27 Sep

Visiting a Real Casino to do what Online Gambling Sites do?

What would you think if I told you that you can now take a seat and play all of your favorite gambling amusements – slot machines, bingo, sports betting, even lottery tickets – on a single game screen, without ever having to move to a new seat? Chances are you’d think I was about to promote an online casino, where such multi-tasking is common. Not this time…

This technology has nothing to do with online gambling. It’s what land-based casinos may soon be delivering to their customers in a rather conspicuous attempt to compete with what today’s top online and mobile gaming sites are able to offer.

These new and highly versatile gambling devices have been introduced by JCM Global, bringing the popular modern-day form of multi-tasking onto the casino floor. The machines were unveiled on Monday at the 2016 Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, where their multifarious capabilities were exhibited in enthusiastic fashion.

The machines are so versatile, they allow players to do everything from spin the reels and play bingo, to partake in sports betting or redeem a lottery ticket. They can even conduct currency exchanges in real time, or instantly load, complete and print out a 1099 tax form to report a sizable win.

Ultimate Convenience For Casino Goers

multi-tasking slotmachines compete with online casinos

Nieman shows Las Vegas Review-Journal how JCM’s new multi-tasking slots work.

This marks the first time in brick-and-mortar casino history we could even imagine utilizing all of these functions without a player ever having to get up, change seats or visit a cashier window.

Why do we make people stand up and go across the room and find another room to go make a sports wager? Why do we send them off to go to the bingo hall?” asked JCM Global’s VP of Worldwide Marketing, Tom Nieman.

We make people do all these different things that people who like to play slot machines would like to do when they could do it from the same device,” he said.

Fuzion – Land-Based & Online Casinos Collide

JCM’s new technology, deemed Fuzion, works in the same way as online casino software programs. Instead of loading up a small computer program for a single slot game into a large cabinet, the developer installs a wide variety of games into one cabinet – akin to installing numerous computer programs on a desktop.

Fuzion combines back-end casino games content, electronic bill validation, sports betting kiosks, ticket in/out payment systems, and even the exact same technology you’d find at the local gas station that prints out lottery tickets, all in a single device.

It looks like a regular slot machine,” explained Nieman, but it’s so much more. “All of the newer games are all video based, so you’ve got a large video screen in the middle.”

Using Bluetooth technology, Nieman said the older slot machines – those without video screens – can be incorporated into the system as well.

You can take your smart phone, you tap it to the bill validator bezel, the plastic piece around the bill validator — and now your phone digitally plugs into the slot machine (via Bluetooth),” he said. “Now you’re carrying around a screen on your mobile device and you can do all of the things that you would be able to do on the video screen attached to the newer machines.”

Nieman said the ability to instantly issue 1099 tax forms could be the most prominent selling point for casino operators. “Nothing is a bigger pain for these guys when somebody hits that 1099 threshold that locks up a machine until an attendant and a key person come around, take the information, process it, go in the back room, get all your tax information, and then finally pays you off.”

It’s definitely a hassle for casino personnel, but even more so for players who just want to be paid and get back to gaming. “That process alone can take 20 minutes — and in those 20 minutes, the machine isn’t playing and the player isn’t playing.”

Before the new JCM Global Fuzion games come to a casino near you, they’ll have to be approved by regulators, and the company is hoping the Nevada Gaming Commission will be the first to take that step.

Nevada has always lead the way when it comes to innovation like this,” said Nieman. “And the message that is coming down from the Nevada Gaming Commission today is ‘what do we need to do to keep the technology fresh,’ and this is the kind of thinking that I think they want, the operator wants, and—eventually, if it’s convenient for the player, the player wants it.”