Following the Australasian Hospitality and Gaming Expo at Australia’s Gold Coast last week, slot machines have become a hot topic in the press. Articles range from comments made on the amount the New South Wales government collectss annually from gambling taxes, Queensland’s plans to make leaving children alone in order to visit a casino or pub a criminal offence with possible jail sentence, the unlikely success of a compensation suit by Tattersall’s or Tabcorp against Victoria and even a compilation of the best and worse returns on play in NSW.

However, it is the search by slot machine manufacturers for new games to attract the younger generation that has come in for the most comment and criticism. Apparently Generation Y – those in their late teens and early twenties – are easily bored and current slot machine play is of little interest to them. At the Expo’s Future Trends in Gaming conference it was suggested that younger players, familiar with the great graphics and excitement of computer gaming, demand more challenging slot machines.

More variety, group activities, tournaments and the ability to adjust the machines to suit the player are seen as the way forward. This move to update slot machines for the younger generation has of course been criticised by the antigambling lobby on the grounds of enticing teenagers into problem gambling. Overcoming the boredom factor will be a challenge in future slot machine game design, and the trend towards table play by younger people shows that something more than pressing buttons is required. (E-04.16.08)

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