“One-armed bandits poised to get gamblers a drink or tickets to a show”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=215&objectid=104278255:00AM Friday March 09, 2007
By Oliver Staley
In the casino of the future, slot machines might recognise gamblers by name, take their drink orders and sell them tickets to a show.
Behind the scenes, the slots would be linked to a central server computer that would allow operators to instantly adjust the odds or the minimum bet from, say, 5c to 25c.
Manufacturers tout the new technology, aimed for delivery in 2009, as the biggest innovation since the lever that gave one-armed bandits their name. Yet casino operators and players aren’t so sure. They say the devices may not pay for themselves, and they’re wary of a technology geared so much to the individuals that it might scare off customers.
As much as US$10 billion ($14.6 billion) - the cost of replacing all 800,000 US slot machines - may be at stake. Casinos will benefit, the makers say, because gamblers will play longer and spend more.
“I consider where we are in the casino industry today is where the internet was seven years ago,” says Jeff Allen, director of business development at Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies, the second-biggest US slot maker.
“Once you have all the gaming technologies in place, you’ll be able to change the gaming experience much faster than you can today, and that is revolutionary.”
Slots are crucial to the casino industry. They generate more than three-quarters of the US$55 billion in US annual gambling revenue. At SkyCity’s Auckland casino, slot machines brought in $98.3 million in the six months to December 31 last year, 60 per cent of total gaming revenue. That’s one reason casino operators are cautious.
“Guest tracking can be a creepy thing,” Tim Stanley, chief information officer at Harrah’s Entertainment, said at an industry convention in November. “Not everyone wants you to know their name.”
Gamblers already are suspicious of the house’s ability to tinker with the odds, says Susan Fisher, slot manager at the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, Oregon, which has 1250 slot machines.
“We’ll have to convince them that it’s in their best interest, and that won’t be easy,” she says.
Slot-machine manufacturers say these concerns are overblown. Brian Gamache, chief executive officer of Waukegan, Illinois-based WMS Industries, says he heard the same worries when the US industry switched four years ago to cashless slot machines that used pre-paid tickets.
“I was told it would never work because people wanted to hear money in the slot machines,” Gamache says. “The players will get used to it, and at the end of the day, the casinos will have a better experience.”
One of the biggest advantages to server-based slots is the ability to make gamblers feel welcome in the same way high-rollers are greeted by casino hosts, Gamache says.
International Gaming Technology, the biggest slot maker, demonstrated a model at an industry convention in Las Vegas last November that let players who inserted their membership card see a menu addressing them by name.
Through a touch screen, the player could order a drink to be delivered by a cocktail waitress.
Ultimately, the technology used in creating the games is crucial, says Steven Zanella, vice-president of slots at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas’s largest casino.
“The games are the most important aspect,” he says. “If they don’t want to play them, server-based gaming isn’t going anywhere.”
