Acres and Acres
With Acres Manufacturing , John and Noah Acres hope to transform the entire gaming experience
BY FRANK LEGATO
John Acres wants to completely change the way casinos serve their slot customers . He ’ s done it before . More than once .
Acres invented slot player tracking technology , sold by the company he founded in 1981 , Electronic Data Technologies . ( EDT was eventually acquired by IGT .) The existence today of player loyalty clubs that reward repeat play can be traced to this invention .
More innovations would come from Mikohn , which Acres and a partner founded in 1986 . The innovator of the modern progressive jackpot system , Mikohn , created for an initial investment of $ 120,000 , was sold for $ 6 million to Progressive Gaming International ( the assets of which ultimately were acquired by IGT ).
Next was Acres Gaming , and another transformative technology , bonusing , within the system known then as Acres Advantage , now the IGT Advantage casino management system , after the supplier ’ s 2003 acquisition of the Acres Gaming assets .
According to Acres , the ensuing 18 years saw slot system technology pretty much on pause . He has stressed to anyone who will listen that casinos are basing their loyalty programs on technology that was created in the 1990s .
“ The best analogy I can give you is that today ’ s casinos are operated like Blockbuster video stores ,” Acres says . “ Everybody wakes up every morning , thinking about how to arrange the cassettes on the shelf , how many late fees they ’ re going to collect and where to put the licorice next to the checkout stand . And this is the age of Netflix . You ’ ve got to think about what the players you have want — but more importantly , what do the people who aren ’ t yet your players want ? What do you have to give to get that new business ?
“ The casino management systems that people are using today are just too old and too weak to be able to
26 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2022