Slot Machine Revolution - Opportunities and Issues as Casinos Struggle to become Networked
DIGDIA, December 2010, Pages: 82
If you are in the consumer electronics industry, you might be surprised by what is happening inside today's modern casino.
There are more than 830,000 slot machines in the U.S. alone. When most people think about slot machine technology, they tend to look at the obviously visible elements, such as the use of a 103” Panasonic plasma display, shown above in IGT's Center Stage platform*.
But, as one Casino executive recently said, “our industry is perhaps six or seven years behind other industries” when it comes to the use of modern computer and digital media technology on the casino floor. That said, the industry is now feverishly trying to catch up and is at the start of a revolution.
When a company looks for new opportunities to enter, they should look for a big industry that is going through big changes. The gaming industry definitely fits this bill in spades, making it suddenly attractive to all kinds of new companies from traditional consumer electronics, to upstarts, to familiar names from Silicon Valley, and to scam artists.
One technology that has been slow in deployment is simple networking. While slot machines and other devices, such as change machines, communicate with a central system, the communications is predominantly based on old fashion serial links. Now the big buzz is "Network-based Gaming", and after years of talk, it is finally starting to appear.
The other big industry buzz is about Internet Gaming. While tangled in laws that prevent it in many countries, it is nonetheless a huge business.
Put Network-based Gaming and Internet Gaming together, and you get the next big buzz - Mobile Gaming.
This report looks inside the gaming industry as it struggles to join the net-generation age from both a technology and target market approach. This report is aimed at the industry outsider that is wondering what is happening in this world of gambling and where emerging opportunities are. But, people inside the gaming industry will appreciate the view this report gives from a consumer electronics perspective.
1 Introduction
2 Slot Machine Technology Primer
2.1 Early Slots
2.2 The RNG
2.3 TITO
2.4 Slot Platform
2.5 Main Game Display
2.6 Top Box & Banked Machines
2.7 Marketing Display
3 Networked Gaming
3.1 Marketing Systems Revolution & New Business Models
3.1.1 Shared Screen
3.1.2 Mixing the Marketing & Gaming Display Debate
3.1.3 Targeted Advertising
3.1.4 Interoperable
3.1.5 Kiosk Replacement
3.1.6 Personalization
3.1.7 Staying Engaged at Home
3.1.8 “Casino Facebook”
3.1.9 Creating Mass Hysteria
3.1.10 IRS Hassles
3.1.11 Better Service Light
3.1.12 Where do they live?
3.1.13 Biometrics
3.2 Game Management Brings New Thinking
3.2.1 Data Mining
3.2.2 New Themes and Business Model
3.2.3 Player Perception and Trust Weakness
3.3 The Future Game Platform
3.3.1 The Ultimate Game Window
3.3.2 The Top Box Trap
3.3.3 Community Play
3.3.4 Live Video
3.3.5 New Age Buttons
3.3.6 Table Games
3.4 Connectivity Standards
3.5 Casino Management Systems
3.5.1 Manufacturers
3.5.2 Interoperability
3.6 Attacks
3.7 Replacement Cycle
4 Online Gambling
4.1 Segmenting the Market
4.2 Type of Gaming
4.3 Regional Comments
4.3.1 North America
4.3.2 Europe
4.3.3 Asia
4.4 Ecosystem elements
4.4.1 Traditional Casinos
4.4.2 Online Only Casinos
4.4.3 Rogue Online Casinos
4.4.4 Money Mechanics
4.4.5 The Affiliates
5 Mobile Gaming
6 Appendix
6.1 Worldwide Gambling Factoids
6.1.1 U.S. and Canada
6.1.2 Europe, U.K., Russia
6.1.3 Asia, Australia
6.1.4 Latin America
6.1.5 Africa
6.2 Glossary
6.3 Slot Machine Manufacturers
6.4 Associations and Organizations
6.5 Conferences
6.6 Publications
Figures
Figure 1 - IGT Center Stage platform with Panasonic 103” plasma
Figure 2 - Cisco and Intel's first G2E booth in 2009
Figure 3 – ACE Gaming CPU
Figure 4 - Inside of an ECP Axis 3rd party slot machine platform
Figure 5 - Bill/Ticket collector
Figure 6 - 3M multi-touch system
Figure 7 - Translucent "3D" display
Figure 8 - Community Play bonus
Figure 9 - Full color video on a marketing display
Figure 10 - Independent games on same screen
Figure 11 - Two Marketing Display/Game Architectures
Figure 12 - IGT and WMS on the same screen
Figure 13 – WMS's Star Trek Levels follow the player between casinos
Figure 14 - Machine prints reminder to register online
Figure 15 - WMS Player's Life website
Figure 16 - Look who's winning right now
Figure 17 - Bally's Off to the Races used at Barona Casino
Figure 18 - Where high-value female players currently on slot floor live
Figure 19 - Bally's map of floor activity
Figure 20 - IGT's map of floor activity
Figure 21 - Bally's Command Center - setting the odds (red circle)
Figure 22 - ITG's sbX control panel - setting the odds (red circle)
Figure 23 - A symbol can take on different personalities
Figure 24 - Autostereoscopic 3D used in slot machines
Figure 25 - Lenticular vs. Parallax Barrier 3D
Figure 26 - Bally's integrated touch screen top box
Figure 27 - Less flexible top box examples
Figure 28 - Konami "Revolution" revolving game screen
Figure 29 - Reel 'em In with player's names displayed on big board
Figure 30 - The current winner is shown with live video
Figure 31 - Changeable Buttons
Figure 32 - Totally flexible buttons
Figure 33 - Interlock is going for a flashier table game experience
Figure 34 - Aruze's roulette with real wheel
Figure 35 - Aruze offers a "new" dice game – Sic Bo
Figure 36 - DigiDeal's hybrid blackjack
Figure 37 - How to see the hole cards in electronic Texas Hold'em .
Figure 38 - Communications Topology of a Casino
Figure 39 - IGT's iPhone Slot Machine next to Full Sized Machine
Figure 40 - Cantor's eDeck
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