The Nevada Gaming Commission has granted a manufacturer’s license to Gamblit Gaming, a start-up slot supplier planning to combine traditional slot machines with entertainment-style computer video games.
Gamblit is a subsidiary of Hard 8 Games, which is owned by American Capital, a business development company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and traded publicly on the NASDAQ exchange.
The company is planning to display its first slot machines at September’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. Gamblit CEO Eric Meyerhofer told the Gaming Commission the company plans to have games in the field sometime in 2015, most likely the result of an initial partnership with a larger slot manufacturer.
“At the start, we think our games will have a segment of the slot machine floor,” Meyerhofer told the Las Vegas Sun. “We’ll grow based on floor performance.”
During a presentation earlier this month to the Gaming Control Board, Meyerhofer showed regulators video of a gaming concept in which a Scrabble-type word game, such as those found on social gaming websites, combined with a traditional slot machine. Gamblit plans to design products that feature games played on mobile devices and other platforms.
Last week, Meyerhofer told the Gaming Commission the new games might be a way to grow the slot machine market to include younger gamblers. “Only 15 percent of those (21-to-45-year-old) customers will ever touch a slot machine,” he said. “We believe we can grow that market.”
“We have a great deal of capacity to make investments in this company,” American Capital CEO Malon Wilkus told the Sun. “We also believe this company will attract a lot of capital from (other sources) as well.”
