The non-profit Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) announced with pride last May 15, 2015 that the Nevada Legislature, through the passing of Senate Bill 9 (SB9), has approved the AGEM-initiated proposal to innovate slot machine game contents with skill-based elements. The approved slot machine innovation aims to enhance slot-playing experience by permitting variable payback rates. Players could control the payback in their favor, through application of related gaming skills in tackling the special reward-boosting elements of the slot game.
AGEM’s variable payback slot innovation proposes a base game configured with payback rate of 88 percent on the outcomes of paid spins. In addition, the slot will also feature a bonus game that could bring total payback percentage to the standard maximum rate of up to 98 percent, but dependent on the skill of the bonus player in completing the challenges posed by the bonus game. AGEM cited as examples bonus game challenges such as shooting down of enemy planes, or outracing road rally competitors.
Accordingly, the overall payback will fall somewhere in-between legal payback percentages. A slot player can therefore choose slot content based on the bonus feature to which his or her gaming skills could create a significant financial impact.
The introduction of such game is not expected to transform casino gaming floors immediately. Yet AGEM believes that the ground-breaking concept will breathe new life to slot machine gaming, and will likely attract the generation of arcade video gamers who have come age as eligible players for real money gambling games.
The AGEM concept came around as a popular choice of innovative ideas submitted to a Nevada Committee tasked in 2014, to conduct an interim study regarding the impact of technology on gaming. The AGEM variable-payback slot innovation was the committee’s choice of concept to endorse for approval at the Legislative level.
Initially passed on by the Nevada Committee to the Senate Judiciary Committee, it subsequently moved to the Full Senate Committee where it gained a favorable 20-0 vote. SB9, the bill proposing the variable-pay concept moved to the Full Assembly Judiciary for voting and eventually received Full Assembly approval last Thursday, May 14, 2015. SB9 will then be brought forward to the office of Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval for signing. Since the Nevada Governor was one of the proponents of the Nevada Committee that endorsed the variable-pay slot-innovation, it is widely expected that SB9 will merit the state governor’s signature to see the bill enacted in two week’s time. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) and the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) will spearhead the task of writing and disseminating the rules and regulations that will serve as guidelines for the AGEM-initiated slot innovation. AGEM President and also Chief Compliance Officer at Konami Gaming Thomas Jingoli, takes pride in making it known that AGEM is the initiator and one of the main driving forces behind the milestone achievement. He also expressed appreciation for the support given by the NGCB and NGCB Chairman A.G. Burnett. The AGEM Chief likewise expressed excitement in behalf of all AGEM members, in seeing the State of Nevada becoming the world’s first jurisdiction to offer the pioneering new form of real money gaming.
