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Introduction
A recent headline in a trade paper announces "U.S. Slot Machine
Makers Hit Jackpot on New Trends." (1) Leading slot manufacturer
stocks have rocketed from prices a year ago. Share values of
the world's top slot maker, International Game Technology, and
rival WMS Industries have more than doubled in the past 12 months.
"This is a great time to be a gaming supplier," says David Ehlers,
chairman of the Las Vegas Investment Advisors, a gaming investment
and research firm. "There is a lot of change here."
Not only have the stocks outpaced the broader market, but gaming
suppliers have outperformed the rest of the gaming industry.
The Las Vegas gaming index, which includes casinos and gaming
suppliers, has risen 17 percent from a year ago. The separate
gaming supplier index has jumped 94 percent over the same period,
according to the Las Vegas Investment Advisors, which maintains
the index.
Economic reasons for slot growth
A number of reasons are put forth for the growth of slot machines.
One of the major ones is the expansion of the overall casino
market. In California, state officials passed legislation allowing
45,000 new slots in Native American casinos. Other states are
also expanding casino space.
Another reason for slot machine growth is quicker replacement
cycles. "The replacement cycle has clearly come down. It is
used to be in the five- to seven-year range, now it's more in
a three- to five-year range," said WMS CFO Schweinfurth.
And, there is the growing high-tech sophistication of slot machines
and the rise of video game slot machines.
Another reason suggested for the current popularity of slot
machines is the growing ease of use. Casinos are exploring cashless
slots, which pay players with vouchers that can be cashed or
used in other machines, to make their slot-machine floors more
efficient.
Finally, hoping to spark interest and draw gamblers to their
new games with familiar brands, slot makers have started turning
to the world of movies and television. WMS recently snagged
the North American rights to design and market a slot machine
based on the CBS television series Survivor. That game
joins other popular slots in the market based on the Jeopardy
program, and the Austin Powers and The Adams Familyfilms.
Social context of slot growth
However, as dramatic as the current growth of slot machines
is, the growth of slot machines over the past fifteen years
has perhaps been even more dramatic. In 1982, the gross wager
for slot machines was approximately $14.4 billion while the
gross wager at tables was $87 billion. Slot machine wagers represented
16% of table wagers. By 1996, gross wagers on slot machines
had skyrocketed to $126 billion while wagers at tables were
$178 billion. Slot wagers had risen to 70% of table wagers (2).
This long range trend can be explained in part by current growth
factors like casino expansion, quicker replacement cycles and
more exciting technology. But the real factor might involve
social trends more than economic or technological ones.
In this sense, one observes that the two major types of casino
gambling — tables and slots — have strong relationships to
sociability. Table games involve a good amount of social interaction
while slots involve very little social interaction.
Does the long-range movement from tables to slots mirror a similar
trend in America as a whole towards less sociability? Harvard
professor Robert Putnam argues American culture as a whole has
moved towards less sociability in his book Bowling Alone
(3). The book argues that America faces a civic crisis in that
once social activities such as bowling leagues, dinner parties
and community arts performances are slowly vanishing from the
American landscape. Increasingly, argues Putnam, Americans are
withdrawing from communal life, choosing to live and play alone.
They are losing what Putnam calls "social capital" or the"glue"
of trust in each other that is so essential to a democratic
society.
Does the decline of table gaming and the rise in slot machine
gambling suggest that more and more people want to gamble alone?
Rather than being a fantasy island set off from the rest of
America, Las Vegas gaming trends might offer one of the best
laboratories for investigation of large scale American social
trends.
Ascending generations
One of the key reasons for America's declining sociability is
the rise of that electric "friendly persuader" of American homes
called television. Television has always been antagonistic towards
sociability but when there was only one TV in most homes, and
one TV program to watch, at least the family (and nation) could
gather around a common electric "fireplace." Now, with the low
price of televisions and the proliferation of cable channels,
these early vestiges of TV sociability are nowhere to be found.
The stepchildren of television are video and computer games.
It is almost as if the casino gaming tables are symbols of the
sociability of those passing generations known as the G.I. Generation
(born 1901 - 1924) and the Silent Generation (born 1925 - 1942).
Likewise, it seems that slot machines (and particularly video
gaming machines) are the gambling symbol for the rising generations
of Baby Boomers (born 1943 - 1960), Generation Xers (born 1961
- 1981) and the Millennials (born after 1982) (4).
Not surprisingly, playing the original wheel slot machines has
much similarity to watching television in that not much sociability
is required from these "one armed bandits." And certainly the
new wave of video slot machines mirrors television to an even
greater extent. In ways, it is television simply taken out of
the home. In fact, many of the top designers at leading slot
machine manufacturers like International Game Technology come
from the video game industry.
A number of leading social commentators argue much can be learned
about the future direction of culture and technology by observing
the young generation. Douglas Rushkoff has termed the new video
game player generation "screenagers" noting their relationship
to play, work, spirituality and politics reflect the contours
of a new world shaped by the logic of digital networks and chaos
theory (5). In his recent book Next Michael Lewis suggests
the same is true with the Internet (6). After the phenomena
of companies like Napster this should not surprise us.
Our lonely gamblers
The overall rise of gambling in America (state lotteries, sports
betting and other forms outside Las Vegas) says much about contemporary
culture (7). We are becoming greater risk takers, putting more
trust in "lady luck" than the "social capital" of our next door
neighbor or the members of our withering bowling teams. Gambling
and risk are greatest in our younger generations.
But Las Vegas does not have a monopoly on "lady luck" for the
young generations. As generational expert Neil Howe notes, today's
younger adults let risk play a much larger role in their jobs
and careers than preceding generations. This trend rises from
first to late wave Boomers and peaks with Gen-Xers. As Howe
observes, "They gamble more in their jobs and careers, in the
type of compensation they prefer, in the speed of job turnover,
in how they like to 'bet' on new businesses or the 'next big
thing,' in how invest their savings, and in 'gambling' per se
on sports or in nightclubs." (8) The growth of gambling in today's
younger generations is confirmed by gambling addiction therapists
who say most of their patients are adults in their 20s and 30s,
the ones who bet on football games in college with their Visa
cards (9).
In a way, the tables at the casinos are like the old fading
family dinner tables of sociability. Today's youth leave these
tables for their own TV sets, computers or their video slot
machines.
What all of this means for the future of America remains to
be seen.
Roll the dice. Spin the wheel.
Better yet, push the button in front of the video screen.
References
1 Much recent information on the growth of slot machines
is taken from one of the key trade magazines in the gaming
industry, Casino Magazine. See http://www.casinomagazine.com/managearticle.asp?c=290&a=474
2 Adapted from E.M. Christiansen data originally published
in Gaming Business (April, May, June, and August of 1984),
and Gaming & Wagering Business (July and August) 1985-1996.
3 Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2000.
4 See William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning.
New York: Broadway Books, 1997.
5 Douglas Rushkoff, Playing the Future: What We Can Learn
from Digital Kids. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.
6 Michael Lewis, Next: The Future Just Happened. New York:
W.W. Norton, 2001.
7 For some of the best statistics on gambling trends see
Harold Vogel, Entertainment Industry Economics. Fifth Edition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
8 Neil Howe in 8/13/2001 email to the author.
9 Ibid. Howe adds "One hates to say it, but pure gambling
is almost inherently a solitary activity. Older generations
didn't really gamble. They gathered, they socialized, they
bet some modest cash, and they had a good time. Most would
have been appalled at the thought that people might stake
their future on a bet. Gen-Xers . less so. There's no middle
for them. I'm either very rich or very poor; one dollar more
or less won't make any difference where I am; why not go for
it?"
Copyright © 2001 John Fraim. All Rights
Reserved.
John Fraim is a California based writer
and publisher.
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