Game On! Line games now playing in Montana
By Paul Tash
Montana Tavern Times
Montana's new video line games were met with a mix of excitement and curiosity from players who got their first crack at the new games just after midnight on New Year's Eve.
“You can win in all sorts of ways,” said JoAnn Armstrong, who was one of the first to play the new games at the Grand Plaza Casino in Butte on New Year's Eve. “I'm not sure what I'm doing, though.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by several players interviewed on New Year's Eve.
“It's all about entertainment,” said Ray Carr while playing a U1 line game at the Sunken Treasure Casino in Butte. “We'll figure the games out.”
Tammy Smith, a supervisor at the Sunken Treasure, said she's “really excited” to have the games, believing they'll improve revenues.
“I think it's really going to help,” she said.
“A lot of our customers are way excited,” added staffer Tina Johnson.
Smith and Johnson agreed that the line games will likely attract more play from Canadian tourists, who in the past were often surprised Montana didn't have the games.
The Montana Legislature passed the measure to add video line games to existing video gaming machines in the 2011 session in an effort to help revive the struggling gaming businesses hit hard in the last few years by both a difficult economy and the statewide smoking ban. Video line games are the first new form of video gaming in Montana since poker and keno machines were legalized in 1985.
The law contains the same betting parameters that exist for poker and keno – maximum payouts will be $800 and maximum bets will be $2. The line games must be present in the same machines as poker and keno. Locations are not required to offer video line games.
The new law allowed the line-game software updates to be installed before Jan. 1, and then turned on after midnight on New Year's Eve. The process to turn the games on varies depending on the machine – many will simply involve entering a security code or Personal Identification Number.
Smith and Johnson at the Sunken Treasure followed procedure lists supplied by manufacturers and took about a minute per machine to enable line games on machines from U1, Spielo and Grand Vision Gaming.
Game manufacturers and state regulators have been working together since the line-game legislation's passage to develop rules to manage the games, then to develop an efficient process for game submission for testing and approval.
Manufacturers who have games already approved by the state have been working long hours installing the games on their machines across the state before Jan. 1.
“We're running fast and hard,” Tim Carson of Grand Vision told the Montana Tavern Times Dec. 28. He said then his company would have 600 machines across the state ready to go by Jan. 1. He predicted up to 4,000 machines statewide should have line games available to play on New Year's Eve.
Brian DuVal of Epic Software was poring over a Montana map to develop an installation schedule of Epic games that were approved just days before when the Times visited his office Dec. 22.
“We're going to hustle and do the best we can” to install as many games as possible, he said.
Carson said operators and players alike were catching line-game fever.
“We've got a lot of activity,” he said. “People are calling us, asking us when we're turning on the line games.”
“It's working exactly as planned,” he said of the line-game build up, adding that operators “are beginning to enjoy the business again.”
John Blair, owner of the Reno Club and president of the Yellowstone County Tavern Association, agreed with Carson in a story in the Billings Gazette that appeared Dec. 31,
"I think there's a high level of excitement,” he told the paper. “I really do."
At the Reno Club, Blair has had seven of his 19 machines upgraded to include line games. He'll eventually have all 19 offering keno, poker and line games, he said.
Manufacturers with line games approved before Jan. 1 included U1, Grand Vision Gaming, Spielo (Arcom platform), Summit and Epic.
In addition, those submitted and awaiting approval by the state are Fleetwood Gaming, MTD, and Spielo for its new Sensys platform. In addition, IGT is expected to submit games early next year. And other manufacturers not presently in Montana are rumored to be interested in developing line games for the Montana market.
The rollout of video line games will be a process that will continue for several months.
The industry is in the initial phase of the rollout that involves mostly software upgrades to existing machines to meet the Jan. 1 launch date.
One exception is MTD, a new manufacturer that doesn't have machines in Montana currently and so will be rolling out new machines with new poker, keno and line games.
The second phase of the line-game rollout early next year will involve more hardware development that will include more new machines with new suites of games.