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USMobile casinos are already the word on everyone’s lips in the gambling industry, but the potential in mobiles, tablets and even smart TVs means that there is much more to mobile gaming than simply logging in to a player’s mobile casino. As last week’s ICE event illustrated, leading industry figures are just as interested in the idea of gambling through televisions, and land based casinos are looking for ways to augment their standard services with mobile gaming.
One of the first solid moves in such a market has taken place in New Jersey, where Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has announced that they will become the first US casino to allow guests to gamble for real money using the televisions in their rooms. The announcement comes hot on the heels of news last week that New Jersey is planning a complete relaxation on gambling rules in the state, including allowing mobile gaming to take place on casino property and even reintroducing online and mobile gambling.
The hotel’s E-Casino program will allow guests to set up their very own digital accounts with a daily spending limit of $2,500. The system already boasts a number of slots and video poker games for guests to enjoy at their leisure, although the casino does not feel that the new gambling option will have a significant effect on the number of players hitting the actual casino floor.
The Borgata’s management sees the E-Casino platform as the first step in something major that will no doubt become a crucial part of mobile gaming. After all, typical online and mobile casino operators have strived for years to offer players the most realistic gaming experience possible, while land based operators have worked to ensure that they remain relevant during the growth of what remains a fairly new industry. The advent of mobile casino software means that players have an always on device that allows them to integrate more closely with the land based action around them, and that is what this new platform is all about.
“This puts us in a position to leverage the technology into true mobile gaming and internet betting later on,” said Tom Balance, president and COO of the Borgata. Television sets may well not be the most intuitive means of getting players involved on the casino floor, but that is simply the first stage of the experimentation process to see whether mobile casino gaming and land based casinos can converge in a mutually beneficial manner.
In related news, some of the biggest operators in the industry saw a massive surge in their share prices upon the announcement that New Jersey was looking to bring online and mobile gambling back to the state. With many of the best known US competitors wiped out in the closure of the market, existing European powerhouses are well positioned to swoop in and expand rapidly in a region where the demand is already proven to exist. Among these companies are 32red and Probability, the company behind Moobile Games and Lady Lucks Mobile Casino, which are both well known to be primed and ready for aggressive international expansion – the US may well yet be the right market to target based on recent developments.
