Gambling for a New Generation
Land based and online casinos alike have been experiencing a shift in the landscape of their player base in recent years and are finding that what has always worked in terms of casino games offerings for decades, may no longer appeal to a new generation of people.
This is a somewhat scary thought for many in the industry, especially when revenues are driven by the baby boomers generation who is aging and may need to spend their money elsewhere as they get older. And when young people are not playing slots at the casinos, it's time to take stock of your offering and do research into what they are actually interested in.
The overall concern is that the Millennials (those born in the 80's up to 2000's) are not really as interested in visiting casinos as previous generations were and the flatness of casino revenues (while still very impressive) is being attributed to this fact.
While slots developers are still doing their utmost to create games targeted at younger generations (think the various movie and comic book themed slots), they're finding that the few players visiting the casinos in this demographic are more interested in table games where they can use their own skills to beat the casinos ‐ or at least try to, leaving a significant gap in the slots market, which could be potentially very damaging for casinos in future.
The majority of Millennials however are more interested in playing social games, a trend that has caught the attention of gaming developers and posed the question "how do we bridge the gap?" which is leading to some interesting innovation in new generation casino games. We've recently seen developments in games that require purely skill-based play involving dexterity and problem solving ‐ in fact these types of games will make their way on the Las Vegas casino floors in the very near future and legislation has already been passed requiring a skill based element in new casino games. So soon we'll be racing a car against our friends to see how we do and if we can win and gambling on it.
According to those involved in the research and development of new generation casino games, younger players don't enjoy the idea of starting from scratch every time they play a game. They want an experience like those in video and social gaming that allows them to play and advance through levels, find out how they rank against their peers and find ways to beat them.
This type of thinking will drive gambling on devices which is referred to as adaptive or exponential gaming ‐ wherein the device will recognize who you are and retain your information/profile with your progress in a game on it so that you can pick up where you last left off and access new content and experiences as you progress through the game. The higher the level you will obtain the better odds and bigger payouts you'll be able to achieve.
While regulation surrounding these types of games is still non-existent, it is progressing in certain parts of the world and we're sure it will come into existence as gaming adapts.
It will be interesting to see where land based, online and mobile casinos are in 20 years and if they will be able to convert the next generation to slots players, or offer something else completely that will change the face of gambling as we know it forever.
One thing is for sure ‐ it will be a very exciting and interesting ride!