WMS Gaming is a manufacturer of slot machines, video lottery terminals and software to
help casinos manage their gaming operations.🧲 It also offers online and mobile games.
WMS was originally a subsidiary of WMS Industries, which became a wholly owned
🧲 subsidiary of Scientific Games Corporation in 2013.
WMS entered the reel-spinning slot
machine market in 1994, and in 1996, it introduced🧲 its first hit casino slot machine,
Reel 'em In, a "multi-line, multi-coin secondary bonus" video slot machine. It followed
this🧲 with a number of similar games like Jackpot Party, Boom and Filthy Rich. By 2001,
it introduced its Monopoly-themed series🧲 of "participation" slots. Since then, WMS
Gaming has continued to obtain licenses to manufacture gaming machines using several
additional famous🧲 brands. The company continues to sell gaming machines and to market
its participation games.
History [ edit ]
WMS Gaming was founded🧲 as a subsidiary of WMS
Industries, whose roots date back to the 1943 founding of Williams Manufacturing
Company. Over the🧲 last decades of the 20th century, Williams produced popular pinball
machines and video arcade games. By 1996, WMS had transferred🧲 its video game library to
its video game subsidiary, Midway Games, which it took public and finally spun off in
🧲 the late 1990s.[1] With the rapid decline of the arcade industry in the 1990s, the
company's pinball business became unprofitable,🧲 and WMS discontinued the pinball line
in 2000.[2]
Meanwhile, in 1991, WMS created a new division, Williams Gaming, to enter
the🧲 gaming and state video lottery markets, developing and releasing its first video
lottery terminals for the Oregon market in 1992.🧲 Williams Gaming entered the
reel-spinning slot machine market in 1994, but the company's video gaming roots
ultimately would prove to🧲 be its strength when, in 1996, it introduced its first hit
casino slot machine, Reel 'em In, a "multi-line, multi-coin🧲 secondary bonus" video slot
machine. WMS followed this with a number of similar successful games like Jackpot
Party, Boom and🧲 Filthy Rich. During the 1990s, the gaming industry grew as additional
states permitted casino gambling and video lottery games, and🧲 as Native American tribes
built gaming casinos. The division was incorporated as WMS Gaming in 1999 and has since
focused🧲 exclusively on the manufacture, sale, leasing, licensing and management of
gaming machines.[3][4]
In 2001, a glitch was uncovered in the company's🧲 software that
allowed players to earn credits on some machines without paying for them.[5] The
industry leader IGT also sued🧲 WMS for patent infringement related to its reel-spinning
games, winning a judgment that required WMS to limit the flexibility of🧲 its line of
reel-spinning games. WMS Gaming's new video operating platform, CPU-NXT, debuted in
2003. It 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.[3][6][7]
By 2001, WMS introduced its very successful Monopoly-themed series🧲 of
"participation" slots, which the company licenses or leases to casinos, instead of
selling the games to the casinos. The🧲 company's subsequent participation games have
included machines based on well-known entertainment-related brands as Men in Black,
Hollywood Squares, The Wizard🧲 of Oz, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings and Clue. Some of
these games are networked within casinos and🧲 even between multiple casinos so that
players have a chance to win large jackpots based on the number of machines🧲 in the
network. These branded games proved popular with players and profitable for WMS, as the
net licensing revenues and🧲 lease fees generated by each game have exceeded the profit
margins of its games for sale.[8][9][10] The company's revenues grew🧲 to a high
ofR$783.3million in 2011, but they decreased toR$689.7million in 2012.[11]
WMS Gaming's
parent, WMS Industries, merged with Scientific Games🧲 in October 2013, becoming a wholly
owned subsidiary of Scientific Games. Scientific Games paidR$1.5 billion for WMS, and
WMS shareholders🧲 receivedR$26.00 per share. At the time of the merger, the company's
stock ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange.[11][12]
Products,🧲 technology,
business [ edit ]
WMS Gaming's products have helped to move 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.[6] WMS's 1996 video slot machine Reel 'em In, introduced multi-line and
multi-coin secondary🧲 bonus pay-outs. Later, the company's licensed themes, beginning
with Monopoly, helped to greatly expand its sales and profits.[13]
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
.[14]
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.[10] WMS began to
offer online gaming in 2010 to persons over 18 years old in the UK[15]🧲 and in 2011 in
the US at jackpotparty.[10] In 2012, WMS partnered with Large Animal Games to
incorporate several of🧲 WMS's slot machine games into a cruise ship-themed Facebook game
application titled "Lucky Cruise". By playing games and enlisting Facebook🧲 friends'
help, players can accumulate "lucky charms" (instead of money). The game play is
similar to playing a slot machine🧲 but includes a "light strategy component".[16][17]
In
2012, after experiencing a decline in revenues from the contracting casino market, the
company🧲 introduced gaming on mobile devices and focused its efforts on expanding its
online game offerings. For casinos, it introduced My🧲 Poker video poker games.[11]
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. [18]
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.🧲 Operating platforms . 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, is used in most of the games.
🧲 [10] The CPU-NXT3 operating platform was introduced in 2012 for participation games and
new cabinets. [11]
. 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, is used in most of the games. The CPU-NXT3
operating platform was introduced in🧲 2012 for participation games and new cabinets.
Cabinets: The Bluebird2 gaming cabinet, which includes a dual 22-inch wide screen,
high-definition🧲 displays, Bose speakers, and an illuminated printer and bill acceptor,
was introduced in 2008.[19] The Blade and Gamefield xD cabinets🧲 were introduced in
2013.[11]
Approximately 70% of WMS's revenues are derived from U.S. customers.[9] Its
corporate office and manufacturing facilities are🧲 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It has other
development, sales and field services offices across the United States and
international development🧲 and distribution facilities located in Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Canada, China, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and the
United🧲 Kingdom[10] and an online gaming center in Belgium.[11]
