When you sit down at the game in our vision of the future , you ’ re going to hold your palm up against the machine . It will recognize who you are , your funds will transfer , and the game that you see will change to match your personality .
“
When you sit down at the game in our vision of the future , you ’ re going to hold your palm up against the machine . It will recognize who you are , your funds will transfer , and the game that you see will change to match your personality .
”
— John Acres , Chief Executive Officer , Acres Manufacturing
ability to maximize casino revenues in today ’ s industry , says Noah Acres . “ When you think about real-time rewards and real-time messaging ,” he says , “ to understand the scope and the potential here , imagine you ’ re a casino marketer . You know every player ’ s specific play history , you know how they ’ re faring on the game right now , and you also know how much money they have in their pocket , because you know the wallet balance on their mobile device . “ If you can know all that information , there ’ s a tremendous potential to deliver that person the right message at the right time , to get them to take the right action . It ’ s going generate more profit for the casino .”
their game .
“ We believe that with those rich new opportunities , we can attract new players ,” says John Acres . “ A lot of those new players will be younger , but I know a lot of my friends find casino slot machines very boring as well . I think this will attract people across all demographics .”
Acres ’ plan is to do no less than transform the casino experience . “ If I walk into a casino today , it ’ s like reading an article that ’ s written in all caps with exclamation marks after every sentence ,” says John Acres . “ It ’ s just so overwhelming and confusing , and there ’ s no choreographic experience for the player . It ’ s flat . There needs to be this undulation , this roller-coaster ride of quiet and excitement and quiet and excitement .”
“ And at the end of your budget ,” adds Noah Acres , “ at the end of your time in the casino , we want you to be satisfied . We want you to go home thinking about how fun it was to win that $ 100 , and maybe not thinking about the $ 200 you spent to get there . That ’ s our goal . And we believe that to get there , we need this new platform , and then that platform needs to be open to everybody .”
“ They did $ 600 billion in ( sales through ) the App Store this year ,” says the elder Acres . “ We can bring that to the casino . We can have all these bright people that are sitting at home with ideas express themselves on this new platform , and they ’ ll win or lose , they ’ ll succeed or fail based upon how well their content is accepted . Many will fail , but those who succeed will completely transform the experiences that we have .
“ And keep in mind that if you want the old experience , you can still have it , because Foundation provides the bridge between the old games and the new games .”
While the grand plan is to change the experience , Foundation has the
Moving Forward
The means to generate that profit is still in its infancy as far as the Foundation technology , but John Acres says it will move forward as some of the industry ’ s more visionary operators see how it can change the casino ecosystem . There has been pushback , including litigation involving some of the more traditional system providers . “ The biggest issue isn ’ t so much pushback ; it ’ s the inertia to change ,” John Acres says . “ There are many people that want to keep things the way that they were yesterday . They want to do , tomorrow , what they did last week .”
He says the more positive future for technology like Foundation will be realized by operators like Acres ’ current partner Penn National Gaming . “ Penn is an example of how a really visionary guy , ( CEO ) Jay Snowden , and a great team of people are adapting to change very quickly ,” he says . “ And other people are starting to see that example of what benefits change can bring . So we ’ re real excited about 2022 and 2023 .
“ We think that a whole new era is upon us . We think that we can double casino revenues . We think we can cut costs per dollar of revenue in half . We think that we can totally transform , in the next five years , the casino gaming industry .”
He adds that this does not mean Foundation is going to replace the traditional casino management systems ; the technology can improve what already exists .
“ Foundation is literally what its name implies — it is the bedrock upon which we build ,” says Noah Acres . “ It collects the data . Now we will create applications that replace every function of a CMS , but we also invite any third party to do a better job than what we do . We ’ re open to creativity .”
“ But besides personalization for the players and creating a more challenging , interactive game ,” adds John Acres , “ the big challenge for casinos now is to move from the desktop era where the existing casino management systems are stuck — where a host or other casino person has to run into a back room
28 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2022