Gamblit Gaming to test skill bases gaming at Harrahs SoCal Resort

Skill based gaming is the wave of the future and Gamblit Gaming hopes to convince young gamers to trade their mobile phones for games of skill at their parents' casinos. The article that follows is taken from the web, but the news involves Harrah's Resort Southern California (formerly called Harrah's Rincon) in northern San Diego County. The new skill-based games will appear in the casino before the end of the year, and if they prove popular, you may see them in Vegas before long. Why San Diego instead of Las Vegas? Proximity to the manufacturer's venue.  Gamblit Gaming is a California company located in Glendale, California,  which is a suburb of Los Angeles, not too far from Burbank -- just a short 60 or so mile drive from Harrah's San Diego.  Gamblit showcased some of these games at G2E last October, and we can expect to see them at Harrah's soon after G2E this month. We'll keep our eyes open.

The article that follows is from CDS Gaming Report, taken from Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg.

"Caesars Entertainment Corp., trying to convince young people that slot machines can be cool, is rolling out a new generation of devices in its casinos that look like the mobile games people play on their phones.

The largest owner of casinos in the U.S. is trying to buck a trend that’s seen slot-machine betting fall to $291 billion in 2014 from a peak of $355 billion in 2007, according to the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers. While the slow-growing economy is often cited for the drop, casino operators also say millennials don’t play the slots like their parents and grandparents.

The new machines pay out based on a customer’s skill as well as luck, a change that required tweaks to casino regulations. The games, developed by Gamblit Gaming, challenge players to find words hidden on a board or match flavors of smoothies in a virtual juice bar. In Grab Poker, four people stand around a flat, waist-high screen and press buttons to see who’ll snag the card that pops up in the middle. The player with the best poker hand at the end wins.

The games are designed to lure younger patrons, who prefer to gamble interactively and tend to spend more on booze and food. Caesars plans to put six new devices, enough for 25 players, in its Harrah’s resort near San Diego this year and as many as 36, with room for 125 players, in its Las Vegas properties in 2017.

“Typically slot machines are a very solitary experience,” said Eric Meyerhofer, chief executive officer of by Glendale, California-based Gamblit. “Our games are designed to be played in groups with friends.”

Small Wins

Yet unlike typical slots, which are based solely on chance, casinos are challenged to make sure that the new skill-based machines aren’t so easily conquered, leading pinball wizards to break the bank.

Gamblit’s games are designed to create a series of small wins rather than one big jackpot, and over time the payouts should average that of traditional slot machines, Meyerhofer said. A.G. Burnett, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said he expects some manufacturers to make their games progressively harder as the players score higher, a big change from the static play of a game like blackjack.

Casino regulators in Nevada and New Jersey have been reworking their regulations over the past two years to allow for skill-based games. Major slot machines manufacturers such as Scientific Games Corp. and International Game Technology Plc have been developing their own versions of interactive devices. IGT has a machine based on the Atari video game Centipede in use at MGM Resorts International’s Bellagio casino in Las Vegas.

Party Atmosphere

Other casinos are looking for ways to attract millennials. Wynn Resorts Ltd. redesigned the Player’s Club at its Encore resort in Las Vegas last year to add a DJ booth, lounge seating with flat-screen video slot machines and a white-lacquer billiards table from Steve Wynn’s Manhattan penthouse to create a more party-like atmosphere. Las Vegas Sands Corp. in July installed “stadium-style” seats at its casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There, players bet based on cards dealt by live dealers at the center of a circular floor, an arrangement some people find less intimating than joining a table of strangers.

“It gives them a bit of time to learn these games without feeling they’re making a mistake and doing something wrong,” said Mark Juliano, president of the Sands Bethlehem.

For Las Vegas-based Caesars, which has been struggling under the debt load taken on during a 2008 leveraged buyout, the app-like games represent a way to compete against simple, addictive games like Candy Crush that have proliferated on mobile phones.

The rollout is part of a larger strategy by Chief Executive Officer Mark Frissora to introduce more technology to the business.

“Our world has shifted,” said Melissa Price, Caesars’ senior vice president of gaming. 'There are a lot of entertainment opportunities that don’t always exist at the casino.'”

Marketing Slots to Millennials

It's time to talk again about skill-based slots and gambling and what the manufacturers and programmers hope will resonate with the younger players who find luck-oriented games boring. 

I picked up a magazine called Gambling Insider at G2E this fall that reported that Las Vegas welcomed 41 million visitors in 2014, although just 12% came to gamble. In fact, only 4% of first-time visitors came to gamble. The younger crowd comes to Vegas for the pool parties, restaurants, and nightclubs, not for the slots and table games. The big question at G2E this fall was, how can the casinos attract these younger players with games that appeal to the Candy Crush Crowd.

Eric Meyerhofer of Gamblit Gaming of Glendale, CA, is trying to do just that. You may have heard him speak at G2E. If not, Random $$ Slots has a channel of films from the Gaming Expo you can watch on YouTube. Eric Meyerhofer’s goal is twofold. He wants to bring real money wagering to mobile gaming. He also wants to put the company’s touch-controlled surface tables into casino bars and nightclubs offering social gambling games for gamers and their friends. “Gambling should be about entertainment,” he says, and the idea is to bring a product to players that they already know and understand as entertainment rather than expect them to shift their taste to a more passive experience. Skill gaming and Social gaming — that’s where we’re headed. 

One Gamblit game that attracted a lot of attention at G2E was the company’s Grab Poker game. HERE is a video of an interview with a representative of the company explaining the game which basically involves swiping a table-top screen to grab the best set of cards first.  The company expects the game to be a road-ready reality next year after final regulations are passed by the state and the games are tested.

For the big brands like Scientific Games, skill-based gaming mostly meant adding bonus rounds to their traditional slots, such as actually playing SPACE INVADERS.

For the SIMPSONS, it meant  physically scratching a lottery ticket or catching donut sprinkles during a virtual trip to the Kwik-E-Mart.

I’m sure all of you who attended G2E made a trip to Konami’s booth to see the historic favorite FROGGER.

IGT’s CENTIPEDE has been in the casinos for a while now. There’s a video you can see in the February 19  blog entry: Slots for a New Generation. I haven’t been able to find a slot for Guitar Hero yet, but G2 Game Design plans to come out with the game as a skill-based slot according to AP articles.

Nevada’s governor Brian Sandoval has signed Senate Bill 9 that paves the way for slot machines in Nevada to incorporate skill-based, arcade-like aspects into games. There may be variable payback to these slots. “The payback on a slot machine is currently around the 88% mark, but this could rise to 98% for a skill-based slot if a player is especially proficient at a game, ensuring the house still turns a profit. If a game is a pure skill game, only the most skillful will win and that’s not a mass-market product” says Meyerhofer. “Hybrid games have a blend of skill and chance in the way that poker does. You won’t win every single night, but you can win often enough to take a chance.” Maybe so, but 98% payback seems very high to me. Even if few players will have the skill to win these games.

Dyed in the wool casino players probably will not like the prospect of casinos eventually resembling an amusement arcade. They will need to achieve a balance between traditional and new.  Meyerhofer foresees chance and skill based games spread across the casino floor and into the bars and other areas designed for lounge style gaming. Some casinos may have e-sport zones where you can speculate and wager on various sports or players.  My question is, will there still be banks of slots for those of us depending on luck, not skill, to play?

Skill-based slots are expected to begin appearing in Nevada casinos sometime in 2016. That’s when we’ll get to see whether these machines do captivate the Playstation and mobile gaming generation. And whether the blue-haired ladies and the silver foxes can still find enough double/triple diamond games to entice them to play in their grandsons’ gaming houses.  I hope so. But you probably won’t see me there!

First Ever Borgata Basketball Tournament

    In an earlier entry, here, I talked about sports betting and how New Jersey lost out on their chance to be one of only five states where it is legal. New Jersey and the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City have made the news again.

    It’s not sports betting, but it does involve betting and it does involve sports - basketball to be exact. Executives at the Borgata Casino Resort and Spa have told the Associated Press that they have received permission from the New Jersey gaming regulators to hold a contest of skill in the casino this March 21 where players shoot free throws for cash. It is the first of many skill-based events planned to let gamblers take more control over the outcomes of their bets. The restrictions against sport betting in NJ do not apply because, similar to poker, bettors are gambling against each other, not the house as in blackjack or slots.

    For a $20 buy-in, contestants will compete in 90-second rounds for the right to play in the final round of sixteen in a bracket format. The top final four finishers will split $10,000 with half that going to the winner. Yes, you do need a player’s card to participate. This will be the first game of its kind offered by a licensed US casino according to New Jersey officials.

    Free throws will be shot from a 15-foot distance, at a 10-foot high basket, using a regulation size ball. Anyone 21 or older can play - even professional athletes. If someone from the NBA takes a chance to risk a $20, the term March Madness, so familiar to those of us who follow NCAA basketball every year, may take on a whole new meaning.

    If you think you’ve got what it takes, you can read the official rules here, or call 609-317-1000 to reserve your spot.

Slots for a New Generation

    My husband and I love to play the slots.The simpler the game, the cuter the icons, the better. We belong to the over 60 crowd, the geriatric gamers that seek familiarity and predictability in their gambling experience. We don’t like surprises. We don’t like games that require us to skillfully maneuver past obstacles, or to shoot aliens or monsters before they can destroy us, or to ward off myriad other threats. We especially don’t like games that require speedy decisions and award us credits based on how quickly we can execute the bonus rounds. In other words, we are the demographic that most slot manufacturers design their games for - baby boomers and beyond.

    Our gen-x and millennial children, on the other hand, have no use for the games we play.  They frequently lecture us on the insanity of sitting and mindlessly pushing buttons hoping for a jackpot to materialize. They point out to us the futility of expecting a big win from a game that requires no skill, but only lucky timing to pay off. They talk about odds and random number generators and hit frequency and percentages of payout as if we could be educated to give up our penny slots for a more sensible pastime like blackjack. If only we would listen to what they say. We smile tolerantly and then go back to looking for the double-triple diamonds to appear.

    It’s not that our children don’t love Las Vegas. They do. Just not the slots. They love the clubs, and the shows, the buffets and the trendy restaurants, the sports betting and the table games, the weirdos you see on the Strip and on Fremont Street. But they grew up with arcade games and pastimes like Facebook and free-to-play home video games. If these young adults are going to play games, they are going to do it on their mobile devices, not on a slot machine.
 
    The average age of visitors to Vegas has been dropping since 2009, from 50 to 45. But the share of visitors who gambled during their stay has also dropped, falling from 83% to 71% during that same period. Young people still flock to Vegas to play in record numbers, but it is not slot machines they are playing. And this has the casinos worried because slots often return a 60 percent profit margin compared with the single digit margins of table games according to a San Diego Tribune article this month taken from the Washington Post.

    Partly this is the slot manufacturers’ fault. They have not put much effort into designing and producing games that appeal to the skills or interests of younger players. IGT claims that the industry has been slow in developing skill-based video-game-like devices because of state regulations requiring slots to offer random outcomes.

    There are a few companies that have been trying recently to come up with a gaming concept that blends both skill and manual dexterity with luck. One idea has been to combine arcade action in the basic game with bonus rounds that pay based on the random number generators, thus creating a hybrid machine that is both a game of skill and also a game of chance. Gamblit is working with casinos and regulators on concepts meshing the play of mobile games with the random chance of slots, switching from playing with virtual credits to playing with real money when connected to WiFi in an area where gambling is legal.  Which brings us back to my previous post about internet gambling.

    Press releases claim one current innovation for IGT’s Reel Edge series is based on arcade games. Titles include Race Ace and Centipede and the games are played on a console with an optional joystick play mechanism.



    Another company, Aruze Gaming, in an attempt to appeal to younger players, has developed Dark Samurai, a game that features a fighting bonus resembling the type of action seen on most martial arts video games.

    Global leader Konami Gaming has adapted its Playstation 2 game Neo Contra to the slots, marking the first ever release of video game intellectual property to the casino gaming industry.  Mighty Warrior and Supreme Samurai are designed and will be especially marketed toward video game players.  Konami has a forty-two year history of world wide video gaming and, with its extensive catalogue and cutting edge technology, is uniquely positioned to be a leader in the marketing for the coming generation of gamers.

    Counter to this trend, Bally Technologies, the nation’s oldest slot-machine maker, has announced it would pay up to $100 million to buy Dragonplay, an Israel-based developer of games playable on Facebook and cellphones.

    One fear some have in switching to these new-generation skill based slots is that a player could become so good at playing these games that the casino would end up losing money.  I don’t think they will let that happen. The card counters didn’t put the blackjack tables out of business, did they? It’ll be interesting to see what changes the next few years bring.