If you are a fan of the slots then no doubt you have worked with plenty of them. The biggest element of fun to the slots game is the theme. You will find that developers are working with about every theme they can think of right now and bringing it to the market. They know that if they can continue to develop the amount of themes out there they can attract that many more gamblers. They know full well that gamers are fickle right now. A good gambler is going to spend some time finding the perfect game to try. They know what to look for in terms of bonuses and payout, so all that is left is finding a theme that they like. Themes come in every form imaginable—from food to movies and sports figures to shopping. You are likely to find the game of choice with a little searching. Gambling companies know this and they are going to expand on it accordingly. The market right now is one that is growing and that means to maximize their revenue they have to work with as many gambler’s preferences as possible. Themes are also very well integrated into a game too. All you have to do is play a few games and you are going to see how well the company integrates full theme into the game. It all starts likely with the background where you are going to find some backdrop directly related to the game. Then the reels are going to be fixed with a number of theme-related elements.

You also are going to find games that have bonus games directly relating to the theme. For example, let’s say you are wagering on a game with a theme of fish. The bonus game could offer you ten fishing pole and depending on which one you choose, you get a special bonus. This is how the casino company is going to keep the game relevant to the overall theme going along with it. You also are going to get games that have good theme integration into their soundtrack and sound. This is another way to make you feel like you are truly surrounded by the theme and add to the richness of the overall slots game.

Whether or not those in support of smoking in public have an argument health-wise has been sharply up for debate. The issue has been on the table for years though. If you look at the different options, you are going to find that getting a ban on public smoking was not an easy one to move ahead with. It was a multi-year proposal and then standoff. Illinois was a state that eventually did succumb to the ban and decided that public smoking should not be tolerated. There was an additional issue though. Now, it is the casinos that have been targeted. Casinos have always been open to smoking and not suddenly they had to shut the door to that activity. This was a problem because casino operators want their establishments open to as many people as possible—it only makes sense. They want to be able to attract as many gamers as they possibly can and that includes the smoking ones. Plus, smokers who have been going to casinos for years have always seen them as a place where they could comfortably find solace from other non-smoking locations. This was all about to change though when Illinois instilled their ban on smoking for all public locations- including casinos. Operators were not happy, but they had to work within the bounds of the law to make sure that they were up to code. Now there are more debates on the issue though and it looks like casinos are going to get a new law to work with.

Casinos in Illinois now have been told that they once again are going to not be under the ban for smoking. The reason, experts are citing, is because they believe that the state wants to maximize its own revenue. By closing out the smoking population, casino numbers are down. If the state lifts the ban on casinos, then they can bring in that many more gamblers and elevate their own revenue streams as a result. Remember that the state takes huge percentages of revenue that casinos bring in due to their tax revenue. If they can maximize the patrons, they can maximize their own income.

Illinois legislators made headlines as of late after lifting a smoking ban that formerly was on their casinos. This has been a long-debated issue for many states and Illinois is just one more that has been faced with the decision. It all began years ago when casinos were seen as locations of decadence and minimal of rules. There is a reason why games are often affiliated with crime, mobsters and money laundering. Not that it is always the case, but over the history of the gambling games there have been ties to the world of illegal activities. This is something that casino operators have had to fight against, but now they are coming up with another issue. In past years, casino operators were able to offer a place with smoking and alcohol freely accepted too. Alcohol isn’t going anywhere, but smoking is now in question for the casinos. This is where state legislators are stepping in. Illinois made a change a few years ago stating that smoking in public locations was banned. If you were a smoker, you had to be a certain distance away from a public building to do it. There was no longer such a thing as smoking inside a restaurant or bar. It was not welcomed by all parties, but medical circles and medically-concerned organizations were more than happy with the ban. They believed that it would help people’s collective health and save them from problems that smoking brings to the world. Though they had an argument, there still were some naysayers.

In the world of smokers there is a group that wants to have their smoking freedom. They believe that if they are risking their own health, then they should be able to do so at their own decision and not at a public ban. They also have an argument that the belief on “second hand smoke” has been highly exaggerated to the public. Whether or not this is the case still brings up the fact that there is a part of the market that wants smoking in public places to remain in effect. They want to be able to decide on their own whether or not they can smoke.

Part two coming next.

There are more illegal activities coming about in the world of gambling. Remember that it was the anti-gambling activists who warned that there would be increasing problems as slots gambling was legalized. They believed that once people got wind of just how lucrative the games were, more and more would be trying to find their own ways into the market—legally or illegally. This is exactly what is happening, because there are more instances of illegal slots gaming coming up around the world. The problem with illegal slots though is that they are not regulated. They put people at a disadvantage because who knows whether or not the games pay out on the schedules they promote? Every slots game has a sticker that tells the gamer how much it pays out and the rules of the games. The pay table is something that every good slots gamer takes seriously. In a casino or at an online gaming parlor, these are regulated by third-parties that make sure the games are payout out on their noted schedules. With unregulated games, this is a definite issue. The operator of an illegal machine can easily rig the machine to never pay out, leaving the player at a huge disadvantage. Not only is that false advertisement, but it could be construed as theft in some courts.

In Santa Cruz County California there was an incident of illegal slots gaming recently taken care of. The games were 25¢-slots that were seized. They were operating out of the La Esperanza Market. There is some leeway for games. If they hand out small prizes, they could still be considered legal. The issue comes in when the games hand out cash prizes. These games set up at the Esperanza Market were handing out iPods, $20 and $50-bills to the gamers who were lucky enough to get wins. This made them definitely illegal. It is estimated that the games were bringing in between two-to three-thousand dollars a month in revenue for the store—revenue they obviously were not paying taxes on. The games were seized and the owners are now being brought to court on charges. This is just one more example of how difficult it is to regulate the games but now vigilant police have to be about the issue.

There is a lot of change going on in the slots market and most of it means expansion. States all over are pushing for more games to bringing in games because they know how lucrative the games are. Slots gaming is a multi-million dollar business that you are going to find hundreds-of-thousands of games to pick from. If you love the games, then you are going to find out that they are convenient, fun, exciting and highly addictive. New research is showing that the games are easy to burn through. Part of the fun of the slots game is that it is high-speed fun. A study showed that the average avid slot gamer spins the reels over one-hundred times a minute. That is a huge amount and can add up quickly. Consider that if you are wagering on a $1-per spin game, spinning one-hundred times without a win means you have spend $100 in just one hour. Normal gamers don’t wager for just one hour though. Normally they are working at a much faster pace and not necessarily on a $1-per spin game. Games nowadays take wagers anywhere from one penny on up to fifty-dollars and above. That means that gamers have the ability to wager huge amounts on the games, without even knowing it.

This lack of attention to a big buy-in may be the very thing that gets gamblers in trouble. They may look down and suddenly realize that they just wagered much more on the games than they anticipated. A lot of gaming is mental and if they believe that they are just inching up to their bankroll limits, they can easily blow past it. This is a huge part of gambling that is up for debate. Plus if players are in a land based casino they are going have access to alcohol that is flowing thanks to the casino. This is another reason why the casino does this– to help people let go of their inhibitions. They know that if they have a few games, people are much more prone to playing well after they should leave.

Part two coming next.

One of the biggest problems in the slots market right now is the development of slots-like games. These are games that look like slots. They have reels, they have paylines and they have winning combinations to them. The games are those that you are going to find in various locations around the world. Businesses use them to bring in additional dollars and increase their popularity. These games aren’t completely like slots games though. The big difference is that they don’t payout cash. Rather, if you win at the games then they pay out free-spins or non-monetary prizes. This is what makes them exempt from the rules that currently govern slots gaming. The problem though is that not every jurisdiction sees the games as legal. Some are moving in and seizing the games as if they were actual slots games. They can do so under the premise that the games are offering people a payout. It isn’t hard for a business to hide payouts from the law. They can easily switch a “prize” up with a cash win of $10. Of course this money is not taxed and the government sees no benefit from allowing the games to continue.

Police forces everywhere are moving in on the games and removing them. Some business owners are not taking it lying down. They know how much fun the games are and how much money they can bring in. consider that a small game in the corner of a business can earn anywhere from $50 to $200 in revenue in any given day. That is extra money for the business to work with and they are not easily going to turn it down. Legislators are trying to crack down on the games. The problem is that the laws for regulating gambling are so sketchy right now that it’s hard to define anything clearly. What is a “slots game”? What is a “reeled game”? What is a “luck based game”? These are all questions that have to be answered before any changes can be made. It will take time, but so far businesses are showing no signs of letting go of their new revenue stream.

Gaming companies want the US market. Operators are fully aware that there are millions of US residents who love to play slots games and they want to attract them. Back in 2006 the US passed the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This was an act that strived to ban online gambling from the market and protect the gaming public from untrustworthy gaming companies. It put the responsibility of investigating, flagging and denying illegal gambling activity into the hands of banks. They had to police all transactions and face fines if they weren’t vigilant. This was a big hassle for banks because it cost them a lot more manpower to scrutinize every transaction and flag it for illegal activity. They did it though, for fear of the huge fines the government was imposing if they didn’t. For the US gamers though, having no other option didn’t stop them. Possibly legislators thought this would be the end of the issue, but it wasn’t.

US gamers did what anyone would do in the global market of today—they moved to offshore gambling companies to meet their needs as gamers. They started wagering on casinos out of the country, who were more than welcoming of their business. As a result, millions of dollars were fueled out of the country and that is money that the market will never recover. Now, the US legislators realize that their move to “ban” online gambling isn’t going to work. In fact, prohibition rarely does. They are rethinking their decisions now and trying to come up with amendments to the UIGEA bill that would update it and allow for online gamblers to wager legally. If this happens, gaming companies want to be ready. They are already hanging out like hungry wolves at the door step of the US gambling market. Some are positioning themselves to easily move into the market and take over a share. It is good news for gamers who want to wager online, but it also comes with some cautions. People have to be able to sort through the influx of companies and know what to pick and what to deny. Hopefully legislators will build some safeguards and rules into the system that help to protect the gaming public as they move into the slots market legally.

The popularity of slots gaming is a concern for anti-gambling activists. They are balking at how easy it is for gaming companies to take more and more money from gamblers. Not only are the games so varied that they cater to a huge demographic, but the games offer that multiple wager mode. This means that they speak to a wider audience than say a top-dollar blackjack game or a high-stakes poker table. These both have somewhat exclusive clientele. Slots welcome everyone. It is easy to go overboard with slots gaming. For example, let’s say you are wagering at a $0.50-per-spin game. On average a slots player spins the reels one-hundred times every hour, so that means you are wagering at a rate of $5 per hour. That probably won’t put you over your limits if you wager for four hours, but what if you do it for ten days straight? What if you do that every day? This is part of the problem that anti-gambling activists have with the market. They believe that it is easier to go overboard with slots gaming than it is with any other game. Plus the speed of the game can be deceptive too. With the ability to wager one-hundred times an hour, that makes it a game that is easy to stay with. People may think twice about throwing down a $50 buy-in for a tournament but are they going to think twice about wagering a quarter here and there? Most likely not. This is the very thing that could get them into financial trouble.

It is no secret that slots cater to a huge demographic but that could be a double-edged sword for some gamers. If they aren’t ready to take on the responsibility of modifying their gaming, it could be hard for them to maintain their bankroll limits and easily go overboard. On the high end, this could bring a slew of other problems like repossessions, loss of family, foreclosure, loss of jobs, etc. Anti-gambling activists are hoping that legislators have some contingency plan regarding this and can manage it wisely. They are hoping that there are the proper safeguards in order, but are pushing for change in the mean time.

Smoking is having an effect on gambling casinos and slots parlors and it isn’t a good one. Since there was a ban on smoking in public places instilled in the US, more and more casinos have complained. They believe that casino floors are a place where smokers should be able to puff freely. For years now gambling casinos were known for their smoke and alcohol, along with lights and excitement. This was part of the in-house slots parlor or casino feel. Everyone coming to a casino expected it to be like that. They knew what to expect and were more than willing to put up with the smoke to wager at a top notch location. Legislators moved in on that though and started the new rule. It has brought numbers in casinos down—not drastically, but still in a moderate level. Casino operators are suffering right now so that makes them concerned that they don’t have the chance to bring in as many gamers as possible.

More problems are rising as a result of the smoking ban though. Some legislators are lifting the ban on slots parlors and allowing gamers to smoke in these facilities. Of course the slots parlors are happy about it, but it is making a difference in rules that other businesses don’t like. They believe that if they have to turn down patrons who want to smoke, then all businesses should have to. They also believe that the difference is that at a slots parlor the money being brought in is money that goes partially to the government. This directly benefits legislators to allow as many people as possible into the slots parlors. The argument is one that is not sitting well with other businesses that are suffering decreases in numbers as a result of smoking changes. They are vowing to petition the states an make them listen. They believe that the rule shave to be the same for all businesses and are not happy with the disparity. Legislators will have to revisit the issue, but most likely aren’t going to change their own minds on the problem as they move on in the year.

The world of slots gaming is still seeing illegal gaming activity and this could add further fuel to the fire of anti-gambling activists’ arguments. Anti-gambling organizations believe that slots and gambling’s legalization is a problem waiting to happen. They believe that the legalization of gambling will only bring in more crime, corruption and money laundering. Their biggest argument is that the cost of “fixing”, or at minimum managing, these problems could eat away at any revenue states bring in. For example, if a slots parlor brings in $10-million in one month but has a significant rise in crime, a good portion of that money could have to be put towards shoring up police forces, building task forces directly focused on gambling activities and managing addictions. That $10-million in revenue could quickly turn into $2 or $3 with the added cost of managing ancillary issues. Is it worth it? Would the cost make it worth it to bring in legalized slots gaming? What about other problems that could be created like addictions? Research shows that slots gaming is one of the most addictive gaming activities out there and could create a market of addicts quickly. The state would have to increase its number of addiction centers where they can find help. This too would be at a significant cost to the market.

In Singapore there was more illegal activity. It seemed that at the Marina Bay Sands men were accused of bringing in fake chips to a casino with the intention of trading them in for legal chips and then cashing them out. This is another problem with gaming—managing inside casinos and slots parlors. If people are going to push for more illegal activities it is going to put more of a financial strain on gaming companies. They have to shore p their security systems and be more careful with what to do to keep illegal activities out. This again is another cost to the casino and money out of the state’s pockets. Over time things should level out, but the reality is that if there are casinos, there are going to be people trying to take advantage of them. There is just too much money at the slots parlors for thieves to resist.