Struggling supplier Bally Technologies caught a break from rival Aristocrat Technologies. The latter announced today that the duo would pair up to market a common system for configuring and downloading slot games, using the latest GSA protocols. (Intriguing subplot: Aristocrat’s former chief of U.S. operations, Gavin Isaacs, recently left for Bally, rumored to be chafing at heavy-handed leadership by Aristocrat CEO Paul Oneile. Now Oneile and Isaacs find themselves in business together once more.)
The proposed application would allow rival game manufacturers’ product to "co-exist" on each others’ slot- and game-management systems. But game platforms and the boxes themselves would remain off-limits. In other words, if you want Aristrocrat games, you still have to buy Aristocrat machines (ditto for Bally), even if they’re nothing more than vessels for server-based game content.
How the slot industry’s 800-lb. gorilla, IGT, reacts to this remains to be seen. Also, I suspect that casino operators would like even more flexibility than Aristocrat and Bally are offering them. It will be fascinating to watch how this plays out. "They’re both dealing a weak hand," says one observer, who predicts that the situation will devolve into a VHS-vs.-Betamax reprise, with all the smaller slot manufacturers banding together against mammoth IGT. Who knows?
Trouble in paradise: From Antigua, tidings of great woe. Cratering stock prices and plummeting employment plague Internet sports books. That’s not to mention a David-vs.-Goliath showdown in the World Trade Organization. Rotten luck if you’re a resident of Barbados, Antigua or Gibraltar whose job has just been eliminated in the big chill sweeping Internet casinos. Slick Billy Frist sure must be proud of himself. By the way, Frist (in a triumph of optimism over sanity) is remodeling his house to look like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It should make a nice, inviting target for rotten eggs flung by disgruntled Internet poker players.
A "Harry" situation in Singapore: Move over, Mark Advent. Your Eighth Wonder project has officially been big-footed by James Packer. At least that’s the view of the Sydney Morning Herald, which sees PBL/Melco as the new driving force behind the long-shot candidate for Singapore’s Sentosa Island "integrated resort" (read: casino) concession. As described by the SMH, Advent’s "Harry’s Island" concept for Sentosa seems gauche beyond description … and perhaps culturally tone-deaf. Still, nothing is out of the question in a footrace which has already seen Las Vegas Sands topple favored MGM Mirage and perceived runner-up Harrah’s Entertainment for the Marina Bay concession.
Speaking of Packer …: The publishing heir is one busy guy, also turning up in Macao to commemorate the topping off of PBL/Melco’s Crown Macau, a $300 million placeholder until the joint venture’s considerably more expensive City of Dreams resort becomes a reality. On the plus side, it’s a propitious time to enter the market. Globalysis estimates that Macao has finally caught up with Las Vegas in terms of monthly gambling revenue.
On the cautionary side, both PBL/Melco projects are running behind schedule (no big surprise, given the construction crunch in the former Portugese enclave) and Packer backer Lawrence Ho hasn’t ponied up his half of the dough yet. Also, there’s no shortage of new, rival product in the pipeline, including Galaxy’s Star World and Stanley Ho projects both big (Grand Lisboa) and small (Babylon). Nor are the three Vegas powers — Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage — exactly twiddling their thumbs.
In a related development, Jack Binion is stepping back from his operation role at Wynn Macau. He’ll remain on its board, and have an unspecified role as "a director and principal in the development team" of future Macanese operations. Binion’s current employment agreement with Wynn will be terminated as of Nov. 17. Is Binion just to be a figurehead? Did he find the Far East not to his liking? Did he and Steve Wynn butt heads? Is he simply homesick for Las Vegas? At this point, all we have are questions.
Oh, and Wynn is busting out a $6-per-share dividend on Dec. 4, after the sale of his Macao subconcession to PBL/Melco gave Wynn Resorts a rare profitable quarter. Informed speculation is that Wynn and business partner Kazuo Okada will use their dividends to capture a majority stake in the company.
