Have no info on Bally or IGT. Re ACRES, like I said, reading between the
lines in talks with casino execs. Did not mean to infer that Bally & IGT were
developing such systems just mentioned them as an example of the testing done
on this coast. If they were, IGT's would probably be the better one & that's
just a personal opinion based on Bally's tracking systems. (Bally's systems
are slow, no real-time response with poor/no player feedback -- often just
"Card Accepted" -- but maybe they want it to treat players like mushrooms.) If I
remember correctly, an ACRES system went into the Pioneer (Laughlin) about 2
yrs ago which had the capability of turning on a bonus feature (2x FH, 4 of a
kind depending on machine?) after the player had maintained a certain volume
& frequency of play. One day it was adjusted from 2x to 4x then back again
to 2x the day after. No paytables were changed. The bonusing was done during
play & you received 2x credits on the screen so there was no slow down or
interruption of play. It's a lot to infer from a short playing session, but it
seemed to have the capability to accumulate play volume & history & adjust
bonusing frequency based on whether you played a FP game or not. About the same
time, ACRES systems were going into LV casinos (Coast/Boyd?) & I was told that
they were using the same features. Never was that interested in running this
down so didn't follow up.
Re testing by IGT, since it's a Reno company, a lot of their new games show
up in Reno Casinos first. Before Silicon Gaming was taken out by IGT, I
remember seeing a lot of their new games tested at Reno Hilton. Williams used to
use Harrahs, Laughlin for a lot of their tests. Of course, a lot of other
venues could have been used too. However, before the expansion of gambling, many
casinos struggled just to do the nightly drop let alone do the extra work of
providing feedback on a new game.
In a message dated 6/13/2004 8:50:33 PM Pacific Standard Time,
vpFREE@yahoogroups.com writes:
<<< Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 03:48:32 -0000
TedChee wrote
On the west coast, a lot of casinos have been used as test beds for
a long time. For example, Reno Hilton is where a lot Bally Gaming
systems software is tested (Bally Gaming is also close to them
physically). IGT has used a lot of Reno & Las Vegas casinos for
their tests. Reading between the lines, I believe the new ACRES
system that just went in to the Atlantis has the skill-tracking
capability (or will have it in an upgrade).
This is the first reference I've seen to skill evaluation systems in
development by either Bally Gaming or IGT. Do you have any further info?>>>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ยทยทยท
From: "Harry Porter" <harry.porter@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Do casinos track VP skill?