Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> May 8, 2000
STEVEN A. WEISS, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Casino Data Systems,
revolutionized the gaming industry with the OASIS' slot accounting and
player tracking system and innovative gaming machines. The OASIS system
has forever changed the way casinos track their players and monitor
their machines. The system has been heavily updated since its 1991 debut
and still serves as a primary CDS offering. Mr. Weiss taught himself
calculus in the fifth grade, was a University of Nevada intern at 14, a
University of Oregon student at 16, and was designing computer models
for government research on the MX missile project at 17. He left
McGeorge School of Law at 20 and went to work as a programmer in the
hotel marketing department at the Peppermill Casino in Reno. After
leaving the Peppermill, Mr. Weiss went to work for Bally Systems. It was
here that he came face-to-face with one problem that would help shape
his future: the computers that drove most slot-tracking systems were, he
believed, under-programmed. He was convinced that a PC-based system
would be faster and more efficient than the systems in use at the time.
But his employer was not supportive of his PC-based system idea, and
they had a mutual parting of ways. Weiss then approached Circus Circus
Enterprises to develop a system like the one he had envisioned. This
system was a forerunner of OASIS, which Weiss designed in 1990, and out
of that, Casino Data Systems was born. By 1993, Casino Data Systems
became a publicly traded company and now the company is bringing to
realization another one of Weiss' dreams: creating and manufacturing
innovative casino games. Profile
sketch, a flavor of your own experience, perspective on the company.
Mr. Weiss: I was involved in computer technology for
