1. Problem Statement

The legacy on-prem Bonus Gaming System was failing under real casino traffic. Pechanga Resort & Casino needed to run large-scale tournaments across 6,000–10,000 slot machines, but the system couldn’t sustain load. Performance degraded, DB latency spiked, and tournament workflows stalled. Scaling with the existing codebase was not feasible without deep architectural and performance upgrades.

2. High-Level Solution

I led a full performance tuning and refactor initiative to make the platform production-stable at extreme casino volumes.
Work involved optimising 100K+ lines of code, redesigning critical DB workflows, and running continuous load, stress, and soak tests to identify bottlenecks.

The result: a system capable of consistently handling 1,000+ requests per minute, enabling Pechanga to run the world’s largest multi-machine casino tournament—earning a Guinness World Record.

3. Key Technical Flow

Code & Application Layer Optimisation

• Refactored high-traffic modules (award engine, ranking pipeline, tournament scheduler).

• Removed blocking I/O and reduced heavy in-memory operations.

• Introduced async job processing for tournament events.

• Optimised serialization/deserialization, reducing per-request overhead.

Database & Storage Tuning

• Indexed slow-performing joins and redesigned hot tables.

• Implemented table partitioning to manage historical tournament data.

• Set up automated purging workflows to reduce DB bloat and I/O contention.

• Monitored query plans and rewrote long-running SQL paths.

• Introduced read/write separation where applicable.

Performance Testing and Observability

• Built a synthetic test harness mirroring real casino machine traffic.

• Ran load, spike, endurance, and saturation tests; captured metrics at DB, app, and network layers.

• Added granular logging and performance counters to identify leaks and latency hotspots.

• Validated stability under prolonged 90th percentile traffic.

4. Business Benefits

• System scaled to 1,000 requests/min without degradation.

• Enabled Pechanga to run the world’s largest real-time tournament on a casino floor.

• Achieved Guinness World Record recognition—boosting Bally’s credibility with major casinos globally.

• Reduced operational downtime and improved player throughput during peak events.