Communal slots could pave path to legalized internet gambling in US |
Perhaps my investment last year in IGT is already starting to bear fruit with the advent of slot machines that allow multiple players to share in the winnings. They’re calling these new one armed bandits communal slots, but my interest in them is monitoring a seed in legalizing and taxing global gambling proceeds.
Pictured: Reel Deal Vegas by PhantomEFX (not real online gambling)
IGT now offers an Indiana Jones-themed multiplayer game, Rogich said, while rival WMS Industries Inc. is marketing its Monopoly Big Event communal slot product.“A powerful and developing trend over the next two years will be the movement toward multi-station, communal play gaming devices,” Merrill Lynch analyst David Anders said in a note.
Aristocrat’s Oneile said multiplayer slots could eventually integrate into a network environment, known as server-based gaming, which is heralded as the next big advance in gambling technology and would allow casinos to download the latest games from a central server onto individual machines.
What’s another word for online gambling? Server-based gaming sounds awfully close to me.
As I’ve written before, I strongly believe online gambling will be legalized in the United States. I predict it will happen within the next 3-5 years, despite the numerous recent stories cracking down on online gambling and making it a Class C felony here in my home state of Washington. I want that revenue taxed so the money can be used to put computers in the hands of every student in America. I don’t know how much longer cigarettes will be around to tax — not that they will ever go completely away, but they have certainly become less popular — so they had better get some other vice at least in the hopper to tax. Internet gambling seems like as good a target as any. While at the tax table, I’d add legalizing marijuana too.
Nevada will lead the way on the internet gambling legislation. Wait and see. What other state besides Nevada is progressive enough to turn this around? Won’t be Washington state, that’s for sure.
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This is pure genius. By creating group excitment around a slot machine, they’ll be able to replicate one of the major draws of the crap table. No longer is it one vs. the house, it’s us vs. them. It would not surprise me to see this as the dominate slot technology in five years.
Comment by Davis Freeberg — November 21, 2006 @ 1:09 pm PST
It’s interesting that in casinos like Steve Wynn’s place they already were running out random cash awards to players as long as their player’s cards were inserted. This communal slots thing takes it to an even more niched area: themed slots.
Comment by TDavid — November 21, 2006 @ 1:15 pm PST