G2E 2016 SPORTS BETTING A sports betting panel again argued the
merits of legalizing sports betting. The 2016 Gallup survey reported that public approval rose to 63 percent approval, up from 42 percent in 2006. Each professional sport has a different audience. While football is the number one sport, crossing all age, racial and ethnic groups, the average baseball viewer is now an over-50 white male. Baseball does not hold the attention of younger viewers and the league could entice them with sports
betting opportunities. Until sports betting is legalized nationwide,
smart legislators and entrepreneurs must collaborate for business. In June 2015, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed legislation allowing out-of-state residents access to Nevada’s licensed sports books through sports betting investment funds. Nevada businesses may apply for
registration to establish betting investment funds for sports and racing at the state’s sports books. They resemble traditional mutual funds. The funds must be registered and managed in Nevada-using a Nevada bank
or financial institution-but are then open to out-of-state participants. Betters must be at least 21 and provide personal identification. Two questions arise from operating these funds. First, how much will players actually win after investing in specific funds they deem best suited for their needs? Also, how do operators determine whether they want customers to potentially win more money? There are many other questions to be
answered regarding sports betting programs, but AGA officials hope to resolve some of these questions with the next Congress in Washington.
for us is that we have had real customers come and look at our games.” Was there anything that stood out for the
visitors? Absolutely, said Bobby: “Three-Card Draw Poker has been the hit of the show for us. Though we have had a lot of good traffic on our other games, Three-Card Draw Poker has been great. Three Card Poker is the benchmark for table games out there, and our variant is Three Card Poker with a draw feature. Same basic game, but the player can draw a card. We have had half a dozen people say they are going to put it on their floor, so we have some good leads to follow up after the event is over. “The issue for table game vendors at G2E is that it is primarily a slot show; most of the products here are from slot vendors. I love this show though.”
Competition Interactive A new company formed from Steelman
Partners, Competition Interactive is at the forefront of the coming skill gaming wave. At the show they exhibited on a corner of Steelman Partners’ stand, and also had space outside the expo interior entrance to publicise their excellent game, Running Rich Racing. Competition Interactive’s Stephen Steelman explained the game’s origins to Casino International: “Paul Steelman has been doing architectural design for over 35 years, and as part of that he has been doing 3D animation of
GAMING STANDARDS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 1998, the Gaming Standards
Association (GSA) benefits gaming manufacturers, suppliers, operators, and regulators through standardization and educational programs. In 2016, the GSA updated five existing standards and released six new ones and is in the midst of addressing
his projects; a few years ago he got into character design and animation with some of his artists that wanted to branch off,” said Stephen. “Keith Winters brought me into the fold and a couple of years ago, we thought about how we could combine this with what we were already doing in casino design. We felt there was a need for new games and experiences. “I grew up here in Las Vegas and gambling
didn’t have a draw for me because I had video games. We would sit in my basement, play Super Mario Kart and drink beer. That was our Craps, that was where we got our buzz, and I feel casinos have lost some of that so we thought, what can we make that makes sense for this? So we created Competition Interactive with the idea of creating something that requires people to look up from their phones, engage with one another, compete with each other, and win real money. Outside of a slot tournament, there is not a lot going on on the casino floor – slots are single- player experiences. Running Rich Racing is designed to be a multiplayer experience, and when you play it you are racing the other people on the bank. We can link up to ten machines together, and you can even back bet, so you can have two people betting per machine.” You can clearly see the Mario Kart heritage
in its gameplay, and that is no bad thing considering it is one of the finest videogames ever to grace the small screen. Launching a skill
online standards. International adoption of standards is up
17 percent with 21 company partners. GSA standards are now used in 77 countries. All electronic gaming manufacturers have implemented 100 percent of the standards. Priorities in 2017 include: • Seeking manufacturers who support
“interoperability” to create collaboration and common understanding.
title with tournament play an innate part of the experience is a smart move – it is likely that tournament play will be what makes skill gaming fly in casinos. Expect to see a lot more of Competition Interactive in the future, not least in a forthcoming edition of Casino International.
TransAct
This company goes from strength to strength it seems. G2E saw TransAct unveil several new products, with new TITO printer Epic Edge leading the line. Tracey Chernay talked us through the new products: “We have announced several new products here at G2E 2016, the first being our brand new TITO printer, the Epic Edge. This is a brand-new printer we are adding to our line, adding the highest quality printing at 300dpi, multiple ticket sizes, and the ability to have all of the interfaces for the printer available in one board. The benefit of that is, many of our customers are integrated with Serial but as the develop, want to move to USB. So now they have both USB and Serial on the same board, so as they move to USB and new cabinets, this already has USB available. “Additionally, we have added ways to upgrade the printer with new firmware. We have replaced the Serial in port with USB 2.0, added an additional dedicated port for the ServerPort connection, which can also be used for
• Creating an industry-supported
transition plan from SAS to G2S. • Expanding GSA’s European presence. • Enhancing global communication. • Developing better relationships with the
Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM). • Launching the GSA e-learning portal to provide online training.
40 SEPTEMBER 2016
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