Adding mystery to bonusing
Adding mystery to bonusing
New innovations add variety and excitement to slot bonus rounds through randomly-timed reward options and jackpots
By James J. Hodl
To make their gaming floors more appealing and instill greater loyalty among customers, casinos are moving away from "traditional" slot games and concepts. Players seek new avenues of fun, entertainment and excitement, and these avenues are increasingly being provided by intricate bonusing systems developed by various manufacturers.
Whether second-screen bonuses on slot machines or random bonusing systems offered throughout a casino, these systems add one new element: unpredictability. And for both beginner and seasoned gamers, this new element can be both intriguing and hard to resist. As a result, more players are gravitating to them.
"There are a lot of reasons why bonusing games are taking off, but the main reason is that people want thrilling things to happen," said Chris Strano, vice president of sales and marketing at AC Coin & Slot in Atlantic City. "With our stepper products, things happen; but not the same thing over and over. Bonus levels differ and come up spontaneously, which players find highly entertaining. As a result, they play longer."
Seeing spectacles
Part of the entertainment is the sensory experience created during the bonus round. Animation is combined with sound effects and music to produce a celebratory situation, Strano noted.
For instance, in the bonus round of AC Coin's nine-line, five-reel "Bankroll" slots, sound effects note the multiplier kicking in and the credits piling up, while animation simulates the printing of money. On "Bonus Party," one of 10 rollicking party scenes play in the bonus round as the tune "Shout!" plays. And on "Break the Bank," success in the bonus round is indicated by the animated burglar prying open the bank vault to release a shower of coins, backed by the Beatles' rendition of "Money (That's What I Want)."
Progressive jackpots created by these S-2000 Series slots can result from linkage of batteries of five like machines, or all same series slots across a casino floor.
Xtreme Mystery, a progressive jackpot system that adds unpredictability to video slot and stepper products, was introduced late last year by Las Vegas-based Aristocrat Technologies Inc.
"The system adds to regular play the ability to win various size jackpots," said Brad Johnson, marketing vice president for the Americas at Aristocrat. "There are a lot of small jackpots to build interest and a few big ones that pop up unexpectedly. Casinos can set the size of jackpots, whose random appearances are determined on the threshold of play."
Xtreme Mystery jackpots are revealed in the 19-inch top box of the Aristocrat slots "Gold Fever," "Wild Africa" and "Prosperity." Additional games with different themes are in the works, Johnson said.
Aristocrat also offers a broad line of Hyperlink(r) progressive slots, on which the opportunity to win progressive jackpots is spread over numerous machines on the gaming floor. With so much cash-in, jackpots build big and fast. But part of the fun is the element of surprise.
Key to such games as the 20-line "Zorro" and the race car-themed "Scorchin' Fortune" is that players never know what will appear on secondary windows. Some windows offer straight money prizes while others a chance to multiply earlier winnings. Players can work through up to four levels of bonus windows on "Scorchin' Fortune."
Multi-level mysteries
Mystery Progressives from Reno, Nev.-based International Game Technology offer four to six different levels of bonuses in addition to regular base slots game awards, and they hit at any time during regular game play without players having to make maximum wagers.
According to Ed Rogich, IGT's vice president of marketing, all games offering Mystery Progressives customize bonus play to give players the chance to advance through each progressive jackpot level so long as criteria for advancement is satisfied by correct picks or other action. While only one progressive level jackpot is awarded per round, a few Mystery Progressive machines allow players to win bonus spins in addition to bonus rewards.
First offered on "Fort Knox" progressives slots in 2005, Mystery Progressives also are currently offered with "Wheelionaire," "Party Time," "Jackpot Hunter" and "Soul Train" slots. Each game has a video screen that displays jackpot levels (Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum) and the jackpot amount in each.
On "Fort Knox" slots, a player's random qualification to go for the jackpots begins when a siren rings and the top-mounted video screen announces, "You are entering Fort Knox." The vault doors unlock to reveal the message, "Copper Vault has been breached." At this point, the player has already won the Copper jackpot, and enters a hallway of vaulted doors where he must pick two vaults. Revealed values in the vaults are added to player winnings, and if he exceeds the value required for advancement, he continues toward the Silver, Gold and Platinum jackpots. The bonus round ends when the player either fails to advance or breaches the Platinum vault. As a player completes each bonus round, he is showered-via the screen-with riches and cheering fans, as guards load armored cars with his winnings.
The randomness of this bonus round encourages patrons to play longer, and encourages other players to play Mystery Progressive machines as the jackpot levels rise, Rogich noted.
Bonusing events are not limited to secondary screens on video slot and poker machines. Several firms now offer systems that provide bonuses to good customers while they are playing any game; often when they least expect it.
Accrued rewards
The NexGen(r) interactive touchscreen display marketed by IGT converts every game into a personal kiosk for customers who hold a casino's players card. Working through IGT's Advantage(tm) System, NexGen(r) helps track the customers' playing and wagering activities for future frequent player rewards, while reporting their progress toward rewards on the full-color screen.
According to Rogich, NexGen(r) is a valuable promotional tool, allowing casinos to promote other amenities like hotels, restaurants, retail outlets, shows and recreational areas to a captive audience. It also highlights promotions, special events and other benefits from players club membership.
NexGen(r) also delivers other bonusing events and ways to reward good players independent of the game machines they are playing, Rogich said.
Personal Progressives(r) creates an individual progressive jackpot for players with a spontaneous reward that grows larger the more they play, and follows players from game to game-and even over time-until it is won. The NexGen(r) screen regularly updates the player about the size of his personal jackpot. Casinos can establish up to 10 different jackpot levels to accommodate the play level of everyone from casual to top-tier patrons.
Luck Coin chooses a winner from qualified players on designated machines based on a randomly preset "nth" coin dropped into these machines. Casinos can apply this bonus to single machines, a bank of machines, or over the entire gaming floor without the physical connection of machines.
Celebration Prizes dole out smaller "celebration" bonuses to all customers actively playing when another player hits a big jackpot. If someone hits a $150,000 jackpot, other players may each get a $50 bonus. Casinos can configure this program to reward only carded players or award a larger bonus to those holding player cards.
Others include Lucky Time bonuses, which deliver any size cash reward-or even a car-within time parameters set by the casino, and Multiple Jackpot Time, which automatically multiplies an eligible winning payout by up to nine times once a bonus pool exceeds a predetermined amount.
Spreading the wealth
Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies, meanwhile, has enjoyed significant success with its Bally Power Bonusing(tm) products. There are six key bonusing features within the Bally Power Bonusing(tm) Suite: Bally Power Rewards(tm); Power Sweepstakes(tm); Bally Power Promotions(tm); Bally Power Winners(tm); Bally Power Bank(tm); and Bally Power Coupon(tm). Bally also develops secondary bonus games on its iVIEW(tm) player tracking panel that allow casinos to offer bonus gaming across the floor.
With the Bally Power Winners(tm) progressive jackpot system, players can receive mystery jackpots, and casinos can control where, how and how often the ever-growing award is distributed, said Tom Doyle, Bally's vice president of systems product management.
"Random distribution of the progressive jackpot occurs within time parameters set by casinos," Doyle explained. "And the jackpot can be awarded to a single player or spread out. For instance, the top winner might get $1,000 while other customers playing slots at that time could each get a $10 bonus."
Bally Live Rewards(tm) gives video poker players an additional opportunity to win a big jackpot, Doyle added. On a second video screen added to the machine, players each receive a separate set of cards based on their amount of play. These cards are dealt face down, but once five cards are earned, they flip over. Based on the hand revealed, players win various size bonuses as indicated by a pay table.
Bally Power Rewards(tm) spreads bonus awards throughout the casino. Based on play levels, players are instantly awarded credits. Rewards are based on player card input on the slots floor, table games, poker and keno.
New innovations add variety and excitement to slot bonus rounds through randomly-timed reward options and jackpots
By James J. Hodl
To make their gaming floors more appealing and instill greater loyalty among customers, casinos are moving away from "traditional" slot games and concepts. Players seek new avenues of fun, entertainment and excitement, and these avenues are increasingly being provided by intricate bonusing systems developed by various manufacturers.
Whether second-screen bonuses on slot machines or random bonusing systems offered throughout a casino, these systems add one new element: unpredictability. And for both beginner and seasoned gamers, this new element can be both intriguing and hard to resist. As a result, more players are gravitating to them.
"There are a lot of reasons why bonusing games are taking off, but the main reason is that people want thrilling things to happen," said Chris Strano, vice president of sales and marketing at AC Coin & Slot in Atlantic City. "With our stepper products, things happen; but not the same thing over and over. Bonus levels differ and come up spontaneously, which players find highly entertaining. As a result, they play longer."
Seeing spectacles
Part of the entertainment is the sensory experience created during the bonus round. Animation is combined with sound effects and music to produce a celebratory situation, Strano noted.
For instance, in the bonus round of AC Coin's nine-line, five-reel "Bankroll" slots, sound effects note the multiplier kicking in and the credits piling up, while animation simulates the printing of money. On "Bonus Party," one of 10 rollicking party scenes play in the bonus round as the tune "Shout!" plays. And on "Break the Bank," success in the bonus round is indicated by the animated burglar prying open the bank vault to release a shower of coins, backed by the Beatles' rendition of "Money (That's What I Want)."
Progressive jackpots created by these S-2000 Series slots can result from linkage of batteries of five like machines, or all same series slots across a casino floor.
Xtreme Mystery, a progressive jackpot system that adds unpredictability to video slot and stepper products, was introduced late last year by Las Vegas-based Aristocrat Technologies Inc.
"The system adds to regular play the ability to win various size jackpots," said Brad Johnson, marketing vice president for the Americas at Aristocrat. "There are a lot of small jackpots to build interest and a few big ones that pop up unexpectedly. Casinos can set the size of jackpots, whose random appearances are determined on the threshold of play."
Xtreme Mystery jackpots are revealed in the 19-inch top box of the Aristocrat slots "Gold Fever," "Wild Africa" and "Prosperity." Additional games with different themes are in the works, Johnson said.
Aristocrat also offers a broad line of Hyperlink(r) progressive slots, on which the opportunity to win progressive jackpots is spread over numerous machines on the gaming floor. With so much cash-in, jackpots build big and fast. But part of the fun is the element of surprise.
Key to such games as the 20-line "Zorro" and the race car-themed "Scorchin' Fortune" is that players never know what will appear on secondary windows. Some windows offer straight money prizes while others a chance to multiply earlier winnings. Players can work through up to four levels of bonus windows on "Scorchin' Fortune."
Multi-level mysteries
Mystery Progressives from Reno, Nev.-based International Game Technology offer four to six different levels of bonuses in addition to regular base slots game awards, and they hit at any time during regular game play without players having to make maximum wagers.
According to Ed Rogich, IGT's vice president of marketing, all games offering Mystery Progressives customize bonus play to give players the chance to advance through each progressive jackpot level so long as criteria for advancement is satisfied by correct picks or other action. While only one progressive level jackpot is awarded per round, a few Mystery Progressive machines allow players to win bonus spins in addition to bonus rewards.
First offered on "Fort Knox" progressives slots in 2005, Mystery Progressives also are currently offered with "Wheelionaire," "Party Time," "Jackpot Hunter" and "Soul Train" slots. Each game has a video screen that displays jackpot levels (Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum) and the jackpot amount in each.
On "Fort Knox" slots, a player's random qualification to go for the jackpots begins when a siren rings and the top-mounted video screen announces, "You are entering Fort Knox." The vault doors unlock to reveal the message, "Copper Vault has been breached." At this point, the player has already won the Copper jackpot, and enters a hallway of vaulted doors where he must pick two vaults. Revealed values in the vaults are added to player winnings, and if he exceeds the value required for advancement, he continues toward the Silver, Gold and Platinum jackpots. The bonus round ends when the player either fails to advance or breaches the Platinum vault. As a player completes each bonus round, he is showered-via the screen-with riches and cheering fans, as guards load armored cars with his winnings.
The randomness of this bonus round encourages patrons to play longer, and encourages other players to play Mystery Progressive machines as the jackpot levels rise, Rogich noted.
Bonusing events are not limited to secondary screens on video slot and poker machines. Several firms now offer systems that provide bonuses to good customers while they are playing any game; often when they least expect it.
Accrued rewards
The NexGen(r) interactive touchscreen display marketed by IGT converts every game into a personal kiosk for customers who hold a casino's players card. Working through IGT's Advantage(tm) System, NexGen(r) helps track the customers' playing and wagering activities for future frequent player rewards, while reporting their progress toward rewards on the full-color screen.
According to Rogich, NexGen(r) is a valuable promotional tool, allowing casinos to promote other amenities like hotels, restaurants, retail outlets, shows and recreational areas to a captive audience. It also highlights promotions, special events and other benefits from players club membership.
NexGen(r) also delivers other bonusing events and ways to reward good players independent of the game machines they are playing, Rogich said.
Personal Progressives(r) creates an individual progressive jackpot for players with a spontaneous reward that grows larger the more they play, and follows players from game to game-and even over time-until it is won. The NexGen(r) screen regularly updates the player about the size of his personal jackpot. Casinos can establish up to 10 different jackpot levels to accommodate the play level of everyone from casual to top-tier patrons.
Luck Coin chooses a winner from qualified players on designated machines based on a randomly preset "nth" coin dropped into these machines. Casinos can apply this bonus to single machines, a bank of machines, or over the entire gaming floor without the physical connection of machines.
Celebration Prizes dole out smaller "celebration" bonuses to all customers actively playing when another player hits a big jackpot. If someone hits a $150,000 jackpot, other players may each get a $50 bonus. Casinos can configure this program to reward only carded players or award a larger bonus to those holding player cards.
Others include Lucky Time bonuses, which deliver any size cash reward-or even a car-within time parameters set by the casino, and Multiple Jackpot Time, which automatically multiplies an eligible winning payout by up to nine times once a bonus pool exceeds a predetermined amount.
Spreading the wealth
Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies, meanwhile, has enjoyed significant success with its Bally Power Bonusing(tm) products. There are six key bonusing features within the Bally Power Bonusing(tm) Suite: Bally Power Rewards(tm); Power Sweepstakes(tm); Bally Power Promotions(tm); Bally Power Winners(tm); Bally Power Bank(tm); and Bally Power Coupon(tm). Bally also develops secondary bonus games on its iVIEW(tm) player tracking panel that allow casinos to offer bonus gaming across the floor.
With the Bally Power Winners(tm) progressive jackpot system, players can receive mystery jackpots, and casinos can control where, how and how often the ever-growing award is distributed, said Tom Doyle, Bally's vice president of systems product management.
"Random distribution of the progressive jackpot occurs within time parameters set by casinos," Doyle explained. "And the jackpot can be awarded to a single player or spread out. For instance, the top winner might get $1,000 while other customers playing slots at that time could each get a $10 bonus."
Bally Live Rewards(tm) gives video poker players an additional opportunity to win a big jackpot, Doyle added. On a second video screen added to the machine, players each receive a separate set of cards based on their amount of play. These cards are dealt face down, but once five cards are earned, they flip over. Based on the hand revealed, players win various size bonuses as indicated by a pay table.
Bally Power Rewards(tm) spreads bonus awards throughout the casino. Based on play levels, players are instantly awarded credits. Rewards are based on player card input on the slots floor, table games, poker and keno.
