When Dickens wrote Tale of Two Cities in the Spring of 1859 and penned the classic line “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” it’s as though he was looking into the future and describing 2020? That’s certainly how Dean Ehrlich, the Executive Vice President and Games Business Leader at Everi must be feeling. Just a few years ago, Everi was under the radar except in the Class II world. Today, Everi slot products are now rated #1 in several categories of the national databases. The September 2020 Eilers-Fantini Performance Report says the company’s “Player Classic” is the top-rated mechanical reel in the industry, and their “Empire Flex” is the #1 portrait cabinet.

That’s the good news. Then there’s COVID-19. As we all know, it forced casinos worldwide to shut down. Like most suppliers, with no incoming revenue in the dark days following March and the need to keep their folks safe, Everi furloughed most of their team. However, with reopenings, they have recalled most of their employees and are optimistically looking ahead. We talked with Ehrlich this month about the difficulties of navigating this very unusual year:

Producing a hit slot machine of any type is never easy. There are dozens of competitors, constantly changing demographics, new technologies and a host of other variables from branding and graphics to play mechanics and progressives.

But there are two machine categories that are especially challenging for manufacturers: video poker and high-denom reel slots. IGT retired the video poker trophy so long ago, no one even knows what it looks like anymore. While not quite as formidable as Poker, it’s been equally hard to make a breakthrough with the dollar-and-up reel-spinner.

Reels in general have never been easy.