Innovation played a huge part of day 2 at the G2E Asia @ The Philippines conference, with several speakers exploring how new technology could help the industry take the next big step. Avery Palos, Senior Vice President and Chief Information officer at Melco Resorts, took the stage after lunch to deliver the Operator Keynote, exploring how technology is being leveraged to improve the player’s experience and operators bottom lines.
The goal of using tech is to make the operation more agile or more innovative than the competition, Palos told the crowd. Tech needs to be used to accelerate business, shorten time to market for new products and provide a positive change in both processes and employee experiences.
But the primary focus is guest facing. Palos noted a simple deal like a partnership with Uber allows customers a more hassle free experience in ordering a limo.
But they work on their own innovative software as well, and Palos pointed to Gems are the example. Rather than buy off the shelf software to help with their needs, which would keep them always at par with other buyers, Melco opted to build their own so they could push ahead. Through Gems, they hope to have the entire customer experience, either in the hotel or the gambling floor, to be through the same platform.
He also discussed Melguard, which is a combination of a software platform, hardware platform, private blockchain and a software suite called Family Protect. Using biometrics, Melguard controls entry to the casino, trapping those with admitted gambling problems so they can be ferried out. Palos noted that they built his technology to court the Japanese market, and are making the software free for other operators to use.
Coming soon is Gems 2, which is designed to be more scaleable and incredibly reliable, never needing to have downtime, even for a reboot. The platform agnostic software can be distributed over many servers or saved to a central server, depending on what local regulators require. He noted that its capable of military grade encryption, and uses Melco’s private blockchain to guarantee records are accurate.
Gems 2 will be used to improve just about everything in the casino, but Palos noted the areas it will be most obvious: loyalty management, entry kiosks, cage and count, table management, gaming audits, system interfaces and VIP management.
