MarketTools Blog

Although it’s hard to imagine now, an article in Wired Magazine reports that “there was a time when casinos only grudgingly tolerated slot machines”.  Now slot machines represent two-thirds of all gaming revenue and three-quarters of the gaming floor acreage in Vegas. Market Researchers could learn a lot from the evolution of slot machines from novelty to casino gaming staple. 

Here are three slot machine innovations that have some interesting parallels in the market research industry:

1)  Going digital
The first big leap in slot machines was the jump from mechanical machines to digital ones. Mechanical machines were expensive to build and needed almost constant maintenance. In addition, the parameters of the slot machine games were restricted by the movement of physical reels, which spun to determine the game’s outcome. The only way to create bigger jackpots (with longer odds) was to add more reels or put more pictures on each reel.  But players didn’t like the looks of those complicated machines, even if they wanted the bigger payoffs. 

Digital slot machines, patented in 1984, solved those problems.  Today the payouts are determined by computer chips running sophisticated software and relying on random number generators. The chips require less maintenance than physical gears and can be programmed to pay out at any odds no matter what the physical devices looks like. Going digital reduced the costs and removed the biggest limitations to slot machine gambling – and transformed slots into a revenue powerhouse.

The research survey parallel:  When surveys went online – for example, when Zoomerang pioneered a self-service online survey solution in 1997 – that digital technology helped remove the physical limitations and costs of conducting surveys via mall intercepts, call centers and on paper. As a result of going online, the market research industry was able to scale survey-taking in dramatic ways, and the data from online surveys is what powers most market research today.

2)  Getting rid of the cheaters
The Wired article describes early slot machines as “magnets for cheats". Scammers would affix coins to fishing lines or pry open service doors to tamper with the reels of slot machines. Cheaters represented a serious risk to casinos.  And no casino would invest heavily in slot machines until they knew that they could mitigate that risk.

The research survey parallel:  Boy does that one sound familiar!  Market researchers have spent a decade trying to reduce the risk of fraudulent responses (and bad respondents) in online surveys.  While the debate continues, TrueSample has emerged as the “security system” of choice for respondent validation and data quality – and it’s helping customers place big bets on the future of online data.

3)  Customizing the experience
Once the slots went digital and casinos knew they could stop the cheaters, slot machines represented a highly controlled, easily scalable gaming environment. That foundation made it possible for slot machine makers to produce a huge variety of games. The player experience can be customized to present a bet in an infinite number of ways. Now, every gambler can find a machine that fits his or her exact tastes whether they prefer simple traditional machines or machines with lots of variations, mini games and free spins. In fact, slot machines are so adaptable that individual machines can be programmed to change their payouts based upon user information – such as the data stored on “player cards,” which are smartcards given to gamblers as rewards in casino loyalty programs.

The research survey parallel:  The challenge of the online survey industry today is to take the scale that’s possible with online research and the confidence that’s provided by automated data quality tools, and create a variety of customized survey experiences that can cover all potential survey respondents.  Similar to the way the variety of slot machines proliferated in the casinos, we’ve seen an explosion of new data collection techniques across online qualitative work, communities, virtual shopping experiences, mobile surveys, gamification and customer satisfaction programs.

The challenge now is to develop guidelines for consistency and quality that work across these modes.  At MarketTools, we’re working with our partners to prepare for that future by developing online market research quality standards that can be applied across even more formats and in more places. With that assurance, the expanded variety of survey options could result in a surge of willing survey participants and a bounty of available data.