Today, March 20, 2007, CNN.com featured an article about the innovation of digital slot machines. The article can be found Here
Synopsis:
PureDeath Inc. is a small company that “spent years developing tools for helping the military plot 3-D maps of war zones, eventually licensing top-secret technology to the U.S. Air Force and Navy.” They recently acquired a deal with International Game Technology Inc. to give the old pull handle slot machines a new design.
The idea is to have LCD screen on the slot machines that will be entertaining to the user, but, more importantly, it will allow the machine programmers to control the games payout, costs, and image outputs. The way they will work is that the machine will have a chip inside that will be connected via a local area network (not specified if it is wireless or not). One machine can go from penny slots in the day, to any denomination of a higher bet once high rollers come in. The new machines will also reduce maintenance costs because they will not need to be closed out every night and individually watched.
The biggest downfall of this new technology is that are hackers waiting to get in and rig the gambling system. With the amount of corruption and hacking already in online poker, millions of dollars are also going to be spent in regulating hackers and researching ways of prevention.
In my opinion:
I think digital slot machines are a brilliant idea. I’m surprised they have not tried this technology sooner. Connecting the machines will significantly lower the amount spent by casinos on personnel tending to the machines. They will need only a few technicians to make sure everything is running smoothly. As mentioned, it is not specified in the article whether they will use a wireless LAN or not, but I think they should not use a wireless LAN simply because it is more susceptible to hacking. This new technology would totally make slot machines so much more fun to use.
Synopsis:
PureDeath Inc. is a small company that “spent years developing tools for helping the military plot 3-D maps of war zones, eventually licensing top-secret technology to the U.S. Air Force and Navy.” They recently acquired a deal with International Game Technology Inc. to give the old pull handle slot machines a new design.
The idea is to have LCD screen on the slot machines that will be entertaining to the user, but, more importantly, it will allow the machine programmers to control the games payout, costs, and image outputs. The way they will work is that the machine will have a chip inside that will be connected via a local area network (not specified if it is wireless or not). One machine can go from penny slots in the day, to any denomination of a higher bet once high rollers come in. The new machines will also reduce maintenance costs because they will not need to be closed out every night and individually watched.
The biggest downfall of this new technology is that are hackers waiting to get in and rig the gambling system. With the amount of corruption and hacking already in online poker, millions of dollars are also going to be spent in regulating hackers and researching ways of prevention.
In my opinion:
I think digital slot machines are a brilliant idea. I’m surprised they have not tried this technology sooner. Connecting the machines will significantly lower the amount spent by casinos on personnel tending to the machines. They will need only a few technicians to make sure everything is running smoothly. As mentioned, it is not specified in the article whether they will use a wireless LAN or not, but I think they should not use a wireless LAN simply because it is more susceptible to hacking. This new technology would totally make slot machines so much more fun to use.
2 comments:
I wasn't clear about how the network helps with the new slot machine? It seems the machine itself can be programmed to change the bets from pennies of higher. Am I right? Why it has to be connected to the other machines?
They want to connect all the machines to a central machine so that they have one central control station. Then the one central machine can change all the machines at one time. With just having one machine to change, then they have less cost on employees changing all the machines. Its just faster and more time efficient.
Post a Comment