Casinos cannot rely on tried-and-true, mass-appeal slot machines to generate interest among the new breed of baby-boomer gamblers, according to a leading games designer.
"I look at the product that sits on your (casino) floor as a mini-movie. … Imagine a cineplex that didn't have a new movie every Friday night. That's what has happened to this industry," Joe Kaminkow, vice president of engineering and design for International Game Technology, said Thursday in his keynote speech at the third annual Technology & Gaming Conference at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel.
It was Kaminkow who 2½ years ago injected new life into worldwide slot king IGT, which was caught off guard when upstarts such as Aristocrat and WMS Gaming introduced video-based nickel slots that offered gamblers dazzling graphics, sounds, bonuses and multiline payouts.
Kaminkow was a former pinball wizard with Sega, where he spent 13 years designing such games as Jurassic Park, Michael Jordan, Batman and Star Wars.
Hired initially as "director of cool games," Kaminkow led IGT on a developmental surge of innovative, often name-brand slots. At the last two World Gaming Congress & Expos in Las Vegas, IGT premiered more than 100 games, including Addams Family, Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, Tabasco, Turkey Shoot and the Honeymooners.
"One of the challenges as (gaming) operators is that our player base has been aging," Kaminkow said. The composite slot player today is a 53-year-old woman who plays $100 per day, he said. That same woman 30 years ago was watching "I Dream of Jeannie" on TV, he said.
Casinos and slot makers further need to attract younger players, the so-called Generation X, with relevant themes such as IGT's Austin Powers game, he said. "I think there are ways to get people to gamble on machines that are not traditional gaming machines," Kaminkow said.
Kaminkow gambled in 1999 with a slot machine called South Park, themed after the raunchy, young-adult cartoon. The company was forced to abandon the concept after Nevada regulators expressed concern over its "slots-for-tots" appeal.
On the other hand, IGT is enjoying great success with recent releases Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Price is Right. "I'm not sure I know what the key to success is, but I know what the key to failure is, and that's trying to please everyone," Kaminkow said.
Today's cutting-edge slot machines are entertainment devices as much as they are gambling devices, he said. He noted that a traditional three-reel slot machine long the staple of casino floors might produce 15 different sounds whereas a new machine today might produce 700 sounds.
When a gambler sees one of these newfangled games, Kaminkow said, he wants them to first say, "What does that do?" Then, after playing it, he wants to hear them say, "Did you see that!"
Story by Joe Weinert,
Press Plus, Atlantic City.
