The Internet is not the only medium playing host to the recent explosion of interactive bingo popularity, as evident in the progress of Multimedia Games, Inc. (MGAM). The company announced Tuesday that it has received an order from the Ho-Chunk Nation of Black Rivers Falls, Wisconsin for $1,076,000 worth of interactive bingo gaming equipment.
The order calls for the purchase and installation of 173 electronic player stations to be used for playing MGMA's interactive bingo games.
The company expects to book over $18 million in revenue over the first five years of the contract. Thirteen and a half million dollars of that revenue will be distributed to the Ho-Chunk Nation as hall commissions.
The player stations are being installed in the Nation's De Jope Bingo Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, which is scheduled to open in June 1999. The hall is expected to connect the player stations to MGAM's interactive networks in order its games--EverGREEN Bingo(C), MegaMania(R) and BigCash Bingo(TM)--with hundreds of players in other bingo halls throughout the country.
MGAM receives a fee of between 20 percent and 30 percent of the net difference in wagers and prizes from the participating bingo halls for operating the networks for the games.
According to MGAM Executive Vice President Tim Stuart, the deal represents the company's first major order in Class II gaming since the flurry of orders received after the Federal courts defined Class II gaming in November. He also indicated that more signings are expected soon.
Multimedia Games, Inc. designs and develops interactive bingo games that are marketed to bingo halls located throughout the United States. The company is best known for its development and operation of FlashCashTM, MegaManiaTM, and other high-speed games, which are played on interconnected electronic player stations (EPS). It also produces live TV game shows which are transmitted to halls via closed circuit TV satellite networks.