Slot Machines Take on the Appearance of Video Games

A favorite of blue haired ladies everywhere – the slot machine – is being redesigned to attract younger players and this time, it will require a bit of skill to play it instead of just pulling a lever. Adding a bit of hand-eye coordination is one way slot makers are working to broaden the appeal of the slot machine, which they are hoping will provide an extra payoff for game-playing dexterity. Currently, manufacturers are integrating communal games that link clusters of machines and they have proved to be popular with people under 40.In the works right now are slot machines with joysticks and others that will allow users to play in tandem or against one another, which slot makers feel will become very popular. According to a recent industry survey, the age group of 21 to 40 have fewer moral qualms when it comes to gambling than their parents. With Vegas being a huge fad amongst younger adults, the industry feels that shifting their focus to this demographic will erase the fact that the industry has, in the past, focused on the older player.

“Younger players come to town to party,” said George Maloof Jr., president of the Palms Casino Resort, a popular hangout for people under 40. “They drink, they go to nightclubs, they go to the after-hours clubs, they check out the pool for the scene there. Gambling in general is not high on their agenda.”

“We can’t just make a slot thinking about the 55-year-old lady who comes to the casino a few times a month,” said Rob Bone, marketing director for WMS Gaming. “We need to appeal to new buckets of players, or we’ll die.”Playing the slots is still the most popular way to gamble though, and they bring in nearly three-quarters of the $60 billion in gambling revenue in America. There are approximately one million slot machines in the United States and they acquire roughly one billion on a typical day which is paid-out to winners.

Hopefully though, the industry will focus equally on both the younger crowds and the older ones who sit for hours on end at one machine and play the ones next to them too. This might just be a great idea considering the fact that these old biddies have a tendency to hog the best slots – with a machine that looks more like a video game, it will be too complicated for them to figure out so they will stick the with old fashioned kind. The only problem is the future – what happens when WE get old and start hogging the machines with the joystick? What will the industry come up with for the younger players then – mental telepathy?

Read the full article here on the Houston Chronicle website.