Atlantic City casinos have been testing skill-based slot machines. And now you can add Connecticut’s Foxwoods to the list of those trying skill-based slots.
Foxwoods has added products like Nothin’ but Net and Candy Crush Saga to their gaming floor.
“Skill-based gaming is something that’s pretty new for a lot of the industry,” says Brian Hayes, Foxwoods’ vice president of analytics and slot operations.
Hayes added that skill-based slots were brought in to appeal to younger audiences.
“Traditionally [gambling] hasn’t really appealed to the millennial demographic. This is what we think is the evolution of [gambling] that will appeal to that fan base.”
Review of Foxwoods’ Skill-based Slots
Erik Ofgang of Connecticut Mag was part of the first wave to try skill-based gaming at Foxwoods. He noted that the concept sounds simple enough, but getting the timing down can be tricky.
Here’s what he wrote about Nothin’ but Net:
“It sounds simple, but it’s tricky at first. The cursor speed changes, and as your cartoon avatar moves farther away from the hoop on the screen, the green area shrinks, narrowing your window of success. The minimum bet is $2 and pays off a maximum of $50.”
Ofgang notes that he had fun playing the skill-based games. But he wasn’t able to “influence winnings to the extent that [he’d] hoped.”
Small Collection of Skill-based Games in Fox Tower
Foxwoods is taking it slow with their skill-based gaming experiment.
They’ve teamed up with Las Vegas-based GameCo to offer a small collection of machines. There are only six consoles in the casino’s Fox Tower.
Angelo Avallone, executive director of slot operations, believes that the reaction to these games has been good so far. But he added that the “bet structure on these games is probably a little high and probably should be lowered.”
If everything goes well, then we should see more skill-based slots added to Foxwoods in the future.