With gambling revenue down across the state, many casinos are hoping to hit the jackpot with new gaming options available in the New Year.
On Jan. 1, the law allowing video line games in all Montana casinos takes effect. It has local casino owners excited about keeping their video gambling machines fresh for clientele, and inspires some optimism in the gaming industry that saw its profits fall two years in a row.
The law, which made its way through the 2011 Legislature as Senate Bill 361 partially due to the drop in gambling revenue, adds video line gaming to keno and poker on video gambling machines. However, unlike poker and keno, video line games require basically no skill.
All a player needs to do is decide how much to bet – the law caps maximum bets at $2 a play and a maximum payout of $800 – and press a button to start the game. Numbers and symbols will appear on multiple rows and columns, called reels, and multiple lines will connect number and symbol to determine whether the player wins.
“The graphics are very, very good; there’s definitely entertainment value there,” Neil Peterson, executive director of the Gaming Industry Association of Montana, said. “Just about anyone can play.”
Peterson, whose association supported SB 361’s passage earlier this year, said the video gambling industry in Montana hasn’t been updated for decades. It’s just been keno and poker in most jurisdictions, he said.
At Paddy’s Touchdown Lounge in Kalispell, owner Pat Kelly said he expects to have line games available on eight to 12 machines. Some of those machines might be new, he said, but most are compatible with new line gaming software.
Some of the programs have up to six individual line games, he said.
“In our business you’re always looking for variety,” Kelly said. “And that includes the types of games, the types of graphics.”
Kelly said video line games are not slot machines; the internal mechanisms for the games are completely different, he said. The Player’s Club Casino in Evergreen will also have eight to 12 video line game machines, Kelly said.
He hopes the new options will keep his customers happy, but also bring in people who may have lost interest over the years.
“We are hoping that the existing customers will also play these games and continue to play games we have,” Kelly said. “And in certain instances, we are going to get back maybe some of the smokers who gravitated away.”
Montana saw a significant drop in video gambling machine tax collections after the state outlawed smoking indoors in October of 2009. According to reports from the Gambling Control Division of the state Department of Justice, tax collections from these machines totaled over $62 million in 2009. That number dropped by 15.6 percent to $52 million in 2010.
The taxes collected from the gaming machines go into the state’s general fund, Rick Ask, administrator of the Gambling Control Division, said, and two-thirds of the taxes are supposed to go back to local governments.
Ask said his division is involved in writing the administrative rules needed to implement the new law, as well as establishing the machine specifications and requirements for manufacturers. Once manufacturers have these guidelines, they build to those standards and submit them to the GCD for testing and approval.
Nearly all of the submissions the department has received will be approved, Ask said.
Allowing video line games in the state has attracted plenty of attention from manufacturers, both from in- and out-of-state companies, Ask said. He also thinks the new games could increase gambling revenue.
When crafting the fiscal note for SB 361, Ask said the GCD looked at what occurred in Oregon when it legalized line games. Though the circumstances in each state are not identical, Ask said his division concluded that video line games could bring in an additional $5 million in tax collections.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what impact it has on the industry, and we’re all kind of waiting anxiously,” Ask said. “We’ve been ready for quite a while now to see these things all roll out.”
Players can find similar-looking games at casinos on American Indian reservations, Ask said, but those machines and games are classified differently than those that will be implemented in non-reservation casinos.
Robbie Rae, the casino supervisor at Del’s in Somers, said she expects the casino to upgrade a couple of machines and possibly purchase new machines as well. In her experience, people from other states and Canada expect line games in casinos and have been disappointed to only have keno and poker options.
Del’s casino saw a “huge drop-off” in gamblers after the smoking ban, Robbie Rae said, and new gaming options could help bring in new customers.
“You can always hope,” she said. “Just keep your fingers crossed and keep things fun and exciting for people.”
Peterson of the GIA said individual casino owners will decide when they want to start running the video line games. Some are planning on installing a code that starts the new programs at 12:01 a.m. on New Year’s Day, he said.
There are multiple areas around the state that feel both the impact of the smoking ban and the echoes of a recession, including the Flathead, Peterson said, bringing down gambling revenue.
“We’re very optimistic that this will help,” he said.