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http://www.spark-online.com
by john fraim |
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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. References1 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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