Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2011 20 Aruze his insight that if Asian baccarat players like to squeeze the cards for luck, giving them a feeling of control even after a hand is dealt, then they might also like the sensation they were in charge of how the dice fall in a game of sic bo. “The ‘bash’ button on Lucky Sic Bo came from him,” explains Takahiro Usui. “He already knew that baccarat players want to touch the face-down cards to make a good result. That’s why he wanted to put the button on Lucky Sic Bo.” Mr Takahiro adds that other innovations were also down to the boss. “Using huge dice for the [Lucky Sic Bo] game was his idea. Other manufacturers use smaller ones compared to us. On the slots side, the big unique top box series also came from him. We launched a stepper reel product series this year, and these are also very attractive, with flashing lights and a variety of reel-spinning combinations. There are other strong stepper reel slot manufacturers in the market. But I believe that our stepper reel series offers the most innovative products in this category at the present moment. The ability to create attractive games and build the anticipation and excitement of the players comes from the success story of our historical parent company Universal Distributing of Nevada. That was thanks to Mr Okada’s passion for innovation; based on his technology background and interests as an engineer.” At this year’s G2E in Las Vegas, Aruze exhibited its now large range of electronic casino gaming products. They included the just-mentioned stepper reels, video slots and multiple bonus slot games like Great Eruption, and Raging Eruption. The latter two have been an especially big hit with players at Galaxy Macau. Inside Asian Gaming spoke to Takahiro Usui at G2E and asked him to explain the background to Aruze’s rapid rise in the competitive world of casino equipment supply. IAG : Please remind us of the history of Aruze Gaming Takahiro Usui : Aruze Gaming America was formerly Universal Distributing of Nevada (UDN). The company had a large market share in Nevada with some strong performance stepper reel products such as Magnificent 7s in the 1980s. UDN was renamed Aruze Gaming America in 2005. We then spent a couple years consolidating the new business and catching up on market trends while also standardising our platform. We achieved that through trial and error. The technology Aruze calls ‘Hybrid Slot’—transmissive liquid crystal display plus stepper reels—was born during this period. Currently we have a full product line- Takahiro Usui Aruze’s Raging Eruption—a hot video slot in Macau and beyond