Swiss Air Adds Inflight Gambling

5 February 1997

The odds of flying without an accident are pretty good. But, the odds of you landing with a lighter wallet intact just plummeted. Interactive Flight Technologies Inc. beat out several other companies to become the first-ever provider of in-flight gambling, following the flight of a Swissair MD-11 featuring Interactive Flight Technologies' Inflight Entertainment Network (IFEN).

Offered in all three seating classes, the Swissair launch also established Interactive Flight Technologies as the first to provide interactive video-on-demand to an entire aircraft. They first offered the service on Alitalia over a year ago. The company also has been accepted "as the preferred supplier to Qantas Airways for their in-flight entertainment system."

The system features large touch-screen offering passengers quick and easy access to up to twenty movies, 60 hours of music, several computer games, and casino-style gaming from "virtual" lotto, keno and video slot machines.

In addition to entertainment options, it offers information about the progress of the flight, a feature popular with customers.

Once the beta test is complete, the system will be installed on all sixteen MD-11s and five Boeing 747s that fly in Swissair's long-haul fleet.

The system will offer all the facilities available on the current in-flight entertainment program, including one movie, one video game and the full music program, entirely free of charge.

In First Class, additional movies will cost $7.95 each, and further video games will be available for $5.00 per hour. All payments must be by credit card with Visa, Eurocard/MasterCard and American Express being accepted.

The system also offers passengers the opportunity to play games of chance with cash prizes up to $3,500.00 and a maximum loss of $200.00, for a maximum $1.00 stake.

Swiss law allows only games such as lotto, keno and video slot machines. Casino games such as roulette and poker are not yet available. For legal reasons, games of chance will not yet be offered on flights to and from the US.

Show me the money!!! Well, an interesting deal has been worked out regarding the proceeds. The responsibility for monitoring games of chance, their rules of play and Swissair's compliance will rest with the Swiss National International Lottery Board. The board will also receive all net profits remaining after deductions of operating expenses, which will go into the overall lottery fund, for allocation to various social and cultural projects around the country.

IFT's system is described as "offering passengers the chance to put together their own personal entertainment and relaxation program as they speed between Zurich and New York, Nairobi or Hong Kong."

"The new individualized concept and the broader choice of entertainments are just what today's passenger wants and expects," adds Ludovic Bauer, head of Product Development at Swissair. "Our philosophy is to give our customers a long-haul flight that is as enjoyable as can be. With IFT's inflight entertainment and information system, that's exactly what we'll be doing."

Once it has been successfully installed, there are virtually no limits to the facilities that can be added to the IFT system: TV channels (news and sports), computer networks, electronic newspapers, laptop connections, shots of the aircraft from externally mounted cameras, and public services such as online flight, car and hotel reservations or shopping, to name just a few. Thus, the screens and shared monitors on which films and information are currently shown will largely disappear from the aircraft cabin as they are superseded by this new and innovative system -- a system that offers optimum choice, of program and of scheduling, to the traveling guest.