Spotlight: A Turnkey Solution by Access Gaming Systems

Land-based gaming companies are steadily expanding their operations into the interactive arena, and many of them are trying to align themselves with gaming software developer Access Gaming Systems (AGS).

In addition to providing software for online casinos and lotteries, the Australia-based company has developed a broad range of standard lottery and casino games, as well as its Game Developers Kit (GDK), which enables gaming operators and independent software developers to create games for their systems.

To accommodating the growing demand among terrestrial operators, AGS this week introduced a turnkey solution geared for land-based clients.

The Company

AGS was formed nine years ago with its main focus in Australia. The Access Internet gaming system includes a broad range of standard lottery and casino games as well as the GDK.

Access only licenses its Internet gaming system to operators in fully regulated jurisdictions; the company was only allowed to supply for these clients after undergoing stringent probity checks.

In nine years the company has grown to a team of more than 150 in its offices in Australia and Europe.

AGS's responsible gambling policy entails that its Internet gaming system adheres to the highest standards for ensuring player protection. The company maintains that this practice led to the AGS solution becoming the first Internet gaming system certified by a government authority in a fully regulated jurisdiction (Lasseters Online in the Northern Territory).

The AGS interactive gaming system is designed to be a secure, scalable and robust high-performance transaction processing architecture for gaming via the Internet, interactive television and wireless networks. The system supports casino, instant lotto, draw lotto and sports betting features.

The system has been licensed to major gaming operators in Australia, Austria, Germany, France, Holland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Access has more than 50 people developing, supplying and servicing the online gaming industry.

The Product

According to AGS Vice President of Sales and Marketing Paul Barnes, the company has yet to brand its new turnkey solution. He said the company is driving home the new system's capability as a "shrink-wrapped" platform for operators looking to get to market quickly.

Although it offers an easy interface, Barnes said, the new system is still graphically rich and is geared toward regulated land-based casino operators.

The new turnkey system offers many new features, including:

significantly reduced time-to-market;
significantly reduced pre-launch cost;
best-of-breed isometric graphics;
full range of table games;
multi-reel, multi-line full-screen slots;
linked jackpots;
"plug-and-play" standard payments solutions;
age verification and control;
cross-border control;
fraud and money-laundering control; and
responsible gaming checks and limits.

Barnes said having the backbone in place with the current AGS system, which includes more than 100 games, made the switch to the turnkey package an easy and seamless one.

"We wanted to offer as standard a product with leading-edge graphical richness for those customers preferring an off-the-shelf solution rather than our usual customized solution," he said. "Our new product combines the best of both worlds."

The Future

AGS's hesitance in branding the new system, according to Barnes, is partly due to the company's development of additional products to be announced soon.

He said the company will be completely renovating its back end, which will included expanded features and options for licensees.

The company's European office has proven a valuable asset in gaining new customers from all corners of the world while many of its Australian competitors have sold, gone out of business or struggle to stay afloat.

The turnkey system will be updated as new features are added or requested by market demands. Barnes said AGS is clearly headed in the right direction as the company looks to continue growing its business.