Slot machine design is evolving in a number of ways, and your YouTube habits may be a reason why
Slot machines with huge high-definition screens, themed around pop culture staples such as “The Voice” and cult classic movies such as “The Goonies,” beckon to passersby at casinos around the country to get them to stop and play.
Long gone are the games with crank handles and spinning reels that spit out winnings in actual clanging coins, replaced by those with the latest gaming technology and computer-connected jackpots on casino floors.
Now, slot machine manufacturers are responding to an evolving audience that’s younger, more brand-loyal and, in some cases, more tech-savvy. They’re also anticipating ways the novel coronavirus pandemic may have changed consumer behavior.
These are five trends manufacturers think will take hold in the industry:
1 Creating cocoonlike spaces
The pandemic forced casinos to socially distance players at slot machines, whether the games were spread out physically or units were turned off to create separation. Some consumers have gotten used to that, said Rob Bone, vice president of tables, utilities and electronic table games for Scientific Games Corp.
“I think it’s also kind of amplified the player’s desire for more intimacy and to have a space that is their own where they don’t feel intimidated and they can engage and escape at their own discretion,” he said.
Bone said that’s spurred companies such as Scientific Games to think about how to communicate that a slot machine will be an intimate, “business class”-like experience to customers. That could mean machines with individual signage rather than a sign hanging over a bank of clustered machines or table games, or curved displays that make the player feel like they’re enveloped in the game.
Bone used Scientific Games’ Kascada cabinet as an example, saying the hardware goes a long way toward creating an experience that locks the player in. It features a 43-inch curved display and sound bar that surrounds the player in the game’s audio effects.
2 Grabbing a younger audience
Bone said casinos his company has worked with have seen an influx of younger, less-experienced slot players recently, many wanting to get out of the house amid the pandemic.
He said the gaming industry is looking to find ways to hold on to that audience, which he said is much more tech-savvy, values brand loyalty and seeks out games.
“We’re always going to make games that are geared toward experienced, avid players, but I think there is this trend where there’s this new player,” he said. “What do they want and how do we deliver on a development strategy that keeps them engaged so that when things normalize, they look at the casino as a viable form of entertainment as opposed to just an alternative while we’re in this lockdown.”
Some of the gaming floor tech this younger generation of player likes includes Kyber, Scientific Games’ augmented reality electronic table game that uses a laser projector to create bonuses that are projected onto a tabletop, and its Quartz Hybrid electronic table game terminal, which has a smartphone-like display aimed at making gaming easier to understand.
3 Pop culture is king
The trend of theming slot machines around popular movies or TV shows isn’t going anywhere, said Jon Hanlin, senior vice president of commercial strategy for gaming company Aristocrat.
His company is trying to close the gap between an entertainment project’s release and a matching slot machine for it. Normally it can take up to 18 months after a movie release to get a slot machine adaptation. However, an upcoming pop culturerelated game the company is working on will be a concurrent rollout — the artistic property and the slot machine will come out at the same time. And that’s something Aristocrat seeks to do more of in the future, he said.
“We feel like we’ve got to push the envelope, we’ve got to evolve the player experience, so for a player to be able to watch a movie or a TV show at home or in a movie theater and then immediately walk out of that movie theater and go play it on a slot machine is an exciting experience for us,” he said.
4 The rise of YouTube
Slot players have a much better understanding of slot machines and their mechanics than they did in the past, Hanlin said. Among the reasons is YouTube, where personalities have made thousands of videos showing off games and testing out their bonus rounds.
Hanlin said the need to monitor the pulse of slot bloggers and YouTubers was unheard of five years ago for manufacturers.
“But nowadays there is a groundswell of players out there who know the different manufacturers, who know the key mechanics in all the games and who have kind of evolved their knowledge of the games,” he said.
They also recognize the branding of various manufacturers.
“People know Aristocrat games,” he said. “They have a built-up expectation and we have to deliver to that.”
But Aristocrat has also seized on organic marketing. When it released its game Cashman Bingo in northern Nevada late last year, the game quickly showed up in YouTube videos, which Aristocrat shared on its social channels to drum up support.
“We could elevate that in that arena and get more player-based demand,” he said.
5 Leave the cash at home
Cashless technology for slot play is a technology that multiple gaming companies are developing.
Among them is IGT, which has a Resort Wallet feature in which people load money onto an account that can be accessed through an app on their phone when at a casino.
There are several ways they can load funds into their account, including paying a cashier at a casino or transferring funds electronically through their bank account, debit card or credit using the connected IGTPay feature. They can load money onto their accounts from anywhere, even before they arrive at the casino.
Michael Ratner, IGT’s director of product management for systems, and who specializes in cashless technology, said the company has had cashless gambling at some level for two decades, but there’s been increased focus on cashless tech and getting it into the casinos as consumer behaviors shift away from handling cash.
He said the pandemic has made consumers think about whether they want to handle cash or touch certain surfaces. Beyond that, he said, cashless technology was already being heavily used by other businesses even before the pandemic.
Ratner said he thinks cashless technology will start to gain steam and stick around as a payment option as consumers start to recognize that putting money into their slot machines using a phone app isn’t much different from how they might pay for their latte at Starbucks.
“I think once the lightbulb moment goes off, people will adopt this,” he said.