Technology leads gaming growth

By Tom Clarke

There are lots of challenges and opportunities in the gaming industry, and rapidly developing technologies are likely to lead future advances.

Phil O'Neill, who has just joined the Australian-based gaming machine supplier Aristocrat Leisure Industries as regional marketing manager for New Zealand, expects exciting new developments to take place as the market evolves and matures, and as technology opens up new possibilities.

Among the developments he believes there will be an expansion of gaming on the Internet, and the evolution of less complicated gaming machines.

"Generally the market is getting a lot more competitive and there's a lot of competition now for the gaming dollar," he says.

"The Internet is emerging as a new source of gaming. You could go into the Net and put $20 on your credit card and play a simulated game in your own home.

"It's early days yet for that development, but it could possibly become a big threat to established services."

Mr O'Neill says Aristocrat is studying the opportunities that are arising with the rapidly changing technology, to ensure it stays at the forefront of trends and developments in concepts and games. It is also looking closely at the development of gaming on the Internet.

Simplified gaming machines are another development he expects to see shortly.

"There are people who know these machines inside-out and who will sit and play a machine because they think its going to pay out, and they'll keep playing until it does," he says. "They know the options and the different payouts and how to play."

But what about people who might like to have an occasional flutter on a machine, but who can't understand their video recorders let alone a dauntingly complicated poker machine?

Mr O'Neill believes help is not far away.

"The technology is changing so much that in the very near future, we'll be much better able to tailor machines to people's needs," he says.

"It could come down to one button, especially for the person who comes along and drops a few dollars into a machine just to have a go.

"After all, that's a pretty easy couple of bucks," he says.

Mr O'Neill is keen to remind opponents of gambling of the considerable sums of money that flow back into the community through the trusts to which casinos and clubs pay a percentage of the turnover of their machines.

Gaming machines produce a lot of revenue, he says, a large percentage of which is redistributed back into society by the trusts.

"There's a real positive in that," he says, "and I think that's forgotten a lot of the time."

Mr O'Neill joins Aristocrat from Ansett New Zealand where he was business product manager.

Before that he held marketing positions with Mercury Energy and the Ford Motor Company. He has a marketing degree from Auckland University, and is completing an MBA.

He is responsible for managing Aristocrat's marketing and sales strategy in New Zealand.

The Sydney-based listed company says it is the world's second largest gaming machine supplier, with 95 per cent of its machines manufactured in Australia.