Kevin Peterson, at the helm of Billings-based Summit Gaming for just five months, seemed to move easily about the floor of the Shrine Auditorium where the company was hosting its 12th annual Customer Appreciation Open House April 8-9.
He was seen visiting with location operators, route vendors, Summit staff and the visiting executives from Game-Tech, the Nevada based firm that purchased Summit last year.
But he squeezed a few minutes from his non-stop itinerary to sit down with a reporter from the Montana Tavern Times on the second day of the open house.
He said one impression of the Montana gaming market that stands out is how advanced Montana video keno games are.
"When I got here, I couldn't understand how 70 to 80 percent of the play in Montana could be on keno when you can also offer a poker option," Peterson said.
"The Montana market has developed keno games that are really fun. There's not as much creativity in the Nevada keno games, especially in how the bonus features have been integrated here. We have a lot more entertainment value. There's a lot the (leading) Nevada market could learn and gain, but they'd have to develop the player."
Peterson acknowledged that intense competition between manufacturers and between location operators has resulted in increasingly liberal machine payouts. But manufacturers, including Summit, are building equipment now that is more tailored and customized to the specific needs of the location.
Summit offers three basic versions of its games suites: the "tavern" version, the "bar" version and the "casino" version. The different levels of game play are designed for anticipated player volume in a given location.
Even the number of player-accessible games offered is being customized for specific locations.
"The basic Summit platform has 12 keno and 12 poker games," Peterson explained, which, in theory, may be too many for some locations, he said.
So the "tavern" version, which may be best suited for lower volume locations but could be the ticket for high-volume places as well, is engineered to allow the location operator to pick and choose which games to offer players, reducing the 24 games available to 12, Peterson explained.
The other games not displayed on the screen are still in the program and available to the operator, should the operator wish to later reconfigure game offerings; customizing for the location in the truest sense.
And what does that accomplish?
According to Peterson, games that get played very little can get hit for an $800 winner just like games that get played often. However, when a game with rare play loses, it may take an exceptionally long time for that loss to be recovered through additional play. This is what is referred to as "volatility," Peterson said, and with high volatility, a location, particularly smaller ones, can be put into a cash-flow pinch pretty fast.
Thus, by deactivating the low-volume/high-volatility games, overall machine volatility can be reduced which should even out cash flows, he said. So far, he added, play volume on the machines with the reduced game libraries is holding up, but the verdict is still out on whether long-run "holds" will be improved.
"We want to deliver games with the most entertainment value. But players tell us what they want via risk and reward," Peterson said. "Some players want more time-on-device, others want more win experiences. They are fickle and will quickly judge whether they like it or don't , again, via their response to 'risk and reward.'"
Peterson says he has also been impressed with how well organized licensed businesses are with most belonging to the state Montana Tavern Association and their local chapters as well, while a lot also belong to the Gaming Industry Association.
"These organizations, particularly the local chapters, are very active," Peterson noted. "They are engaged with the dynamic processes --government and regulation--that shape their business environments. For example, I've met all five candidates for attorney general."
Peterson said his first-hand experiences with the smoking ban in Nevada causes him concern for when the ban takes effect in Montana in the fall of 2009.
"My chief concern is that the playing field is kept level," which wasn't the case in Nevada where large casino venues are still able to allow smoking on gaming floors, but small mom and pop establishments had smoking banned. Smoking customers have been driven from the "locals" to the big corporate casinos, Peterson says.
In the greater scheme of things, Peterson sees Montana as "still a young jurisdiction. But we're making it work for the operator, the player and the public. But the bottom line, like in any business--the difference between succeeding and failing--is customer service."
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, May, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.