Do Skill-Based Slots Really Exist?

In the US gambling industry, there is something known as the Millennial Problem. As you likely know, the term millennial is a reference to anyone born between 1980 and 2000, which in the US, is a population of around 87 million people. Unlike the generation before them, gambling research has found that this group does not care about gambling as much. In particular, they do not seem to fancy reel-spinning action.

Much of this gets credited to Millennials showing more interest in daily fantasy sports, various forms of engaging online gaming, and poker. They also seem to favor going out and being social than hitting a casino to spin digital reels up to a rate previously unseen with other adult demographics. Las Vegas Strip operators, for years, have complained about having difficulties getting millennials to gamble.

In the past, most individuals played games of chance at gaming properties for the novelty this experience provided, potential profit, to hang out, and to get some thrills from this activity. However, young adults today show lowered interest in classic gaming genres, meaning titles where they cannot affect the outcome in any way. That is so because they have grown up playing video games, where the expertise attained at these has gotten hailed as an admirable skill. Thus, it is hard to go from games that one is attempting to master to others where mastery is not possible at all.

Nevada and New Jersey gambling companies sought to remedy this situation by introducing skill-based slots in the mid-2010s. But do these products supply what they advertise, online and offline? Read on to find out.

The Introduction of Skill-Based Machines at Land-Based Venues

That happened in 2017 in Las Vegas after three such games passed initial testing at Planet Hollywood in Sin City. One of the products in question was Cannonbeard’s Treasure, and the two others were Gamblit Poker. The first is a blackjack-inspired game, and the latter is a title with a poker twist. These implemented RNG-powered gameplay that transpires on a pool-size-screen table and features competitive and social aspects.

In 2015, Nevada passed Senate Bill 9, which amended the state’s gambling regulation to allow for skill-based machines on the grounds that the sector should promote alternative and advanced technology to aid its growth. In adopting this law, Nevada’s Commission gained the authority to establish requirements for games where, regarding round outcomes, skill predominates chance, and hybrid ones, where the result gets produced through a combination of chance and skill. New Jersey followed in Nevada’s footsteps a year later, bringing forward similar regulations.

Since the legislative changes in these two US regions, Scientific Games has dabbled in releasing slots with a skill-based bonus round, with the first being their version of the popular arcade machine Space Invaders. GameCo, Gamblit, Synergy Blue, and a few others have emerged as the top dogs in this section of the gambling industry in the past five years. And mainstays like IGT and Konami have explored it as well.

Though, most of these entities have had iffy success with their so-called skill-based products, with many pulling their machines from Garden State and Vegas gaming floors for not generating enough revenues. But, many are hopeful that interest in them will rise soon, even though dozens of famous operators are looking to lower the number of slots on their properties in the coming years.

Is There Really a Skill Element Involved?

Yes. Nevertheless, no amount of expertise in a skill-based slot will be enough to flip the advantage onto the player’s side. That is improbable by design. No operator will allow someone to get so good at a game that they continuously win. That is not how one does good business. Gambling entities must ensure that they do everything in their power to ensure that they turn a profit, and because of this fact, they will never let anyone gain a constant edge over them.

So, what does skill do in these games? It can lower the house edge by a few percentages at best. In some cases, despite the depicted skill-based gameplay, in fact, gamblers cannot affect the win-producing frequency of these titles. At all. In those that they can, this usually happens only in a bonus round. Furthermore, the specs of some of these slots can be misleading, as they can list a base RTP of 92%, boosted to 96% with expert play. Yet, the potential RTP of 96% gets unlocked only in a free spins-like mode, and even then, gamblers are at a disadvantage concerning their overall long-term winning chances, despite getting as good as the game allows them to be.

Instead of falling for the trick – boost RTP with expertise, you can look to play high RTP spinners online. These are ones with a return-to-player percentage above 97%. Ones boasting an RTP specification that surpasses this percentage are Multi Bricks from SYNOT, NetEnt’s BloodSuckers, and Marching Legions from Relax Gaming, which we have reviewed.

Are There Online Skill-Based Slots?

Not really. If you want to do some skill gambling over the internet, play online poker.

Shooting games like those in the Max Quest series or Fish Catch by RTG get mentioned as featuring a higher level of interactivity. And that competency can lead to more rewards. But the truth is that if a title has a publicized fixed RTP, then its payout percentage cannot get affected in any gameplay fashion. It has gotten predetermined and will remain fixed. It shall only be adjustable by operators in cases where the developer has allowed this option. So, the reality is that these games hardly differ from slots in how they produce outcomes. It does not matter much what players do. The game will always payout what it thinks it should payout.

In 2017, the Malta Gaming Authority created new regulations for skill-based games as a response to the growth of fantasy sports, not Nevada’s introduction of slots with a skill element. At that time, the MGA had also expressed a written position that RNG-powered games where skill affects outcomes, such as backgammon, should get licensed as something different than gambling. The criteria that would get used by this body to determine if skill really plays a role in round results would have been the proven ability of super-skilled players to win over 56% of their matches. If someone could do that, the game would get classified as one of skill, requiring a specific license, not the one given out for traditional games of chance. That may have led to MGA’s reclassification of online poker, which in the US gets categorized as a game of skill, and has its distinct regulation.

Relevant news