| Real
Casinos> 2007
- Real Casinos News Archive>
The Ups And Downs Of Gambling
Elevator betting could lift your finances....
Have you ever made a mental bet on which one of the elevator cars
you're waiting for will arrive at your floor first? If a new California
(where else?) company, Elevated Gaming, has its way, you'll soon
be able to place those bets wherever it's legal, and win money if
your prediction is right.
Elevated Gaming's President Roger Skoff recalls that the idea that
inspired the company's formation was a happy accident. About a year
and a half ago, he and a friend were standing in the lobby of a
building, waiting to go up to a meeting. Skoff bet his friend a
buck that one of the elevators would arrive before the others, and
the bet was accepted.
"I forget who won our bet," Skoff relates. "But
as we rode the elevator upstairs, I said 'you know, we could probably
sell casinos on the idea of putting machines in their lobbies, so
guests could bet on the elevators?'
His friend agreed, building on the idea by suggesting that betting
machines be positioned next to every elevator bank on every floor
of casino who became clients. "With a fully automated machine,"
the friend opined "...you wouldn't need a croupier, and players
could bet every time they had to wait for an elevator to arrive."
The two friends exploited the patentable rights to the concept
by forming Elevated Gaming, and now Skoff expects the company to
quickly become an important part of the land casino gaming industry.
"We've got patents in process for the only entirely new gambling
game since slot machines were introduced in 1899," he says,
"so we expect to be very successful."
Skoff asserts that the company's proprietary game, which he calls
"Bet-A-Vator", can be played wherever such games are legal.
Betting facilities could be placed next to every elevator bank on
every floor of client casinos, resorts, hotels, and other multi-story
buildings. Players would be able to pass the time and amuse themselves
by placing bets on the arrival, timing, and direction of elevators.
With a bank of four elevators, for example, a correct bet might
pay a winning bettor three dollars for each dollar bet, and still,
because of the game's high "house advantage," allow the
house a 25 percent gross return on play.
Skoff says patent rights will give Elevated Gaming seventeen years
of broad and exclusive rights to its game, worldwide. Although it
may be played in a number of ways, with or without a human operator,
it is expected that the great bulk of play will be by automated
gaming machines. These will be sold and serviced only by the company
around the world.
According to Skoff, Elevated Gaming is reliably projected to generate
more than $474 million in sales and $256 million in net operating
profits in its first four years of operation.
Skoff expects his company to have completed its product development,
testing, and legal approval processes within a year.
|
