Slot Technology Takes a Huge Leap

At Atlantic City's Hard Rock casino in New Jersey, slots players were perplexed when they approached a bank of new slot machines hidden in a enclosed room. As they peeked into the room, they were wanting a chance to give the machines they saw a whirl. It wasn't going to happen. What did happen is the land based slot players were soon to discover that the machines merely resided inside the casino. The catch was they could only be activated by online slot players.

In conjunction with the casino's technology partner, Softweave Ltd., the Hard Rock Cafe unveiled the 12-machine offering, which is considered to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world. While the machines sit in the secluded room surrounded by cameras that will be delivering results to online players, it's the online players that will actually be clicking on the online button that gets the machines rolling.

The intent of the new machines is to condition players to get comfortable with the idea of playing online slots. According to Kresimir Spajic, senior vice president of online gaming at Hard Rock International: “The psychology, there are brick-and-mortar players that have a fear of doing things online. This is helpful in transitioning them into online customers. This is a real, physical machine that they can see, almost like they're sitting in front of it.”

Assuming the machines succeed in convincing slot players that online gaming is safe and legit, this is a revolutionary new gambling option that could bring a lot of new gamblers to the online gambling table, so to speak.

Joe Lupo, Hard Rock's Atlantic City president was quick to add: "Credibility and transparency have been paramount to seeing online gaming move forward. The difference between seeing a computer image as opposed to the kind of machine that a customer has been playing for years, it may be easier to understand.”

Given the potential online slot players will be clamoring to play the new "live action" online slot machines, the software includes the ability to queue players while the bank of 12 machines are occupied. While awaiting their turn to take a shot at this new technology, players are free to continue playing online casino games until notified their time has arrived. What makes these games even more exciting is the fact that the actual slots are slots that have not been played in any other casino environment.