[9] Advanced Patent made its move into the gaming industry in 1979, acquiring United Coin Machine Company, one of the largest slot route operators in Nevada,[9] and announcing plans for the Colorado Belle hotel and casino in Laughlin, the first of a series of hotels to be built in the Las Vegas area.

[10] An obstacle arose in July 1980 in the form of an SEC investigation, alleging inadequate financial disclosure and sale of unregistered stock.

[11] Under scrutiny from the Nevada Gaming Commission, Solomon was forced to step down as chairman, as a condition of licensing for the casino.

[17] According to Iannone, he was told the company "won't last six months", but he cut expenses and restructured debt, effecting a turnaround by 1983.

[6] By 1986, machine sales were in a slump, and slot route operations accounted for 80 percent of the firm's revenue, so the Cal Omega plant in Carlsbad, California was closed.

[36] In August, it began operation of 600 machines at two race tracks, the New Orleans Fair Grounds and Jefferson Downs, and their eight off-track betting parlors.

[39] Wilms owned 62 percent of the company, but agreed to give up control to Kirkland, allowing them to name 4 of the 7 directors, in exchange for the investment.

[47] The company came under scrutiny in November for its relationship with Antoine Saacks, Assistant Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, who had worked as a consultant for United's video poker operation in Louisiana.

Saacks was suspended and later fired for violating a department policy against officers working for video poker companies, and for his connection to Frank Caracci, a nightclub owner tied to the New Orleans crime family.

In August, the River City Casino group withdrew its bid after receiving low marks from a local evaluation panel.

[62] CEO Steve Greathouse felt that machines could be made more fun, more interactive, and therefore more profitable, in contrast with IGT, whose executives believed that slot gamblers were "not playing to be entertained".

[63] Bally reached out to Alliance the next month through Rainwater, who discussed possibilities including a three-way merger with Autotote, a maker of lottery and pari-mutuel wagering technology.

[75] The next day, Bally's board capitulated, canceling the deal with WMS and approving a merger with Alliance on terms similar to those of the tender offer, with a total value of $215 million.

[80] In 1999, Bally launched Thrillions, a wide-area progressive jackpot system,[81] as part of a strategy to focus on games to be installed on a revenue-participation bonus instead of being sold outright to casinos.

[82] The game initially launched with a Betty Boop theme, and later added variants based on Blondie[83] and Popeye.

[85][86][87] The company began seeking buyers for its slot route and casino operations in late 1999, to narrow its focus on gaming technology.

[89] An agreement was reached to sell United Coin to a pair of Iowa riverboat casino operators for $118 million,[90] but Alliance backed out of the sale a year later because of increased profits at the subsidiary.

On December 12, 2002, Alliance Gaming moved from NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker symbol “AGI”.

The effort to divest non-core assets resumed in July 2003, with agreements to sell United Coin for $127 million to Century Gaming, the largest slot route operator in Montana,[92] Bally Wulff for $16.5 million to German company Orlando Management, and Alliance's 49 percent share in the Louisiana video poker operation to New Orleans–based Gentilly Gaming.

[94] Meanwhile, Alliance considered acquiring Multimedia Games, a leading maker of Class II machines for Indian casinos and bingo halls, but the asking price was too high.

Alpha, its new platform based on Sierra's operating system,[99] dramatically improved Bally's entire portfolio of games, leading to the release of Hot Shot Progressives, a new series of video and reel machines.

The company’s past acquisitions include the now-defunct firm Honeyframe Cashmaster of Telford, England, and Micro Clever Consulting (MCC) of Nice, France.

Bally MultiConnect (BMC) is a distributed enterprise-wide slot management system designed for multi-property casino firms.