Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.
Trade group develops tool kit
The Gaming Standards Association, an international trade group consisting of major slot machine makers, has developed a "tool kit" that will help the industry develop standardized technology more quickly.
The tool kit will enable manufacturers to implement the back-office systems that communicate between machines and casino software systems before the games are submitted to state regulators for testing, trade group officials said.
"This is a groundbreaking achievement both in the course of the GSA and in the history of gaming," GSA Board Chairman Gregg Solomon, a Mandalay Resort Group executive, said. "With manufacturers using the tool kit, operators will have a much higher degree of confidence that the game and the system will communicate properly and will react predictably across a broad spectrum of real-world circumstances from the moment of installation."
Previous to the Gaming Standards Association, gaming manufacturers were developing games based on different back-office systems that could not communicate with one another.
Bill would restrict casino sites
HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Judiciary Committee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill that would prohibit federally recognized Indian tribes from building casinos outside their reservations.
Kent First Selectwoman Dolores R. Schiesel said she believed the law is a bad one because it limits where a tribe is allowed to build a casino. She pointed to the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, whose recent federal recognition is being appealed, as an example.
The Schaghticokes may be forced to build a casino in Kent, rather than in a larger city, if the bill passes, she said.
"It (the bill) merely forces the issues into communities already in the firestorm, without a clear public policy goal," Schiesel said.
Sen. William Nickerson, R-Greenwich, disagreed, and told the committee that the law is "simply common sense legislation which protects our school children and prevents a proliferation of off-reservation casinos as has occurred in other states, particularly California."
Racino opens in Buffalo area
HAMBURG, N.Y. -- Fairgrounds Gaming & Racing, the state's newest "racino," opened for business Wednesday with 1,000 video lottery machines.
Buffalo Raceway is the third race track across New York to begin operating the terminals under a state-approved gambling expansion meant to improve the state's fortunes.
The first racino opened in Saratoga Springs in January, followed last month by the Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack near Rochester. Batavia Downs, midway between Rochester and Buffalo, is expected to open its racino hall later this year.
The Erie County Agriculture Society, which owns Buffalo Raceway, spent $8 million on renovations.
The facility expands the gaming choices in the Buffalo area. Slot machines also are available at Fort Erie Raceway in Ontario, just across the Canadian border from Buffalo, and in casinos on both sides of the border at Niagara Falls.
archive
