Video Lottery Consultants moving systems department to New Jersey

Video Lottery Consultants is moving another of its departments out of state within the next 18 months.

The company, which was founded in Bozeman in 1987, has gone through numerous changes in ownership and corporate mergers over the years.

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL
Chronicle Staff Writer

International Game Technology of Reno bought VLC about a year ago and began moving departments out of Bozeman to consolidate with other IGT-owned companies throughout the country.

In July, VLC announced closure of its Bozeman manufacturing department, with some of those jobs moving to Reno.

Now, managing director Mike Tessmer said VLC will move its systems department to Clifton, N.J. There are 45 programmers and software engineers in the department now out of 165 total VLC employees in Bozeman.

"There’s 170 engineers at Clifton, N.J.," Tessmer said. "We’ll have a little better critical mass of people working together."

The 45 people employed in VLC’s systems department will have the opportunity to move to Clifton with a cost-of-living adjustment to their base salaries and a relocation package, said Ed Neuman, human resources director for VLC.

Employees that choose not to go will be given a severance package, Neuman said.

Systems department employees monitor video lottery games made by VLC to make sure they are functioning correctly.

Tessmer said the transition from Bozeman to Clifton will be difficult for both companies, as the engineers in New Jersey are not familiar with the VLC system.

The New Jersey company, Online Entertainment Systems, used to be known as AWI. It was originally owned by Powerhouse Technologies, which also owned VLC.

Powerhouse was bought out by Anchor Gaming in June 1999. Anchor Gaming was then bought out by IGT in January 2002.

"VLC has been a wholly owned subsidiary of IGT, but we’ve been doing business separately," Tessmer said.

What’s left of VLC in Bozeman will be working closer with IGT executives in Reno, he said.

After the systems department moves, the remaining 120 people at VLC in Bozeman work mostly in gaming development and are set to stay in Bozeman for the time being — although Tessmer said he suspects IGT will eventually move the rest of VLC to Reno.

"They were one of the premiere tech companies in the valley in the past," said Alicia Bradshaw, executive director of the Gallatin Development Corp. "With the consolidation, it’s always been a consideration they could move. We’d rather see those jobs here."

Software engineers make from $40,000 to $60,000 a year and Bradshaw said losing those high-paying jobs will affect local housing and retail markets.

For now, the company has contracts to provide new games and system support for video lottery machines it built for the state of Oregon and the provinces of Saskatchewan and Quebec. Some of those contracts last until 2010.

"All those poker and keno machines out through the state of Oregon, it’s not just that they are in place and we are done. We continue to support and upgrade them," Neuman said. "The plan at this time is to do that through Bozeman."

Kayley Mendenhall is at [email protected]

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2002/12/10/news/vlcjobsbzbigs.txt