US industry ponders future of casino floor
Gaming powers try to attract younger gamblers
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Walk into a casino today, and chances are it won’t look that much different than it did in the 1942 movie “Casablanca” when Humphrey Bogart made his way through the gambling tables in the smoke-filled room.
Sure, the slot machines are larger, louder and flashier. But the central fact remains that the casino floor of today is not all that different than the casino floor of yesteryear.
What the casino floor of the future should look like is a question the gambling industry has wrestled with for decades.
And it still has no definitive answers. The topic was discussed Monday at the East Coast Gaming Congress, a major gambling conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
One big question: How to get young people interested in what casinos have to offer.
Casino executives and gambling equipment manufacturers agreed
younger customers want varied experiences, much more than the monotony of pushing a button and waiting to see whether they’ve won or lost.
“The younger generation likes to do things,” said Rick Meitzler, CEO of gambling manufacturer Novomatic Americas. “They like to play on their phones. Ten to 15 years from now, you’ll see that 25-year-old become a 40-year-old and part of our target audience.”
Jacqueline Grace, senior vice president of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino, said her company is constantly studying younger gamblers.
“What appeals to them?” she asked. “What gets them going? They like games of skill, not games of chance. They like to eat. They like to travel. They like experiences.”
Atlantic City and Las Vegas have begun to embrace esports as a way to fill their casinos and hotels with young customers interested first and foremost in playing online games against each other. But when they’re done, they order food and drinks and engage in non-gambling activities that the casino resorts offer.
“We think esports is the next big thing,” said Robert Heller, president and CEO of Spectrum Gaming Capital. “Every casino company I’ve talked to is interested. This is happening.”