By Efrain Viscarolasaga
Donald Trump has said, "you're hired" to Waltham's GameLogic Inc.
Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. in Atlantic City has hired GameLogic to provide all three of its New Jersey properties with online gaming modules aimed at developing new customers and providing existing "club" customers — frequent casino customers and VIPs — with off-site promotions and entertainment.
GameLogic has already installed one of its features, a module allowing club members to play casino-like games for play money, at the Trump Marina. Next week, the same module, as well as a feature that allows users to receive credits redeemable inside the casinos, are set to go live on online properties of Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal.
While Taylor would not reveal the financial terms of the deal, he said it represents one of the company's largest rollouts. According to Trump Entertainment documents, the three properties on the Jersey Coast host 8,640 slot machines (a common measure of floor space and gaming potential in the casino industry). By comparison, one of GameLogic's largest existing customers, Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, hosts 7,200 slot machines.
The applications are considered "gaming," as opposed to gambling, according to Taylor, and that distinction is something casinos have been looking for as online gambling applications fall under more and more restrictions, particularly in the United States.
Whether it's gaming or gambling, online applications are still big business. According to the American Gaming Association and a 2005 report by Christiansen Capital Advisors, Internet gambling was a $5.9 billion business in 2005 and has been growing.
"The Internet has been the third rail for casinos because there has been so much focus on gambling, casinos have been hesitant (to use it)," said Taylor. "It's probably the last industry to use the Internet as a marketing tool."