This year’s Global Gaming Expo was different from previous years in several aspects. First, it was a year since the tragic shooting at Mandalay Bay, which occurred the night before the show was scheduled to open. Then-American Gaming Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman determined the show must go on, and it was a cathartic experience for the industry to be together and to mourn together.
G2E 2018 was markedly different. Newly legalized sports betting in the U.S. has spawned a wealth of technology solutions available to make it easy for U.S. casinos, racetracks and other venues to offer sports book products. They were all on display at G2E.
The general health of the industry was also a factor. Although gaming stock prices have begun to slide in recent months, revenues have remained strong and competition has heated up. Every casino is looing for the “next big thing” and suppliers were more than eager to promote their latest product to fulfill that desire.
However, as usual, the focus at G2E was on the typically remarkable lineup of new slot games, and groundbreaking new hardware on which the major manufacturers are presenting them. All of the major slot-makers launched new hardware at G2E, from upright cabinets to jumbo machines to bar-top presentations that include slot games as well as the standard video poker offerings.
Not all the innovation was centered on the slot floor—IGT, for instance, introduced a groundbreaking sports-betting product. Called the CrystalBetting Sports Betting Terminal, it offers a presentation that simplifies the sports-betting process for the novice. A touch-screen display offers a quick choice between standard race betting, in-play wagers for games in progress, and traditional sports bets. Odds and betting lines are displayed prominently, and all the options are outlined for the bettor.
Scientific Games and other slot-makers offered sports betting solutions as well, but as far as the normal lineup of new slot games in all styles, the innovation has never been more amazing.
Among the highlights for the top slot-makers:
IGT launched a new series of games based on The Price Is Right, the legendary game show now hosted by Drew Carey. (Carey himself appeared at the IGT booth to promote the game.) The series is offered in three new versions, divided by denomination. A high-denomination version on the Megatower Universal cabinet is The Price Is Right Showcase Showdown. The game uses the 55-inch monitor on the large cabinet for a giant version of the wheel used in the Showdown on the game show, with credits instead of prices.
A low-denomination version titled The Price Is Right features the show’s popular Cliffhanger Bonus, while the mid-denomination The Price Is Right Plinko features a pachinko-style bonus.
New takes on wheel bonuses were also evident at the Scientific Games booth with Ultimate Cash Spin, featuring a new twist on the “U-Spin” mechanic—instead of the player touching the screen to spin a video wheel, the game features a mechanical wheel that the player can grab and physically spin, using elbow grease to send it spinning as fast as desired.
The more intriguing technological offering from Scientific Games, however, was found in the newest game in the James Bond series, Die Another Day. The game is housed on a huge new version of the TwinStar cabinet series, a 1,600-pound behemoth called the TwinStar Phantom. When the main bonus is triggered, the monitor rises to reveal a secret 3D chamber utilizing the first gaming application of the Pepper’s ghost 3D technique. At the back of the chamber is a reel set, and a spaceship to the side shoots beams at the reels to transform symbols into wild symbols.
Aristocrat put on a mind-boggling display of new games utilizing its latest hardware, such as the flame55, with a 55-inch monitor that curves in two places. Aristocrat used the new form factor to launch Buffalo Diamond, celebrating the 10th anniversary (yes, the Diamond Anniversary) of the industry-topping Buffalo video slot brand. The large 4K-resolution monitor is used to great effect to display video of stampeding buffalo to accompany some game events, and there is Old West-style music that plays during reel-spinning, complete with a karaoke-style lyric stream so you can sing along.
Aristocrat used its large-format RELM XL stepper format for Motown, a reel-spinner that features player-selectable music—a jukebox of sorts, allowing the player to select songs to accompany the reel-spinning, accompanied by a video of the song being performed on the top monitor. All the legendary Motown artists are featured. And Aristocrat introduced Winner’s World, its first multi-game bar-top machine. In addition to a complete collection of standard video poker, the unit features the first bar-top version of Buffalo, its most popular and highest-earning video slot.
Konami Gaming rolled out games designed for its super-sized new Concerto Opus cabinet. Dragon’s Law uses the imposing 65-inch flat-screen monitor on the Opus for colorful graphics depicting a dragon that flies from the top to the bottom reel array to award wild symbols and multipliers, and Treasure Ball uses the screen for an entertaining bonus in which gold and diamond balls are ejected from a gumball-machine-style apparatus on the top screen to the reels to award credits or progressives.
Konami also showcased its new SynkConnect mobile technology, which allows players to tap an area on the slot with their smartphone to activate their player’s club account, dispensing with the need for player’s club cards. The technology also allows for mobile wallet solutions to be used for game play.
Everi displayed its largest and most diverse group of games yet, headed by Shark Week, a six-pod group of games presented as a themed package, the 55-inch monitors arranged touching each other to form a top display that looks like a giant aquarium. Bonus events all draw on the popular Discovery Channel series of the same name, with an array of clever themed bonuses.
Another standout at the Everi booth was a game departing from the traditional reel-spinning array. Called Crush, the game presents a video image on its monitor of an Aztec statue of a stone head, called the “Stone Crusher,” hovering in the air. Chutes at each side of the screen release either a round stone, a coconut or a gold ball. Each wager is a touch of the spin button that sends the head soaring down on the stone, coconut or ball, the goal being to crush it to reveal the credit award. The Stone Crusher even changes expressions, looking annoyed through repeated attempts to crush one of the tougher object, like the high-paying gold ball.
AGS featured an array of games on its new Orion Upright core cabinet, including many games ported over from its legacy ICON core format, as well a new games for its Orion Portrait premium cabinet headed by the new Diamond Streak series. It also featured a new offering for the company, the 10-player Royal Derby mechanical horse-racing game from Slovenia’s Alfastreet.
AGS also launched a new version of its large-format Big Red stepper cabinet, although this one could be called “Big Black and Gold”—it carries the theme of the Vegas Golden Knights, the hockey team that electrified the gaming capital in its inaugural season. The color scheme reflects the colors of the NHL team, and the team logos are used as bonus symbols in the otherwise classic stepper game.
Aruze featured games with entertaining new technology, including a reboot of Paradise Fishing, with its community fishing bonus game. On the new Muso Limited cabinet, the game is placed in banks with 55-inch top monitors side by side, utilized for a bank-wide fishing bonus. As with the original, each machine is equipped with a fishing-rod joystick, and players “fish” in a pond that extends across a giant display formed by the adjacent monitors. The player feels tension while turning the reel, particularly on the bigger fish—reeled in for bigger bonuses.
Other standout technology for Aruze could be found on Ray Vision, a unique banked slot product in which the adjacent top displays show images created through rear projection; and in Roll to Win Craps, a hybrid dealer-assisted ETG that combines digital technology with a live-dealer craps game using real dice on a standard-sized craps table, the layout and back panels formed through LED video panels that can be used for advertising during the game.
Ainsworth Game Technology launched the second game carrying the theme of the classic arcade game Pac-Man. Pac-Man Link carries all the iconic images of the legendary arcade game with four base games named for the ghosts in the original game—Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The progressive game is featured on Ainsworth’s new dual-screen EVO cabinet.
Ainsworth also featured Galaga, a game on the company’s A640 premium cabinet that uses actual graphics from the Bandai Namco arcade game (Bandai Namco designed it) for a bonus in which credits are earned by shooting down alien ships from a lineup of “guns” at the bottom of the screen.
Novomatic Americas featured its new MacGyver game, based on the 1980s TV series. Housed on the new Novostar V.I.P. 3.50 cabinet with Python Chair or the V.I.P. Lounge 2.32 cabinet, the immersive slot delivers all the quirks of Angus “Mac” MacGyver, the show’s main character, who solved desperate government problems but always came equipped with stuff like a Swiss army knife, duct tape, chewing gum and paper clips to help him. Those items are all featured as reel symbols or bonus icons in the game.
Novomatic also featured progressives like Voodoo Fortunes on the Panthera Curve and the V.I.P. Lounge Curve cabinets, and electronic table games on the Novo Line Novo Unity II platform.
Incredible Technologies launched games expanding the library of its new V55 cabinet, featuring a 55-inch flat-screen vertical monitor. Heading the list was Clinko, which uses the big screen for a pachinko-style mystery bonus feature; and Bars Up, a traditional slot game on dual 25-line reel arrays with a unique mechanic: When a gold bar lands, all traditional bar symbols are upgraded. Single bars become double bars, and double bars become triple bars.
Many of the new games were featured with the new V55 Edge display package, which uses customized 4K-resolution video LED wedges in various configurations, including a sawtooth configuration that provides each player with a kind of privacy not possible on standard slot banks.
Merkur featured an impressive array of new games. Highlights included Western Pacific and Cash Stacks, both using cash as the main theme; and Big Deal Wheel, featuring segments of wheels as symbols. The player tries to complete the images of wheels on adjacent reels to trigger a bonus feature with wins according to which symbols are matched to trigger the bonus.
Gaming Arts the bingo supplier that brought in world-class game development talent to launch a startup slot division, brought its first games to G2E. Highlights centered on three game series—Pop’n Pays, featuring inventive game mechanics and lighthearted themes; Da Fa Ba, a group of Asian-themed games deploying popular game mechanics; and Dice Seeker, featuring innovative bonus games centered on tossing dice.
Finally, the skill-based gaming segment was represented by Gamblit, which packed its booth for all three days of the show with attendees viewing a complete lineup of new skill games. Highlights included the multi-player Pac-Man Battle Casino, in which players compete in a community-style version of the classic arcade game on a flat-table surface; and Playboy Pinball, featuring what is perhaps the truest replication of the traditional pinball game to yet hit the slot floor.
Event Driven
The G2E conference program was in rare form, with the Monday sessions being mostly standing-room only. Sports betting was the focus for the entire four-day conference, but other topics were also discussed. Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Sharon Delaney McCloud was a stand-in at the opening keynote for late scratch WNBA Commissioner Lisa Borders. McCloud discussed how women can build their own executive presences in male-dominated industries with three key principles.
The Welcome Reception on Monday featured an esports tournament conducted by Millennial Esports and allowed attendees to understand how the burgeoning activity can intersect with casino gaming.
Tuesday continued the sports betting theme, and included some other interesting subjects like a penetrating integrated resorts discussion led by Thalden Boyd Emery CEO Chief Boyd and included Dike Bacon, principal of HBG Design, Robert Miguel, chairman of the AK-Chin Indian Community and Jared Munoa, president of Pechanga Development Corporation.
Wednesday brought the insightful sports betting analysis of ESPN Sports Center anchor Scott Van Pelt, one of the first major figures in the mainstream media to advocated for legal sports betting. His interaction with AGA Senior Vice President Sara Slane was informative, entertaining and sometimes controversial.
Maybe the most anticipated keynote arrived on Thursday with the Innovation Incubator featuring ABC’s Shark Tank stars Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary, along with Sprout CEO Cindy Eckert. The panel evaluated four new gaming products before awarding the $10,000 prize to DoorPro Doorstop Founder Bill Hengler, who invented a doorstop for hotel room doors. He demonstrated the product and boasted of 200,000 sales with major clients.
