American Music's 'Green Machine'
American Music, a gaming machine route vendor based out of Great Falls and serving primarily north central Montana, has a sister company, Freeno, Inc., that manufacturers, designs and leases players rewards systems, trade stimulators and so on.
Freeno, Inc. has been leasing players reward systems statewide since 2004 with approx. 40 systems operating, according to Bill Stedman, American Music operations manager.
The current Freeno system is centered on "The Green Machine." It is what Stedman refers to as a "blanket" promotional system that rewards everyone who signs up and is "actively" playing in the casino.
Players earn points that are redeemed for match play by actively playing a machine. Multiple jackpots can be won as the system announces members names drawn from the data base every hour or half hour, Stedman explained.
The system can be programmed to award super bonus points, early bird points, night owl points and so on to drive increased play in different times slots as needed.
Stedman says, "The Green Machine should be considered an employee that always shows up for work, doesn't go on vacation and keeps a tight rein on the owners' money."
The Green Machine system is very operator friendly, Stedman said, and has low labor requirements as machine meter numbers are not required to be entered into the system several times a day or daily.
Using the system, information on players can be – and should be – collected to be used for mailers and other promotional activities, Stedman said. In addition, the system helps management measure employee performance relating to customer sign ups, who received the promotional dollars, times, dates and more, he said.
"Each system has literally one hundred configuration options that can be tailored to each individual location's promotional budget. In-house advertising and promotional events can be launched and reinforced via 'splash screens' that can be placed throughout the business," Stedman said.
"The Green Machine is big and bold and relies on visual and audible announcements to keep the players entertained and, more importantly, in their seats."
Stedman said the next-generation Green Machine, "featuring Johnee Cash," is being beta tested. "It will allow locations to rate their players and reward accordingly, offers static as well as progressive jackpots and more of them, but still doesn't require gaming machine meters to be read and entered."
"If a location is spending promotional dollars, a players club is a valuable tool to control those costs," Stedman said. "In many situations a players club can reduce promotional costs by putting the dollars in the right customers' machines, rather than seeing the promo dollars walking out the door.
"The key to players clubs in our market is to be flexible and to evolve with our ever changing business," he said. "And that is what Freeno, Inc. is dedicated to."