Australian slot machine manufacturer may enter Nevada market

Members of the state Gaming Control Board said Wednesday they were never happier to have such a large group of boring Australians in their midst.

As a result, a new slot machine manufacturer may be entering the Nevada market.

“We all come from similar backgrounds,” said one of the prospective licensees, Chief Technology Officer Daryl Bridges. “And we’re fairly boring.”

Board members unanimously recommended approval of licensing for the Australian proprietary company Wymac Development, parent company of Wymac Gaming Solutions, and a long list of investors, including Constant Innovation Ltd., an Australian venture capital fund based in Victoria.

Board members interviewed nine representatives of the companies, three times more than in most licensing hearings.

If licensed in a March 19 Nevada Gaming Commission meeting, Wymac would bring its slot machine manufacturing and social gaming distribution company to Nevada, getting a foothold with a deal with IGT.

IGT in 2017 announced that it had entered a multi-year distribution agreement with a joint venture between Crown Resorts and a subsidiary of Wymac known as Chill Gaming — a blending of the words “chance” and “skill.”

IGT distributes Chill’s Bloomtopia and Fortunes of the Brave games.

Bloomtopia is a five-reel game that enables players to play for monetary and non-monetary rewards and gives players the opportunity to grow and nurture a virtual garden throughout gameplay by awarding virtual resources such as water, sunlight and seeds.

Fortunes of the Brave is a skill-based game in which players have the opportunity to create an in-game character that they can customize throughout gameplay by earning and applying virtual currencies to purchase new game content.

“The probability of having someone with some regulatory issue is high (with that many applicants) and none of them did,” Control Board Chairwoman Sandra Morgan said after the meeting. “It was a consistent theme of all of them working for the same groups, working together 15, some even 20, years, and they all have a significant investment.”

Board members ran out of questions for the applicants because there weren’t any blemishes on their records.

“Come on, these guys came from Australia,” Morgan said during the meeting.

Control Board Member Philip Katsaros said the gaming application and subsequent investigation was one of the cleanest he’d seen.

“You have a very clean background and I think that’s going to be a common theme from everybody who comes to the podium,” Katsaros said. “We do like to hear about your duties and your responsibilities, what your team makeup looks like, and then generally we dive into some of your indiscretions — of which you have none.”

In Australia, Wymac Gaming Solutions produces slot machines and promotional products through social gaming under Wild Tigress, Gypsy Spirit, Inca Moon and Golden Fang themes.

Wymac CEO Andrew Wyer said the company was founded in 2010 as a lottery operation and eventually transitioned to slot machines, getting its first Australian gaming license in 2014.

Following installations in clubs, pubs and casinos, the company looked to expand, transitioning to some skill-based games to entice a younger demographic of customers to play its games.

In 2017, the company made contact with IGT in a bid to expand internationally.

Wymac’s licensing application included investigations of several investors, including some of the principals, board members and trusts and a series of suitability investigations.

Ownership of Wymac includes Constant Innovation (63 percent), Gerandah Holdings proprietary company (27.4 percent) and the Bridges Family Trust (9.6 percent).

The board also questioned representatives of companies that are investors in Constant Innovation.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.