MGM Bets On WagerWorks

MGM Mirage Inc., collaborating with gambling-systems supplier WagerWorks, has brought Las Vegas-style games to MGM's Web site.

The announcement follows a recent co-location contract between MGM and WagerWorks that has shifted 26 servers from WagerWorks' facilities to MGM's, says MGM CIO Glenn Bonner. The servers host data for eight virtual casinos.

A former Mirage CIO (he held onto the position when that casino was bought MGM Grand), Bonner says hosting WagerWorks' servers offsets the cost of bringing his own data in house, and helps MGM management "see us as the long-term manager of that technology."

Bonner estimates that the merger of the MGM and Mirage IT shops has saved the company $6.2 million, including a new revenue stream from licensing its data warehouse and messaging technology to Mandalay Bay, another Las Vegas hotel and casino. He also plans to license internally developed systems that track employee uniforms, manage the chemicals in the Mirage dolphin pool, and sort 90,000 job applicants a year.

Says Bonner, "You stay in touch by being aggressive, or you let your IT go offshore."