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GSA Holds Summit

LAS VEGAS – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Drawing an unprecedented gathering of worldwide gaming industry manufacturers and operators, the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) recently held an open summit on the future of downloadable games. GSA member and non-member companies were invited to present possible solutions to challenges surrounding downloadable games. The session was exceptionally well-attended and attracted more than 45 individuals, not including the presenting companies. A wide spectrum of GSA members was represented, including testing labs, operators and manufacturers.

The end result of the summit will be a download component in GSA's BOB protocol standard. GSA expects to have a first draft of a proposal finished in time for this year's Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in September. Once finalized and approved by the membership, the new standard will be available for free along with all of GSA's standards on the organization's website.

GSA President Peter DeRaedt said, "It is clear that downloadable games are the future of the gaming industry; however, the potential is not without challenges for regulators, operators and manufacturers. We created this open forum to hear ideas from across the spectrum, enabling GSA's BOB committee to create the best possible solutions so that the future of downloadable games can become a reality"

Member and non-member companies were invited to present their ideas in an environment of openness and cooperation. Presenting possible solutions were GSA member companies GTech, MultiMedia Games and Progressive Gaming; and non-members Cyberview and IGT. The requirements of game download and the merits of the different methods were discussed by the membership and debated after the presentations. A consensus on direction was reached and a proposal that defines the architecture and control message set is now under development.

Widely considered the future of the gaming industry, the new downloadable functionality in combination with existing BOB features will give operators increased flexibility to automatically configure and manage the casino floor, change games, and fine-tune the gaming experience to the casino's clientele. The new BOB standard will address regulatory and operator issues surrounding downloading games versus today's manual game changing.

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