Abbiati blends technological innovation with traditional craftsmanship to produce the finest in furnishings, layouts and accessories for the pit
Elegance, craftsmanship and reliability play well everywhere, so it’s no surprise that what scores of casinos in Europe and on the high seas have known for years about Abbiati’s tables, chips and plaques is quickly spreading across Asia.
Headquartered in Turin, Italy, Abbiati Casino Equipment now has an office in Singapore to better serve the region and has secured the services of veteran industry marketeer Christophe Leparoux—who was instrumental in establishing Gaming Partners International in Asia—to exploit what the company sees as a prime opportunity to grow sales in its traditional product lines for the pit and, importantly, to test its mettle as an innovator in advanced RFID and laser sensor technologies.
The company came to this year’s G2E Asia with an array of both.
“Our specific focus [in Asia] is chips and plaques,” Mr Leparoux said during a break in the three-day event, held at The Venetian Macao in May. “We have a very wide range of state-of-the-art plaques and jetons in the European-style as well as a range of American-style chips, in all different colors, diameters, styles, finishes and security features.”
Sixteen varieties of them, in fact: plaques richly crafted in traditional mother of pearl and fitted with UV-sensitive links for enhanced security and serialization; and chips manufactured under a computer-controlled CNC injection molding process that ensures state-of-the-art consistency and durability, each piece carefully ground on its face to just the right thickness for smooth handling and uniformity, and along its edges to guarantee that size and diameter never vary.
More recently, Abbiati has begun investing these finely honed products with a package of sophisticated security and tracking technologies which it characterizes as a “revolution” in radio frequency identification for the industry.
At the heart of this patented Chip Inventory System, as it’s called, is a 13.56 MHz PJM-enabled tag, a microchip, embedded in the game chip, a “DNA” of sorts, that makes it possible for a casino to confirm the identity and location of the piece and monitor its travels throughout its daily life cycle, from vault to table to cashier. Every wager can be followed, each tag transmitting its unique data in real time to special high-frequency antennae concealed beneath the table layout—the chips are capable of being read at an amazing 800 pieces per second— that work in conjunction with monitoring software to provide a completely integrated solution for tracking, accounting and game management.
The same advanced thinking characterizes Abbiati’s approach to the delicate mechanics underlying the accuracy of its roulette wheels. An ongoing process for Abbiati’s engineers, it took a leap forward over the last year with the introduction of an electronic leveling system that makes it possible to continuously monitor wheel performance from a position parallel to the wheel’s conventional supports. More recently, this has been enhanced with an innovative and sophisticated system of laser sensors embedded within the wheel.
The system is composed of three elements:
• The first is a rigid support system that operates independently of the gaming table. Sitting at a 120-degree angle on the concentric circumference of the wheel, it adjusts levers that control three antimagnetic, minutely precise lifting groups to eliminate vibration and maintain flatness, which is defined as perfect parallel to a plane.
• The electronic level, which rests on the wheel, is connected to a portable PC whose software guides the operator to that perfect parallel.
• The third element consists of three laser sensors installed inside the ball track. These continually capture data critical to controlling the position of the wheel and monitoring its performance—the speed of the rotor, the speed of the ball, the direction of the sphere and rotor turn, even the bet cutoff and winning number—and feed it via a bus to a remote computer equipped with software that visualizes every event, instantaneously processing it and sending it out to the display screen at the table, the central security office and to external terminals for remote monitoring or play. If there are functional anomalies, either mechanical or human, they are detected and relayed for immediate intervention. There is marketing value in this, too, because the information generated can be run up on the signage at the table to give bettors statistics to whet their enthusiasm.
Abbiati’s high-spec roulette table
“Of course, in Macau roulette is not that big, but in Singapore and the Philippines and other jurisdictions we’ve seen very strong interest because people want to have something new,” said Mr Leparoux. “But the traditional is still very appealing. The Abbiati wheel is a famous wheel.”
It’s a reputation built upon 25 years of commitment to the highest manufacturing standards and the finest materials: solid mahogany, oak or cherry wood tables; borders of leather, alcantara, skai or carbon fiber composites prized for their aesthetics and resistance to wear; layouts woven from the best wools and micro-fine cloths.
“Table games is a core business, very high end,” Mr Leparoux noted. “We have sold them to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore for their Paiza Room.”
The Turin factory turns out every style of table for roulette, European and American, and cards and dice, and everything can be customized to client specifications, a source of particular pride for Abbiati, which boasts that even table legs can be built to a desired style, including the underlying “barrel” supports that house and conceal components for CPUs and Ethernet connections.
“We’ve got chips and plaques in the Philippines and here in Macau,” added Mr Leparoux,” and in Vietnam, and Singapore as well. We’re starting to make inroads into the market.”
The fact that the Abbiati name is found in more than 120 casinos on four continents is the best testimonial to the trust operators place in them. Having served GPI in every major market for 18 years, Mr Leparoux certainly knows the difference.
“That’s why our collaboration became of interest,” he explained. “Because [Abbiati] have the knowledge of the products, with a strong reputation in terms of quality and reliability. What I’m bringing to them is my knowledge of the market. I’ve been working in Asia over 20 odd years so I know what the expectations are in terms of products and also service. Good product range on one side and, we think, good service and sales from the other side. The combination of the two, we hope, will be successful in the future.”
