

January/February 2016 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL //
35
January/February 2016 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL //
XX
“
Our Shared Services Platform group looks at what
technology can be leveraged across the verticals and all
three of our business units—for instance, a shared wallet
that enables players to move across verticals with one form
of payment that stores loyalty and nancial transactions,”
said Beason. “The shared wallet represents convergence at a
transaction level.”
When convergence happens at a transaction level, as it does
with the shared wallet, it intersects directly with the
consumer
megatrend
toward
cashless,
electronic
commerce across di erent channels. “There’s an element of
loyalty built into those wallets, because it also stores what
we call player account management systems (PAMs),” said
Beason.
Beason said that the natural progression from PAMs is to
form convergence opportunities in terms of what each
vertical wants from its systems. “At a core level, they each
want commerce and knowledge about their players, their
activities, loyalties and achievements.”
Many of Scienti c Games’customers run more than one of
the company’s products across several verticals. Beason said
his teams create and develop the technology needed to
deliver business intelligence and new capabilities with open
architecture that can accommodate change over time.
For instance, the South Dakota Lottery launched an innovation
26 years ago with video lottery terminals (VLTs). Today, 14 U.S.
states have a similar versionofVLTs in retail establishments such as
bars, grocery stores and casinos—and several are serviced by
Scienti c Games’
CONNEXUS
system, a distributed game network
that includes a complete suite of security features that deliver the
vital information all stakeholders need to drive pro ts, engage
players and increaseoperational e ciencies.
“Originally, lottery systems just monitored and reported the
nancial meters of the VLTs,” said Steve Angelo, Vice President,
Video Gaming Systems for Scienti c Games. “Today, lottery
operators and players demand technology and innovation that
provide capabilities from business intelligence to wide-area
progressives (WAPs) and integrated player rewards to responsible
gamingfeatures.”Lotteriescontinuetoupgradetheir infrastructure
toprovide innovativeproducts to the ever-changingplayer base.
“We continue to see growth in our VLT network,” said Norm
Lingle, Director of the South Dakota Lottery. “Innovation is very
Steve Beason, Enterprise CTO for Scienti c Games (second from right, back row), and the Scienti c Games iLab team at the 2015 Global Gaming Expo
(G2E) in Las Vegas.