Atlantic City, NJ: Walk into a casino today, and chances are it won’t look much different than the 1942 movie Casablanca, when Humphrey Bogart made his way through a gambling table in a smoke-filled room.
Sure, slot machines are bigger, louder, and flashier than they were at the time. But the central fact is that the casino floor of today is no different from the casino floor of the past.
What the casino floor of the future should look like is a question the gambling industry has been grappling with for decades.
And there is still no definite answer to this.
The topic was discussed Monday at the East Coast Gaming Congress, a major gambling convention in Atlantic City.
One big question: how to arouse young people’s interest in what the casino has to offer.
Joe Lupo, president of Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Casino, told young adults it’s hard to get that kid out of his parents’ basement, and casino games aren’t going to do that.
The industry has tried several tactics to attract young gamblers with varying rates of success. Six years ago, Atlantic City introduced so-called skill-based games to its casinos.
They were games in which a player’s ability to perform a certain task was taken into account to determine whether he would win or lose the game, a departure from the strict random games of chance that had been gambling since its inception. Has been the backbone of the industry. .
But they were never actually caught, and most were quietly removed in less than a year.
Casino executives and gambling equipment makers agreed at Monday’s conference that young customers want varied experiences, far more than the monotony of pressing a button and seeing whether they win or lose.
The younger generation likes to do things, said Rick Metzler, CEO of gambling maker Novomatic America. They like to play on their phones. Ten to 15 years from now, you’ll see a 25-year-old turn 40 and become part of our target audience.
But can casinos wait that long?
Jacqueline Grace, senior vice president of Atlantic City’s Tropicana Casino, said her company is constantly studying young gamblers.
What appeals to them? He asked. What’s going on with them? They like a game of skill, not a game of chance. They like to eat. They like to travel. They like experiences.
Most casinos have adopted electronic table games, not only as a way to save on labor costs, but also to offer a less stressful introduction to games, especially card games, that may seem intimidating to the novice gambler. Is.
Panelists agree that sports betting and esports in particular, or competitive video gaming, provide an opportunity to connect with young potential clients.
Atlantic City, and Las Vegas in particular, have begun to embrace esports as a way to fill their casinos and hotels against one another with younger customers most interested in playing online games first. But when they’re done, they order food and drink and indulge in the non-gambling activities that casino resorts offer.
“We think esports is the next big thing,” said Robert Heller, president and CEO of Spectrum Gaming Capital. Every casino company I’ve talked to is interested. this is happening.
Ari Fox, co-CEO of esports tournament company GameCon, said the key is reaching younger customers where they are.
Young people don’t go on Facebook; They don’t play on Instagram, he said. They talk about discord. The key to earning them as customers is to earn their trust. He said gambling companies need to tell these customers, this is not where your parents go. This place is for you.
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Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at @WayneParryAC
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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