Vetting casino games takes team of techies
By Thomas Moore, Las Vegas Sun
Jim Barbee stood in the Gaming Control Board’s technical lab, a small utilitarian room filled with slot machines and video poker games blinking away, some with the doors open and their bill changers, video screens, slot reels and electronic guts on display.
“The first two things you learn when you work here are one, how to turn off the sound,” Barbee said. “And the second, is to make sure you get your money out when you’re done. If you leave it in, it’s gone and goes to the office doughnut fund. We haven’t had any doughnuts around here for a while.”
Barbee is chief of the board’s technical division, which has a number of roles when it comes to Nevada’s gaming regulations. One of them is approving new games and modifications to existing casino games.
As part of that process, they have to examine the games and run them through their paces. Hence the room full of various slots and video games.