Slot Machines Changing To Bring In Younger Players
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Slot machines are the biggest money makers for casinos, but now the "one-armed bandits" are making way for arcade-style video games to attract younger players.
The slot machines most with the letters and numbers that match up may be a thing of the past.
If you were born after 1980 experts at this year's gaming expo in Las Vegas say those young people are no longer playing the slots, they want arcade style video games.
With Vegas losing money on the slots gamers will soon get what they want along the strip, video games that pay out.
That means change could be on the way to the Pittsburgh area.
Rivers Casino General Manager Craig Clark says, "The slot machines are the foundation of our business and the majority of our customers, that's their gaming choice."
Clark says change is headed this way as well. "Soon you will see skill based games introduced, they were introduced in Las Vegas last week, and you will see them in markets like Pennsylvania."
"I don't like the video games they are talking about putting in," says Bonnie DeFilippi of Allegheny Township. "I don't know how to work the video that fast, probably to win anything on it, so I like to take my chances in the other machines like I always have."
The idea of arcade style games is aimed at attracting younger people who have been raised on smart phones, Xbox, Play Station, and mobile game apps.
The Pittsburgh market hasn't seen a drastic change but Rivers Casino says they're always updating, like the 3D machines in place.
Clark says to expect more, "We are putting the infrastructure in place for the future today, and we really are being ready for that evolution in the gaming industry that you will see over the next ten to 20-years."
The Meadows Casino in Washington says their slots paid out more than 12-million dollars last month.
So it looks like gamers in the Pittsburgh area still like the "one-armed bandit."
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