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This also includes the push for more gambling in an online environment. Lately, the biggest push is for online casinos. There are a number of "for fun" gambling sites in addition to sites that let you try your hand at earning some real world returns. Sites such as Netbet that offer up fun and exciting ways to get your gambling fix in. These types of sites provide a number of varied slot machine style games of chance. There tends to be something that will interest most everyone in the family, provided you're allowed to partake of such activities.
What spurred this big push towards online casinos and slots? Video games. I'm serious, it was video games that served as the inspiration. Back in 2016, the NY Times put up an article that said casinos are looking to video games in order to draw in millennials. Sure, millennials are now being blamed for the death of this industry or that restaurant chain, but just a year or two ago they were the quintessential group that casinos wanted every part of. What casinos found out were that millennials wanted more games of skill.
Tom Mikulich, senior vice president of business development at MGM Resorts International, which owns a number of Las Vegas casinos and resorts, including Aria, Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand and The Mirage, said the company was “excited” to attract a younger demographic of players and hoped to introduce various skill-based and arcade-style games inside its casinos by the end of this year.
Las Vegas casinos found that they needed to do more than simply add in fancy HD screens to their existing machines. They needed to come up with fresh ideas that engaged the minds of those who grew up with video games.
“Millennials have grown up in an era of digital media and games. The passive experience of a slot machine does not resonate with them,” Mr. Meyerhofer said.
The Los Angeles Times renewed this very discussion as recently as late April of this year.
"The generation weaned on adrenaline-pumping video games, mobile downloads and social experiences is turned off by the solitary passivity of traditional slots, where you push a button and hope for the best, gaming experts say. That’s prompting the casino industry — like countless other businesses — to evolve to suit millennials’ preferences."(...)
“The next generation of gamers — millennials and beyond — [has] been a big part of the discussion in the gaming industry: ‘What are we going to do about it? How are we going to attract them? How are we going to get them into the casino and gamble?’ But younger generations have never been a large part of casinos to begin with,” Alan Meister (from Nathan Associates Inc., an economic consulting firm) said.
“Casinos need to concentrate on their core customers, who are older. It’s not millennials right now, but going forward they’re going to be the customer base,” he said. “They don’t have as much money to spend now, but they will.”
“The next generation of gamers — millennials and beyond — [has] been a big part of the discussion in the gaming industry: ‘What are we going to do about it? How are we going to attract them? How are we going to get them into the casino and gamble?’ But younger generations have never been a large part of casinos to begin with,” Alan Meister (from Nathan Associates Inc., an economic consulting firm) said.
“Casinos need to concentrate on their core customers, who are older. It’s not millennials right now, but going forward they’re going to be the customer base,” he said. “They don’t have as much money to spend now, but they will.”
Another way in which casinos are trying to pull in the video game crowed is by taking a page from esports. Think what you will about calling competitive gaming tournaments a "sport," the esports scene has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. Games like Dota 2, [i]Counter-Strike: Global Offensive[/b], and League of Legends have paved the way for esports to become more normalized. We now see larger esports tournaments shown on ESPN. We also see games like Dota pulling in insane prize pools due to the ever growing support of veteran fans and the new fans that may have never known about the game if it wasn't for the growing acceptance from non-gaming persons.
To put it into some perspective, Dota's famous tournament, The International, began in 2011 with a total prize pool of just $1.6 million. This amount remained unchanged in 2012. In 2013, the game's developer had the idea to have the community help towards the prize pool amount and started to sell a special interactive compendium. The fans got an item, Valve received some money, and the prize pool increased. As a result of this move that total prize pool went up to $2.9 million in 2013. In 2014, the compendium returned and, thanks to the massive spike in popularity of Dota, the prize pool grew to a staggering $10.9 million. Not only did the grand prize winner pull in over $5 million, but this sum allowed payments to be given to the teams that placed 9th through 14th, something that did not happen in previous years. 2015 found the total prize pool hit $18 million. 2016's tournament broke records once more with a prize pool that hit $20.8 million, where all but $1.6 million was funded completely by the community.
This is a market that casinos want to tap into. One tournament managed to break records for largest cash prize payouts all due to the support of its community. That is massive and it's a market that casinos are taking a long look at. Despite some studies, it does indicate that millennials have a level of disposable income to spend as they see fit, but it doesn't mean that they will do so without getting something in return. The success of the Dota tournament is due to the fact that fans get something in return almost immediately. The developer knows that to attract more spending, they need to dangle little rewards in front of the consumer's face to entice them to take the bait. Some of these rewards are immediate while others are given over time, spoon fed to the consumer. This constant positive reinforcement makes them feel like they received more than if they had been given a lump sum of rewards. While they may have a greater sense of happiness at the start, they will not remain happy anywhere near as long as if their rewards are slowly drip-fed to them.
This is the hook that casinos are trying to capture. If they offer up incentives for the crowd raised on video games, they now have two avenues to reap the rewards. They have the esports fans that will constantly bet on the outcomes of esports matches. Those who analyze the history and methods of competing teams will be constantly rewarded by way of winning their bets, and they will be more likely to come back again in the future. Those who want more of a skill based experience are also being pulled towards casinos, such as those online, as they tend to offer more in the way of skill-based stimuli than the games of yesteryear.
According to Dr. Alamo, the draw of video games has already led a number of casinos in Las Vegas to look into introducing betting opportunities on e-sports — competitive online video game tournaments — as early as in the next few months.
“Imagine that you can walk into a Vegas sportsbook and you can either bet on an N.B.A. playoff game, or an e-sports game like StarCraft. Everyone is on board,” he said.
“Imagine that you can walk into a Vegas sportsbook and you can either bet on an N.B.A. playoff game, or an e-sports game like StarCraft. Everyone is on board,” he said.
There are, naturally, some things to be cautious about here. First off, there is a danger that using video games as the basis for slots and casino games may pull in those who are not legally old enough to gamble. This is a danger that needs to be carefully addressed by casinos, online casinos, and even by the family and friends of those that wish to partake of gambling, betting, e-slots, or online casinos. Remember to play smart and responsibly.
