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Gaming News 2 3 Wednesday, September 28, 2016 GPS TECHNOLOGIES INC. PUTS CUSTOMERS FIRST GPS Technologies, Inc. is poised for a very exciting 2016 in Native American markets. GPS is an innovative gaming equipment manufacturer focused on Class II and Class III markets. The com- pany was founded on three simple princi- ples: offer quality support to clients, deliver a superior product and provide competitive pricing models. GPS is a customer service company first, and a solutions provider second. By continually listening to customers, GPS is able to deliver and maintain reliable games with maximum performance. The goal is to create a unique and innovative gaming experience by coupling cutting edge technology and vibrant graphics with proven math models to appeal to a wide variety of player types in the vari- ous gaming markets. GPS's latest and greatest product lines will come in the newest Atlas-200 cabinet, featuring large, dual 24-inch touchscreen LCDs, along with attractive and interactive cabinet lighting to maximize your player experience. The door opens bottom to top, not right to left, allowing cabinets to be placed very close together, maxi- mizing space on the floor. Coming very soon is its newest game theme, Zombie Rush™. The neighborhood is full of zombies trying to eat your brains! The Expanding Wilds during the free spins round infect the reel and transform all symbols on that reel into Wilds. The Zombie Nudge feature rewards the player with an instant free spin when those pesky zombies only show up on the first two reels to tease the player. Play the Finding Claire Bonus and help Max navigate his way through three zones to find Claire before the Zombies do to win big. In addition to the jam- packed features, the company has added even more excitement to Zombie Rush with three lev- els of progressives. The grand jackpot is a linked progressive, the major jack- pot is standalone progressive and the final progressive is a mystery, must hit by progressive. For more information, visit www.gpstechnologies.net or call 847.382.5107. NATIVE TV CHANNEL, FNX, NOW AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE First Nations Experience (FNX) is here. The first and only Native American and World Indigenous TV channel available throughout the U.S., FNX is now avail- able free for distribution in all casinos, hotel and resort properties. Imagine being able to enhance your customers' experience by providing Native American television programming throughout your properties and tribal TV stations. It's available now and it's free! FNX has been distributed nationally through the Public Television Interconnect System (PBS satellite) since 2014, and is available for broadcast on TV stations and service providers across the country, including cable systems, tribal and local television stations. Launched in 2011 in San Bernardino, California, as a shared vision between KVCR-PBS and founding part- ner San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, FNX provides an authentic voice for native people where there once was none. From the very beginning of mass media, native people have been unfairly depicted in print and stereotypically por- trayed in television and film. Now, native nations finally have their own voice, a native television vehicle – available nationally – where natives can tell their own stories, and that channel is FNX. As part of the PBS family of stations, FNX abides to the highest television standards for production and community service. Committed to delivering the highest quality programming with ethical integri- ty, FNX content is appropriate for view- ers of all ages and is available now across the U.S. FNX is partners with the Sundance Institute, Vision Maker and other content producers and distributors from around the globe to bring you the best native- themed television programming avail- able in the world. Currently carried by 17 affiliate stations across the U.S. from Alaska to New York, here's how viewers describe FNX: inspira- tional, educational, diverse, entertaining, culturally relevant, innovative, awesome and unique. Winner of several national awards for its productions, FNX is a high-quali- ty, full-time television channel available 24/7 that fills every interest. See anima- tion and children's programming, educa- tion, music, native TV series, cooking shows, travel, culture, drama, feature films, documentaries, short films and more. FNX has something for everyone and is here for you, now. For more information, go to www.fnx.org or call 909.659.4179. RECORD-BREAKING YEAR FOR GIFT CARD PROMOTIONS RPG Card Services, a supplier of gift cards to the gaming industry and winner of Indian Gaming's Best of Show in the prepaid category, reported another record-breaking year for gift card promo- tions in casinos. According to Tom Gilbert, President of RPG Card Services, year after year, more of RPG's casino clients used gift cards to attract, retain and increase cus- tomer engagement. "Our clients in the gaming industry love gift cards for their loyalty programs and employee rewards," Gilbert said. "Gift cards have universal appeal and they're easier for a casino to manage than merchandise rewards." RPG Card Services offers more than 100 gift card brands to the gaming indus- try for customer promotions or employee reward programs, ranging from fuel gift cards like Shell Oil to department store gift cards like Macy's. Casino marketing managers have increasingly used gift cards for traditional – and some non-traditional – promotions. Some of the more traditional uses include offering a fuel gift card as a stay and play incentive or an upscale retailer gift card to reward high-roller loyalty. "We've seen growth in the use of fuel and quick-serve restaurant gift cards to attract customers and increase loyalty club sign-ups," added Gilbert. One of RPG's casino customers offered a national pet supply store gift card to members who stay at the RV park on the resort's grounds. From practical to aspirational, gift cards appeal to all d e m o g r a p h i c groups and fit any casino marketing budget. RPG Card Services has been provid- ing gift cards and prepaid cards to the gaming industry for almost 10 years. It works with over 100 gift card retailers in the fuel, restaurant, electronics, home improvement, general merchandise, entertainment and pharmacy industries, as well as prepaid Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards. For more information, visit www.rpg giftcards.com or call 888.743.5504. employees easy to identify and puts your business in the well-managed, polished category. Outfit your staff in uniforms with quality, style and longevity. When your staff feels good about their uniforms, it shows in their performance and overall attitude. Give them, and yourself, a winning edge. What do you identify with? Over the top? Classic styling? Whatever direction you're headed in, we have it. Browse our extensive line on our web- site. Most of the styles you will see are made on the premises. We also carry a Uniforms by Class Act (Cont'd. from p. 1) large selection of well-known name brand products. See something you like, but want a different color or pat- tern change? No problem. We can cus- tomize your uniforms for your specific needs with ease. All of this plus the added benefits of no minimums, no dry cleaning and no contracts. Our "in stock" fabric collection gives us one of the fastest turnaround times in the industry – typically 10 business days. Our staff has the training and experi- ence to bring your thoughts and visions into solid reality. For more information, visit booth #6443. From a macro perspective, IR opera- tors will need to expand their thinking and see themselves as entertainment des- tinations. Gambling is certainly a part of the entertainment mix, but access to it is so mainstream that gambling alone no longer makes a destination. For opera- tors, the perpetual question should be, "How can we become a coveted enter- tainment resort?" GN: How should insights from con- sumers shape our offerings? TW: Henry Ford is famously credited with saying, "If I had asked my cus- tomers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Whether he said it or not is debatable, but the point is valid that, by and large, our customers can suggest innovations and improve- ments to existing environments, services or products. Our job as resort operators and designers is to use the information as fuel for visionary thinking – to embrace the heart of the insights we glean from our consumers and produce something they can't live without and never knew they were missing. YWS (Cont'd. from p. 1) GN: How should the gaming floor evolve? TW: Based on our research, we see con- sumers moving away from mega envi- ronments in favor of fluid and focused micro environments. The concept of micro environments transcends the fatigued millennial discussion. We all live in a world of hyper-connectivity, social cliques and rapid consumption of experiences. It has impacted the types of leisure and entertainment experiences we seek out and created an era of hyper- segmentation. This is good news for operators. It's easier to activate a series of micro spaces than a cavernous gam- ing floor. These spaces should be focused on psychographic profiles. In other words – spaces for people with like values, like spending habits and like hobbies. A well thought-out gambling micro environment is going to consider what other amenities and experiences a consumer prefers to access and place it within steps. Visit YWS at booth #3136. For more infor- mation, go to www.ywsinternational.com or call 702.243.5670.