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Legislation

US – Skill-based slots edge closer with ‘legal language’ approved

By - 7 September 2015

Skill-based slot machines boasting brands such as Angry Birds and Battleships have moved a step closer to gracing slot floor in Las Vegas.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has recommended legal language that would allow slots with a skill element allowing players to win through a combination of talent and luck.

Observers believe the new fangled slot age could get underway as early as next year with there now being only one more regulatory vote in its way.

The proposal would also loosen the laws for slot themes. It aims to stop the current decline in slot machine revenue, and bring generational shift to the demographic of the casino customer. No content will be allowed that is obscene or likely to offend based on race, religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation. Slot manufacturers won’t be allowed to develop brands that target people under the age of 21 but they will be allowed to make slots more in line with what younger generations are playing on the smart phones.

With an eye on this, Gamblit Gaming has been developing skill-based slots using brands such as Angry Bords and battleships. Its CEO Eric Meyerhofer said of this latest recommendation: “The store is open for business.”

He believes the new style games will be introduced by mid-2016.

A five-member regulatory board will now discuss the new language at a hearing in Las Vegas on September 17.

Known as Senate Bill 9, the proposal has been pushed forward and sponsored by the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers. Senate Bill 9 allows for variable-payback percentages in slot machines to enhance the player experience by bringing true skill-based gaming, arcade-game elements, hybrid games and other unique features and technologies to the casino floor for the first time. Variable-payback percentages would, for example, give all players a base game with an 88 percent payback, but if a player is particularly skilled at shooting down enemy planes in the bonus round or outracing their friends in a road rally, they could boost payback to 98 per cent, with the blended overall payback selected by operators falling somewhere in the middle.

AGEM has been represented by attorney Dan Reaser of Fennemore Craig. Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Somps, presented similar changes to Regulation 14, which oversees the new slots. However the language governing the gaming sections, the skill sections and the social gaming sections has needed unifying.

Regulators have also wanted the slot sections to include breakdowns of the various skill-based elements involved in the game so players can get to grips with how they can use their skill to boost bonus points and prizes. Game designers have had concerns that this will require too much detail. your payback to 98 per cent, with the blended overall payback selected by operators falling somewhere in the middle.

The agreement and recommendation of the legal language is a major breakthrough.
Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett said: “This is the most important regulation I’ve worked on in 17 years. This is a turning point that could reinvigorate the slot machine floor.”

In a recent report on the skill-based development Pete Trombetta of Moody’s Investors Service said: We believe a skill-based slot product is a positive development for Nevada, the US gaming sector overall and slot manufacturers. The real test will be whether or not a skill-based slot product will be enough to encourage a younger demographic, a consumer group that is showing less interest to spend their time and income on casino games of pure chance, like slot machines, than previous generations.”

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