Slot makers to support one less trade show; AGA to host its own

David Strow

Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

One thing the gaming industry has no shortage of is trade shows.

Shows devoted to various elements of the gaming industry are held throughout the year, primarily in Las Vegas, but also across the nation. It's a source of frustration for many gaming officials.

"There's too many shows," said Chuck Mathewson, chairman and chief executive of slot machine manufacturing giant International Game Technology. "We're showing the same thing to the same customers. They don't want to see the same thing twice."

On Tuesday, the gaming industry initiated a rebellion of sorts against the proliferation of trade shows by launching one of its own. This trade show, the Global Gaming Expo, will be held for the first time at the Las Vegas Convention Center in October 2001 and will be organized by the American Gaming Association.

Though the show will join a crowded slate of trade shows, its most direct competitor will be the World Gaming Congress and Expo, now in its 14th year -- and also traditionally held in October in Las Vegas. The expo has become the official event slot manufacturers use to show off their newest products for the first time -- IGT, for example, displayed nearly 200 slots at last year's show.

The AGA's contract to co-sponsor the show with GEM Communications will expire after this year's show.

"There's no doubt we'll be competitors," said Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive of the AGA. "It will be a question of who does the best job and who will survive."

Fahrenkopf denied there was any bad blood between the AGA and GEM that prompted the break. Instead, he said, the gaming industry felt it was important to have more of a say in how the show would be produced, noting that the industry association was only one of a handful that did not produce its own annual trade show.

This position was echoed by Phil Satre, chairman and chief executive of Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

"This is our town," Satre said. "Why can't we run our own trade show? It just seemed appropriate to us that this was the kind of show were the entire industry should have some kind of (presence)."

Satre added the show will also encourage participation by all companies involved in the gaming industry, including vendors.

"This allows full participation," Satre said. "(Vendors) are the people who are really the lifeblood of (the gaming industry). All of those people want to be represented and have fair access."

Perhaps as important for the AGA is the revenues it will receive from the new show. Under its pact with GEM, the AGA received a flat fee for each year's show. With the new show, the AGA will receive all income from the trade show, less fees given to the show's producer, Reed Exhibition Companies.

Though Fahrenkopf declined to discuss estimated revenues, he did say the show would be a substantial new revenue source for the AGA's educational, research and lobbying efforts. And that's an added attraction for the gaming companies to go with the new show.

"We felt we needed a bigger source of revenue to support what we're doing with the American Gaming Association," Mathewson said.

GEM is making it clear it doesn't plan to back down. In response to the AGA announcement Tuesday, GEM issued a press release headlined: "World Gaming Congress Emphasizes Position as Industry Leader."

"A second show will not affect WGCE's long-range plan of providing the industry's premier international conference and trade show," said GEM CEO Bill Newman. "For 14 years, World Gaming Congress and Expo has been the singular annual event that has brought together manufacturers and gaming property owners from around the world."

But that may prove more difficult, given the fact that the AGA is behind a competing event -- and slot makers are indicating they'll pull out of the congress in favor of the new expo. On Tuesday, the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers -- an industry coalition that includes virtually all of the largest slot manufacturers -- voted to exclusively endorse the AGA show. IGT, by far the largest slot maker, also said it will go exclusively with the new show.

"Just about all of IGT will come down for this show," said Ed Rogich, IGT's vice president of marketing. "If there's too many trade shows, (slot machine companies) won't go. That's the bottom line."

Rogich said, however, that the company will still exhibit at about 12 shows a year, at least to a lesser extent, particularly at regional trade shows.

That has one of the larger producers of gaming industry trade shows, Casino Journal Publishing Group, confident it won't feel much pain from the AGA's new show. The company produces four gaming shows each year, including the Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi, Miss., and the American Gaming Summit, held each January in Las Vegas.

"We don't really think we're competitors," said Roger Gros, vice president of development for Casino Journal. "Our niche in Las Vegas is ... educational conferences, and outside of Las Vegas is regional trade shows. The AGA has given us the indication they will continue to support our shows and to provide speakers."