A total of 30 video game gambling machines (VGMs) are now available on the floors of Atlantic City’s Tropicana Casino Resort and three Caesars Entertainment, featuring the titles Danger Arena and Pharoah’s Secret Temple. GameCo Inc. designed the games.
“Danger Arena is a first-person action game that appeals to a more ‘core’ gamer audience, similar to XBox games like Call of Duty,” GameCo founder Blaine Graboyes told NorthJersey.com.
“Pharaoh’s Secret Temple appeals to a more casual audience and is similar to mobile ‘match 3’ games such as Candy Crush.”
The Danger Arena machines debuted in October 2016, while Pharaoh’s Secret Temple was installed at Tropicana last week.
Graboyes founded GameCo in 2015 and said that the company raised $8.3 million in venture capital to fund the Atlantic City launch.
The casinos, eager for new revenue streams, are hoping the VGMs will entice millennials, who are more likely to play video and social media games than slot machines, to spend more time and money at the casinos, the site reported.
According to NorthJersey.com, Atlantic City’s combined casino revenue has fallen by more than 50 percent since 2006, when Pennsylvania and New York opened casinos near the New Jersey border. And, the number of casinos in the city dropped from 14 to seven in 2014.
“The video games are an example of efforts by state regulators to consider a variety of gambling options to help boost Atlantic City casinos and raise more tax revenue,” the site said.
Next month, GameCo expects to receive permission to expand into Connecticut and plans to operate in most major U.S. gambling jurisdictions within the next year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The company needs approval from Nevada gaming regulators before it can place its machines on Las Vegas casino floors.
