With video games comes a new era in gambling

Gambling is one of the most entertaining and at the same time, lucrative endeavors out there. People go to casinos or visit online gambling websites to have fun and shake off all the exhaustion they have collected during the day, but also to place wagers and win some money.

And even though the industry has never really lacked the big customer base, which was “pampered” with various bonuses and gifts like Australian casino reload bonuses, there are some concerns when it comes to the demographics. You see, slot machines and craps tables might be a great entertainment for Baby Boomers or Generation X, but Millenials are significantly different in their preferences.

In today’s casinos, you won’t be able to find just as many youngsters as older players whose childhood was associated with the development of those brick-and-mortar casinos. One can even say that they’ve been growing side by side.

As for the Millenials, they’re more of an action-loving generation. To them, entertainment is associated with skill, strategy, and a lot of action.

In light of this issue, many casinos are starting to rearrange themselves to account for younger generations. This includes offering more video games as a form of gambling.

Lacking new life
As we’ve mentioned above, the casino industry is steeped with older generations like Baby Boomers and Generation X. When it comes to Millenials, though, they seem to fail to attract them.

Even though major gambling venues like Las Vegas have been upgraded to the point where they not only offer gambling opportunities but also cover other areas of entertainment such as nightclubs, restaurants, sporting events and many more; and even though these possibilities are undoubtedly more appealing to youth, the industry still lacks the new blood.

When offering more diversified entertainment forms, Las Vegas and similar gambling sites actually inhibit their gambling-related revenues and divert them more towards those night clubs and restaurants. Youngsters might go to Vegas, but most of the time, they’ll opt for sporting events and nightclubs, not casino halls.

In 2014, among the visitors of Las Vegas, 24% were Millennials but only 63% of them were actually gambling. This compared to 78% of Baby Boomers and 68% of Generation X.

According to M. Meyerhofer, the Gamblit Gaming executive, “The majority of visitors to Vegas are under the age of 50, while the majority of those who play slot machines are over 50. Casino operators are seeing 100 percent of their floor wired for a population group that is no longer the majority.”

Obsolete technology
One of the main reasons why gambling sites are lacking youngsters is that the majority of games haven’t been updated to meet the requirements of today. For example, slot machines are still based on the exact same mechanism of pulling the lever to ring the reels and win, in case of getting the exact symbols in a row.

While there were some design changes in the game, the main idea has always stayed the same. “Millennials have grown up in an era of digital media and games. The passive experience of a slot machine does not resonate with them,” adds Meyerhofer.

Introduction of video games
As it turns out, things are starting to change in favor of casinos, as well as younger generations. In February 2016, Nevada and New Jersey passed legislation which allows casinos to introduce more skill-based games.

We can even say that things are moving fast, considering the rate at which the new legislation was passed: it was introduced in January 2015 and already in June the same year, it was signed. Everyone’s mentioning that there’s some kind of urgency to introduce new possibilities for new blood.

The idea behind the legislation is that game providers can now create video games that are:

• Skill-based;
• More action-packed;
• Include gambling capabilities.

With such arcade games as Angry Birds, Temple Run, or hard-core shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield, casinos will be able to attract millions of youngsters in their venues.

Besides, there will be more opportunities for not only playing the games but also to bet on others playing those games. Various casinos in Las Vegas are already including betting on esports in their establishments.

And with such online gaming tournaments as Fortnite World Cup or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive yielding millions of viewers around the world, attaching gambling capabilities to them will undoubtedly bring larger revenues to the industry.

Possible complications
Besides the positive effects, many analysts are warning about the possible negative consequences of such development. According to Tomer Perry, a research associate at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, introducing younger generations to gambling might create problems.

Perry believes that if conventional gambling is itself very addictive and causes psychological problems to gamers, then adding new video games that appeal to youngsters can propagate this problem to them as well.

At the end of the day, gambling is a form of entertainment that can be just as good as it can be destructive to a certain person. It depends on what you’re planning to do with that risk-taking endeavor.

Bringing new life to the industry can be as beneficial to casinos as to youngsters, who can find their favorite forms of entertainment in brick-and-mortar casinos, as well as their online websites and enjoy a little risk.