It isn’t easy to repeat an award-winning performance year to year — just ask Super Bowl and World Series champions about that pressure to deliver.
But a Las Vegas-based gaming equipment manufacturer specializing in Class II and Class III tribal casino slot machine development recently claimed a national award as one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the United States from the National Association for Business Resources.
It wasn’t just a repeat or a three-peat … how about a 10-peat?
It’s probably no coincidence that David Lopez, president and CEO of American Gaming Systems (AGS), also known as PlayAGS, joined the company right about the time that string of awards began.
Lopez said developing a corporate culture that relies on open communication from the newest employee all the way up to the top executive is what AGS is built on.
His peers also have taken notice.
“The last decade has seen AGS manage its way through a series of sophisticated financial transactions, from taking a company public with a U.S.-listed IPO and then, more recently, a going private transaction via private equity ownership,†said Daron Dorsey, president and CEO of the Las Vegas-based Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers.
Major expansion
“While doing so, the company has added to its product lines and expanded its operations across numerous domestic and international gaming markets and navigated a pandemic. Through it all, the company has retained its identity as an energetic and enjoyable place to work within the competitive gaming supplier landscape. That is a testament to both AGS and its CEO, David Lopez, who has led the company throughout.â€
Lopez attended community colleges in New York and Nevada before earning a degree at UNLV. He also served in the Army National Guard.
Lopez has been a part of the gaming industry since 1998, starting with a company known as Shuffle Master that developed some of the first electronic card-shuffling machines used by casinos.
“I began as a marketing analyst, which was fun, and I was able to work my way up through the company over 14 years,†he said.
“When I left, I was chief operating officer, and then I moved over to Global Cash Access as CEO, and after that I joined AGS in 2014.â€
Under Lopez’s watch, growth exploded at AGS, growing from a company of about 500 employees to 1,000. At the same time, revenue also nearly doubled to $400 million a year in 2025 after being half that much in 2017.
Lopez credits the teamwork applied by his staff for the company’s business success.
Multiple products
Like many gaming equipment suppliers, AGS produces multiple products.
“We’re suppliers of content for land-based EGMs or slot machines, we can just call them. Also, table-game content and shufflers. And then, of course, we have interactive where our land-based slot machine titles are ported over, and we distribute those to our customers on the interactive side.
We do that as well on the table-game side. We now distribute our table game content online. So you could say we’re a full-service supplier to all legal elements of the gaming industry.â€
But that’s where the similarities to a typical gaming supplier ends. Because AGS has its biggest customer base in tribal casinos, the biggest part of the operation is in Oklahoma City, serving the needs of Oklahoma Indian tribes, even though the corporate headquarters is in Las Vegas.
Studios that manufacture slot content are spread around the world, and while AGS is Las Vegas-based, it’s primarily the administrative side of the business that resides in Nevada. The company’s largest operation is in Atlanta.
In addition to the big office in Atlanta, studios and manufacturing centers are in Austin, Texas; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Mexico City; and Sydney, Australia.
Now in 10 countries
“When we started, we had offices in two countries,†Lopez said. “Now, we’re in 10 countries.â€
Each of those offices is guided by corporate culture that gives individuals an opportunity to speak out.
“David never likes to brag about himself,†said Julia Boguslawski, the company’s chief marketing officer.
“I think that stems from his leadership style. He’s got a lot of people who are very loyal to him and who have been here for years through thick and thin, in hard times like the COVID years.â€
Boguslawski likes to share that Lopez is the type of individual who has no problem telling an employee exactly what he’s thinking, good or bad, to his face and minutes later say the nicest things about that person to another colleague.
“He’s very transparent,†Boguslawski said of Lopez. “He’s really direct in a way that I think just resonates with a lot of people.
“It’s just very refreshing. It’s not political. It’s very real. If there’s a problem, that’s an issue, David addresses it quickly in a very non-confrontational, non-aggressive manner. As a result. It’s all out in the open.â€
‘A non-CEO CEO’
Boguslawski said AGS employees have embraced Lopez’s style of being “a non-CEO CEO,†wearing Converse shoes in the office and creating an environment that is not stuffy.
“That’s what we focus on, allowing employees to really dictate what kind of culture we’re going to have and to dictate what kind of place it is to work,†Lopez said. “Our job as a senior leadership is to hire well, and to hire people that we think will fit our culture.â€
Employees seem to embrace the open environment and the freedom to be creative.
That, Lopez feels, is why AGS has received all the accolades it has had for more than a decade.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
