From his small office at the back of the Treasure Island Casino, Justin Beltram will soon be able to change the wheel of fortune in seconds.Mr. Beltman, a casino executive, is the man through which this high-end technological experience is going to change the face of slot machines. With a few mouse clicks, Mr. Beltram can reprogram sixteen connected slot machines out of the 1790s in the casino. It can change the minimum and maximum bets, the payout rate, and even the games.
Las Vegas keeps coming up with new features for its slot machines, which generate over $ 7 billion each year in Las Vegas, about double what the table games generate. Despite their growing popularity and the growth of the casino games market in recent years, casino operators want to get more returns on the money their customers spend elsewhere: on food, accommodation and other entertainment, or on online games.
In the past, modifying a slot machine was a complicated operation which involved opening the seal of the slot machine, replacing the electronic circuit of the slot machine and then modifying the decoration of the slot machine which displayed the theme of the machine. This change usually took a whole day and could cost thousands of dollars, between parts and labor.
“Now I just have to select the program on my computer” said Mr. Beltram, “and it takes me 20 seconds”.
This concept is being tested over the next few months under the leadership of federal gambling malaysia trusted online casino regulators. If regulators approve this system, casino operators will be able to centrally adjust slot machine games to suit different player populations: older and more regular players during the day, and younger players and tourists. to higher budgets overnight.
It also means testing customer confidence at the same time. Some critics believe this system is just one step away from online slots.
Mr. Beltam insists that he is not going to change the payout rates in a haphazard way, which he believes would be bad for business and player confidence. The development of these new machines corresponds to the ever increasing convergence between games of chance and technology. Slot machines, although possessing high-level mechanisms, are now computer programs that can be used to play on slot machines offering up to 25 paylines, with credit card types that have referred to forgotten the tokens, the pots used in the past. Soon, technological progress will be made on 3D animations, high definition of image and sound to further immerse players.
But these advances raise some eyebrows, the regulators in particular do not want the casino operators to be able to modify the redistribution rates too easily. According to the director of the Gambling Research Center at the University of Las Vegas, Mr David G. Schwartz: “Say you play on a slot machine at 2 o’clock and you get it right, and when you come back at 6 am, the redistribution rates have changed: that would pose a real ethical problem ”. Mr. Schwartz is also concerned that some players may benefit from advantageous payout rates because they are regular customers, or high players, thus making gambling unfair according to the player.
By law, casinos in Nevada (the state where Las Vegas is located) must have a payout rate of at least 75% on slot machines. The reality is that this payout rate is rather around 90%, according to casino operators, although they do not publish these figures. Also, by law, they cannot change this payout rate when someone is playing online casino malaysia. The state allows them to change the payout rates after the machine has not been used for several minutes, and they must not allow anyone to play it for several minutes. During this time, the screen should show the change made in the game configuration, says Mr; Travis Foley, the manager responsible for the ongoing experimentation in the Treasure Island casino.
Normally, these changes are made in the middle of the night, when there are few players in the casino. Mr. Foley says that technology “accelerates change” but that this is not a new ability. The main objective, according to Mr. Beltram, is to quickly satisfy a player’s request. He cites the example of this big player from Rhode Island.
He wanted to play slot machines with high stakes, the Double Diamond slot machine at $ 25 a stake. The electronic circuit was ordered and the machine could be installed after 24 hours, whereas with this new system the slot machine could have been ready within an hour.
Another use of this system would be to adapt the games to the clientele: during the day there are a lot of regulars playing video poker, while in the evening we need more slot machines.
Most casinos already connect their slot machines and can monitor their performance live on a central server. The difference is that this would be the first time that casinos could send information to slots, rather than just receiving it.