Casinos are Eager to Attract Millennials, Innovative Gambling Devices Launched

Among the biggest dilemmas in front of the massive $70 billion American casino industry is this: how to attract the millennials to slot machines. We are talking about a generation that is raised on smartphones and video games and has little or no interest in sitting before screens when they’re seeking entertainment.

 

Reports suggest that there is a huge drop in the number of visitors who are actually gambling in Las Vegas. At the same time, an increasing number of people are going to other attractions, especially nightclubs. There is a 23 percent drop in the count of casino slot machines since 2001. These machines account for a chunk of the gambling earnings in America.

 

These disappointing figures explain why Mr. Eric Meyerhofer, former owner of a ticket printers manufacturing company, launched Gamblit Gaming, with his partner. The company has been manufacturing gambling devices that would attract the millennials and get them interested in betting. The Glendale-based firm has products which appear less like slot machines, while greatly resembling arcade games. These products have been laid out in major casino operators like MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corp. for nearly a year.

 

Today, skill-driven slot machines, manufactured by startup Gamblit and others such as GameCo Inc., Scientific Games Corp. and International Game Technology Plc, account for nearly five hundred of the approximately 982,000 gambling devices available in Canada and the U.S. This statistic was revealed by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming LLC, a market research organization. However, casino operators claim that the games will be added because new customers need to be lured. Some are calling them the ‘Gen-Y’ games.

 

The original vision of Meyerhofer was to get copyrights for a range of interactive betting devices which he could ultimately license to key manufacturers.

 

One of the signature games of Gamblit is a unique video poker gaming table which seats a maximum of 4 players. These players compete to find out who would be the fastest to catch cards popping up at the center. These devices have reportedly become quite popular among various groups of people. Meyerhofer informs that players enjoy it even more when they are competing with strangers or unknown people.

 

Since it takes longer to play Gamblit’s games as compared to traditional slot machines, the bets turnaround is slower i.e. 45 seconds (Gamblit) vs. approximately 6 seconds (slot machine). Certain regulatory concerns have also come up in the operations of these new games.