Eric Thomassian's office is barely more than two miles away from the facilities of International Game Technology, close enough for him to draw some lessons from the slot-machine giant.
XpertX Inc., the company headed by Thomassian, plays the same role in the world of keno that IGT plays in slot machines technological leader and looking to put distance between itself and its competitors.
Keno, Thomassian is the first to admit, is a stepchild in many casino operations these days attracting an older player and failing to generate the revenues that once kept the ancient game in the forefront.
But XpertX thinks its new products can restore some of keno's luster.
Fourteen casinos in Nevada, for instance, have rolled out a $1 million bonus game developed by XpertX.
Players who pony up an additional quarter for their keno card stand a chance to win $1 million.
Taking a lesson from nearby IGT, XpertX shares in the revenues generated by the $1 million bonus although the participating casinos keep their full share of the basic keno card.
Next up for XpertX is a linked progressive keno game, much like the Megajackpots linked progressives operated by IGT.
That keno system awaits the approval of state gaming regulators.
And a nifty piece of Internet programming developed by XpertX allows keno players to watch results somewhere other than a casino floor in real time at www.kenousa.com.
Users of the Web site can buy a handful of keno tickets at a nearby casino eight of them in northern Nevada and watch at home as numbers are drawn.
Despite his drive to roll new technology into the keno market as quickly as possible, Thomassian says XpertX needs to take care it doesn't lose longtime players who continue to provide the base for the game.
Take the company's new animated display units.
Old-style wall-mounted display units the company has installed hundreds throughout the nation simply light up as winning numbers are selected.
Inspired as his children watched an episode of "The Simpsons" one night, Thomassian led his programming team to create displays in which the numbers are delivered as baseball hits or fast-moving asteroids.
Young players love it; old players don't.
Along with display units, the dozen employees of XpertX manufacture nearly everything casinos need to run live keno game.
The company produces ticket writing gear for players as well as the Windowbased software that runs the game and generates information ranging from player tracking to audit reports for casino managers.
While the advent of Indian gaming around the nation has pinched many of the Nevada customers of XpertX, the spread of casinos has been nothing but good news for the Reno company.
Mikohn Gaming of Las Vegas handles distribution of XpertX products everywhere but Nevada.
That, Thomassian said, means that his company doesn't need to jump through regulatory hoops across the United States, but instead can focus on product development.
Thomassian, who serves as the company's chief software engineer as well as its president and sole shareholder, says the new products have reinvigorated his interest in the company.
"A couple of years ago," he acknowledges, "it was starting to get boring."
The company was launched in the early 1990s by Thomassian and a partner since retired who developed a software- based keno system after the only player in the business dropped out.
The XpertX system today is used in almost every casino in northern Nevada, has a strong presence in southern Nevada, and the company has been consistently profitable since its system was introduced.
Although XpertX no longer is the only player in the keno market, Thomassian says his company's investment in technology is likely to keep its market position secure.
