In 2005, game consultant Rob Fier told the Las Vegas Business Press, "He who controls the wire controls the gaming floor of the future."
The "wire," in this quote, refers to the networking cable that connects slot machines to a central computer system. Today's slots all have their own central processing units built in; to change a machine's games, denominations, and payback percentages requires manual manipulation of the machine itself by a slot technician. Tomorrow's machines will be client terminals dressed up in slot cabinets into which, with the click of a mouse, different games, denominations, payback percentages, bonuses, promotions, etc. can be downloaded from a single server.
When MGM Mirage opens Aria in late 2009, all slots and table games will be networked into such a central server. In many cases, the games will actually be mounted on this server and the "slot" machines will be more like what even Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) Chairman Dennis Neilander has called "dumb terminals" into which you download the game content of your choosing.
"Every casino wants their floor to be dynamic," writes Aria President Bill McBeath. "You want frequent visitors to be able to see new product each time they visit and you want to make available the games that are going to be of interest to the people on your property at any given time. We learn from our customers all the time about their likes and dislikes. This technology allows us to respond to those quickly. For us, that is the most important reason for introducing this kind of technology into our properties."
Seeking a more detailed explanation, we turned to syndicated columnist and slot expert John Grochowski. "First, it will enable operators to tailor their games to player preferences," he replied. "If their databases show them they need more video poker during the day, but can fill with video slots at night, they'll be able to do it.
"Or," Grochowski continues, "if weekday crowds prefer penny games with more volatility and free spins, while weekend tourists like nickel games and second-screen bonuses, operators will be able to adapt quickly."
As Bally Gaming’s Marcus Prater told the Business Press, operators could simply alter the denominations of machines, turning quarter slots into half-dollar ones on a busy Friday night –- all across the slot floor with but a few keystrokes.
IGT Vice President of Marketing Ed Rogich provides yet another example. "Tournaments today, you have to hold them in a separate area." With server-based slots, the games could be switched out so that you could play in the tourney without leaving your preferred machine.
Likening many of the aspects of server-based gambling to player tracking, Rogich says, "Basically, it’s a networked [system] that will allow the operators to manage their floor and provide communication to the players. [Also] it will connect the player to systems that already exist" and increase the number of possible offerings. "This is going to bring a network of systems and services to the players at each of it slot machines," Rogich adds. He likens it to the Internet, integrating many systems already in existence.
This is especially true of games. Because slot-game manufacturers will have to share sensitive game-code information to make this work (and, for once, the casinos are calling the shots here), IGT and Bally and Aristocrat games, for instance, have to be cross-compatible with virtually every machine on the floor. The player will have not dozens but hundreds of games from which to choose in a single slot session. Rogich likens the experience to downloading three movies from three different distributors. "Does that mean you have to have three different computers to download to?" The answer, clearly, is no.
You may have even played a server-based machine already without being aware of it. According to Rogich, IGT’s downloadable slots are currently undergoing field trials at Treasure Island, MGM Grand Detroit and at Barona Valley Ranch Resort, creating what Rogich calls "the various iterations" of what IGT hopes to deploy at Aria.
In the past, our attempts to see the downloadable slots at Treasure Island have been rebuffed, with both MGM and IGT executives insisting that one wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between a regular video slot and a server-based one, even if you were standing next to it.
Rest assured, the traditional reel-spinning slot is unlikely to go away. According to Fier, video-based games have tended to briefer life cycles than your good old Double Diamonds machine, which may have been out on the floor 15 years or longer and whose ilk will continue to represent a significant percentage of the slot product out on the casino floor.
But for the casino operator and slot provider, server-based gaming means a lot of saved time and manpower. Whereas now, making changes to a (for instance) Reel ‘Em In game means having technicians change the EPROMs – the programming chips – in each and every machine, now it can be done with a few pushes of a button in a control room that runs the entire casino floor. Thrift, Horatio!
According to Forbes, "Business on these [downloadable slots at Barona] is projected to improve 25% over the usual take, says the casino’s hired consultant." The article goes on to note that by identifying where the hot pockets of play on the slot floor are, it will be easier for casino operators to spot top-performing machines – and top players, too.
But we suspect what you (and many others like you) are wondering about, is how the ability to change games with a mouse click or two will affect hold percentages. "The instinct, from Bally’s perspective, is not to change hold percentages," said Prater back in 2005. "That’s not a good idea. Some players have a paranoia that operators seem to be changing hold percentages on the fly." (Indeed, one of the most persistent urban legends of the casino business is that swarms of slot technicians are sent out every night to go from machine to machine, tightening the "hold.")
They’ll certainly have that capability. "Operators will be able to change payback percentages as well as games and denominations fairly quickly," notes Grochowski. "It’s up to operators and regulators to make the process as transparent as possible to ease the fears of customers. In Nevada, and I think every other commercial gaming market in the U.S., operators will be prohibited from changing anything about the game while it is being played. If you're playing a 97% payback game, it's not suddenly going to become an 88(% game) while you're playing."
"Assuming that the software’s been approved," elaborates the NGCB’s Mark Clayton, "the machine must be idle for four minutes at a time," while its hold, denomination or content is being reconfigured: "No credits and no players’ cards in the system." What’s more, the machine’s video screen must display a modification-in-progress message, followed by another four minutes of ‘down time.’
"I doubt operators will be changing payback percentages willy-nilly, having higher percentages on the same game and denomination at one time than at another," resumes Grochowski. "However, when they change a nickel game to a penny game, you can expect the penny game to [be] a lower percentage than the nickel one."
Game manufacturers and casino operators prefer to emphasize the marketing and enhanced-entertainment possibilities of server-based slots. As one MGM Mirage exec told Forbes, "The next phase is the marketing aspect, talking one-on-one with the customers."
The way Rogich puts it, there is currently no good mechanism available for contacting players in real time, but server-based slots will allow that to be done while the player is at the machine. For instance, if you’ve earned a free buffet or discounted show tickets, a message can be sent straight to the slot at which you’re playing. This eliminates the delay, hassle and mailing costs involved with sending out frequent-player rewards by mail, to be received several days after your casino visit. Such immediate gratification would have obvious appeal to players visiting Casino X from out of town, even more so than for locals.
The application of server-based technology to table games is considerably more limited. You can’t turn a blackjack table into a craps one by clicking on a few links, obviously. By adding displays and interfaces, though, one could do the same kind of customer outreach as is being contemplated for slot, though. "The game would stay the same," concludes Rogich, "but there’s ways that they can automate the table so they can track the play" using radio-frequency-tagged chips of the sort that are already in play at casinos like the Hard Rock.
Will customers go for this? As Raving Consulting President Dennis Conrad is fond of saying, "Nobody understands the slot player, including the slot player." But, as game manufacturers repeatedly point out, gamblers took to ticket-in/ticket-out slots faster than expected.
Still, the casinos haven’t yet managed to put the downloadable-game technology on the floor, save for isolated beta tests. Those familiar with the ballyhoo preceding downloadable slots had to smile in recognition when Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Howard Stutz wrote, not long ago, server-based gaming seems forever to be ‘one year away.’
