A potential revolution on the casino floor was OK’d last week when the Nevada Gaming Control Board released a set of regulations that would determine how skill games are offered on slot machines. With slot play declining over the past several years, manufacturers and operators have been groping for a way to engage millennials and many believe that allowing players to use skill to increase their chance of winning could work.
The Nevada regulators divided slot games into three buckets: skill games, games of chance and a hybrid of the two. The effort was proposed by the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, which represents companies that sell products to casinos and other gaming establishments.
Dan Reaser of Reno’s Fennimore Craig law firm, represented AGEM.
“They will address a new demographic in our casinos,” Reaser said. “Young people are going to casinos. They’re just not playing gaming devices.”
The problem with skill games is that casinos and slot makers must still limit the benefits of skill. The hybrid games would likely include a standard slot machine as the base game, which the bonus feature allowing skill. This would elevate the player’s win percentage, but not so far to make it a negative game for the casino. Finding that balance is the challenge faced by the slot machine companies.
Games such as Angry Birds, Words with Friends and even classic games like Frogger and Pacman could be converted into slot machines. But the rules of the game can’t be changed during the game play or “the probability and award of a game outcome.”
“With these games, a player’s dexterity in driving a racecar, their strategic ability in military game or their knowledge of movie trivia will be the subject of gaming play,” said Reaser. “It may be several people on a machine or several machines that are linked together. It will be a more dynamic and social event.”
