulated.)

Less Expensive

By far, staying with your existing slot floor network is the less expensive option in terms of up-front costs because you already have the system and network in place. Your costs for an existing proprietary network mainly involve new features, minor upgrades and maybe a bit of training.

The Cons

Overly Complicated

If the new feature is going to be initiated by your enterprise data warehouse or marketing system, and includes an interaction with the player and an update to the credit meter on the EGM, there are potentially five different protocols that need to be modified (some of which may not even be controlled by your system vendor). With so many moving parts, the possibility of issues creeping into a feature increases for each protocol on the network.

Inefficient

There are as many as six different program environments that must be modified, tested, approved and deployed to your gaming floor in order for a feature to be available to your players. No wonder the typical development cycle is 18 months or more! This lengthy and complicated development cycle presents significant challenges to the rapid development and deployment of new features.

Slow, Limited Communications

The final connection to the EGM uses a slow, polled serial communication link running a protocol called SAS (created 20+ years ago). This SAS link works pretty well over a local connection with the SMIB, but it can’t be used to move large amounts of data to or from the EGM, nor could it ever be used to talk to multiple hosts. Most player interactions are done using player peripherals hung off a third-party SMIB that is supplied by your slot system vendor because player interactions can’t happen across the SAS communication link.

Discourages Innovation

All of the protocols in use (other than SAS) are developed by the system vendor with an eye towards securing their floor network environment (an incredibly important concern when processing vouchers, transferring money and doing other important business functions). However, most don’t employ off-the-shelf security mechanisms (like TLS or SSL) as those types of industry standard solutions are not really available for custom-developed communication protocols. Plus, due to the proprietary nature of the interfaces, any innovation must come from or be sanctioned by the slot system vendor. While slot system vendors are very capable, network lock-in as well as proprietary/non-standard protocols discourage standard Internet technologies and new ideas from moving easily to the slot floor.

In a nutshell, there is certainly a case to be made for proprietary networks. Each casino will have its own set of considerations when deciding how to move its slot floor into the future.

What do you see as the pros and cons of proprietary slot floor networks?

Networked Gaming

Networked Gaming (n.): Open-standard gaming protocols, running over an Ethernet connection, that facilitate standardized communication between EGMs, servers and peripheral devices.

Some may take exception with that definition. I was reading an article the other day that claimed networked gaming had been around for the last 15 years. To which I responded with a resounding: “Er?” As it turns out, the article was referring to central determination (Class II) gaming.

Strictly speaking, all central determination systems are networked. And, as a point of fact, most central determination systems are now run over an Ethernet network. But it’s not really a good example of what’s happening with the open standard, high-speed technology effort that will push gaming technology into the future because it only has one piece of the equation: Ethernet. Here’s an example:

Using an Ethernet network, company A communicates really effectively between company A’s EGMs and servers.

That’s great, but . . .

Using an Ethernet network and open standards, company A now communicates really effectively between the EGMs and servers for companies A (your slot system), B (your player management system), C (your cool bonusing applications) and D (your totally amazing augmented reality games). Now, you’ve got technology – regardless of the vendor – that you can easily leverage across your entire slot floor.

What matters in this scenario are things like innovation, quality, ROI and vendor responsiveness because interoperability, extensibility and flexibility are already there.

Open Standards

Open Standards (n.): A technical standard that gifts rights of use to the public and can be implemented royalty free. There are three open standards for the gaming technology industry: the Gaming Device Standard (GDS), Game To System (G2S) protocol and System To System (S2S) protocol. All three standards are maintained by the Gaming Standards Association (GSA), which has a membership comprised of gaming vendors, operators, test laboratories and regulators.

What’s the catch? While using an open standard is one thing, implementing an open standard is quite another. Since the goal of open standards is interoperability, GSA has quite sensibly set up a certification program for vendors implementing GSA standards. Certification ensures that whatever the technology is, it will play nice with what’s on your floor. Independent test labs, such as BMM, GLI and Eclipse, are already participating in the certification program. Manufacturers can even set up their own test labs, as long as the labs are accredited.

Server-Based Gaming

Server-Based Gaming (n.): 1. EGMs that receive information from a central host server. There are two basic types of server-based gaming:

1. system-based: EGMs receive game content and results from a host server (for example, central determination games).
2. system-supported: EGM is responsible for game play and outcomes, but things like game configuration, game updates and media are downloaded from a host server.

Depending on the implementation, server-based gaming may or may not require an Ethernet connection, and may or may not use open standards.

Go forth, knowledgeable consumer

So, what questions should you be asking vendors as you navigate the latest technology offerings at G2E this year?

Does the product conform to one of the Gaming Standards Association’s open standard protocols? Is it GSA-certified? If not, is there a timeline for certification?

You will hear many arguments as to why you shouldn’t worry you’re pretty little head about open standards, but remember: the real difference between proprietary protocols and open protocols is choice, flexibility and innovation.

Open standards are essential to realizing the full benefits of an Ethernet-based networked slot floor (and, in case you were wondering, the G2S protocol includes a class for central determination as well as download). And in all honesty, some vendors may not want you to really understand your options (Do you blame them?). It’s up to you to be an informed consumer.

What other questions do you have about networked gaming? What issues are you encountering as you talk to your vendors about implementing open standards in their technology?

Video Conferencing

We know, video conferencing has been around for awhile (think Skype). Unfortunately, serial connections have not been able to support video conferencing at the game. With high-speed networking, you can now interact with your players in new ways. Notice a hot player is starting to slow down? Offer him tickets to the buffet. Have a high-roller who is playing into the wee hours of the morning? Maybe he would like a room.

The future is all about establishing relationships with your customers – making them part of your community. Whether they have an issue, question or just need to chat, video communications will give your players instant face-to-face access to casino representatives and let you better anticipate your customers’ needs. What better way to build customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Social Networking

Not only will technology make it easier for players to connect with you, it will make it easier for them to connect with each other. Whether it’s posting, texting, chatting, following or tweeting, many of you already use this technology to reach players. But these applications could be much more tightly integrated into the gaming experience to build your player community, bring players together and bring the excitement of playing with friends - even over long distances – to your properties. Best of all, social networking is increasingly becoming a real-time endeavor: players won’t wait until they get home to tell their friends about their experience at your casino – they’re more likely to give real-time updates and invite their friends to join them. This makes individual players even more important to your business because they have the potential to attract additional players during their visit.

GPS

There are so many possibilities for GPS technology, it’s hard to know where to begin. From a marketing perspective, GPS adds a new dimension to recommendations (for example, the “Trips” feature in Gowalla). Players can now, not only give your casino a thumbs up, but provide specific location information about the best places in your casino to visit. You can entice players into your casino by sending rewards directly to their phone if they come within a certain range of the property. Or, increase play on new games by sending players game-specific coupons as they walk through the slot floor.

As with social networking, integration of GPS technologies into the slot machine could add interest to the gaming experience as well as to expand your player base. What if players could use Google-Earth-like technology to find other players for multi-player games – not just in the casino they’re in, but in casinos around the world?

Smartphones

Smartphones give you instant access to players and let you keep the excitement going after they have left the casino. What about sending bonus games to the player’s smartphone? Or, did player X tell you that she’s a fan of Really Cool Game Y? Send her real-time, automatic game updates:

“HotPlayer6 just beat your high score on Really Cool Game Y! Come in today and we’ll give you three free spins to try and top it!”

Augmented Reality (AR)

What if AR adventures involved playing slots in your casino? Maybe even card games? What if players not only raced around one of your properties, but several, trying to be the first to earn the final reward? Sure 3D and Wii-like interactions are cool, but we think gaming companies should go in this direction:

While the above video is conceptual, the technology already exists. AR gaming has the potential for the competitiveness, interactivity and excitement to take gaming to a whole new level.

What technology would you like to see on the gaming floor?

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?

The RadBlue Blog

First, the new RadBlue blog will feature insights and discussions from RadBlue experts as well as leaders in the world of networked gaming. It will address technical topics as well as forward-looking issues related to the real-world possibilities of this technology. We hope to inform as well as provoke discussion about the incredible potential – and yes, possible pitfalls, of networked gaming.

Networked Gaming Resources

Our Networked Gaming Resources page provides quality information that is of interest to the gaming technology community. For those of you who are new to networked gaming, the Networked Gaming Resources page contains articles, presentations and diagrams to help you get a handle on this new technology. If you’re simply looking for a place to find the latest news and discussions on networked gaming from around the Web, we’ve got that too. We’ll be updating this page with new information and resources, so check back often.

Our goal is to create dynamic spaces where the gaming technology community – whether vendor, operator or test lab - can find quality, thoughtful networked gaming information from a wide array of sources. With that in mind, we hope you’ll participate: ask questions, voice your opinions and suggest topics of discussion. Subscribe to our RSS feed. Send us an email. Leave comments. We look forward to hearing from you.

Here is where you put your test content. Right here!

• Test 1
• Test 2

Here is where you put your test content. Right here!

• Test 1
• Test 2