WMS Gaming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WMS Gaming, Inc. is a subsidiary of WMS Industries, Inc, which manufactures casino slot machines. The company is credited with the introduction of 5 reel video slot machines to the world-wide market, and WMS Gaming is also well known for their manufacture of pinball machines. The company was founded in 1974.
Their corporate office is in Waukegan, Illinois and the primary development campus is in Chicago, Illinois. There are other development, sales and field services office across the United States. The international development offices are in Uxbridge, England and Australia. International Sales is based in Barcelona, Spain.
WMS Gaming holds the licenses to the following brands:
The company shut down its pinball game design and manufacturing and cabinet manufacturing operations in the year 2000.
A common misconception is that WMS is an acronym standing for "Williams Midway Sente". WMS had little connection to Sente, since Bally/Midway closed its Sente division long before WMS acquired it. Williams became WMS in 1987, a year before the acquisition of Midway by WMS was announced. When Williams decided to go public, it needed a shell to cover Williams and any future subsidiaries. As a result, Williams created WMS simply as a shortening of Williams, maybe based on the ticker symbol.
