Gaming’s next chapter will be decided by who can modernize without losing the people who made the industry profitable in the first place. Operators are juggling two realities at once: a loyal cohort that still prefers familiar games, and a rising generation that expects technology to be native, frictionless, and personalized. For Tony J. Amormino, a CEO, business transformation expert, and U.S. Air Force veteran, the competitive edge is about building organizations that can adapt at speed without compromising trust.
“The biggest change and the biggest thing that will separate gaming operators over the next five years will be the ability to adapt,” Amormino says. “It’s people who are willing to accept change.” It sounds like a straightforward idea until it meets casino floor economics, regulatory scrutiny, and cyber risk. Amormino argues that the winners will be those who treat change as a managed capability rather than a reactive response.
Adaptability as an operating model, not a slogan
Many operators still depend on older patrons who are consistent and high value, even as digital native audiences reshape entertainment expectations. “We’re at a time in gaming operations that people aren’t going to be stagnant,” he says, pointing to the need to bring the gaming floor “to the 21st and the 22nd century.”
At the same time, Amormino rejects a purely tech first mindset. Operators that frame modernization as a binary choice risk alienating core segments while failing to create something genuinely compelling for younger ones. “We want to cater to the folks who don’t want to move forward,” he says. The balancing act is a systems challenge involving floor design, guest journeys, staffing models, marketing, and compliance.
Designing a floor that moves guests from curiosity to loyalty
One practical step is to modernize the gaming floor in ways that broaden entry points without cannibalizing revenue. Amormino describes a deliberate mix of “older, more consistent games” with spaces that appeal to younger guests, such as virtual sports or an esports arena.
He talks about building a “map on the floor” that guides guests from low commitment experiences into play patterns that sustain revenue. Virtual sports fans, for example, may not spend heavily at first. The leadership task is to create pathways from that initial engagement to “smaller denomination games” and, eventually, to “high value players.” That progression requires strong operational discipline, supported by clear metrics, staff training, and floor layouts designed to reduce friction and increase time on property.
This is where business transformation becomes visible on the ground. “Real estate is king in operations,” Amormino says. Operators cannot “give up too much real estate” from high denomination games that reliably deliver profit. The design challenge is to introduce new formats without undermining the floor’s economic engine.
Betting on technology without betting the business
If floor strategy is the visible side of change, cybersecurity and risk management are the invisible one. As technology becomes more central to operations, Amormino insists that cyber resilience must be treated as a continuous process. “Cybersecurity technology is ever changing by the day, and the bad guys are two steps ahead. We have to continue thinking about firewalls, servers, multiple firewalls,” he says, emphasizing the need to protect “not only our interests, but our guests’ interests.” In gaming, trust is a commercial asset. A breach threatens more than short term revenue; it damages the relationship that keeps customers returning.
Amormino challenges leaders to stop treating risk as a private matter. Operators are competitors, but they face shared threats. “Our best interest is to kind of work together, but work separately,” he says. In practice, that can mean sharing awareness about emerging attack patterns, suspicious behavior, or vulnerabilities without exposing proprietary systems. “It’s a 24/7, 365 process.”
The next frontier: prediction markets and regulatory patience
When asked what emerging technologies may reshape gaming, Amormino points to prediction markets, a topic that has moved from niche conversation to an industry pressure point. “It’s the hot button issue. Everyone’s talking about prediction markets,” he says. “I don’t think you can have any conversation talking about technology without talking about prediction markets.”
He expects adoption to depend on regulatory confidence and coordination. “It’s going to take a couple of regulators to kind of partner together to make themselves feel comfortable” before others follow. For operators, that implies a careful posture that includes investing in understanding the space and building governance capability, while avoiding assumptions that regulatory change will be immediate.
The industry’s caution is understandable, but innovation cannot outpace integrity. Amormino notes that regulators are far more cautious, especially in light of recent betting scandals. New formats will only scale if operators can demonstrate robust controls, transparent compliance, and strong consumer protection.
Leadership shaped by regulation, urgency, and long term impact
Amormino’s insistence on structure reflects his military background. On a casino floor, issues unfold in real time. “When there’s something that goes wrong, the guest wants to know now,” he says. That urgency forces leaders to make decisions quickly while keeping the organization aligned on priorities. The higher the role, the broader the accountability. “There’s 15 to 20 big answers I have to come up with every single day,” he says, adding that effective leadership can look deceptively calm from the outside.
“You’re not just talking about today, you’re talking about the next 10 years. The decisions you make now create generational impact for tomorrow.” That time horizon is the defining difference between incremental improvement and transformation.
A future built by those willing to step out of comfort
If there is a single message that anchors Amormino’s perspective, it is that gaming leadership is becoming an adaptability test. Many organizations, he says, remain “afraid of change” and prefer the certainty of what already works. “The folks who step out of their comfort zone are going to be the ones who ultimately are going to be extremely successful,” he says.
The implication is not that every operator must pursue every trend. It is that leaders must build the capacity to evaluate, pilot, and scale responsibly, while protecting the guests and reputations that underpin the business. Those who develop that capability will modernize without destabilizing, innovate without eroding trust, and turn technology into a lever for resilience.
Follow Tony J. Amormino on LinkedIn or visit their website.
