Scientific Games Slot Company Tour Featuring Bally Technologies and WMS!

If it's April then it's time for The Shamus of Slots to arrange a slot company tour for the Slot Fanatics Message board.  Thanks Shamus! Big thanks to all the Scientific Games, Bally Technologies and WMS employees who were there to answer our questions!

My friend Boots and I were given a ride to Bally Technologies where the slot tour was held by Bill (http://www.youtube.com/user/mcglaven555) and his brother Nick. We were almost the last to arrive because we accidentally took a walk through one of the other Bally Technologies buildings across the street before learning we were at the wrong building!

After signing in and getting badges we entered a conference room where there was lots of food and drinks set up for our group.

Scientific Games now owns both Bally Technologies and WMS slot companies and while it's my understanding they will keep their own branding there is now a certain amount of consolidation going on which resulted in us being able to meet with all of them together.

We had a great question and answer period!  During that session I mentioned getting stopped for recording at Palazzo by a slot attendant and the answer I got via my casino host when I asked him to find out the official policy for me from one of the Venetian/Palazzo slot operation managers on why recording was not allowed there, was that the slot companies don't allow it. This is not correct, both Bally Technologies and WMS said they love when the slot bonuses are recorded and talked about on youtube!

Later Random$$slots made a suggestion to the companies that they publish a open letter by the game manufacturer's to the industry that players be allowed to record slot machines as long as no one is in the recording who hasn't given permission to be included, that table games aren't recorded and of course casino security features aren't caught on videos. So here's hoping that someone takes the lead on that in the future as currently there are only a handful of casinos who have entered the 21st century and are receptive to recording slot machine play and bonuses.

After our question/answer period which ran a bit over the time scheduled for it, we took a break to play the new and not yet released slot machines. We broke into three groups and entered several rooms filled with slot machines. The new Friends slot was there but I got distracted with other things and forgot to play and record it. Darn!

Some random photos of the various rooms with slots set up in them along with a few videos I took of slots that will be arriving on the casino floors in the future. Besides the main entrance there is a room full of WMS slots and then another one with Bally Technologies slot machines.

The Flintstone Slot Machine series will be releasing a 3 Reel format soon!

The main entrance now has a mixture of both Bally Technologies and WMS slot machines!

TwinFire a new slot that combines both Quick Hit and Hot Shot!

Demo of the Wizard of Oz, Not in Kansas Anymore Slot Machine!

While some of us continued to play the new slots, others like myself broke off to get a tour of their Manufacturing area where they make and repair the slot machines.

After the tour we joined back up in the conference room with the group who had stayed to play more demo slots.

There were a couple drawings for prizes with the best prize being in my opinion the stained glass Monopoly theme lamp shade! The other prize was a solar backpack and I don't recall who won that item.

This fabulous Monopoly lamp shade prize was won by Shamus's guest Johnny. Congrats Johnny! The lady below holding the shade is Jennifer, a Vice President of Lottery Insights with Scientific Games.

At the end everyone got a great goody bag! Two shirts, one of them a nice Nike shirt that has Scientific Games on it, the 2nd a Monopoly T-shirt, two tote bags, a wonder woman wiping cloth that I forgot to put in the photo, a glass coffee mug, and Bally grip stand. Thanks again Scientific Games, Bally and WMS!