Gambling Is Off : Games Maker Quits in Carlsbad, 45 Lose Jobs

CARLSBAD — Blaming a gaming industry slowdown, Las Vegas-based Gaming and Technology Inc. said Monday it would lay off 45 production line workers and close its 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Carlsbad.

Manufacturing operations in Carlsbad will be transferred to a smaller Las Vegas manufacturing facility, according to treasurer Joseph Wilcox, who said 30 employees already have been terminated. The remaining production and administrative employees will be laid off at a later date.

Wilcox blamed the layoffs on “amusement sales that (are) dead.” He said, “We can produce the amusement machines in our 10,000-square-foot Las Vegas facility, where we now produce gaming machines.”

However, Gaming and Technology will move its 15-person research and development department to a new Carlsbad office after its factory building is sold.

“We didn’t want to lose the good engineering staff (in Carlsbad) because it’s been moving along with new research and development projects,” Wilcox said.

Gaming and Technology, a publicly traded company, produces video casino gaming and amusement machines, and operates and services a variety of casino gaming machines in Nevada.

In recent months, manufacturing sales have fallen off, Wilcox said, while “we have been generating 80% of our revenues from gaming machine (service) routes in Nevada.”

Gaming and Technology reported $484,000 net income on $8.2 million in revenues for the first quarter ended June 30.

Last year the company merged with a privately held gaming machine manufacturer. Had the two firms been merged before the end of the first quarter, they would have reported net income of $592,000 on revenues of $7.1 million.