Multi-Tasking Slots Kiosks the Next Big Thing in Casinos?

Land-based casinos provide an abundance of gambling experiences across a vast gaming floor. Online gambling operators offer the same variety, making them available on desktop and laptop computers, as well as smartphones and tablets. A new slots design from a Japanese manufacturing company is merging the two via slots kiosks.

JCM Exec Tom Nieman (right) shows off new slots kiosks at G2E Asia

These new multi-tasking slot machines, called Fuzion, were proudly displayed by Japan Cash Machine Co Ltd (JCM) at the annual Global Gaming Expo Asia. The annual G2EA is one of the largest industry exhibitions and conferences on the continent, attended by all major operators in the gambling industry.

Tom Nieman, Vice President of Marketing for JCM, told GGRAsia the new slots design is the company’s “most important breakthrough…in quite some time”.

JCM showed off the extensive capabilities of the new slots kiosks. They are able to perform a wide variety of betting tasks. Aside from playing a multitude of casino slots, users can also purchase and redeem of lottery tickets, place bets on sports and racing events, and participate in daily fantasy sports betting.

The new machines can accept multiple currencies, and facilitate an instant currency exchanges as needed. The machines even offer obligatory tax forms for high-volume winners that can be filled out and submitted directly from these slots kiosks.

“The early response has been very strong,” said Nieman, who extolled the new technology’s ability to be “more productive” than any previous design concept.

“We took the time to talk to customers and understand the challenges they face,” explained the JCM executive. After brainstorming their responses, the end result was “the idea of turning slot machines into a gaming kiosk that sells multiple things, not just slot machine entertainment, but it could sell sports book, lottery and so on.”

Instead of displaying a single game screen, the new slots technology displays a screen filled with game titles and other menu options. It’s similar to a computer or tablet device in the way it displays a selection of apps on the desktop screen.

This latest innovation can be best described as the land-based casino industry’s first genuine foray into mimicking the convenience of online gambling. In this case, it’s actually more convenient than most iGaming websites. It offers so many wagering capabilities from a single screen, whereas the average online gambler would have to log into various websites to access casino games, sports bets, DFS, lottery, etc.

Of course, these machines aren’t the hand-held variety, and you can’t take them home with you. Players will have to visit a land-based casino to make use of them. But as Rob Tercek, founder and President of General Creativity Consulting, explained during a one-day innovation conference in Las Vegas earlier this week, the land-based casino industry absolutely must innovate to survive.

Tercek spoke of many other industries that he described as being “vaporized” by digital technology. Movie rental stores, land line telephones and travel agencies have already been consumed by advancements in technology. Casinos could suffer the same fate if they can’t find an innovative way to keep customers walking through the doors, instead of turning to mobile social gaming and gambling.

While these new slots kiosks could be the answer, JCM is still awaiting approval of the design by regulators in various markets, and that could take quite some time.

“As excited as we are, we can’t make it happen sooner unless we have the [casino] operator pushing for it,” said Nieman. “In certain markets we have that, in others we need to go and win an operator over to support that.”