Skill based gaming to boost Nevada

With falling revenues over the last seven years of almost $2 billion Nevada are at the forefront of a new concept that could help boost the industry, it is called skill based gaming and regulations and rules drafted for the Nevada Gaming Commission to approve could be ready as early as October this year.

The introduction of arcade-style video games that would pay out winnings based on a gambler’s skill could be the right idea to attract the demographic that has turned its back on gambling on the 150,000 plus slot machines in Nevada, the “millenials” those born on or after 1980 are less likely to gamble than any other generation. Indeed on a recent survey conducted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority found that 63% of “millennials” born after 1980 gambled while visiting Vegas last year, compared with 87% of visitors 70 to 90 years old, 78% of baby boomers and 68% of Generation X members.

That is why manufacturers, slot game designers are soon to team up with those Xbox game developers and Playstation game makers to come up with video games that are skill based and will pay out on the success one has by maybe shooting aliens from another planet.

Currently no-one has come out with a payment structure for skill based gaming but many believe once testing and feasibility studies are completed a payment table will soon be there.

However slot machines will not disappear as there is still great interest for them in the older generation, what will happen is there will be “game zones” within casinos for skill based gaming.

How long before this is a reality depends on the all-important payment table, many observers believe this could be in draft for October and the Commission and finalised and approved in the second quarter of 2016. We could indeed see exhibition stands showing these new skill gaming machines by 2017.