Mitch,
I took your question to a top WMS engineer and he said that strictly wasn't his area but that he thought wouldn't take long at all to pump out 1000 Monopolys. I then said that I thought there may be room for 3000 Monopolys in the world and could they do that in roughly a year? He said that they could probably do that provided the orders were coming in (and they were coming in).
I also spoke to a top sales person and he said the Monopoly placements are going extremely well. Now anyone would know not to trust what a salesman says, but I feel he was telling the truth. The WMS area is overrun with casino people and competitors checking out the new Monopolys.
There is nothing at the show that is better than Monopoly. WOF is a mature product and the best sign that it's day may be starting to pass is that I haven't seen a single WOF at the convention (or WOG, but just because I haven't seen them could mean that I just missed them).
While I had my source I asked about low-rise Monopolys and other concept machines to add to their reel, video, and Monopoly divisions, and he said that he couldn't comment specifically, but that they were working on everything. He found nothing wrong with my thought that Monopoly will be taking up wall space presently occupied with the tall IGT/Anchor machines. He also sounded confident that the pinball side will hold its own, but they had to wait for the products to come out (that should be in a matter of months).
A quick note: A spy sent into the Bellagio was wowed by what he saw. In his humble opinion Bellagio is more opulent than the new DI casino, and that's saying something!!! Unfortunately he did not take notes about the casino because he was so busy looking at the splendor (I'll send him back to spy school), but he did say that all the slots are installed and that they didn't seem to have special housings like the brass housings on all the slots when the Golden Nugget, Atlantic City opened. I've learned from 25 years experience not to get too excited about how a new casino looks because everything looks great when it's new. He thought the art gallery area looked small, butI told him that's so Steve's art collection doesn't look small. If I had personally been in Bellagio you would now be receiving exact
numbers and types of their new machines.
Nobody knew any reason for the 1 1/8th drop in WMS stock. I think it's just the effect of day traders.
I added to my WMS holdings near the low today.
Send any new questions since I'll be at the convention Friday.
--Vegas Researcher |
