Light & Wonder and AWS are developing a predictive maintenance program for slot machines
Light & Wonder and AWS (Amazon Web Services) have developed a technology program that game developers, manufacturers and distributors believe can help companies better maintain the slot machines they distribute.
L&W (formerly Scientific Games) invests heavily in maintaining the approximately 500,000 slot machines currently in use in casinos around the world.
When slot machines don't work, L&W's customers pay the price by having their terminals offline because they play fewer games. Such disruptions also impact the customer experience, as many players are limited to games of their choice, and sometimes even seats.
L&W said that through a partnership with AWS, the company developed a program that can predict when slot machines are likely to go awry. This innovative technology was developed using data provided by Light & Wonder Connect, also developed in conjunction with AWS.
L&W Connect collects and disseminates near real-time machine health data via telemetry connections. L&W says that using this data, the company receives advance warning of a machine failure and can proactively dispatch a service team to further investigate the warning.
For the technically savvy readers, there's a detailed development breakdown here.
Exploration Plan
L&W noted that its predictive slot machine maintenance program is still being refined and undergoing further testing, as currently only around 500 machines are exchanging data via Connect.
The nature of the project is very exploratory – it is the first attempt at predictive maintenance in the gaming industry. ” AWS said in a statement. “The Amazon Machine Learning (ML) Solutions Lab and L&W teams embarked on an end-to-end journey from formulating an ML problem, defining evaluation metrics, and delivering a high-quality solution. "
L&W's clients include most major gaming operators, including Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands, Hard Rock International, Penn Entertainment and Golden Nugget.
L&W's main competitors include Evolution Gaming, Aristocrat, IGT, Playtech and Everi Holdings. L&W has a market capitalization of $6 billion, and Nasdaq stock closed the week at $66.12. Among its competitors, only Evolution ($26.8 billion) and Aristocrat ($17.3 billion) have larger market caps.
L&W had earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $913 million last year. But the company has set a target of $1.4 billion in EBITDA by 2025.
L&W is reducing its debt load by selling its lottery and sports betting units in 2021. The company subsequently changed its name from Scientific Games to Light & Wonder.
Slot Machine Maintenance
Slot machine maintenance today is much different than when Las Vegas was founded. Gone are the days when servicing a slot machine consisted mainly of cleaning the internal working parts of the terminal, as most of today's games are almost entirely electronic.
While there are still many slot machines in circulation with older mechanical reels, and these reels are often damaged and in need of repair, most service calls these days involve electronic components. Monitor display disabled is one of the most common troubleshooting issues.
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Source: www.casino.org
