Slots or VLTs: What's the difference?
Published Friday September 26th, 2008
Gaming insider says there's little difference to average player
The opening of Casino New Brunswick in Moncton in 2010 will inject 600 slot machines into the province's gambling mix.
The Liberal government has also announced it will cut the number of video lottery terminals across the province from 2,650 to 2,000 by 2010.
The cut has been marketed to New Brunswickers as one of the key elements of the government's "responsible gaming" strategy, but simple math shows that the combined number of slots and VLTs will actually drop by only 50 machines.
Although government officials have offered their reassurances that VLTs and slots are not, in fact, the same thing, one might be forgiven if they can't quite pinpoint any major differences between slot machines and VLTs.
And according to a top industry representative, the average player could never tell the difference between the two gambling machines, either.
"If you are looking for striking differences there aren't any," said Bill Rutsey, president of the Canadian Gaming Association.
"The box pretty well looks the same and the electronics inside are pretty much the same. Sometimes it comes down to the games that are available, and the system that they are hooked up to."
Rutsey said differences between the machines were greater in the early days of VLTs when their games were originally presented more so as animated lottery games that mimicked the kinds of lottery games that could be bought over a convenience store counter.
But VLT games began progressively moving toward slot-type games that offered more flash and excitement, he said.
"As the sophistication of the games and machines have developed there is little apparent difference between the products," said Rutsey.
There are few in the Canadian gaming industry that know more about VLTs and slots than Robin Drummond, vice president of sales at Moncton-based gaming manufacturer Spielo.
Drummond says players can view most differences between slots and VLTs, and the surroundings and circumstances in which both types of machine are located.
"Generally speaking they both use random number generators at the machine to generate results," said Drummond.
"The primary difference is that the VLTs were originally in a widely distributed environment, such as bars and restaurants in Atlantic Canada, whereas slot machines were generally associated with casino environments."
Although there may be some esthetic differences between VLTs and slots, there are no differences in the way both machines determine outcomes and payouts, or the way information is displayed on screen, he says.
"The other difference would be that there are differences in the cabinet, the machine itself in terms of physical characteristics, and there may be differences in what kind of gaming experiences the player will get when they are playing the machine," said Drummond.
Drummond says that a player who walks into a casino is more likely to be looking for a gambling experience that offers more risk and more reward compared to a player who steps up to a VLT at a bar or pub.
"If you are playing a VLT, your budget is more likely to be $20 and if you win $60 that would be a good night, you would buy a round of beers for your buddies and go home," he said.
Drummond says slot players keep their eyes on larger prizes and bring more money to the game.
One fundamental security difference between VLTs and slots, which players generally don't notice, is that VLTs are connected to a central control system by their administrator, which in the case of New Brunswick is Atlantic Lottery Corporation.
"That central control system does not control the outcome, but it does allow the regulating body to have command and control over a machine," said Drummond.
"The ALC would get an alarm if the door was opened so it gives them a high degree of integrity over the device, despite the fact they don't have someone in the bar watching the machine."
Slot machines do not require connections to central systems because they are located in casinos where a high level of security is maintained by cameras and guards, said Drummond.
The cut in VLTs will be more marked in Moncton than the rest of the province due to stipulations in the Liberal government's gaming policy that state that the number of VLTs permitted within an 80-metre radius of Casino New Brunswick will drop from the current number of 700 to 400 by 2010.
Provincial officials have indicated that the 600 slots found at the casino will not count toward the 400 VLTs that will be found in the casino's market area.
And they will not count toward the 2,000 slots that will be permitted within the province by 2010 once the number is reduced from 2650.
The number of VLTs in Metro Moncton won't be affected by the recent announcement that 150 VLTs will be committed to the province's harness racing industry.
Those machines will be based in places like Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Woodstock, and anywhere harness racing is found.
A spokesman for the company that will build Casino New Brunswick says it does not have any problems with the decision to offer 150 VLTs to the harness racing industry.
"Casino New Brunswick supports the governments Responsible Gaming Strategy," said Sonco Gaming spokesman Jim Warren.
Warren noted that government did not consult Sonco about the deal.
While some of those 150 VLTs can work into the Metro Moncton's gambling climate, the overall number of VLTs in the casino's market area will have to respect the cap of 400 machines, as well as other conditions that have been set.
On top of cutting down the number of VLTs to 2000, the Liberal government's gambling policy will cut the number of VLT sites in the province by more than half, from 625 to 300.
The new gambling policy also sets up two classes of sites for operators with up to 10 terminals and those with 15 to 25 VLTs. A maximum of 20 sites province across the province will be permitted to have the larger number of terminals.
And the province will limit the number of licences allowed in one building while allowing current multi-license holders to amalgamate their businesses and continue to operate up to 25 machines if they meet the new business standards set out by ALC and the province.
Restaurants, which are currently allowed to have up to two of the gambling machines, will lose one by Oct. 1, 2008, and the other by April 2009, in an effort to limit gambling to age-controlled environments.
Based on numbers from the year ending in March 2006, each VLT in the province generated about $40,000 in revenue to the province, and $10,000 to the retailer.
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