It’s not easy to repeat an award-winning performance year after year—just ask the Super Bowl and World Series champions about the pressure to deliver.
But a Las Vegas-based gaming equipment manufacturer that specializes in Class II and Class III tribal casino slot machines recently developed 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 replay 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 around the time the streak 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 manager is what AGS is built on.
His peers have also taken note.
“The past decade has seen AGS navigate a series of sophisticated financial transactions, from taking a company public with a U.S. IPO and then, more recently, an ongoing private transaction via private equity ownership,” said Daron Dorsey, president and CEO of the Las Vegas-based Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers.
Great expansion
“While doing so, the company has expanded its product lines and expanded its operations across many domestic and international gaming markets and navigated a pandemic. Through it all, the company has maintained its identity as an energetic and enjoyable place to work in the competitive game provider landscape. It is a testament to both AGS and its CEO, David Lopez, who have led the company.”
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 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 started as a market 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 COO and then I moved over to Global Cash Access as CEO, and after that I joined AGS in 2014.”
Under Lopez’s watch, growth at AGS exploded, growing from a company with about 500 employees to 1,000. Meanwhile, revenue also doubled to $400 million a year in 2025 from half that in 2017.
Lopez credits the teamwork practiced by his staff for the company’s business success.
Multiple products
Like many gaming equipment suppliers, AGS produces several products.
“We are content providers for land-based EGMs or slots, we can just call them. Also table game content and shufflers. And then of course we have interactives where our land-based slot titles are transferred, and we distribute them to our customers on the interactive side.
We also do that on the table games side. We are now distributing our table game content online. So you could say we are a full service provider to all legal parts of the gaming industry.”
But that’s where the similarities to a typical gaming provider end. Since AGS has its largest customer base in tribal casinos, the majority of operations are in Oklahoma City, serving the needs of Oklahoma Indian tribes, although the company’s headquarters are located in Las Vegas.
Studios that produce slot content are spread all over the world, and although AGS is based in Las Vegas, it is primarily the administrative side of the business that is located in Nevada. The company’s largest operations are located in Atlanta.
In addition to the main office in Atlanta, there are studios and production centers 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 are in 10 countries.”
Each of these offices is governed by corporate culture that gives individuals an opportunity to speak up.
“David never likes to brag about himself,” says Julia Boguslawski, the company’s marketing director.
“I think it stems from his leadership style. He has a lot of people who are very loyal to him and have been here for years through thick and thin, through difficult times like the Covid years.”
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 their face and minutes later says 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, it’s a problem, David addresses it quickly in a very non-confrontational, non-aggressive way. As a result. Everything is open.”
“A non-CEO”
Boguslawski said AGS employees have embraced Lopez’s style of being “a non-CEO,” wearing Converse shoes in the office and creating an environment that isn’t stuffy.
“That’s what we’re focused on, letting employees 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 senior management is to hire well and to hire people who we think fit our culture.”
Employees seem to embrace the open environment and the freedom to be creative.
That, Lopez believes, is why AGS has received all the accolades it has for more than a decade.
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