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Casino signage: lots of innovation, lots of regulation (2)

 

Digital Signage Expo Day Two, and there was too much happening on the news front to spend a lot of time in the conference sessions – not least Dynamax’s deal with Clear Channel, which really catapults the former company into the big leagues internationally and not just in the UK.

But there were a few interesting sessions going on upstairs at the Las Vegas Convention Center, not least a panel discussion on digital signage in the (U.S.) casino business. Chaired by Bill Yackey, who edits Another Website and I suppose ought to be my mortal enemy but isn’t, the panel also featured Brent Brown, VP of International Business Systems; Drew Topel, now director of media technology with Titan Outdoor in the U.S. and previously on the other side of the fence with CoolSign; and Lance Hutchinson, director of Digital Display Group.

The first thing that struck me was the incredible amount of regulation these guys have to put up with when installing their screen-media systems – not only from state authorities, but also from the administrations of the individual Native American tribal territories in which so many U.S. casinos are located. Essentially, it seems, any technology that physically or virtually touches the actual gaming systems has to be ratified before it can be installed, lest it affect the fairness of the games.

The underlying rationale of consumer protection behind this kind of regulation may be difficult to fault, but it means that even apparently innocent applications such as remote diagnostics, let alone real-time jackpot displays, have to get through the red tape.

But the specialists in this field clearly do manage to get through it, because Topel and Hutchinson pointed out some interesting gaming trends,which I offer in no particular order:

• “Proximity meters” visually indicate how close a given player is to a jackpot – not necessarily the big one, but enough to keep them playing. Increasing individuals’ playing time is a goal for casino operators.
• Devices like this may be necessary in order to create a buzz in today’s casinos, which are increasingly cashless, relying on ticketed plays instead. With the chunk-chink of a big prize paid in quarters gone from the soundtrack, can digital signage provide the same allure?
• To the same end, casinos are dividing screens into segments so that the current jackpot total is always present – rather than disappearing while other messages are shown.
• And all this, said Hutchinson, also ties in with the use of digital signage to “affect perception of luck and winning” – a big part, of course, of casinos’ psychological marketing.
• On a tech level, LCD screens actually mounted inside slot machines are on the rise, said Topel.
• Finally, digital-signage screens can also be used to show conventional TV during special events, such as big sports games. (If nothing else, this dual purpose should mean that the digital signage benefits from good screen size and quality.)
  

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