Las Vegas Business Press : We're becoming mechanical animals

We're becoming mechanical animals

By David G. Schwartz

Americans have taken to interactive kiosks in a big way. Automatic teller machines have been supplanting bank tellers and withdrawal slips for a long time. But in recent years, it's become possible to do everything from making your pre-flight check-in to renting DVDs without talking to an actual person.

This phenomenon has shown up on the casino floor, where the trend towards machines and away from humans is rapidly gathering speed. A new kiosk might point the way to a future casino that is almost entirely automated.

The kiosk in question is the iSports Stand, an interactive terminal that allows casino patrons to place sports bets without actually visiting the sports book. Its manufacturers promote it to patrons as the ultimate in convenience: No need to walk across the casino and wait in line to get your action down.

David G. Schwartz

For casinos, the machines practically sell themselves. For decades, the surest way to make money in a casino has been to invent and sell a labor-saving device. With wages gobbling up as much as a quarter of all revenues, casino managers are quick to seize on any innovation that can reduce labor costs.

There is certainly nothing new about using machines to gamble. Even before the invention of reel-spinning slot machines in the late 1890s, gamblers were having fun with a number of mechanical wagering devices, including automatic roulette wheels and even a mechanized punching bag.

Since slot revenues first overtook the table games win total in Nevada, back in 1983, slots have solidified their place on the casino floor. It's clear to anyone who takes even a quick stroll through a major casino that these gambling halls primarily cater to machine players.

So why is a sports-betting kiosk such a major change? If machines have been part of gambling for so long, why is adding another machine to the casino floor such a watershed?

It is because the iSports Stand and others like it may do to sports betting what the slot machine did to casino gaming -- open it up to an entirely new clientele.

Interactive kiosks reduce sports betting to a user-friendly interface. People unfamiliar with the nuances of money lines, point spreads, and over/unders don't have to worry about embarrassing themselves at a window staffed by a grizzled veteran. Instead, a series of touch screens can help them make their picks.

These kiosks may also be the thin edge of the Internet-gambling wedge. If players are free to place bets throughout the casino on these kiosks, why not let them do so over the Internet?

Phone and intranet sports betting have been reality in the Las Vegas Valley for a while now. If identity- and geographical-verification technology permits, there are few compelling arguments against letting bettors use their SMS-enabled cell phones or laptops to place bets.

Does this mean that the sports book will disappear? No more than ATMs have displaced banks. But smaller casinos might be tempted to place a few kiosks in a sports bar. Bigger ones might limit their sport book's hours or open fewer windows.

The translation? If the kiosks prove popular with customers, casino sports books will be hiring fewer writers down the road.

The sports book, in other words, will be looking much more like the rest of the casinos. It will be a future of machines displacing, though not replacing, human employees. But it's getting clearer that, in the gaming world, the future will be powered by electricity.

David G. Schwartz is director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. His latest book is Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling. His Web site is www.dieiscast.com.

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