Ainsworth Game Technology opens headquarters

Danielle Birkin, Special to the Sun

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Australian-based slot manufacturer Ainsworth Game Technology will celebrate the opening of its sprawling North American headquarters in Las Vegas on Sept. 30.

Located along the 215 Beltway near South Jones Boulevard in the valley’s emerging gaming-technology corridor, the $40 million 291,000-square-foot facility — which broke ground in October 2014 — includes office, warehouse and manufacturing space. It dwarfs the company’s former 45,000-square-foot digs near Decatur Boulevard and Badura Avenue.

“We’ve been growing over the past few years in North America, and we really wanted to send a message to our customers as well as to the Las Vegas community that we are here to stay,” said Mike Trask, the company’s director of marketing. “Las Vegas is the world headquarters of gaming and a place our customers frequently visit. Financially, it’s a tremendous place to do business, and logistically, the location is easy to access from McCarran International Airport.”

Trask said the complex has a workforce of 180-200 employees, including computer programmers, software developers, engineers, graphic artists and animators, with about half of the space designed for manufacturing.

“The building is world-class in terms of construction, and it’s also very energy-efficient, because it’s the right thing to do (for the environment) and best for business as well,” Trask said.

Although employees began moving in at the end of the company’s 2016 fiscal year on June 30, Trask said the official launch was strategically planned to follow on the heels of the annual Global Gaming Expo, Sept. 27-29.

“G2E is the Super Bowl of the gaming industry, a massive trade show that takes over the town, so we were excited to invite our customers from Las Vegas and around the world to our grand opening,” said Trask, adding that the company is also showcasing several innovative slot cabinets and almost 140 new games at its booth at the convention.

This includes its recently introduced A600 cabinet line. More than 50 titles were shown on the A600 or A600 Slant Top. Ainsworth also debuted the A640 cabinet, which features a 40-inch, high-definition LCD screen and a variety of licensed content such as King King, The Magnificent Seven Reloaded and Three Amigos Ride Again.

“G2E is a great opportunity for us to showcase the tremendous growth we have experienced over the past year,” Ainsworth CEO Danny Gladstone said. “We (introduced) innovations like our new A600 and A640 cabinets. These products continue the momentum from having our brand- new facility in Las Vegas.”

Ainsworth Game Technology was founded in 1995 by billionaire gaming legend Len Ainsworth — who also founded Aristocrat Leisure Limited, one of the largest manufacturers of slot machines in the world, in Sydney in 1953. Ainsworth Game Technology has corporate offices in Sydney and a Latin American branch in South Florida.

The fifth-largest gaming manufacturer in the U.S., Ainsworth had revenue of $285 million in fiscal 2016, with 39 percent derived from its North American business, and logged a 34 percent increase in North American revenue from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 16. The company has 200 unique game titles with some 349 total employees worldwide.