The state of New Jersey has been working diligantly on reviving its floundering gambling industry, and resulting from those efforts it has now approved of a New York based firms proposal to place skill-based slot games in New Jersey casinos. The payout on these games has some level of luck, but more pertains to the player’s level of skill in being able to win money off of these games.
The new games will feature a map that will start out with a small tutorial to make sure that players understand how the controls work before starting. Players will have a brief amount of time to maneuver through the map in order to claim their prize. If they fail to do so, they won’t receive the full prize or perhaps any prize at all. The map will change each time, allowing for a new playing field and level of skill in order to continue.
The idea behind introducing slot games that have a level of skill to them is to bring in more millennial players, who have shown that they are less enticed by older style of slot games. Millennials grew up around video games so to them slot games have just been watered down money suckers, and this has taken a noticeable effect on the industry that is growing prominently worse each year as millennials that are supposed to take over the market are failing to do so.
By allowing for a level of skill, they will bring in more player involvement and will be able to release games that millennials will likely prefer. This does pose some potential problems for the industry though when adapting to these new forms of slot games.
For starters, they have to be careful of expert players. These players can become so good at the game that they can consistently beat the casino odds and profit off of them. If this becomes the case, it will develop career players that take a substantial cut from casino profits and who might teach other players how to beat these games.
Another worry is bugs and glitches that players might seek out in order to beat games unfairly. It’s not uncommon for video games to have issues that players exploit, and the more complicated that slot games become the more potential there is for an exploit that might go unnoticed by casino staff for quite some time before being resolved.
It will be interesting to see if the gambling industry keeps evolving and eventually introduces other forms of skill based games in order to adapt to the new market. First person shooter games would be an interesting choice, or arcade games that reward players with real money for exceptional gameplay. Perhaps what would be most interesting, and quite likely, is player versus player games that allows for the best players to win real money and the casino to take out their own small cut.
