[toc]Video game gambling machines keep expanding their reach in Atlantic City casinos.
This month, GameCo, the leading developer of VGMs, announced the debut of Pharaoh’s Secret Temple at four casinos:
The new VGM offering adds to an existing lineup of GameCo products that first appeared in Atlantic City casinos last December. Pirates Gold Studios worked with GameCo to produce this new, Candy Crush-style game.
GameCo: ‘Committed to providing unique and engaging content’
CEO Blaine Graboyes said Pharaoh’s Secret Temple is a sign that VGMs are becoming more popular:
“As skill-based gambling offerings are introduced to casino players, continuing to broaden our VGM catalog with new games that address multiple video game genres is a top priority for GameCo, and we believe a critical deliverable to help drive new revenue on slot floors.
We are committed to providing unique and engaging content that will appeal to current casino players and attract new audiences, by developing a variety of relatable video game gambling experiences that feature familiar entertainment based on popular brands from movies, TV, video games, and casual style games.”
The rollout of Pharaoh’s Secret Temple is one of many expected this year, the press release said.
VGMs appeal to millennials
GameCo first revealed its plans to launch VGMs last September at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
The announcement was somewhat surprising, considering that a real marriage between gambling and video games had yet to appear in American casinos. Despite the lack of precedent, GameCo was confident its innovation would succeed.
In the wake of GameCo’s initial VGM rollout, the Associated Press wrote:
They are aimed squarely at millennials and those who like playing games on social media networks or on their phones, and who may be less inclined to play traditional push-button slot machines.
Survey confirms GameCo’s focus
The Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton University released a study just a week before last year’s gaming expo concluding millennials have a distaste for the traditional forms of casino gambling.
Their idea of a good time, the study said, has nothing to do with sitting in front of a slot machine and pressing buttons for hours.
“Millennials, the nation’s largest population group, enjoy spending money on dinner and drinks or dancing and nightclubs, and would more be attracted to slot machines if playing them involved an element of skill,” the study read.
GameCo’s VGMs seem to be meeting that need. Danger Arena, the first VGM featured in American casinos, combined betting with 45-second rounds of a basic shoot’em-up video game.