WMS Gaming
WMS Gaming is a manufacturer of slot machines, video lottery terminals and software to help casinos manage their gaming operations. The company is based in Waukegan, Illinois.
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[edit] History
WMS Gaming is one of two subsidiaries of WMS Industries, whose roots date back to the 1943 founding of Williams Manufacturing Company. Williams produced a line of pinball machines and video arcade games, spinning the latter business into a separate company, Midway Games. In 1991, operating under the name Williams Gaming, the company introduced video lottery terminals. Williams subsequently entered the casino gaming business with a video poker game, followed by a line of slot machines. Williams Gaming became WMS Gaming in 1999 and has since focused exclusively on the manufacture, sale, leasing, licensing and management of gaming machines.[1][2][3]
In 2001 after WMS Gaming had gained significant market share with video-based slot machines employing multiple reel combinations, a glitch was uncovered in the company's underlying software that allowed players to earn credits without paying for them. WMS Gaming spent the next couple of years developing a new operating platform, which debuted in 2003. CPU-NXT employed a faster, more open architecture that took advantage of the economies of scale enjoyed by Intel and other PC component vendors. The slot machine platform is based on the Linux operating system, initially ran on an Intel Pentium III processor and was the first to use flash memory rather than erasable programmable read only memory.[1][4][5][6]
WMS Industries acquired a second subsidiary, Netherlands-based gaming company Orion Financement Company B.V., in July 2006. WMS Gaming often exhibits Orion products at international venues.[5][7]
For UK residents over 18 years old, WMS has launched an online casino www.jackpotparty.com
[edit] Products, technology
WMS Gaming's products have reflected, and at times driven the industry trend away from generic, mechanical slot machines and toward games that incorporate familiar intellectual properties and more creative ways to pay off. For more than a century beginning in the late 1800s, mechanical slot machine reels employed limited themes: card suits, horseshoes, bells and stars, varieties of fruit, black bars and the Liberty Bell.[4] WMS Gaming first embellished this model with the 1996 video slot machine Reel ‘em In, which introduced multi-line and multi-coin secondary bonus pay-outs. Later, the company began licensing household brand names, beginning with its Monopoly-themed slots and continuing with themes based on The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek and Top Gun, licensed from Turner Entertainment, Hasbro, CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures, respectively.[8]
Some of WMS Gaming's product designs reflect the changing demographics of its industry. Younger players raised on video games often seek more challenging experiences, both physical and mental, than do women age 55 to 65–the traditional audience for slot machines. Accordingly, some of the company's machines incorporate surround sound, flat-panel display screens and animated, full-color images.[9]
The company also manufactures the G+ series of video reel slots, the Community Gaming family of interconnected slots, as well as mechanical reels, poker games, and video lottery terminals.
WMS Gaming technologies include:
- Transmissive Reels gaming platform, which employs video animation that is displayed around, over and seemingly interactively with mechanical reels. The technology is based on the CPU-NXT2 operating platform.[10]
- CPU-NXT2 operating platform, which incorporates an Intel Pentium IV class processor, up to 2 gigabytes of random access memory, an ATI 3-D graphics chip-set, and a 40 gigabyte hard disk drive.[6]
- Bluebird2 gaming cabinet, which includes a dual 22-inch wide screen, high-definition displays, Bose speakers, and an illuminated printer and bill acceptor.[11]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hughlett, Mike (November 19, 2006). "WMS places bets on new slot technology: Server-based gaming, arcadelike machines may spur sales jackpot". Chicago Tribune. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/1164815661.html?dids=1164815661:1164815661&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+19%2C+2006&author=Mike+Hughlett%2C+Tribune+staff+reporter&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=1&desc=WMS+places+bets+on+new+slot+technology+%3B+Server-based+gaming%2C+arcadelike+machines+may+spur+sales+jackpot. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ "WMS Corporate Profile". http://phx.corporate-ir.net/preview/phoenix.zhtml?c=76037&p=irol-homeProfile&t=&id=&. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ "Our Story". WMS official website. http://www.wms.com/aboutwms_ourstory.php. Retrieved 2009-05-27.[dead link]
- ^ a b Eisenberg, Bart (January 2004). "The New "One-Arm Bandits" Today's slot machines are built like PCs, programmed like video games". Software Design. Gijutsu-Hyohron Co., Ltd.. http://gihyo.jp/admin/serial/01/pacific/200402. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
- ^ a b "WMS Industries Inc. 10K filing". United States Security and Exchange Commission. September 11, 2006. http://ir.wmsgaming.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=76037&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvZmlsaW5nLnhtbD9yZXBvPXRlbmsmaXBhZ2U9NDM3OTg5MSZhdHRhY2g9T04mc1hCUkw9MQ%3d%3d. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ a b "WMS Platforms". WMS official website. http://www.wms.com/technologyandinnovation_platforms.php. Retrieved 2009-05-27.[dead link]
- ^ "WMS to Display Expanded International Product Line With Player Driven Innovation Features at IGE 2009". WMS press release. January 21, 2009. http://ir.wms.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=76037&p=irol-aboutNewsArticle&ID=1246800&highlight=orion. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ "WMS Reports Quarterly Record $0.41 Diluted Earnings Per Share for Fiscal 2009 Second Quarter". Business Wire. April 21, 2009. http://ir.wms.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=76037&p=irol-mediaNewsArticle&ID=1250009&highlight=top%20gun. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
- ^ Rivlin, Gary (December 10, 2007). "Slot Machines for the Young and Active". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/business/10slots.html?_r=1&scp=15&sq=wms%20gaming&st=cse. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
- ^ "WMS Launches Premium, For-Sale, Multi-Game Gaming Machine on Popular Transmissive Reels Platform". WMS press release. October 7, 2008. http://ir.wms.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=76037&p=irol-aboutNewsArticle&ID=1206376&highlight=. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
- ^ "WMS Wins Four Awards for Player-Focused Products in Casino Journal's Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products Awards for 2008". WMS press release. April 16, 2009. http://ir.wms.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=76037&p=irol-aboutNewsArticle&ID=1277245&highlight=. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
