Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Sounds shady to me, but I'm not much of a gambler.

Overall, I think server-based gaming will be a winner for casinos and players alike. The casinos will save a fortune in operating and maintenance costs, which pleases me as an investor. If managed correctly, players should benefit as the casinos will be able to provide a mix of games and denominations based on real-time demand. This will increase the number of popular games available for play, and allow the casinos to optimize their assets.

Of course, if casinos are continously changing games, payouts, etc., I do see a risk of them annoying or alienating regular players if they have to continually hunt all over the casino floor to find their favorite game.

I can see it now, new systems of when to play. I know some people believe the weekends are the worst time to play slots as their "tighter" vs. playing them on a Monday when their "filled up" and have to let go some of that money. Crazy theories or not, I can see new ones arising with these type of systems.

On a side note, as a person that gets comped once and while with free rooms and dinner I would be more likely to stay at that particular casino for a longer period of time if I received the comp while I'm playing versus receiving a comp in the mail.

Posted by mike_ch

Well, this story was less sensationalistic than the press release the other week.

There is nothing amazing happening at CityCenter right now, at least in this regard, despite the press releases and the hype. Basically a network installation similar to the IT installation at any large office, and that's all. They almost won't be able to open in time to be the first casino with this stuff either. They'll just be the first one to open with it ready to go from Day One, barring any delays.

One thing missing - there's a huge amount of static advertising for the various slot brands - how do you change that dynamically? Although there were portions of Wynn's floor where I wondered if this was already in place, some of the machine signage being very generic (slant-tops around the edges mostly).

But it's such a logical progression from the multi-game video slots it seems inevitable.

This decision makes sense for the gaming operators and will benefit both the players and the operators. A central system is much more easily regulated so casinos will have to obey all the rules on game paybacks and over returns to players. As a player it depends how they choose to set their odds, but I think as a technological advancement the operators are heading in the right direction.

Doc, I wondered about the same thing, asked around about it at the last G2E and couldn't get substantive answers. Maybe the slot makers themselves haven't figured that one out yet.

Posted by mike_ch

Doc, are you talking about the glass? Becuase the glass on the kinds of machines we're talking about is very generic. The marquee is a display screen and everything. TI has had some around for a while, and I know Wynn and Hilton have some too.

mike_ch, that's part of what I was referring to. Again taking the Wynn floor as an example, there are some fairly anonymous penny/nickel video slot games that have a generic "wynn" glass above them. These would be easily handled by your central server.

The other side of the coin are the "wheel of fortune" slots, or things like branded "MIB" or "Star Wars" slots, where the theme is a big driver and there is a lot of unique signage. Or consider the large "Blazing 7s" area in Flamingo by the sports book.

I guess the system could handle that (with addition of static signage for promotions), it's just not that useful if you're not really going to offer variety in those areas.