Eldorado: Bally system boosts play

The whiteboard full of mathematical equations in Rob Mouchou's office might not test the mettle of Isaac Newton, but figuring out how to tweak and fully integrate a new server-based software application by Bally Technologies took its toll on the management team at Eldorado Hotel Casino.

On the other hand, play is up 40 percent with the new software.

Eldorado is field-testing Bally's Elite Bonusing Suite, a floor-wide system that offers players several different bonus games within standard games such as slots or poker. The system was deployed in early April on more than 50 machines on the Eldorado casino floor and is expected to be placed on more than 350 casino games by the end of summer.

Mouchou, Eldorado's vice president of casino operations, along with Peter Broughton, information technology director, and the Eldorado IT department spent several months modifying the Bally's suite of bonus games and integrating it into Eldorado's proprietary casino management system, which tracks each machine and player on the casino floor.

The Bally EBS system includes an hourly horse race from noon to 9 p.m. (think dot racing at a baseball game but with better graphics) that's broadcast on flat-screen televisions throughout the casino floor, as well as birthday promotions, Lotto on Friday evenings, and a 24-hour bonus-wheel game. The bonus games play side-by-side with standard casino games. Players qualify for the free bonus games through slot play.

The software also changes the ambiance of a casino floor.

The switch to ticket-in, ticket-out game play streamlined casino operations, but much of the thrill factor was lost when gamblers no longer heard the tinkling of coins hitting collection trays following jackpots. The flat-screen televisions showing horse races and birthday and jackpot winners with full audio returns some of that lost excitement to the casino floor, Mouchou says.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Eldorado team, besides hard-wiring the casino floor with high-speed networking cabling, was tinkering with the bonus wheels that offer players free play on their players club cards. The Bally EBS system originally included just one bonus wheel, and the Eldorado team wanted three wheels that accumulated credits consecutively.

"We have done a lot of massaging to this system," Mouchou says. "We developed those other two wheels, and now Bally is going to modify their EBS system."

Broughton says it took about three months to interface the Bally's product with the Eldorado's casino management system because the EBS system contained several layers of communication protocols and required extensive coordination with Bally's development teams.

"When we had to get in there to do our own work, we called Bally and there wasn't just one person that could help us," Broughton says. "That's what took the longest."

Eldorado promoted an employee to work full-time on developing the system.

The EBS system also allows the Eldorado to designate any casino machine for tournament play and eliminates the need for banks of tournament-only slots, which aren't used if there is no tournament running. It also keeps games from becoming obsolete so quickly with the changing taste of gambler's preferences, Mouchou says.

Eldorado is testing games from IGT, Bally, Aristocrat, Konami and Williams so that it has flexibility with each vendor. The Eldorado is the only casino in Nevada using the new Bally system. The field test is expected to wrap up today.

"We have pretty long relationship with Bally," Mouchou says. "We have been on the Bally slot system forever, and I think they enjoy working with us because we are pretty creative and have a good IT staff that can talk their language."

Mouchou declined to say how much it cost to implement the new EBS system, but he did note that the Eldorado has diverted all its capital for new games into system enhancements.

"You couldn't even get these kinds of results on brand-new machines. It is amazing the results we have gotten on these machines.

"It has been a major investment in time, planning and money," he adds. "We probably started talking about this project two years ago."