Iconic and beloved slot machines have always been a major source of revenue for most casinos, generating about at least two-thirds of profit. However, slot machines popularity as well as land-based casinos popularity has been on a steady decline in North America, causing some concerns among the industry leaders who are on a constant lookout for revenue boosts.
One of the reasons why slot machines are experiencing popularity decline is purely demographical. Apparently, slot machines appeal mostly to older individuals, while most Las Vegas visitors are below this threshold. More precisely, according to Las Vegas surveys, average age of slot machine players is around 58, compared to 36 for all other casino visitors.
A lot of young adults prefer a more advanced levels of entertainment. Hitting a button and waiting to know if you won or not is not ample entertainment for most millennials. On top of that, land-based casinos popularity has dropped more than 15% in the past few years, an expected outcome after online casinos like https://betsafe.com/ca/ are becoming a new preferred choice for younger gamblers.
Millennials don’t really care for land-based casinos
Casinos are looking for new and unique types of gambling to get millennials interested. Millennials grew up playing X-Box, Wii, and Nintendo. These technology-fond players prefer playing games that boast clear audio, identifiable brands, pleasurable themes, and stunning graphics. This generation also wants an attractive and simple-to-use interface and top-notch security protocols, because they are concerned about their privacy.
Millennials might be the reason why casinos will be forced to invest in challenging skill-based games instead of recycling the same old slot machine themes and gameplay. Poker and other table games never go out of style, but slot games are something different.
Developers have already started to address this problem with introduction of arcade and videogames in their portfolio, some of which feature recognizable characters, skill-based mini games and other trills that millennials can relate to.
Younger generations appreciate new technologies
Blockchain, virtual reality, and augmented reality will bring a positive effect for online casinos. Particularly, virtual reality is one way to transform the average online casino experience for the player. For all the benefits VR brings, it is to be expected that major operators will try to bring this experience to their players in the following years. Moreover, games like virtual reality poker will certainly attract younger generations more than the classic online poker. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and Internet of Things is another set of technical concepts that might be used in the future by casinos for creating new and appealing experience for young players.
Video game machines as a logical solution
While AI, VR and ML might sound cool and promising, they are far from being used on a massive, mainstream scale, at least not any time soon. Video game machines on the other hand are a possible alternative to slot machines. Gaming industry understands that they will be in trouble if they don’t get onto something soon, and start appealing to younger generations. Skill-based slot machines are promising and logical step forward in the evolution of classic slot machines we’re all used to.
Future slots will probably be much closer to console games or even social gaming. Social gaming such as Plants vs. Zombies, Candy Crush, and Angry Birds has become extremely famous throughout the years. Such games walk the fine line between being both simple enough and entertaining for the average person, two very important traits.
