Technology & digital
IT and technology, across every phase of the property
Benchmark plans, delivers, and runs the technology estate of a casino integrated resort — the 150+ systems, networks, and data that carry every wager, room night, and ticket — across development, opening, and operations.
A multibillion-dollar integrated resort is, by any measure, a technology enterprise. Behind the gaming floor, the hotel towers, the arena, and the promenade sit more than 150 interconnected systems, hundreds of kilometers of cabling, thousands of cameras, and a data estate that touches every wager, room night, meal, and ticket sold. Technology is typically 4–7% of project capital — and one of the largest controllable operating costs, and revenue enablers, for the life of the property.
Benchmark advises on that entire estate as one mandate — the engineering a CTO owns and the digital and information estate a CDIO is hired for — so gaming, hospitality, security, and corporate systems are planned, delivered, and run as a single platform, not a collection of disconnected vendor projects.
The approach
Technology outcomes on a project this size are decided disproportionately early. Riser space, network segmentation, the data contracts written into vendor agreements, and the choice of core gaming and hotel platforms are design-phase decisions whose consequences last decades — and cost a fortune to unwind once the concrete is poured. We get into those rooms while the decisions are still cheap to change.
In a casino, compliance is an engineering discipline. Surveillance coverage, gaming-system certification, AML monitoring, and responsible-gaming controls are license conditions delivered through technology, not paperwork bolted on before opening. We treat them as first-class engineering from the first line of the network design.
And opening day is not an IT go-live — it is an operational birth. The systems have to survive contact with a full floor, a full house, and a mass-hired workforce on day one. We plan for that reality, prove it in trial operations, and stand up the 24/7 service, security, and data operations that keep a property that never closes running.
What it answers
- What technology do we actually need — and what will it cost to build and to run?
- Are the design-phase decisions that lock in our operating cost for decades being made right?
- Will our gaming, surveillance, and payment systems clear certification and satisfy the regulator?
- Is the property — and the workforce — actually ready to open on the systems?
What the technology mandate determines
Get this estate right and it disappears into a seamless guest experience; get it wrong and it surfaces as downtime, failed audits, and cost that compounds for the life of the asset. The mandate decides:
- Whether the network, data centers, and cabling can carry gaming, surveillance, guest, and building traffic — with the hard segregation regulators and PCI require
- Whether gaming, hotel, loyalty, and payment systems share one guest profile instead of sitting in silos
- Whether surveillance, cage, and gaming systems meet certification and coverage standards on opening day
- Whether the property can open on its systems — proven in trial operations, not discovered on the floor
- What technology costs to run, secure, and refresh over a 10–15 year horizon, not just to install
Technology across the phases
On a typical mega-project these phases overlap rather than follow one another cleanly — reservations systems go live while towers are still being fitted out, and the enterprise resource planning platform runs the project itself years before a guest arrives.
- Design & Planning (typically T-60 to T-36 months) — technology requirements are embedded into the architecture, engineering, and commercial fabric of the project: employer’s requirements, room data sheets, space, power, and cooling allocations, sourcing strategy, and the selection of the anchor platforms (casino management, property management, ERP). Errors here are the most expensive of the entire program.
- Construction & Fit-Out (typically T-42 to T-9 months) — passive infrastructure and systems are physically delivered in coordination with the main works: cabling and containment before ceilings close, equipment rooms fitted out, systems installed and integrated as spaces hand over, and the interface catalog progressively built and tested.
- Pre-Opening & ORAT (typically T-12 months to opening) — the property is proven and the organization made ready: end-to-end testing, regulatory certification and inspections, mass hiring and training on the systems, trial operations of increasing realism, cutover planning, and the go/no-go gates leading to opening — followed immediately by a reinforced hypercare period.
- Operations & Optimization (opening onward) — the permanent business of running, securing, and continuously improving the estate: 24/7 service operations, regulated change management, data-driven optimization of revenue and cost, refresh and expansion programs, and support for subsequent development phases.
The twelve domains we cover
The mandate spans the full estate a modern integrated resort runs on:
- Technology strategy, governance & program leadership — master planning, architecture, PMO, vendor and contract management, transformation
- ICT infrastructure & smart property — cabling, data centers, converged and segmented networks, wireless and DAS, smart-building and IoT
- Gaming technology — casino management system, slot floor and EGM connectivity, table-games tech, cashless and cage, jackpots, sportsbook, certification
- Hospitality & guest-experience technology — property management, point of sale, guest app and digital key, in-room tech, loyalty and CRM, kiosks
- Digital channels, commerce & marketing technology — the resort website and booking engine, martech, analytics and SEO, social and reputation
- Security, surveillance & life-safety technology — gaming-grade CCTV, access control, video analytics and game protection, radio and command center
- Cybersecurity & technology risk — security operations, identity and access, OT and gaming-system security, continuity and disaster recovery, privacy
- Data, analytics & AI — the enterprise data platform, business intelligence, customer and revenue analytics, and applied AI on a single guest view
- Enterprise & corporate systems — ERP and finance, HR, payroll and workforce, procurement, AML/KYC and responsible-gaming systems, asset management
- Digital workplace & enterprise digitisation — collaboration, the frontline employee app, process automation, and records management
- IT service delivery & operations — 24/7 service desk and field services, the network operations center, ITIL service management, event and peak support
- Construction-phase delivery & operational readiness — technology design management, installation oversight, integration, testing and commissioning, ORAT, handover
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