Greenwood Gaming, owner of the Parx Casino at Philadelphia Park in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, has laid out a plan before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for mobile gaming within its casino walls. The plan would allow patrons to use mobile devices to play slots and video versions of table games on their smart phones.
Greenwood officials say the plan is targeted at young gamblers who don’t necessarily like sitting at slot machines, but who typically enjoy playing games on their smart phones. “For whatever reason, young people don’t seem to want to sit in a casino at a slot machine,” Said Greenwood Chief Technology Officer John Dixon, in an interview with the Allentown Morning Call. “But they like to play games on mobile devices. The idea is to create more revenue for us and the state. Our fear is that if we don’t start doing something, we’re looking at an aging population and falling revenues.”
The system proposed before the board last week in what was described as an “informational session”—Greenwood plans to formally request approval within a few months—would use the BetCloud system from Williams Interactive, which features “Bluetooth Beacon” geolocation technology that locates the player within a few inches, shutting down the game automatically if the player leaves approved gaming areas. (Online gaming is not legal in Pennsylvania.)
According to the plan, Parx would use Wi-Fi access to create gaming “hot spots” in lounges with alcohol, entertainment and other attractions, in which players could congregate while playing on their mobile devices. Kiosks would provide hand-held devices to use, or players would be able to use their own smart phones.
