Rolling the Dice on InnovationKategorie: Liczba wpisów: 1, liczba wizyt: 79 |
Nadesłane przez: MarigoldLarkins dnia 25-02-2024 14:12
Man, I still remember the buzz when Mark Frissora, the big boss of Caesars Entertainment, started his gig last year. He was walking through his casinos, right? And he's seeing these slot machines collecting dust. The regulars are getting older, and the young blood? They're just not into the whole slot machine scene. It hit Mark like a ton of bricks – this was no joke, the casino biz was staring down the barrel of a real crisis. So, he gets the wheels turning at Caesars, pushing everyone to get creative and whip up this rad 'casino within a casino' concept aimed at the millennial crowd, you know, the ones who are glued to their video games and phones https://casinostown.com.
And it's not just Caesars. Over at the infamous Las Vegas Strip, Jim Murren from MGM Resorts International – they're like the big kahunas of gaming over there – is on the same wavelength. He's got this group of cool, younger staff brainstorming how to keep the casino game strong for the upcoming generations. They're both on the verge of launching these test zones that are gonna give young folks a whole new vibe with slot games that are as much about skill as they are about spending cash.
Let me paint you a picture of what these future casinos might look like: imagine floating around in zero-gravity rooms, climbing up walls like some sort of astronaut, or being surrounded by LED screens that swap out sceneries faster than you can snap your fingers. They've got this wild mash-up of classic slot machines with virtual-reality games where you're gunning down monsters with your pals and placing bets on your monster-hunting skills. Instead of flying solo at those old-school slots, you could be throwing down in multiplayer challenges, all connected via wireless tech. And forget the stale magic shows and has-been pop stars – we're talking e-sports face-offs and live concerts that are off the hook.
These hip, high-tech gaming joints sound like a blast, but here's the kicker – they might not even happen. Building these bad boys and keeping them running doesn't come cheap, and even then, there's no guarantee the younger crowd will bite. And the real kicker? The casino execs might not have the guts or the wallets to see these projects through to the end. Today's gambling gurus are strapped for cash, and they're not exactly known for being daring innovators.
""The industry ain't exactly a playground for creative wizards,"" Mark Frissora says, and he should know, coming from a stint at Hertz, the car rental guys. Casinos were raking in the dough back in the day without having to reinvent the wheel. But times have changed, amigos. Smartphones and gaming consoles make the old slot machines look like ancient relics. I mean, the competition for folks' attention is fierce – you've got daily fantasy sports, online gambling (the up-and-up kind and the shady kind), not to mention those video lottery terminals and social casino games online that use play money. Some folks are sweating, thinking casinos might go the way of Blockbuster, totally wiped out by the in
ternet. Alex Bumazhny from Fitch Ratings reckons they could end up like fax machines – not totally dead, but not exactly living their best life, either.
You just gotta look at the numbers to see the slump. Vegas Strip gaming revenue hit its high note with $6.5 billion in 2007, dropped to $5.2 billion in 2010, and only climbed up a little bit after that. Atlantic City? Man, they've lost half their revenue since 2006. Across the country, regulated casino gaming revenue – including Vegas and AC – has crawled up a mere 7% since '07, hitting $40 billion last year, even with way more places to play. New kids on the block like Pennsylvania and Maryland, with zero casinos ten years ago, are now pulling in over $4 billion, snatching customers from AC. And revenue from Native American casino operations? Only up 12% since '08, at nearly $30 billion last year gothamist.
Man, let me tell you, these mega casino companies? They'd be up a creek without a paddle if a few game-changers hadn't hit the scene. First, Vegas totally flipped the script in the late '80s, and we have Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn to thank for that. These guys reimagined Vegas from this notorious Sin City into a hotspot for conventions and all-out entertainment. Adelson whipped up the Sands Expo, the first big private convention spot in town, and Wynn dropped The Mirage on us in '89. This baby had it all: 3,000 rooms and even white tigers! Now that was something. Everything that popped up on the Strip after that was just trying to outdo The Mirage, no joke. And guess what? It kinda worked. Now almost two-thirds of Vegas's cash flow isn't even from gambling—it's from stuff like hotel stays. But step outside Vegas, and it's a whole different ball game. Casinos are still all-in on gambling money, and you can tell they're hurting for some fresh mojo to bring in the new bucks.
Then there was the Macau miracle. Man, when Macau exploded as the go-to gambling den for Asians, especially the Chinese, it was like hitting the jackpot. Starting in 2003, the year before Adelson went big with Sands Macao, Macau's gaming dough ballooned to 12 times what it was in just ten years. In 2013, we're talking a cool $45 billion—like, nearly eight Vegas Strips worth of moolah. This boom helped everyone weather the storm when the financial crisis hit stateside.
But let me tell you, China's big boss, Xi Jinping, has been dealing Macau a rough hand lately. His anti-graft drive and the government keeping a tighter leash on the cash flow? Yeah, that's been a real buzzkill for Macau's high-stakes baccarat scene. In 2015, their revenues plummeted by 34% down to $29 billion, and they kept dipping. Despite Xi cracking down, Macau might still catch a break with China's fancy-pants upper-middle class, so the casino tale ain't over there just yet.
Adelson, Wynn, and this other cat, Murren from MGM, they've doubled down on their bets in Macau. Wynn just unfurled his $4.2 billion Wynn Palace, and it's nothing short of swanky. This place rolls out the red carpet for the high rollers. When it opened, Macau finally saw a tiny bump in gaming cash (we're talking 1%) after a dry spell of over two years. And not to be outdone, Adelson opened his Parisian Macao in September, a $2.9 billion mega-resort with its own Eiffel Tower. MGM's planning to drop their own titan of a casino next year too. Adelson, at 83, showed up at his grand opening like a boss, leaning on some dude's shoulder and with his walking stick, letting everyone know he's not going anywhere.
But here's the rub: while Macau's been on the upswing, back home, casinos are staring down the barrel of a problem they can't ignore—their clientele is getting long in the tooth. Take slot machines. They're small fry in Macau, but back in the States, they're the main act. The Las Vegas Strip might see a tiny uptick from non-gaming stuff, but everywhere else, it's like they're stuck in quicksand. Like Murren says, these places are just blending in with the crowd. The same old loud carpets, ginormous rooms, and a sea of slot machines. And get this, even the young crowd cruising the Strip just breeze by the gambling spots.
So, the industry? They're in a tight spot trying to woo the youngsters. These casino chains and slot machine producers are up to their eyeballs in debt, thanks to the financial crisis and a bunch of spendy projects bbc. Wynn Resorts is lugging around a $9.5 billion debt, and Caesars just clawed their way out of bankruptcy. Those fat interest checks have kept the Vegas Strip's big dogs in the red for ages.
But you know, they could swing it—they could invest. They'd just have to square up with their shareholders. Pivoting from the tried-and-true slots and tables, that the old-timers love, to something that might—just might—get the kids in? That's a tough sell. Frissora and Murren, they're itching to bring in new games for the fresh-faced crowd, but the slot machine old guard? They're barely budging. They're not about to shake up their cash cows with some risky, high-priced, newfangled games.
Now Frissora, he's got some ideas. He's all about cracking open their gaming platforms, so the kids can pick their poison and go head-to-head right there on the casino floor. But instead, what do we get from the slot-machine folks? Just a little spit-shine on the oldies—throwing in some flashy cabinets with themes from hit TV shows like ""Game of Thrones."" They rake in the dough, sure, but they're not turning the tide.
But check it out, the new kids on the block, the startups, they're ready to roll the dice on innovation. At the Global Gaming Expo in Vegas, people were tripping over themselves to get a look at Gamblit Gaming's goods. They're this California crew with a VR shooter game you can bet on, called The Brookhaven Experiment. Meanwhile, GameCo from New York is hitting the jackpot with their ""skill-based"" game dropping this month in Atlantic City's Caesars spots. It's called ""Danger Arena""—no VR, just pure shooter action where you're duking it out with killer robots.
But not everyone inside the biz is buying it. Some execs reckon these arcade-style games might catch the young'uns' eyes, but they're skeptical it'll be enough to keep the cash flowing. The old-timers reckon when the millennials cnn grow up and get a little green, they'll come around to the classic casinos, just like their folks. But Frissora, he's betting against that. He's banking on shaking things up.