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Rymax is a national marketing specialist in the casino arena and a strategic marketing partner for leading Fortune 500 companies. The company creates and services fully customized, turn-key player loyalty solutions for casinos worldwide, offering access to thousands of products from brand-name manufacturers at factory-direct pricing. 

As the largest national direct manufacturer’s representative in the incentive industry, as well as the leading provider of player loyalty solutions in the gaming industry, Rymax understands the industry and the important role rewards play in driving player loyalty. The company’s Gaming Division works with national and regional properties, as well as Indian casinos and racinos, to provide customized loyalty programs, merchandise rewards and events.

With an expertise in product sourcing, Rymax offers merchandise ranging from luxury brands to commodities, and captures casinos’ player redemption data to create a communication strategy that helps casinos more effectively and efficiently connect with their players.

Rymax’s in-house Merchandising Team will recommend reward options for a program that best suits a targeted audience—both demographically and geographically—to ensure the right mix of aspirational merchandise rewards. Rymax prides itself on offering rewards that appeal to every market segment that walks through the casino door, and understands what appeals to a Gen Xer may not work for a Millennial.

Rymax offers a variety of high-brand equity and luxury products that will appeal to people of different ages and economic classes to give a casino a competitive edge. For example, Millennials are particularly brand- and technology-driven, and

casinos have found success generating repeat business from them by offering opportunities to receive products such as Michel Kors handbags, Monster iSport headphones and Ion iType Too keyboard cases.

Rymax has the expertise to create custom loyalty events, including shopping sprees and pick-a-gifts, fulfilling promotional product giveaways, hosting slot and table game tournaments, fulfilling on-site reward redemption stores and preparing visual merchandise displays for retail store fronts. Rymax’s in-house Events Team will plan, coordinate and oversee every facet of a promotion to create a program that’s a sure bet to keep players coming back.

To learn more about Rymax services and extensive product offering, visit booth No. 2935 at NIGA, or contact Vice President of Sales Paul Gordon at 973-582-3272 or pgordon@rymaxinc.com.

Austin, Texas-based Multimedia Games manufactures high-quality gaming machines, innovative technology and systems. With 13,700-plus games on its network, the company has evolved to serve a wide range of Native American and commercial casino markets. A leader in interactive gaming systems, Multimedia Games is focused on player experience, delivering compelling games that players want coupled with the tools to make them easy to run and manage.

Known as a leader in slot tournament technology, Multimedia Games pays particular attention to the details and features that make tournaments work on a casino floor. TournEvent 4.0 is the perfect example, as Multimedia Games debuts even more features to the award-winning and industry-leading slot tournament system.

The latest release will feature a new base game, Crazy Carnival, that takes players through wild reel-spinning action, with a surprise feature that will excite players like never before. The system will also feature an improved user interface and the ability for operators and players to participate in team tournaments. The Control Center will see a sleek new facelift and the system will include all the great player experience enhancements released with TournEvent 3.0. 

Multimedia Games recently introduced its new High Rise Games series with four innovative game titles. The High Rise cabinet features the largest top box in the industry. With a 37-inch LCD screen placed vertically, there is no need for additional signage when these cabinets are placed on a casino floor.

Colored LED lights around the bezel add to the cabinets’ attractiveness as well as highlight the game featured on each one.

One Red Cent Deluxe is the first title available on the High Rise. The game is a new spin on an old classic that features a five-tier progressive displayed in the top box. Players will earn the progressive prizes when five to nine scattered One Red Cent symbols land on the reels, but they also may uncover a picking bonus when three penny symbols land on the seventh payline, awarding multipliers up to 100X.

White Hot Progressive is the second High Rise game release, also featuring a five-tier progressive. The innovative feature in this game, however, is that players are encouraged to anticipate that big win. As the progressive amount gets larger and larger, the animated fire underneath it gets hotter and hotter, indicating that it might be ready to hit. The game also contains the White Hot Free Spin bonus, triggered when three Free Spin symbols land on reels 1, 5 and 9. The player is prompted to choose one of the symbols to award the number of free spins, and the bonus can be retriggered during the free spins.

For more information about Multimedia Games, visit www.multimediagames.com.

At Konami Gaming, Inc., “Life is all about fun and games,” and the company motto is: “Conceived by imagination. Born from fun.”

Konami Gaming’s headquarters is located in Las Vegas, and its products are distributed throughout North America, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Konami is a complete gaming manufacturer that develops, designs, manufacturers, distributes, sells and services innovative technology-based slot machines plus the pioneering Konami Casino Management System.

Most recently installed at Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, California, KCMS is an industry-leading casino management system with an increasing number of installations in the United States, Canada, Australia and other international regions.

KCMS is best known for its advanced capabilities, such as real-time TCP/IP-based technology, multi-channel in-machine streaming video, powerful rules-based bonusing engine, true multi-game, multi-denomination analytics at both the device and patron level and documented high availability. These features allow operators to effectively manage and analyze their gaming operations, implement innovative marketing campaigns and drive their business forward.

Recently, Konami formed a partnership with Joingo, a mobile and social technology company, to provide the KCMS Patron App, a mobile loyalty system which allows casinos with KCMS to immediately deploy their own branded Android, iPhone, Blackberry and mobile web apps. It also gives casinos an opportunity to engage with their guests more strategically and more often, while providing players current offers and up-to-date information on their loyalty club status, anywhere and anytime.

Konami now offers the Podium Slant on its newest operating system, KP3, and proven performer K2V. The Podium Slant is a completely new slant on the Podium, one of Konami’s greatest cabinets, featuring vertical and horizontal lighting, comfortable foot rests and arm rests, and interactive buttons on select KP3 skill-based game titles.

The newest game title with the skill bonus game feature, Jackpot Island, has pinball-style side buttons where players can test their timing by launching a ball and maneuvering it through obstacles and ramps to collect credits. Jackpot Island is available on the Podium and Podium Slant. The real-time 3D graphics make the graphics pop and pinball-style buttons add to the fun.  

For more information about Konami Gaming, Inc., visit www.konamigaming.com.

Are security, surveillance, tribal police and gaming commission all pulling in the same direction? Integration of primary-asset protection elements and departments is the key to having a well-prepared gaming operation. Interbrief.org helps gaming owners and operators reach that goal by delivering an integrated set of services that includes security consulting, vulnerability assessments, labor action contingency planning, emergency procedure development, ethics testing, customer service standard testing and expert witness assistance.

One of the most valuable services for anyone in the gaming industry is an asset protection audit. Human, financial, fixed-property and informational assets are at risk from a constant and increasing threat picture.

Interbrief has the ability to evaluate and recommend target hardening elements that properly protect critical assets. In addition to evaluating critical assets, Interbrief digs deeper to identify other potential liabilities through ethics testing.

Ethics testing involves undercover operatives posing as guests to specifically and randomly target owner and guest assets, including nightclub door cover charges, liquor revenue, marketing gift promotion and parking receipts, among others.

Ripple effects of a shrinking economy have resulted in management/supervisory/administrative downsizings and reduced hours and tips for team members. The results of these scenarios in some cases show up in decreased operating profit, which is incorrectly attributed to economic drivers as opposed to ethical breaches.

Today, more than ever, operators can benefit from proactive shopping services like those offered by Interbrief. Undercover Ethics Testing delivers results that enable the organization to endure potentially expensive and embarrassing guest recovery measures.

Similarly, Customer Service Standard Testing services are designed to measure team member compliance. Every year, the costs of customer retention and service recovery measures rise, which justifies the recurring utilization of professionally trained and expert undercover operatives. Market share changes also can be attributed to guest service breakdown. Only a percentage of disillusioned guests actually voice their displeasure to operators; many will simply choose to take their business elsewhere.

In addition, Interbrief provides enterprise risk management design and training services, specifically geared for gaming operations. Education, commitment and understanding of risk across the entire organization emphasizes prevention and mitigation for each and every team member. Interbrief performs presentations and education of new or established ERM programs.

Interbrief.org services provide peace of mind and financial stability in some of the most important areas of the gaming industry.

The Innovation Group of Companies provides financial, management, investment banking, development, marketing and diversification advisory services to a signature, worldwide client base. The organization is now comprised of five complementary affiliates, highlighted below. Together, the companies evaluate operational and development opportunities, make strategic recommendations and offer the tactical tools to help clients implement them.

The organization has been associated with more than $60 billion in investment decisions over the past 20 years. Additionally, its areas of specialization have naturally expanded into such related disciplines as F&B, mixed-use retail, convention centers, sports/performance venues, social media, online gaming and other offerings that define the ever-changing world of leisure and entertainment.

The company’s leadership has helped bring many of the world’s largest entertainment and hospitality developments to fruition, and has been exposed to industry best practices across six continents.

• The Innovation Group—Premier provider of consulting services for the gaming, entertainment and hospitality industries. Services include feasibility studies, market assessments, economic impact studies, strategic and financial planning, economic diversification, legislative and government advisory, litigation and expert witness support and i-gaming strategy/research.

• Innovation Capital—Leading boutique investment banking firm, offering Gaming & Leisure and Restaurant & Retail practices. Services include mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, financial restructuring and valuations/fairness opinions to mid-market clients ($20 million-$500 million). Since 2004, Innovation Capital has advised on transactions aggregating more than $2.8 billion. Member: FINRA/SIPC.

• Innovation Project Development—Experienced project management firm providing oversight of the industry’s most complex developments. IPD provides owner representative services, project and process management, schedule and budget controls, facility expansion analysis and planning, facility development and FF&E/purchasing.

• Innovation Marketing—Translates the unparalleled consultancy, analysis and research of The Innovation Group into industry best practice marketing tactics. Services include strategic advisory, marketing and business plans, research and focus groups, “voice of the customer” programs, player development strategy, account services, media/social media, public relations, database analysis and direct marketing.  

• Innovation Management Services—Exclusive network of operational experts offers short-term crisis management, operations evaluation, turnaround implementation, management strategy and pre-/post-opening services.

• Innovation Food & Beverage—Specialty advisory team offers research and analysis, operations and management, concepting and implementation, positioning and marketing, development and renovation, and financing and asset management specific to F&B considerations.

• Innovation Sports & Entertainment—Practice to further establish the organization’s presence in a broader range of sports, entertainment, performance venue, convention center and related amenity segments.

As one of the top-tier entertainment and hospitality design firms in the United States, as ranked by Hotel Business, Hotel Design and Hotel Management, HBG offers a proven history delivering distinctive design solutions that drive competitive advantage and successful performance results for its clients.

The firm’s own firsthand experience as owner and developer of hospitality real estate, including the Four-Diamond Westin Memphis Hotel, helps inform design that is grounded in development economics, operational functionality and efficiency, and guest expectations.

Adding to its longstanding reputation in the commercial hospitality market, HBG is uniquely positioned as one of the largest providers of professional services in the vibrant Indian gaming industry, with client relationships representing some of the most high-profile tribal business enterprises across the country. The firm aggressively leverages technology in the development of innovative and interactive initiatives. 

HBG’s project results have been recognized by the press, the gaming industry and most significantly by its clients’ bottom line. The new 52,000-square-foot, $40 million Four Winds Hartford Casino in Hartford, Michigan, has been noted for its ability to meet the rising need for smaller, efficient, profitable casinos that are also energized and stylish.

The HBG-designed Potawatomi Bingo Casino expansion in Milwaukee has been celebrated by the Chicago Tribune as “the region’s top spot for gaming entertainment,” and the G2E Casino Design Awards recognized HBG’s Riverwind Casino with a “Best Casino Design” award. Two of HBG’s casino resort projects—the Northern Quest Resort and Casino outside Spokane, Washington, and the Wind Creek Casino and Hotel, near the Alabama Gulf Coast—also were honored with coveted AAA Four Diamond awards.

HBG is currently completing designs for a number of diverse Indian gaming projects. The firm is continuing its planning and design activities for the newly announced Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in Buffalo, New York, and the proposed Kewadin Lansing Casino in Lansing, Michigan. HBG also looks forward to the phased opening of the Winstar Casino expansion for the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma this spring. 

 Hnedak Bobo Group is passionate about creating engaging and memorable experiences that deepen the connection between tribal gaming clients and their customers, while remaining highly focused on delivering market-supported investments that are positioned for long-term viability and financial success. 

For more information, visit www.hbginc.com.

At Gaming Laboratories International, the motto is “Ability. Capacity. Integrity. Authority,” and the organization’s professionals have but one job: testing electronic gaming equipment, a job they have performed since 1989.

GLI is an independent electronic games and systems test lab, testing devices for land-based and i-gaming applications. Its clients are more than 450 gaming regulators in jurisdictions worldwide, 130 of which use GLI exclusively. GLI, which has 650 employees all over the globe, with 20 labs on six continents, helps to ensure the integrity of the gaming industry.

As GLI likes to say, “If they can invent it, we can test it.” GLI is the largest network of global companies dedicated to providing the gaming industry with independent testing and evaluation of all types of gaming technology. Its customers are device and system suppliers who require GLI Certification to maintain the distribution viability of their products throughout the gaming industry.

GLI has created a team of top professionals to test and certify equipment, including mathematicians, hardware and software engineers, compliance engineers, system and communication engineers, high-tech engineers and quality assurance specialists. These highly trained, hand-picked experts deliver a level of service and expertise that cannot be matched by any other testing lab, and which helps regulators maintain the public trust by ensuring the integrity of gaming devices. The Gaming Labs Certified mark is an international sign of quality.

GLI has an extensive, exclusive Standard Series against which it tests devices and systems. GLI also has a wide range of proprietary tools that help regulators and suppliers do their jobs more efficiently and cost-effectively, including GLIAccess, GLI Link, GLI Verify, GLI University, Point.Click.Transfer., and the new, award-winning GLI Mobile.

The GLI experts will provide functional and compliance evaluations of a vast array of gaming machines, software, systems and peripheral equipment including: AWP, bingo, bonusing, electronic table games, lottery, mobile gaming, networked gaming, peripherals, progressives, RNG, slot devices, slot systems, tote systems, VLT and wireless.

GLI also offers inspection, certification, consulting, forensics and training services.

Every spring for the past 10 years, GLI has produced global roundtables, in which regulators from the jurisdictions that GLI serves are invited to come together for intense, in-depth training. It held the 11th North American Roundtable March 7-8 at Treasure Island Casino & Resort, featuring a lineup of the industry’s leading experts as speakers.

To learn more about GLI, log onto www.gaminglabs.com.

Founded in 1983, FutureLogic Inc. has developed many of the ticket-in/ticket-out gaming printer’s features and functions that have become today’s industry standards. With more than 1.5 million TITO printers shipped worldwide, FutureLogic offers the industry’s most decorated printers, winning 13 gaming technology awards since 2003.

The GEN2 Universal printer was introduced to the gaming market in 2005. The development of this printer, with its ability to facilitate promotional couponing, exemplifies FutureLogic’s ability to anticipate trends and work with EGMs, casinos and regulatory agencies to enable new technology.

Today, FutureLogic has established itself as a gaming-based technology company that offers innovative technologies, such as the GEN3 Evolution printer and the PromoNet promotional couponing solution, that address the next major evolution in gaming: promotional couponing.

The GEN3 Evolution printer was developed to be the first gaming printer equipped with integrated yet separate processing environments for TITO and promotional couponing. Using an optional integrated PromoNet Adapter approach, the GEN3 Evolution printer is the only gaming printer to offer true grayscale printing, which enables operators to issue eye-catching, photographic-quality coupons from any electronic game or slot machine.

This advanced peripheral doubles the print speed and offers more than twice the ticket storage capacity of other gaming printers. With standard capacity of 450 tickets, the GEN3 Evolution printer can save operators up to 30 refills per printer, per year, and its print speed of eight inches per second allows it to deliver a ticket in less than one second.

FutureLogic’s PromoNet promotional couponing solution can be integrated with TITO gaming printers, such as FutureLogic’s GEN3 Evolution and GEN2 Universal printers. Already gaining quick acceptance in the gaming industry, the PromoNet solution has been given the green light by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, GLI and BMM, and has recently been installed in two Las Vegas casinos—South Point and Casino MonteLago.

The PromoNet solution overcomes an obstacle that has always confronted casino operators: identifying their most valuable players, including anonymous “non-carded” players. With its unique ability to link game-play metrics and slot promotions directly to player behavior, the PromoNet solution enables casinos to boost player club sign-up, extend game play and increase slot revenues.

The PromoNet solution can be installed as a closed-loop, stand-alone issuance and redemption system, and can be used across the casino floor at slots, registration desks, restaurants, shops, shows, hotels and other venues. Alternatively, the PromoNet solution can be used as an integrated solution with other system applications and to print W2G tax forms.

For more information, visit www.futurelogic-inc.com.

Cleo Design’s mission is simple: to underscore a high level of creativity with exceptional attention to function, client needs and individual tastes. Creating a space that reflects a sense of place is the firm’s ultimate goal.

“It is as if the world is suddenly viewed with 3D glasses and the amount of detail is revealed in all of its spaces,” says Cleo Design Principal Ken Kulas.

Although securely grounded and seasoned in the technical and organizational skills required for the hospitality industry, Cleo’s approach to design differs from its competitors.

“It’s in our nature to not only follow the rules but create new ones,” Kulas says. “Never, repeat, never be complacent and never get bored. Design is not just a profession, but it is the passion that moves us forward.”

The team at Cleo Design is an imaginative group with a history of collaborating with one another on innumerable projects for most of their professional careers. Yet, each member works as an individual, bringing varied concepts and perspectives to the same project. The team’s striking capabilities reflect in Cleo’s highly diverse projects from coast to coast, in venues ranging from casino and resort interiors to related public areas, bars and lounges, restaurants and retail locations.

The award-winning firm was founded in 2000, with Principals Ann Fleming and Ken Kulas overseeing some of the biggest gaming and entertainment design projects conceptualized this decade. From MGM Grand Detroit and Seminole Hard Rock Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, Florida to CityCenter’s Viva Elvis Cirque du Soleil theater in Las Vegas, Cleo Design has consistently tackled the most cutting-edge spaces and given them success, elegance and life.

For more information, visit www.cleo-design.com.