Gaming Arts has traded up on West Harmon Avenue, cutting the ribbon Thursday on The Forge, a new manufacturing center in Las Vegas that nearly triples its footprint. The 23,000-square-foot facility replaces the company’s roughly 8,000-square-foot headquarters and marks a serious push by the local slot maker to ramp up both production and hiring as it angles for a bigger share of Strip casino floors.
With The Forge online, the company says it can lift its 2026 production target from about 1,250 units to roughly 1,500, and executives report output is already running near 115 games per month. Gaming Arts has grown from about 62 employees in August 2025 to roughly 83 after the move and expects to add another 10 to 15 people through the rest of the year. The opening doubled as a showcase for a new game title, Glory of Giza, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Merkur backing and industry recognition
In a press release, Merkur Group said its September 2025 acquisition of Gaming Arts would speed up the German company’s reentry into the U.S. market and pair Merkur cabinets with Gaming Arts content. Industry attention has followed. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming listed Wild Temple - Panda among top-performing new titles, a ranking executives say helped stoke operator demand ahead of the expansion.
Where you'll see their machines
Gaming Arts already has games on the floors at Wynn, The Venetian, Fontainebleau and Resorts World on the Strip, and executives told the paper they aim to keep climbing the manufacturer ranks with plans for significantly larger output in 2027. "We equate it to leaving the minor leagues to get to the majors. We're trying to get to the majors and stay there," Jason Weller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Company leaders say that big-league ambition is what sent them hunting for a larger plant and a bigger team.
Executives say the larger floorplan and in-house assembly will shorten lead times for casinos and let Gaming Arts tweak and test game designs more quickly. Merkur Group has cast the takeover as a cornerstone of its North American strategy, and company leaders say they expect growth to continue through 2027 as they chase higher production tiers. For Las Vegas, the expansion is another reminder that manufacturing and tech jobs still share space with the Strip’s resort economy.
