Gaming leaders to display products at G2E next week in Las Vegas

There’s no such thing as a sure bet in the gaming industry, but two manufacturers exhibiting at this year’s Global Gaming Expo believe they have the closest thing to it.

IGT, which continues to have a dominant presence in Nevada and will have the largest booth when G2E’s trade show floor opens Tuesday, will demonstrate one of its first skill-based games, Lucky’s Quest, to the more than 25,000 people expected to attend the industry’s largest gathering.

Las Vegas-based Scientific Games will unveil its new “Seinfeld”-themed slot machine with a special guest at its booth — “Soup Nazi” actor Larry Thomas.

The four-day show, which opens Monday at the Sands Expo and Convention Center with a series of educational sessions, is open to gaming industry professionals, but not the public.

A number of trending issues ranging from the arrival of e-sports and skill-based games to sports wagering and what November’s elections could mean to the industry are on the show’s education agenda.

The conference will have an increased emphasis on experiential learning and networking compared with previous years, said Andrew Ortale, vice president of industry services at the American Gaming Association, which produces G2E.

“We’re getting away from somebody getting up on a stage and giving a lecture and everybody just sitting there taking notes — we want it to be more exciting, more engaging,” Ortale said.“One of the things that is great about the gaming industry is a lot of times the leading expert is in the audience, not necessarily always on stage. We want to create more of an atmosphere of learning that is going to promote more of a two-way exchange so people are really getting a fuller picture.”

LAB WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES

As part of that effort, the G2E exhibit hall will include an innovation lab with demonstrations of new technologies and services, including e-sports, he said.

Former National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern also will make an appearance, speaking with American Gaming Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman about the future of sports wagering.

But the bells and whistles of the show will occur on the trade-show floor, where industry professionals will get their first look at some of the machines that will be on casino floors in years to come.

Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, said he expects to see the slot machines begin to blend with social casino games, like Slotomania or Zynga Poker on Facebook.

“All of these games are bleeding over into real-money slot machines,” Gros said. “There’s going to be a lot of changes, whether you can play on personal devices or devices that casinos supply. It’s going to be a real revolution at some point and this is just the start of it right now.”

Gros said while regulators have helped pave the way to permit skill-based games, the jury is out on whether the games will be able to sustain player interest and the extent to which casinos will profit from them.

“The Nevada regulators and the New Jersey regulators have really gotten out in front of this, they’ve changed the regulations to allow the operators and the manufactures to really develop games that are innovative and reward people for their skillful playing of the various games,” Gros said. “You’re not going to see the skill games on the video reels and things of that nature, but you’re going to see variations on video games.”

PICK YOUR REWARDS

Gros said part of the discussion is in what representatives of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers call “variable payback gaming.” Some games enable players to choose how they’re rewarded.

“Right now, they give you points on your player’s club card, they give you comps and things of that nature, but they want a system where the player can choose, ‘I don’t want cash back, I don’t want points, I want the best chance of winning at the game’ so they can raise their payback percentage and still make some money without having to give them comps or things of that nature,” Gros said.

That’s a feature in Lucky’s Quest, IGT’s game in which a purple dragon named Lucky is on a mission to find its kidnapped mother.

Jacob Lanning, vice president of international market strategy for IGT and the company’s leader in skill-based gaming, said the game begins simply with one wager and one character, but as players progress through different levels of the game with the help of in-game tutorials, higher levels of play are unlocked if a player is successful in achieving a series of goals.

New characters with special powers help players reach higher and more challenging levels.

That’s where the “dual currency methodology” can help upgrade characters that can increase payback percentage.

AND PURE FUN

Scientific Games’ “Seinfeld” game is pure entertainment on the casino floor.

Based on the nine-season show that TV Guide called “the greatest television program of all time,” the game features the likenesses of actors Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards as their “Seinfeld” characters, Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer.

Dan Savage, chief administration officer for Scientific Games, said the timeless appeal of the show and its successful run in five cycles of syndication are expected to make the game one of the company’s most successful titles.

The game’s bonuses include video references to some of the show’s funniest moments, including the Soup Nazi, Festivus and man hands.

Savage said the game will be presented on Scientific’s five-screen GameScape platform, which debuted at last year’s G2E. “This is the most innovative platform that we have and it’s perfect for presenting ‘Seinfeld,’” Savage said.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter. Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @JournalistNikki on Twitter.