Video game slots: Company to test appeal to players

Casinos are moving slowly toward offer ing skill-based machines.

LAS VEGAS SUN

LAS VEGAS — Years from now, slot machine players may wander into a casino to play with pinball flippers as they shoot at space invaders and asteroids.

Gaming Control Board Member Mark Clayton says he is “dumbfounded” that manufacturers haven’t yet presented skill-based video games for consideration, given the growing popularity of high-tech console and home computer games.

“There is no formal policy ... that would preclude skill-based games,” he said.

“This is going to bring a new audience to the casino floor,” a group that is now uninterested in gaming, said Thierry Brunet de Courssou, chief systems architect for Cyberview Technology, the company pursuing the video-slot games.

Cyberview, which is seeking a manufacturing license in Nevada, plans to spend the next 12 months testing online, nongambling versions of games for players to try their luck at home and offer feedback and suggestions.

After years of research and multiple patents, Cyberview, using a standard video poker payout model, came up with a game concept that requires players to buy a defined amount of time — say, 20 minutes — to wager in one-second increments.

Those who play faster or better are likelier to experience an average result closer to the odds of the game versus slower, less skilled players, who will experience more volatility. The goal is to eventually offer versions of these and other games that will reward players for their skill.

Slot makers acknowledge they aren’t doing much to appeal to these players. They haven’t had to, because they’ve been busy raking in profit by catering to players 55 and older who seek familiarity and predictability in their gambling experience and to whom new features are best introduced slowly, one bell and whistle at a time.

The introduction of video game characteristics was predicted years ago by an industry that moves ploddingly — witness how it has relied on randomized spinning symbols for more than a century.

To the surprise of regulators and some manufacturers, that transition to video games still hasn’t occurred, despite ever-younger customers thronging to casino nightclubs, restaurants and shows in recent years. These customers show little interest in slot machines, instead gravitating to table games for their cool factor and interactivity.

But with conventional slot players growing old, the time seems ripe to bring to the casino floor devices that allow some element of skill. It might take a decade or longer for the video game slots to pan out — there are patents and licenses to secure, for instance — but casino observers say they should sate the industry for generations to come.

Last year Bally Technologies took a baby step in the direction of video games with Pong, a slot-machine version of the classic video game that knocked a ball between two paddles.

The game plays like a typical slot machine until players reach a bonus round, where they play Pong against the computer and receive cash bonuses based on how well they play.

Bally, which expects to offer another slot based on the Atari game Breakout next year, will offer more skill games, depending on how these are received. The approval of Pong — the first slot machine to reward players for their manual dexterity — was an industry milestone and has encouraged manufacturers to develop more elaborate video-game concepts.

The development of Atari games came with some nervousness.

The world’s largest slot maker, International Game Technology, has obtained several patents that relate to “perceived skill” games, which trigger predetermined outcomes, yet appear to reward players based on how well they perform a specific action. But the company has stopped short of full-blown video games for a variety of reasons, said Vice President of Marketing Ed Rogich said. The appetite for these games hasn’t fully matured, he said.

Rogich says IGT would have developed devices like video games sooner if not for state regulations requiring slot games to offer random outcomes. Even video poker games draw digital cards at random so that the worst of players have a shot at the jackpot.

But regulators say they are receptive to considering skill-based games. The notion that skill games were simply out of the question, they say, is a long-standing misperception.