Page 18 - September 2009 • Southern California Gaming Guide

by Borris Bienn
What’s great about the casino experience is that it can accommodate every mood. Sometimes, you’re in the mood for a leisurely afternoon where you can socialize with your friends, so you’ll all play blackjack or poker, or perhaps you’ll sit together at a bank of reel slots and
chat while you wait for someone to hit a big jackpot (secretly hoping it’s you and not one of your friends, of course). Other times, you’re in the mood for a little more excitement, so you’ll play a fast- paced video slot with dazzling animated graphics and thrilling bonus games. And for those times when you crave even more excitement, you may even play two slots at once.
But what if you could play even more than that? What if you could play two, three, even four of your favorite slots at the same time? Well, now you can, thanks to IGT’s new MultiPLAY video slots!
From Multi-Hand to MultiPLAY
e idea for the MultiPLAY platform comes from the success of Multi-Hand Video Poker games. When video poker was rst introduced, players were limited to a single, ve-card hand at a time. While many players enjoyed the steady pace of the game, the designers at IGT started to look for ways to make it more exciting. eir solution was to add two additional hands, stacked on top of the original hand. Triple Play Draw Poker® was introduced in
1997, and was an instant sensation.
With the wild success of Triple Play Draw Poker®,
other multi-hand games were introduced and accepted:
Five Play® Draw Poker, Ten PlayTM Draw Poker, Fifty Play Draw Poker and Hundred Play Draw Poker®. Multi-hand games now represent 52 percent of all IGT video poker themes in the eld.
But while video poker players could enjoy the excitement of playing multiple hands at once, slot players were still limited to one game per machine. Until now.
Play Up to Four Games at Once
MultiPLAY takes one machine and makes it four times more exciting. As players wager higher, they can play one, two, three or up to four di erent games, each playing
independently from the other. Players see each of the four games on a single screen. When they press the “spin” button, all four
games begin to spin, one after the other, and the outcome of each game is clear and easy to understand. e wins on each game are calculated and displayed separately, and then added to the player’s total.
In addition to playing up to four video slot games on the same machine at the same time, players can hit four progressives sequentially or even hit four bonuses on one spin. Bonus rounds ll the base game screen, and play one after the other.“It’s the multi-hand video poker experience now in a multi-game video slot for the very rst time,” said Ryan Gri n, IGT product manager for Core Products.
Multiple Games at the Push of a Button
Wagering on MultiPLAY games couldn’t be simpler, thanks to Easy Bet. Instead of choosing how many lines to play, and how many credits to bet per line on each game, players choose from a selection of eight bet con gurations. Each con guration automatically plays all available paylines,
Easy Bet makes MultiPLAY wagering on up to four games at once as simple as pushing a button.
Page 18
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
September 2009