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California Casinos Consider Slot Knockoffs

"Stretching legal bounds to new parameters, manufacturers of gambling machines are creating slot knockoffs that could significantly expand Indian gaming in California.

"…The Sycuan Casino near El Cajon is test-marketing eight machines that look just like slots and, in many respects, play like them, too.

"But ignore those spinning cherries, plums and 7's; they're just for show. What matters is that little bingo card on the left of the screen.

"Technically, these devices aren't slot machines; they're bingo games. And that puts them under a separate category of federal law -- one that's not under state purview.

"The handful of firms developing these so-called `class 2' machines have until now focused on Oklahoma and other states where tribes can't have Nevada-style casinos.

"…Eyeing California as a potentially huge market, manufacturers have been making sales calls on casinos throughout the state. They're hoping tribes, limited by state compacts to 2,000 slots apiece, will want to surpass those numbers with slot look-alikes.

"…Despite the similarities, there are differences that make the knockoffs a lot less appealing than slots. For one, they don't accept or dispense money.

"To play the ones at Sycuan, a gambler must go to the bingo clerk's desk and buy a card with a magnetic strip that tells the machine how many credits have been purchased. Inserting the card activates a series of electronic bingo games that last only seconds. Results of each are displayed in corresponding -- and much larger -- slot symbols, as though winning or losing combinations of fruit had been spun on reels. Credits won or left on the card must be cashed out at the desk.

"Most local casino operators doubt such a system's appeal.

"…But some local casino operators might consider adding knockoffs, depending on what happens with tribal-state compact renegotiations in 2003. Tribes want the limit of 2,000 raised…"

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