A Typology of Technology Applications to Expedite Gaming Productivity

This paper presents the results of a review and analysis of technologybased products and applications for United States gaming markets.The study revealed a marked interest by gaming decision-makers in technology-based tools that expedite gaming action or player productivity.A main contribution of this work is the identification and elaboration of a proposed ty:Jology of technology applications.Technologies are classified into two themes and nine sub-categories based on the way each technology serves the objective of enhancing wagering activity.In this paper, the term technology is applied broadly in its sense of applying science to doing things.While the term productivity often refers to measures such as output per worker, for the purposes of this paper, gaming productivity refers to wagering action (play) per patron per interval.Expediting refers to advancing and facilitating gaming action so that players can be more productive because their play is faster, extends for a longer interval, and/or involves more dollars placed at risk (wagered) per period than otherwise would be expected.Efforts at productivity improvement through technology are not isolated to the gaming setting.Productivity is a significant emphasis across the American economic landscape.For example, in the computer industry, Compaq Computer Corporation Chief Executive Eckhard Pfeiffer has captured the essence of this movement and technology's role therein with these words: "For us to keep growing, we have to put in place state-of-the-art technology, make constant progress, and make constant improvements ... If you stand still, you will fall behind" (Farrell, Mandel, & Weber, 1995).63 Casinos, gaming parlors, racetracks, and other gaming establishments all must I operate under the same mandate of harnessing technology for continuous productivity improvements.In doing so, the gaming industry imports and adapts ideas from other industries, often experimenting with tools in conventional retail areas before migrating them to the gaming floor.As a reflection of this, several examples in this study describe tools such as patron pagers that are more common in environments allied with gaming (e.g., hotels, restaurants) than in gaming itself.Similarly, some technology-driven gaming products such as multi-denominational slot machines (which were only approved