Leave it to the casino industry to make high rollers out of penny and nickel slot players!
Much of what was on display at the 2005 Global Gaming Expo (G2E), which was held earlier this month at the Las Vegas Convention Center, revealed not only a glimpse at what the future holds for the games we'll be playing but also how the casino operators will exercise greater control over what we play and how we play them.
The first major technological step toward this end took place several years ago with the creation of ticket-in/ticket-out slot play, eliminating the need for coins and blazing the trail for what has become the cash cow of virtually every slot floor around the country: multi-line penny games.
This was quickly followed by the advent of multi-denomination capabilities, which allow players to select the denomination they wish to play rather than both them and the casino being held hostage by machines with single-denomination restrictions. It gave players greater flexibility while increasing the casino's profit potential on the machines.
The next wave will be server-based slot products that will give individual casino operators the capability of "changing out" a game from an internal computer system. This revolutionary downloadable technology will allow a casino not only to change the denomination of individual units but also the entire game theme and associated signage and symbols.
Traditionally, once a slot product is purchased, it becomes casino property for the owner "to have and to hold" in its original form. It is a part of the casino's inventory of machines and remains so until it is removed, either because it has become obsolete or because it simply wasn't popular with the players and not generating enough profit.
The ability to download different games available from the manufacturer will mean that at some point in the future, a player will find the penny "Lots o' Loot" slot he won big on during his previous visit is now a nickel "Bucks o' Plenty" slot housed in the same cabinet in the same spot on the casino floor.
Also in the future, slot machines will become the primary communication and rewards disbursement tool for casino marketing divisions, eliminating the emphasis on direct-mail coupons. Guests will be able to insert their player's card into the machine and have available at their fingertips and on a display screen instantly redeemable rewards and cashable and non-cashable game credits.
Finally, while there remains a market for the traditional $1 and $5 slot players, G2E revealed the industry emphasis is clearly on multi-line/multi-coin penny and nickel games. The new wave of low-denomination machines comes with increased wagering capabilities, meaning that max-coin spins are measured in an increasing number of dollars rather than cents.
Leave it to the casino industry to make high rollers out of penny and nickel slot players!