AGS Interactive

AGSi is the interactive division of the global company, American Game Systems (AGS), headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to creating and supplying their own content to online casino operators in regulated jurisdictions, the company also aggregates games and delivers over 600 of them through its AxSys Games Marketplace™ Remote Gaming Servers.

The firm has been in operation since 2005 and employs over 500 people around the globe from their Las Vegas headquarters. From their start in Native American casino Class II games, they have developed a variety of RNG-controlled online casino games including an impressive array of table games, real-money gaming platforms and content, and social casino solutions.

The company has teamed up with BEDE in the UK, Ainsworth, and Rush Street Interactive among others to launch their content in Europe, the U.S. state of New Jersey, Mexico, and at Rush's online casino in Colombia, Rushbet.

The publically listed company remade the top of their c-suite in 2015 with new CEO, CFO, CAO, EVP, and CTO's taking seats. Previous top management positions held by the team were at, among others, Shuffle Master, Bally, Scientific Games, and Cadillac Jack.

The executive talent that stayed on from before the acquisition of Cadillac Jack includes top people who had previously worked at Konami, Colossal, Aristocrat, and BMM Test Labs as well as in executive positions at major Las Vegas Strip casinos.

For land-based casinos, the company has three cabinet lines. Their online content is device-agnostic so it doesn't matter whether you play on a mobile, tablet, laptop or high definition desktop machine, they all deliver a fully optimized experience.

Rush Street Interactive's president, Richard Schwartz said the online games, "...deliver the identical look, game features, and play mechanics as their popular land-based counterparts."

The games can now also be found across Europe and Asia at casinos like Slotty Vegas, Vulkanbet and BetAt.

Look for games like Golden Wins, Jade Wins, Rakin' Bacon!, and Olympus Strikes to begin the rollout followed by Longhorn Jackpots and other popular land-based titles.

We find the company listed with no sanctions or other actions recorded with the Gambling Commission in the UK. They hold four licenses with the UKGC including remote and land-based gambling software, casino (game host) and finally for virtual events (activity betting host). Operations are also licensed by the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority.

In the realm of mergers and acquisitions, we see some of the elements that the company has used to build its current product base. The 2015 acquisition of Cadillac Jack brought with it a stream of talent but also intellectual property such as bonus mechanics - the ones that made CJ games so popular at "Indian casinos" in the US.

In June 2018 AGS acquired Isle of Man platform developer and game aggregator, GameIOM, bringing a comprehensive catalog of high-quality games from a variety of developers into the mix. It also came with the Remote Game Server, opening the doors to the global online markets for the company. An added bonus was some titles already developed by GameIOM. As the current company's portfolio holds only about 70 games, it's unclear if they have offloaded the asset, passed it through, or are repurposing the catalog.

Software and Games

The company's server-based gaming solution allows delivery of their own games as well as titles from top third-party suppliers. The platform is purpose-built with three key components at its core - speed, scalability, and flexibility.

Some of the important points for operators to know about the aggregation platform include the fact it is licensed in the UK for delivery in Great Britain as well as Gibraltar for the rest of the world.

The platform includes custom bonus engines to utilize meta and in-game promotional tools. More than 20 languages are supported as are currencies to the latest standards (ISO 4217:2015). Customer support is available 24/7.

Online delivery is in HTML5 for play on any device. Cross-channel game delivery is required for providers to service the modern market.

The Games

We'll take a quick look at three of their games here and add links to in-depth reviews...

• Jade Wins
• Longhorn Jackpots
• Golden Wins

The design studio's games run the gamut from super-simple to those with advanced maths and bonus mechanics.

Jade Wins

Jade Wins is an Asian-themed 5x3 slot with 243 ways to win and two distinct bonus games - free spins and a pick'em bonus.

Longhorn Jackpots

his is another 3x5 video slot with 243 ways to win. Not all games in this class are high volatility, but this one is. Players can pick up 10 free games (re-triggerable during bonus round) for landing 3 bonus symbols or wilds on consecutive reels.

Golden Wins

This is an Asian-themed 243 ways to win game with 5 reels of 3 visible positions each. Trigger free spins for more chances to win. Many of the mechanics are described as the same among several other games. We chose to complete the review rather than request game data (par sheets) as it is often a futile request.

These three have all been released on gaming floors in cabinets. In that configuration, they are all linked progressives. It's unclear whether the online versions will supply the company's "Da Ji Da Li Multi Linked Progressive" jackpots.

On land, they all feature the PowerXStream pay mechanic, an asset AGS picked up when they acquired Cadillac Jack, another well known and popular Class II and Class III developer and supplier to native casinos.

The “PowerXStream” game format uses a number of different reel setups on each game and the mechanic evaluates win levels based on the number of adjacent matching symbols and can pay left to right as well as right to left.

The Final Analysis

AGSi is an interesting company that produces fairly interesting games. There is no such thing as too many games to choose from as I always revert to Genesis, RTG, and a few Aristocrat titles like Mr Cashman when I feel overwhelmed by choices.

I have never personally felt comfortable with the game mechanics of most Class II slots I have played. It could be a personal prejudice based on losing more often than winning (by a huge margin) when I play that sort of machine.

I'll go out on a limb and predict that AGSi online slots games won't have "must hit by" jackpots.

Although I'm 99% convinced that the Gambling Commission doesn't care in the least how RTP is arrived at as long as it comes in at a reasonable confidence interval - I simply can't see them approving jackpot mechanics that are less than transparent unless there is a disclaimer on the paytable.

I have observed the "Must Hit" jackpot games at WGS casinos like Red Stag for a few years now and I have seen them go off at every value point, including shortly after having recently been won.

This does not seem to be the case with AGS slots - at least not on casinos floors.

This 2019 post on The Wizard of Vegas gives me pause. You'll find a preliminary statistical analysis on the next page following the surmised anecdote - followed by more anecdotal proof that the jackpots are almost always won only when they are close to the top dollar.

With or without the jackpots online I will most likely play these games as they roll out simply to satisfy my curiosity of how they feel online and to see if they might win me over.

There are many casino floor slot developers releasing their most popular slots online. EGT comes to mind easily. However, I never assumed the game engines of older games like IGT's Cleopatra were remotely similar to the floor models with EPROM chips.

In AGSi we see a very smart business model in play. Strategic acquisitions and partnerships, along with the collateral assets thereof, are being leveraged to make the company 10x what it was before.

Players in regulated jurisdictions now have even more opportunity to try these interesting games. The gambling public will be the guiding influence going forward as success breeds further success and opportunity.