- 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.

Open source vs. open standards  

… open standards are the most critical, because making a choice today shouldn’t preclude you from making a different choice tomorrow.

That’s what open standards are all about. They’re documents that outline agreed-upon conventions to enable different programs to work together, along with some means to ensure that they actually do — a process or set of tests. With open standards, your company can pick and choose among competing vendors and not be locked in to any one of them.

Defining open standards

Open standards are developed in accountable and transparent processes that are open to all stakeholders; open to multiple implementation paradigms including open source; and standards text is available at no cost to all interested parties. Open standards, as a fundamental building block of innovation, become widely implemented because they are supported by all major stakeholders.

- Trond Arne Undheim, Director, Standards Strategy and Policy — EMEA, Oracle

Open vs. Closed: Why open standards matter

It does take a long time to develop open standards. But that standardization process pays off very quickly. Developing a typical web page now is much quicker if you do it to those standards than it was during the dark days of the last Browser War, when you had to develop parallel code bases for IE and Netscape, or choose one of them and lock out people who used the other browser.

- Bruce Lawson, Web Evangelist, Opera

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?

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?