October 4th, 2012
Via VegasChatter, a report on the recent G2E show and what it indicated about social gaming:
Yeah, yeah. Slot machines. G2E. Famous people. G2E. Stuff. G2E. The Global Gaming Expo isn’t only about what we’re going to see on the casino floor, no matter how interesting that is to most of us. G2E is a time for the casino business to look back at how their business has been doing since they met last year and a chance to look forward to how the business will change (or if it will remain the same).
Slot machines get a lot of the attention because many of the themes are familiar and because they cover over half of the casino floor. This is valid and fair. However, casinos can’t just rest on the laurels of this one revenue source. Casinos are are always looking for new ways to extract a dollar from us.
While our takeaway from a panel discussion earlier this week was how long the average slot machine bonus round was, the purpose of the discussion was actually how to extract the most money from the casino player with bonus rounds and free play. We get it. These casinos don’t build themselves.
Last year, we told you to expect a lot more casino games on Facebook. Since that time, “social gaming” has become the buzz term of all gambling buzz terms. We noticed that there was less innovation on the G2E expo floor and it’s, in part, because the focus of innovation has been on both social and mobile gaming. The ultimate goal is that a casino will still be your casino either when you’re on the couch at home or in Las Vegas. Mobile gaming is already a part of your life with mobile sports betting apps. That’s just the pre-curser of what’s to come as mobile gaming continues to develop.
MGM Resorts is riding the social gaming wave with MyVegas. You can earn prizes from slot games and they can earn money by selling slot tokens. Expect that to change in the future when online gaming gambling becomes legal in Nevada and then the rest of the country. Online poker is ramping up to be legalized in Nevada and that’s really just another form of social gaming. In fact, online poker can probably be called the “Granddaddy” of social gaming.
The future began with social gaming last year and it’s finally catching on with the big wigs at the casinos and casino game manufacturers. Look for this to continue to grow while casinos try to capture your attention before you visit Las Vegas. In the meantime, we’re going to find out how we can make our house smell like Mandalay Bay.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2012 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
