The slot machine as we've experienced it on countless trips to Vegas and as we've seen it a million times on the silver screen could soon be a memory. A slick new technology is coming to town.
First the one-armed bandits lost their arms, replaced by vanilla "push here" buttons that started the spinning of the wheels. Then they removed coins from the equation, converting slots by the thousands to the use of paper account tickets.
And now comes the death blow. Not for the games, mind you, but for the machines themselves. That's because the gaming industry stands poised to transform casino floors into banks of thin clients -- dumb terminals that can download just about any kind of game a customer wants from a back-office server.
Casinos can't wait to get players hooked on the new technology -- and the new level of personalization it is likely to bring to the gambling experience.
"Generally speaking, in the history of our industry, slot machines have been discrete devices that stand alone," said Mark Lipparelli, executive vice president of gaming at Bally Gaming and Systems, a major developer of slots. "Lately, there has been an increasingly large emphasis on system-driven boxes, which are dynamic.... We believe that that is the direction of our industry."
The idea is simple. By putting gaming content -- including popular slot games such as Monopoly and Wheel of Fortune –- on networked servers and downloading them only on demand, casinos will be able to offer players a wide selection of games, and easily selected variations of games, on a single machine.
The casinos are salivating. That's because, from their perspective, downloadable games provide a natural tie-in to one of the fastest growing trends in gaming -- loyalty programs.
People might not associate casinos -- those bastions of polyester and bad carpeting -- with suit-and-tie terms like CRM -- customer relationship management -- but that's exactly where the industry is going.
Casinos can't wait to get player cards into customers' hands. Every free drink, hotel room, meal or stack of chips they give away is likely to come back in increased profits as regular players -- flattered by personal attention paid to them by casino floor managers and waitresses -- flock back into the casino the next chance they get.
And downloadable gaming gives casinos one more way to demonstrate just how much they're paying attention to what individual players like.
"Let's say there's a game called Little Green Men," said Brian Casey, marketing manager at gaming giant IGT. "If you love it, when you put in your player card, Little Green Men comes up first. Or (the machine) will recommend another game based on your preferences."
For now, those visiting Vegas, Atlantic City or other cities of sin won't find downloadable games, but it won't be long.
"The technology exists to do it, but it depends on regulatory agencies to approve it," Casey said. "We could do game downloads a year from now, but whether we see approvals, and can get it out onto the market, is another thing entirely. And it's so hard to predict."
Security, of course, is the concern. Any new gaming technology must be vetted by various state regulatory agencies, such as the Nevada Gaming Commission and the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. In particular, those bodies want to be sure that network-based games are safe from hacking and that all monies routing through the system end up where they're supposed to go.
Lipparelli says downloadable gaming has no inherent security problems and that delays in the general release of the technology are merely the result of bureaucracy at the gaming commissions.
"The burden is on applicants to prove the security" of the systems, he said, "and to demonstrate to them that we're capable of deploying technology that, in this case, I'm arguing is more secure than what's on the floor today."
Most gaming industry observers think existing slot machines are safe for about another year. But after that, the new systems are going to start muscling their way onto the floor. The exception, as is often the case with gaming innovation, is at Indian casinos, where less oversight means quicker advancement.
Still, the game developers are getting ready to go into mass production. And it's not just the big names like Bally and IGT. Little companies, such as San Diego's VirtGame, which is developing back-end systems that enable the game downloads, might bring new creativity to the casino floor.
"Our vision is that if you give (players) a device that works against a server that has a library of games, there would be some people who would be interested in playing more interesting, more challenging games," said VirtGame COO Bruce Merati.
Lipparelli agreed that the technology is likely to foster new creativity in the gaming industry.
"The ability to deliver a greater depth of product is significant," he said. "It's as creative as your mind can be."
But not everyone believes downloadable gaming is going to revolutionize the casino industry, especially in the glitz and marketing hotbed that is Las Vegas.
"It just seems to me to be a sterilization of the casino, (because) you wouldn't have the visual variety you have now," argues Bill Thompson, a gaming observer and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "It's a standardization that might fit single gambling locations like the California Indian casinos.... I just don't see it as being consistent with Las Vegas-style casino gambling."
