by Ray Smith
One common observance expressed by many of the 350 exhibitors at Global Gaming Expo 2022 was the enormous crowd size and the buzz they created at the four-day showcase of gambling products, supplies and services.
American Gaming Association, producer of G2E, announced attendance of 25,000 for the event held October 10-13 at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, though one exhibitor says it felt more like 40,000.
People dodged each other in the halls like football running backs, lines for keynote speakers extended for what seemed like a mile, and the Venetian Expo exhibit floor was packed with players testing the latest in gaming innovations.
Attendance nearly doubled from the estimated 13,000 attendance in 2021, a welcome comeback from the deadly years of the COVID pandemic. G2E peaked at 27,000 in 2019. The show covered 252,000 square feet of exhibition space, up 42 percent compared with 2021.
Part of the increase in attendance can be attributed to international exhibitors, vendors and buyers, who were required to prove COVID vaccination last year.
The show is “way busier than last year,” says Lesley Hodges, senior director of marketing for Aruze Gaming America. “I think everybody’s happy, coming out of COVID and getting back together. Look at our booth.”
Aruze won G2E’s Product Innovation of the Year award for its Go-Go Claw interactive game. Electronic table games, such as Aruze’s “Shoot to Win” craps game, are getting a lot of attention, Hodges adds.
The expo floor flashed with glitzy slot machines, not the one-armed bandits from the pioneer days of Las Vegas gambling, but behemoth video screens blasting everything from action figures in battle to trainloads of gold coins being dumped into the player’s treasure chest.
“It seems like more people are coming out with smaller cabinets and bigger portrait monitors on top,” Dennis Martinson, director of slot operations for Boyd Gaming, says after a sales demonstration. “Whatever great idea you have, they just copy each other.”
Another trend is more compact machines with four pods, or player seats, instead of eight, Martinson adds. “We find they make just as much, and they take up less space.”
Paddy Mann, chief commercial officer for Omega Systems, a Reading, Pa.-based provider of computer security solutions, says booth setup went fairly smoothly. Omega brought a few “trusted guys” from the United Kingdom, and they partnered with Freeman to build the exhibit.
However, Mann was a little disappointed that the reception desk wasn’t completed until 1 p.m. Omega also paid $1,500 for each of two corners of the booth.
“I’ve never heard of that,” he says. “I find it unnecessary, but these shows aren’t cheap. Three thousand dollars could bring another account manager.”
Nonetheless, it’s building brand awareness, and if Omega doesn’t sell its service in Las Vegas, the next stop is Malta in November, Mann says.
Las Vegas-based slot manufacturer Gaming Arts hired RES to build its largest booth, expanding to 90-feet-by-50-feet this year, compared with 50-by-40 last year, and brought the most games to G2E.
“Our R&D team has been exceptionally busy this year,” says Anthony Everson, senior manager of operations and service.
Gaming Arts’ Halo Reels game, which sells for about $17,000 with no G2E discount, seats four and probably pays for itself in a couple months, Everson guesses.
Martinson of Boyd Gaming says he’s “always in the buying mode” at G2E. “Absolutely. We’ve only been here a few hours. For sure, we will find something [to buy].”
In his keynote address Tuesday, American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller says last year’s G2E attendance was pent-up demand, but this year proves it was not a fluke.
“We’re back! We’re really back,” Miller shouts before a standing room-only crowd. “You’ll feel the energy on the floor.”
Gaming is coming off a year with major milestones, he notes, as more than half the states now have legalized sports gambling. The industry is embracing the digital future, online gaming is the fastest-growing segment, and digital payments are on the way.
The biggest threat to gaming is illegal markets and machines, which bring in more than $300 billion in bets a year, he says. They ignore regulations and taxes; many of them operate offshore. “This is a fight we’re in for the long haul,” Miller says.
Younger generations may be bored with traditional casino games, but the appetite for gambling is growing. Players over 21 years of age are going to casinos, but they’re also downloading internet casino games to play on their mobile phones, anywhere, anytime.
Siobhan Lane, CEO of gaming for Light & Wonder, formerly Scientific Games Corp., showed games based on names and brands that young adults recognize, including Willie Wonka and Monopoly. They capture players who can post their winning scores on social media.
“Our strategy is always great game content,” she says. “These brands engage people who know and love the game.”
Light & Wonder unveiled innovative products at G2E that address the shift in player behavior. The movement toward interactive, immersive, and connected play underscores the company’s focus on games that reach across multiple player platforms, both in land-based casinos and internet gaming.
Lane says Light & Wonder is planning its capital allocations for next year, following a slowdown in sales during the pandemic, essentially catching up on the next round of investment as the market recovers.
Traffic flow was heavy through Everi exhibit booth; sales representative LeAnn Wright says she could hardly move. “It’s the most crowded I’ve ever seen,” she says. “I came in at 9:30 and I couldn’t move. That’s encouraging.”
Everi sells products to Canada, one of its largest jurisdictions, and that country’s casinos were closed for much of last year, some even into January. Sales numbers this year are meeting 2019 levels, Wright says.
Overall, Global Gaming Expo 2022 has been “fantastic,” concludes Marcus Yoder, chief commercial officer for London-based gambling software company Playtech.
“We’re seeing more people coming, a higher excitement level,” he says. “Last year it felt like three or four executives came from a particular corporation. Now it’s those three or four, plus their entourage, their operations team. There’s definitely a palpable energy of who’s coming.”
Global Gaming Expo 2023 is planned for Oct. 10-12, with education sessions starting Oct. 9, again at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.
