THE WRONG HEADLINE -
It was easy to predict that the naysayers upon release of the news of IGT’s departure would fill the Strike Point with cries of anguish, doom and gloom. It is also probable that the cries of anguish would lead to self flagellation when some striker goes by the building in Henderson, Nevada and sees that there is nothing there but an empty building. Yes, the Global Mint has been swallowed up by another mint and the trucks have carted away all their equipment and records.

But here is the headline that should have preceded all of this news - “IGT MONOPOLY FINALLY BROKEN!” I hope that some of the anguish can be relieved by the following statement No (like in no, none, nada, zero, zip, less than none) chance that Silver Strikes will not be available to the casinos who continue or join this program. One mint may have gone but there at least two mints who are waiting in the wings for IGT to disappear from the Silver Strike hobby to enter the market as suppliers of Silver Strikes. There may eventually be even more. But currently there will be at least these two names entering the field. Not only will there not be less strikes, but there will be more and better strikes available. There are technologies that have never been employed in the IGT program that could (and in one case had) produced really sensational Silver Strikes. One Silver Strike was produced several years ago which resulted in a truly interesting and appealing Silver Strike. However, it was not produced for a casino. It was produced for the 50th anniversary of a U.S. Government Military facility. To the best of my knowledge there are only three Silver Strikers who possess one of these in their collections. Two of the three never read the Strike Point and the other will know exactly what I am talking about when he reads this. The bottom line is that rather than Silver Strikes disappearing, there will be more and better strikes in the future.

I have noted some concerns about replacement parts being available to keep the current machines going. To the best of my knowledge, IGT has agreed to make parts available thru 2012 which means there is 5 years for another firm to enter this field and it is considerably likely that this will happen.

I hope that this posting may help calm some of the fears expressed here. In closing, I would like to apologize to the readers of this posting for signing this anonymously, however the people who count will probably know who wrote this and the others will find out in the near future when it is appropriate.

Signed: Currently Anonymous