by David McKee, Business Press
Although a new, online game platform deployed at six Northern Nevada casinos may look, walk and quack like Internet gambling, casino executives, regulators and the game makers themselves insist that it is anything but. While casino-oversight boards have given the PlayAway platform, manufactured by Massachusetts-based GameLogic, the thumbs-up, the verdict of customers remains to be seen.
Positioned as a means of stimulating repeat business, PlayAway requires that both the buy-in and cash-out functions be performed in the casino property. As GameLogic CEO Steven Kane put it, the intent is to enable casinos to enjoy "a persistent relationship with the customer, rather than a sporadic one."
Players purchase credits and receive a unique entry code, whereupon they can repair to their homes or hotel rooms and log onto the casino's Web site. Once there, they play down their credits on a series of games whose outcome has been predetermined. If the scheduled game, run off the casino's keno setup and random-number generator, hasn't occurred yet, the buyer cannot log in.
Northern Nevada Casinos are testing the Internet platform that is tied into a predetermined outcome.
Credits cannot be won or accumulated, only spent on a variety of game-like events, some of which mimic slot play. If a monetary award is revealed, the player must return to the casino to collect it.
"The outcome is simply what the outcome of the keno game that was played in the casino was," explained New Jersey Casino Control Commission spokesman Dan Heneghan. "Once the computer knows which keno game you were looking for, it plays a little game with you and if you have won your keno game, it tells you."
"The games aren't exactly played online," said Anthony Cabot, attorney for GameLogic. He likened the experience to watching keno or horse racing on one's home computer, while Heneghan's preferred analogy is to making an advance purchase for next Tuesday's keno game. "While the actual 'play' is merely for show, you're doing it in a more entertaining methodology," Cabot said.
Because the enabling technology doesn't affect the outcome of the game, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved PlayAway as "associated equipment," which board member Mark Clayton defined as "anything that's not a slot machine."
"When they log onto the Internet, all they're doing is revealing the winning combination of numbers. The method to reveal (them) is merely entertainment," Clayton said, echoing Cabot's argument.
Although the NGCB green-lighted PlayAway in the first quarter of 2005, it took another year for the platform to make its Nevada debut. It launched at Casino Fandango, in Carson City, Jan. 24, and at roughly the same time at Reno's Sands Regency Casino Hotel. Three Harrah's properties in the area are also running it.
GameLogic's Kane and President John Taylor swung through Las Vegas a week ago to pitch PlayAway to Southern Nevada operators. They told the Business Press that while PlayAway is approved for both Mississippi and New Jersey, they don't have any installations in those states yet. Kane described the reason for its rural Nevada rollout as "serendipity."
"We haven't seen a significant financial impact from it yet," reported Jay Thiel, Sands Regency general manager. "The people that like it really love it. Our whole hotel clientele is not that Internet savvy. It's been a slow start but growing. It's great for the casino from a conceptual standpoint (to prompt repeat business)."
Thiel said Sands Regency is giving PlayAway "a substantial trial" of at least a year.
"It's about selling the casino customer delayed gratification." Taylor said. "The entertainment value of this far outweighs (that) of a static lottery ticket."