The year was 1953. Len Ainsworth was entering his thirties and toiling in his father’s dental equipment business in downtown Sydney. He was staring at a future of molars and saliva tubes. With those prospects he decided to start manufacturing poker machines even though he knew nothing about poker machines or gaming. A man of no outside interests, Ainsworth doggedly built his business into the largest gaming manufacturer on the planet, placing his Aristocrat Leisure machines in every casino from Las Vegas to Macau.
In 1994 Ainsworth was given the unhappy diagnosis of terminal cancer. He broke his private company in to nine equal shares for his seven sons and past and present wives. The shares were worth nearly a billion pounds each; Ainsworth left nothing for himself. The diagnosis proved incorrect and with his old company now a public concern he decided to plunge back into the gaming business with a new company going into direct battle with his old.
Ainsworth Game Technology hit the ground running from it headquarters in Newington, Australia as a designer, builder and distributor of slot machines. While Ainsworth is a gaming kingpin in Australia it also maintains offices in the United States, South America, Europe and West Sussex in the United Kingdom. Its strategy to move beyond its land-based roots has led to acquisitions of Game Account NetWork’s nLive that brought a remote game server and internet gaming system and an agreement with Bally to provide internet games. In 2013 came the launch of Ainsworth Interactive casino slot games with a London world premiere.
With its many decades in the gaming arena Ainsworth supplies, design, development, systems testing and a wide web of sales and field service. Len Ainsworth meanwhile is still working into his nineties, a billionaire in his own right and one of the world’s 1,300 or so richest people.
Ainsworth Casino Games
Casino gaming resumes do not come more impressive than Len Ainsworth’s. First at Aristocrat and then at Ainsworth Gaming he has issued quality games that provide reliable, straightforward fun. An Ainsworth video slots game is typified by colourful reels with themes attractive to the company’s Australian homeland – nautical, the Far East, cowboy life and the outdoors. The company is not shy about promoting its many years in the gaming machine business – its slogan, “Experience Counts,” resides directly in its logo.
As befits a big-name land casino player Ainsworth online games, while still limited, can be played in the most reputable online casinos. To date Ainsworth has dipped its electronic toes only in the world of slots releasing such favourites as 50 Dolphins, Dragon Lines, Roaming Reels and Safari Spirit. All are familiar to denizens of slot rooms in casinos around the world. Online they are all five-reelers boasting bold graphics and up to 50 lines of play. Ainsworth does not dabble in the latest technology or features that will distract from the enjoyment of basic play. Free spins and wilds are the lifeblood of Ainsworth games.
Ainsworth built its world-wide reputation in the world’s casinos and their Dual Screen cabinets, slant top consoles and Mega Top machines are familiar fixtures in British slot parlours. Land-based casino players know Ainsworth’s popular suites of standalone and linked games with a distinct Australian flavour. The company only entered the online world in 2013 with tight, targeted package of online slot games and Ainsworth devotees have yet to welcome the company’s full arsenal of progressive and interactive games.
That is likely to change come 2015 as Ainsworth Game Technology has recently partnered with Playtech Limited to bring the venerable developer’s most popular game titles to regulated UK online sites for desktop, mobile and tablet devices. This is Playtech’s first supply agreement with a land-based content provider and they have started at the very top.