James Packer Pokies
A pokies manufacturer with ties to James Packer’s Crown Resorts has launched the first applications in Australia to roll out a revolutionary new style of poker machine — “skill-based” gaming machines — aimed at attracting younger gamblers.
The Victorian gambling regulator is understood to be working with the company towards a possible trial of the new-style devices at Crown’s flagship casino in Melbourne, while the authorities in New South Wales are cautioning there is a lack of sufficient research into the gambling-harm risks.
That’s what James Packer says, anyway. Packer Visits Sydney Site. Earlier this month, billionaire investor and largest Crown Resorts shareholder James Packer emerged from a mostly self-imposed exile from public life to tour the Crown Sydney development site. He seemed pleased with the progress of the $2.4 billion project at Barangaroo.
James Packer James Packer, Australia’s biggest pokies mogul. Despite recently relinquishing his majority share in the Crown Resorts group, there is no bigger name in the Australian casino industry than James Packer. Packer's Crown targeting Millennials with gamer pokies August 31, 2018 A pokies manufacturer with ties to James Packer’s Crown Resorts has launched the first applications in Australia to roll out a revolutionary new style of poker machine — “skill-based” gaming machines — aimed at attracting younger gamblers. The company’s three casinos in Melbourne, Perth and the UK all lost business during the pandemic, but there was one bright spot. James Packer misses out on eight-figure payday. Packer's Crown targeting Millennials with gamer pokies August 31, 2018 A pokies manufacturer with ties to James Packer’s Crown Resorts has launched the first applications in Australia to roll out a revolutionary new style of poker machine — “skill-based” gaming.
Crown's joint venture, Chill Games, is developing a range of new 'skill-based' pokies products.
Photo: Josh RobenstoneIn applications lodged in both states last month, Wymac Gaming Solutions is seeking approval of the so-called skill-based gaming product which mixes an element of skill with the ordinary pokies-playing experience, and is said to have more in common with video games.
The founders of Melbourne-based Wymac and Crown Resorts are in a 50/50 joint venture called Chill Games, developing a suite of new gaming machine products that determine payouts based on player ability as well as chance.
The push towards skill-based gaming follows rising fears among casino operators worldwide about the ageing population of their pokies players and fears of a looming drop-off in their pokies revenue — valued at $12 billion a year in Australia. The industry sees skill-based, arcade-style games as a way to widen the appeal of pokies to millennials, who find traditional push-button pokies mindless and uninteresting.
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Elsewhere in the world, skill-based slot machines incorporate elements of skill, such as hand-eye coordination or speed, into games, or could simply be casino versions of puzzle-like games, sports-like games or shooter games. They can be single or multi-player, and, so far, they have been rolled out at casinos in several US states, including Nevada, home to Las Vegas, and New Jersey, home to Atlantic City.
Wymac’s applications in NSW and Victoria, submitted to regulators last month, will have to face investigations over problem-gambling risk factors. By adding an element of skill to pokies, some experts say, players may have a heightened sense or “illusion” of control over the game, which could caused prolonged gambling and heavier losses.
“I think that's a really dangerous mix,” said Samantha Thomas, an associate professor at Deakin University. “One of the things that really creates risk with gambling is when people have an inflated sense of skill associated with it.”
Another researcher, Sally Gainsbury, the deputy director of Sydney University’s Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic, is leading a research project in conjunction with a US skill-based slot manufacturer, GameCo, surveying 232 players and examining whether they “overestimated” the role of chance.
James Packer
Photo: Sahlan HayesState regulator Liquor & Gaming NSW said there was a “lack of research on potential risks of skill-based gaming” and said it would commission studies in coming months before reaching a decision on the application.
“We need to better understand issues such as risks around illusion of control and game returns for players with varying skills before any decisions are made on skills-based electronic gaming machine applications,” a spokesman said.
In assessing applications for new electronic gaming machines, the spokesman said, “we consider gambling-harm risks and must be satisfied the proposed electronic gaming machines appropriately addresses those risks and is consistent with responsible conduct of gambling”.
The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation said the Wymac application was under consideration. Factors to be considered when assessing the application for a skill-based machine include the return-to-player rates, the fairness of the game and responsible gambling issues, a spokeswoman said.
Crown Resorts and Wymac declined to comment on Friday.
Announcing the Chill Gaming joint venture in August last year, Crown Resorts said skill-based gaming was an interesting concept that was “gaining traction”.
“It is a reaction to the emergence of games that are different to traditional games,” Crown chief financial officer Ken Barton said.
Tourism gamble?: James Packer says Australia should invest in more casinos to attract middle class Chinese and boost tourism. Picture: Stuart McevoySource:Herald Sun
CROWN chairman James Packer has admitted he gets upset when people accuse him of making millions of dollars from gamblers' misery.
The billionaire businessman said while he had developed a fairly thick skin it was upsetting to be accused of profiting from others' gambling problems.
'I obviously do get upset at that,' Mr Packer told Fairfax Radio.
'It's not nice when people go to your character.'
The Crown boss said he'd prefer to argue the issues rather than the people.
He said casinos were his biggest business interest 'by far' and he was proud of that fact.
'I get my back up against the wall when people start spinning the line, 'Why are you peddling evil?' Mr Packer said.
'This perception that the only people that come to Crown are helpless victims and we are just sitting there preying on them - I reject that absolutely.'
A self-confessed gambler at the race track and blackjack table, he said that suggestion was spin from the 'latte set', but customers visited Crown Casino and Burswood Casino in Perth 'because they enjoy it'.
Mr Packer weighed into the pokies debate yesterday when he argued the Gillard Government's proposed betting limits wouldn't reduce problem gambling.
In response, anti-pokies MP Andrew Wilkie said Crown's profits came at a terrible human cost, mentioning the suicide of one punter at Packer's Crown Casino in Melbourne after he 'blew the lot on the pokies'.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon compared Mr Packer's stance on pokies reform to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's position on democracy.
Mr Packer today said he was particularly disappointed Mr Wilkie raised the May suicide of the 45-year-old man in a hotel room the casino had provided to him for free.
He said Crown didn't want to fight the Gillard Government because 'we know if there's a fight we will lose'.
James Packer Pokies Pictures
Rather, the company wanted a say in how problem gambling was tackled.
'The implementation has got to be right and that's what we hope we can have a small influence in,' Mr Packer said, adding that at a minimum Labor should trial mandatory pre-commitment before rolling it out nationally.
Mr Packer said the scheme would result in Asian tourists going to Macau, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia to avoid having to 'fill in forms' before playing the pokies.
But the 44-year-old isn't confident the Government will take up the suggestion of a trial.
James Packer Today
'Is the Government listening to us?' he said today.
'The Government is trying to make sure they are there tomorrow.'
Originally published asPokie attacks upset me, admits hurt Packer