Are Skill-Based Slot Machines About to Go Viral?

Slot machines have always been some of the most lucrative businesses for casino operators in the United States, Europe and many other parts of the world. In fact, in Europe and America, revenue from the one-arm bandits usually account for close to two-thirds of the total taking of most casinos and the gaming industries as a whole.

As much as slot machines are still money machines for casino operators, there has been a growing trend of relative unpopularity of the machines among the younger generation of gamblers. This is a very worrying trend especially for casinos that would rather preserve their slot machine gaming revenues instead of opting to capitalize on other gaming verticals.

According to a recent Las Vegas survey, the age of a typical player of slots in around 58 as opposed to 36 for all casino-goers – this is almost terrifying. Fortunately, casino operators are looking for new, innovative and attractive ways to make slot machines more appealing to the newer generation of gamblers.

Revolutionizing Slot Machines

As it stands, most gambling authorities require that each slot machine offers the bettors equal probabilities of winning. Skill-based slot machines contraptions have long been a no-go zone for operators since the regulators fear that they are capable of feeding the “illusion of control” which can, in turn, result in gambling addiction.

So, is this about to change? Well, there is still a lot of debate about the implication of such a move. First off, combining slot machines with video games which rely on luck and skill respectively, present a ton of challenges for both the casino and slot software developers. In essence, the algorithms powering such hybrid systems are supposed to generate a mix of wins and losses that will keep the house edge while at the same time giving the gamblers reasonable opportunities to win. At face value, this is very straightforward but this applies purely to probabilistic slots and it is much harder for those where players skills are meant to improve their chances of winning.

In addition to all that, the gaming authorities in many places often dictate that the odds of winning cannot below a certain level. In most cases, this “returns to player” is usually around 75 percent of the total wagers.

Also, since skill-based games usually require concentration, the gamblers often take longer than the typical six-to-seven seconds typical of traditional casinos. This is not necessarily a bad thing since the casinos are still reaping huge profits and this is either because the gamblers are either wagering higher amounts or are staying at the slot machines for longer periods.