Foxwoods Resort Casino made a daring move to expand upon viewing Keno results from the web: making the results look and play like slot machines or blackjack hand. They call this system PlayAway. Unlike a slot machine or blackjack hands however, there is no skill or chance involved as the results are predetermined based on the Keno game results. State officials are calling it internet gambling:

“Clearly the impression when you first went into the web site was that this was online gambling,” said George Henningsen, chariman off the tribe’s gaming commission. “It looks like you’re playing. I know you’re not, but I can’t argue that it looks like it.”

I think this is a pretty ingenious move by the casinos to liven up the games. They have to keep moving the needle and making things more interesting or the players will go away. They know this and it’s too bad the progressive thinking isn’t as quickly understood by lawmakers.

Last month on vacation I noticed an increase in prominence in several Nevada casinos in promoting the convenience of checking Keno stats via the web. So the idea there is buy a ticket in the casino and watch the results from the comfort of the home. Haven’t seen these systems in the local area casinos, but it probably isn’t far away.

Some may think of this Foxwoods PlayAway move as a slippery slope towards full fledged internet gambling (which is a whole other subject in and of itself), but really have you seen how elaborate scratch cards have become? Some of them come from machines which look and behave almost exactly like slot machines. Plus they are in almost every grocery store and convenience store. Where is the complaining about these devices? Hypocrisy?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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