STREETWISE BLACKJACK

Streetwise Blackjack

Shapes of Things Before My Eyes

By Peter Ruchman

World Gaming -- it rolls off the tongue. Is it anything like World Music, that synthesis of different cultural rhythms, melodies and harmonies? Yes and no. The last of the great gambling expositions took place in Las Vegas this past week (two competing companies are splitting up next year's action into separate shows). As usual, I attended, hoping to learn as much as I could. All of the new machines, games, technologies and services are presented in the world's largest convention hall. For those in the gambling business, it is a chance to reacquaint themselves with colleagues from far-flung locations and see the shape of things to come.

I went on opening day, Wednesday October 18. In my customary fashion, I managed to get into the exhibit hall a couple of hours prior to the official opening. I do this to meet with selected exhibitors while it is quiet, not pressured by jostling crowds.

This year, there were 700 booths -‹ a full house -‹ with slot machines once again filling the largest amount of space and attracting the greatest amount of attention. These electronic darlings of the industry bear little resemblance to one-armed bandits of the past. Most don't even have the old handle any longer, an anatomical coccyx of the casino. This year's hot flash is called Big Game Safari by International Game Technology (IGT). Their high-visibility booth was crammed with banners and salespeople touting the company's latest smash sensation, appearing soon at your local casino.

Most new slot machines share one common trait -‹ they feature multi-level interactive components requiring active participation far beyond the "deposit-money/pull-handle" action of the past. These electronic marvels are modern-day pinball machines juiced with nitro and laughing gas.

On the table game end, things are in a similar state of electronic affairs. In my initial foray into the exhibition hall, I headed straight for the PDS Gaming Booth. Last week's column featured extensive coverage of this company's Digital 21 table game and I wanted to talk to Senior Vice President Bill O'Hara about it. We had never met and from the outset, he was informative, and charming, spending 45 minutes answering my questions and demonstrating his company's products.

I want to acknowledge I do not fit PDS' customer profile. As an long-time gambler with roots dating back to the 1960s, my perspective is very clear. I like older "joints" with real playing cards, dice, tables and atmosphere. As O'Hara stated to me, the customer base for his company's products are Gen-X'ers, those between 21 and 40, who come to casinos for entertainment and are comfortable with arcade and computer games.

This target audience has grown up playing colorful, fast-moving, strategic challenges. Rewards customarily involve graduating to a more difficult level or attaining bonus points. It isn't a far reach from these games to begin playing for real cash. Digital 21 marries the arcade to the casino in a very impressive fashion. With the attributes I described last week, I also discovered it not only has the built-in ability to display each player's hand and total, along with the dealer's, but also the hand currently being played. There are also many options available to the casino/lessee such as deck amount (1-12) and ability to offer basic strategy hints on each player's screen. The "House" can also turn on or off the ability of the player to double after split, resplit, or any other specific, such as the ability to split 10s. If the casino keys this in as an exclusion, the player will not be able to split 10s or any other excluded condition, under any circumstances.

In talking to O'Hara, he made it clear PDS does not expect their casino customers to use the game with the single or double-deck options. Shuffle time for any amount of decks is just seconds. One of the major selling points is the fast pace allowed (the greater the amount of hands dealt, the greater the casino profit)--it is likely some casinos will want to use the 12-deck option. One question concerned the ease which the casino could remove cards -- like aces and 10s‹or "cold deck" the game, creating a superficially, unfair House advantage--outright cheating players. O'Hara and his technician explained it is impossible as the Nevada State Gaming officials, worried about that possibility, placed six or seven security layers around the e-prom or computer chip governing the card-sequencing distribution along with the codes and keys and procedures, available to only the highest authorities in each property. This isn't to say a corrupt casino manager wouldn't be in a position to attempt to meddle. But surveillance would also have to be in on any scheme and the machine would have to rigged, then re-rigged for surprise State Gaming control visits.

I will have further thoughts on this year's show in next week's World Gaming 2000 wrap up.