IGT installs Electronic Gaming Tables at Bellagio Las Vegas

For the last few years, casinos have been trying to figure out how to attract millennials, their target audience, to the gaming floor. Scores of evidence have shown today’s younger generation have no interest in playing slot machines, and that they are more willing to part with their money at upscale restaurants and entertainment venues. But as the struggle continues, the Bellagio Las Vegas thinks it may have found an answer.

The high-class, Vegas Strip casino resort has just invested heavily in the installment of electronic gaming tables, or EGTs as they’re better known. The concept behind EGTs is nothing new, but modern innovations by International Game Technology (IGT), the company Bellagio turned to for its latest upgrade, have brought something new to the table.

IGTs new electronic table games, built within the trademark Dynasty cabinet, are about the same size as a slot machine, meaning they don’t take up much space on the casino floor. Plus, they are able to provide players with multiple gaming options. The EGTs at Bellagio offer both electronic roulette and electronic baccarat games.

Benefits of Electronic Gaming Tables

The benefits for the casino operator are many. For one, players can take a single seat and play more than one game variant. Moreover, the screens for each game are split, meaning players can bet on electronic roulette and baccarat games simultaneously. And, since it’s electronic, they can actually play multiple hands of baccarat at once.

Realistically, the concept is similar to betting on multiple paylines or increasing the bet size on a slot machine. That translates to the potential for casinos to make more money. Some players will surely stick to a single game with a modicum bet size, but with multi-gaming options, others could easily wager much more at a time than they would at a live casino table.

For experienced players, the speed at which the baccarat cards are dealt, or electronic roulette wheel is spun, is often appreciated, since they don’t have to wait for other people to place their bets. Of course, casinos appreciate that too, because the law of probabilities guarantees they’ll make money from those players even faster.

Furthermore, the availability of electronic table games eliminates the intimidation factor that has scared many players – especially younger ones with little experience at the tables – away from live dealer games. The same players who used to skitter over to the slot machines because they were too timid to sit at a table alongside other, more experienced players, can feel at ease with a single-player game that moves at their own pace.

Bellagio Following the Footsteps of Sands

Bellagio Las Vegas wasn’t the first to take the EGT route, though. The Sands Bethlehem, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania took the plunge earlier this year. But for the Las Vegas Sands Corp-owned casino, they didn’t just invest in an experimental amount of machines.

Instead of installing a few EGTs near their live casino tables, as Bellagio has opted to do, Sands Bethlehem went all out, furnishing the gaming floor with 150 EGTs, including IGTs revolutionary, multi-player Stadium Blackjack. Management said their intention was clear – to target the millennials that come for entertainment and food, but rarely visit the casino.

If the efforts of these two renowned US casinos – one on the east coast, another on the west – proves to be successful in attracting millennial gamers, there’s no question that IGT’s stock will soar as more and more gambling resorts invest heavily in the new electronic gaming tables. The inevitable result would be the displacement of hundreds – maybe even thousands – of slot machines to make way for aisle upon aisle of electronic roulette and baccarat tables.