It isn’t casual to repetition an award-winning show twelvemonth to twelvemonth — conscionable inquire Super Bowl and World Series champions astir that unit to deliver.
But a Las Vegas-based gaming instrumentality shaper specializing successful Class II and Class III tribal casino slot instrumentality improvement precocious claimed a nationalist grant arsenic 1 of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For successful the United States from the National Association for Business Resources.
It wasn’t conscionable a repetition oregon a three-peat … however astir a 10-peat?
It’s astir apt nary coincidence that David Lopez, president and CEO of American Gaming Systems (AGS), besides known arsenic PlayAGS, joined the institution close astir the clip that drawstring of awards began.
Lopez said processing a firm civilization that relies connected unfastened connection from the newest worker each the mode up to the apical enforcement is what AGS is built on.
His peers besides person taken notice.
“The past decennary has seen AGS negociate its mode done a bid of blase fiscal transactions, from taking a institution nationalist with a U.S.-listed IPO and then, much recently, a going backstage transaction via backstage equity ownership,” said Daron Dorsey, president and CEO of the Las Vegas-based Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers.
Major expansion
“While doing so, the institution has added to its merchandise lines and expanded its operations crossed galore home and planetary gaming markets and navigated a pandemic. Through it all, the institution has retained its individuality arsenic an energetic and enjoyable spot to enactment wrong the competitory gaming supplier landscape. That is simply a testament to some AGS and its CEO, David Lopez, who has led the institution throughout.”
Lopez attended assemblage colleges successful New York and Nevada earlier earning a grade astatine UNLV. He besides served successful the Army National Guard.
Lopez has been a portion of the gaming manufacture since 1998, starting with a institution known arsenic Shuffle Master that developed immoderate of the archetypal physics card-shuffling machines utilized by casinos.
“I began arsenic a selling analyst, which was fun, and I was capable to enactment my mode up done the institution implicit 14 years,” helium said.
“When I left, I was main operating officer, and past I moved implicit to Global Cash Access arsenic CEO, and aft that I joined AGS successful 2014.”
Under Lopez’s watch, maturation exploded astatine AGS, increasing from a institution of astir 500 employees to 1,000. At the aforesaid time, gross besides astir doubled to $400 cardinal a twelvemonth successful 2025 aft being fractional that overmuch successful 2017.
Lopez credits the teamwork applied by his unit for the company’s concern success.
Multiple products
Like galore gaming instrumentality suppliers, AGS produces aggregate products.
“We’re suppliers of contented for land-based EGMs oregon slot machines, we tin conscionable telephone them. Also, table-game contented and shufflers. And then, of course, we person interactive wherever our land-based slot instrumentality titles are ported over, and we administer those to our customers connected the interactive side.
We bash that arsenic good connected the table-game side. We present administer our array crippled contented online. So you could accidental we’re a full-service supplier to each ineligible elements of the gaming industry.”
But that’s wherever the similarities to a emblematic gaming supplier ends. Because AGS has its biggest lawsuit basal successful tribal casinos, the biggest portion of the cognition is successful Oklahoma City, serving the needs of Oklahoma Indian tribes, adjacent though the firm office is successful Las Vegas.
Studios that manufacture slot contented are dispersed astir the world, and portion AGS is Las Vegas-based, it’s chiefly the administrative broadside of the concern that resides successful Nevada. The company’s largest cognition is successful Atlanta.
In summation to the large bureau successful Atlanta, studios and manufacturing centers are successful Austin, Texas; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Mexico City; and Sydney, Australia.
Now successful 10 countries
“When we started, we had offices successful 2 countries,” Lopez said. “Now, we’re successful 10 countries.”
Each of those offices is guided by firm civilization that gives individuals an accidental to talk out.
“David ne'er likes to brag astir himself,” said Julia Boguslawski, the company’s main selling officer.
“I deliberation that stems from his enactment style. He’s got a batch of radical who are precise loyal to him and who person been present for years done heavy and thin, successful hard times similar the COVID years.”
Boguslawski likes to stock that Lopez is the benignant of idiosyncratic who has nary occupation telling an worker precisely what he’s thinking, bully oregon bad, to his look and minutes aboriginal accidental the nicest things astir that idiosyncratic to different colleague.
“He’s precise transparent,” Boguslawski said of Lopez. “He’s truly nonstop successful a mode that I deliberation conscionable resonates with a batch of people.
“It’s conscionable precise refreshing. It’s not political. It’s precise real. If there’s a problem, that’s an issue, David addresses it rapidly successful a precise non-confrontational, non-aggressive manner. As a result. It’s each retired successful the open.”
‘A non-CEO CEO’
Boguslawski said AGS employees person embraced Lopez’s benignant of being “a non-CEO CEO,” wearing Converse shoes successful the bureau and creating an situation that is not stuffy.
“That’s what we absorption on, allowing employees to truly dictate what benignant of civilization we’re going to person and to dictate what benignant of spot it is to work,” Lopez said. “Our occupation arsenic a elder enactment is to prosecute well, and to prosecute radical that we deliberation volition acceptable our culture.”
Employees look to clasp the unfastened situation and the state to beryllium creative.
That, Lopez feels, is wherefore AGS has received each the accolades it has had for much than a decade.
Contact Richard N. Velotta astatine rvelotta@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta connected X.
English (US)·