As the name implies, skill-based slots are gambling devices in which the main determining factor in how much a player can win is his or her ability to play the game.
Skill-based slots are still working their way through the regulatory process and haven't been deployed on Nevada gaming floors yet.
When they are, one of the first places in Las Vegas that you'll see them is the Downtown Grand, which has aggressively partnered with GameCo to develop skill-based games and has made them a high priority of its future marketing plans.
According to Casino Journal, this is not a brand-new phenomenon that sprang full-blown like Minerva from the head of Zeus. "Slot suppliers have been adding skill-type play to gaming-machine bonus rounds for years; however, development of skill wagering content was always on the back burner, mostly due to the laws and regulations that maintained that slots must remain games of chance."
Skill-based bonus rounds have been a feature of slot machines in the past, but were "vultured" by advantage players, causing casinos to pull them off the floor.
However, don't be surprised in the next few years if slot machines resemble giant smartphones and tablet PCs, or are the sit-down video games that Baby Boomers played a generation ago.
Skill-based slots will be aimed directly at Millennials, who don't play non-skill slots, considering them boring and random. The games that Millennials play on their smart phones, such as "Angry Birds" and "Slotomania," are part of a $9 billion industry; capturing even a fraction of that market would be a big boost for casinos.
Given that casino slot holds could be adversely affected by games that are entirely skill-based, we expect to see the industry adopt some sort of hybrid technology that keeps the element of chance in play. Nevada and New Jersey regulators have already moved to prohibit casinos from making the games harder or easier to win while a game is in progress, based on the perceived skill of the player.
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Dave in Seattle.
Apr-30-2017
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