The slot machine platform is based on the Linux operating system, initially ran on an Intel Pentium III processor and was the first to use flash memory rather than erasable programmable read only memory. It employed a faster, more open architecture that took advantage of the economies of scale enjoyed by Intel and other PC component vendors.

WMS Gaming's new video operating platform, CPU-NXT, debuted in 2003. The industry leader IGT also sued WMS for patent infringement related to its reel-spinning games, winning a judgment that required WMS to limit the flexibility of its line of reel-spinning games. In 2001, a glitch was uncovered in the company's software that allowed players to earn credits on some machines without paying for them. The division was incorporated as WMS Gaming in 1999 and has since focused exclusively on the manufacture, sale, leasing, licensing and management of gaming machines. During the 1990s, the gaming industry grew as additional states permitted casino gambling and video lottery games, and as Native American tribes built gaming casinos. WMS followed this with a number of similar successful games like Jackpot Party, Boom and Filthy Rich. Williams Gaming entered the reel-spinning slot machine market in 1994, but the company's video gaming roots ultimately would prove to be its strength when, in 1996, it introduced its first hit casino slot machine, Reel 'em In, a 'multi-line, multi-coin secondary bonus' video slot machine. Meanwhile, in 1991, WMS created a new division, Williams Gaming, to enter the gaming and state video lottery markets, developing and releasing its first video lottery terminals for the Oregon market in 1992.

With the rapid decline of the arcade industry in the 1990s, the company's pinball business became unprofitable, and WMS discontinued the pinball line in 2000. By 1996, WMS had transferred its video game library to its video game subsidiary, Midway Games, which it took public and finally spun off in the late 1990s. Over the last decades of the 20th century, Williams produced popular pinball machines and video arcade games.

WMS Gaming was founded as a subsidiary of WMS Industries, whose roots date back to the 1943 founding of Williams Manufacturing Company.

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