by
Buddy Frank
What’s the most popular slot game? “Dragon Link?” “Wheel of Fortune?” “Dancing Drums?” “Buffalo Gold?” Maybe surprisingly, there’s a game that generates three times the revenue of all of those – and all other slots – combined: video poker. Granted, that’s somewhat misleading, since video poker revenues come from thousands of games rather than the strong individual performance (Win/Unit/Day) of a single theme. In the most recent Eilers-Fantini Game Quarterly Performance Database, which covers over 130,000 slots and 185 casinos in North America, a full 8% of all games surveyed were video poker. In Nevada, that number explodes to 27%.
Darnell Johnson, IGT’s Director of Video Poker Product Management, estimates that there are 96,000 video poker games north of the Rio Grande. These numbers are even more impressive when you consider that outside of Nevada, the games have a hit-or-miss following. The game is even popular without betting: IGT’s VideoPoker.com free play website has 440,125 registered users – and no cash wagering.
|
|
by Frank Legato
In one of the very first installments of
Frank Floor Talk, we looked at the changing face of video poker, and how the game’s dominant developer and supplier, International Game Technology, was bringing new players to a venerable product.
Since it’s been more than a year since that video poker snapshot, it will be instructive to do the first of what will be an annual update on the subject — as with the first entry, courtesy of IGT’s resident guru on the subject, Director of Video Poker Product Management Darnell Johnson.
First, a little author’s note, if you will: We normally seek out several supplier sources for articles about a particular game genre. However, in the case of video poker, realistically, the list pretty much stops at IGT, as it has since the manufacturer introduced the first casino video poker machines in the late 1970s—before IGT founder Si Redd’s company was even called IGT.
|
|
by
Buddy Frank
The U.S. Department of Treasury has never been good at meeting deadlines. Just weeks ago, they announced they will miss their latest 2020 target for a new $20 bill by eight years. It’s nothing new. They missed the promised date on the last $100 note upgrade by more than a year. While there may be some folks who this lack of timeliness bothers, it won’t be anyone in the slot world. At best, a new bill design means a fair amount of labor and administrative work to update the software provided by each slot machine manufacturer for their respective bill validators. Worst case: you could be forced to buy all new bill validators. That happened a few years back when a flurry of new bills was introduced that maxed out the memory of older validators from JCM, MEI and others.
New $100 bills were launched in 1996 and 2013. Redesigns for $20 bills came in 1998 and 2003. The $5 bills and $10 bills came in 2000 and 2008 and 2000 and 2006 respectively. The $10 note was the one that triggered the most replacements. However, each of the validator manufacturers responded with new models that were both faster, better and had a lot more memory. That, combined with no new bills in the last five years, has meant a period of relative calm.
|
|
Top-performing game title per Supplier (trailing 3 months).
Click here
or the chart below to see the full ReelHot index.
|
|
Upcoming Industry Events of Interest
|
|
Atlantic City, NJ
- 06/12/2019 - 06/13/2019
The East Coast Gaming Congress & NexGen Gaming Forum is a two-day conference that takes place at the Harrah's Atlantic City Waterfont Conference Center and will focus on the "Dynamic Convergence of Gaming". New for 2019 - three tracks: Sports and Gaming,Gaming Ops, and Gaming Market Analysis. the conference will also feature our first-ever Leadership ThinkTank.
|
|
UNR Redfield Campus, Reno, NV
- 06/17/2019 - 06/20/2019
This comprehensive course will examine maximizing the value-added contributions of the surveillance department while focusing on processes beyond the technical and operational functions of the department. Develop techniques to leverage the strategic role of the surveillance department in serving and protecting the entire gaming property.
|
|
Santiago de Surco, Peru
- 06/19/2019 - 06/20/2019
The Peru Gaming Show is the international gaming fair with the highest concentration in Latin America. We welcome all of our visitors and invites you to participate in our 17th edition which will be held on June 19 and 20, 2019 at the Jockey Exhibition Center in Lima Peru. #PGS2019
|
|
Webinar - 06/21/2019
Ask yourself three questions: • Does your Tiered Card Program burden you with layered costs? • Do the benefits reek of entitlement? • Are players falling through your programmatic cracks? This webinar: • Shows you how to evaluate your earning thresholds. • Reconsiders the value of each benefit. • Reinvents how reinvestment is channeled to your customers.
|
|
Songdo, South Korea - 07/17/2019 - 07/18/2019
Over 100 leaders from the most established integrated resorts, entertainments, gaming manufacturers, academia, and government entities will gather to debate key issues facing the gaming industry in Asia. The Korea Gaming Congress will be a gathering of intellectuals and global leaders of the gaming and integrated resorts to earn an in-depth vision and a better understanding of the lucrative Asian market. KgC will serve as an educational forum for discussing how gaming policies in Asia, particularly Korea, differ from major gaming jurisdictions in the world.
|
|
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas - 07/23/2019 - 07/25/2019
From mega-company consolidation to hi-tech innovations, the gaming industry is evolving and changing in new ways every day… and now so is the Casino Marketing Conference. At the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference you will be immersed in all aspects of gaming promotions and marketing initiatives including the latest technical innovations and advances that support casino marketing goals with technology.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
