Harrah's Entertainment

Customer Profile

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (now operating as Caesars Entertainment) is one of the largest gaming corporations in the world,

with yearly revenues of approximately $7.11 billion. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Harrah’s Entertainment began business

in 1937 and owned and operates casinos, hotels, and golf courses under several brands. Well known casinos such as

Paris Las Vegas, Caesars brand, Bally’s, and Horseshoe brand casinos were all owned and operated by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.

The Challenge

Nationwide, every casino conforms to local laws and regulations to operate legally.

The Harrah’s casino located in St. Louis faces a unique regulation that is mandated by the Missouri state legislature.

This law states that gaming establishments must implement specific monitors to ensure
a maximum loss limit of $400 per hour for individual patrons. This law was put in place to protect
patrons from losing large amounts of money in a relatively short time.

To comply with this law, a tracking system connected to each gaming device needs to identify the patron,
determine how much they have lost in the last hour, and then allow/deny access to the gaming
machine. Because of the hotel’s Windows OS back-end network, a Windows interface is required. Unfortunately,
typical tablet PC solutions are too large to locate by each gaming machine effectively. A compact
and versatile tablet option was needed to interface with Harrah’s Windows-based network.

The Solution

Harrah’s approached National Data Collection Solutions (NDCS) to help develop this

challenging newtracking system. After evaluating several options, NDCS and Harrah’s

concluded that the Unitech MR650 is a perfect fit for the critical new solution.

The MR650 allows any customer to swipe their loyalty card to gain access to a gaming device.
The bright LCD display conveys color coded messages that are easily understood by the user. The
MR650 is small enough to fit nicely next to each gaming machine and the screen is large enough for
easy viewing. The optional wall mount effectively provides a secure and stable mount location.

Communication to Harrah’s main network utilizes the MR650’s built-in ethernet port. In cases where
a network line is not available, a wireless network card is installed in the CF slot. The integration
and loss limit data retrieved from Harrah’s main server is made possible by the MR650's CE 5.0 operating system.

NDCS helped with specific software development on the MR650 and with
assimilating the input data into a useable format for Harrah’s network server. Up to 300 MR650s
are required for Harrah’s to serve all their customers and to meet new state regulations.

“The MR650 is perfect because of its compact design, network interface, CE operating system,
touch screen, and integrated MSR reader. Best yet, it’s about half the price of the closest proposed
tablet PC solution,” says Tim Reaves, the IT Director at Harrah’s. The rollout of the 300 MR650s
into the St Louis location has just begun, but Harrah’s believes the MR650 will provide a long-term
solution that may also benefit other casinos in their corporation.

Visit Unitech's Mobile Computers page to see which products can serve your needs.