More e-tabs on the way?
An Omaha-based firm, International Gamco and its affiliate, Oasis Gaming, say they've built a better electronic pull-tab machine and hope to have it soon in Minnesotans' hands. They're submitting it to the state Gambling Control Board, and demonstrated it for gambling managers at Grumpy's in Roseville last week.
Oasis vice president Scott Henneman says they've got an existing hand-held game, already in use overseas, that can be adapted for use for Minnesota's new games -- and it comes with linked bingo already built in, as you can see in the video below:
Xtreme Demo Video With Wild Thing on Vimeo.
Oasis says they think they have a winner, despite rival Acres 4.0's earlier entry into the market. Henneman says they think iPads will have a tough time in the commercial eating and drinking establishment -- not just spills, but the charging, storage and handling. Anybody who's ever damaged their iPhone charging cord can attest they're not exactly industrial grade.
For those of you who haven't been paying attention: electronic pull-tabs are supposed to grow the state's charitable gambling industry from $1B in sales annually to $2.3B annually. The state expects to skim off about $72 million in sales taxes, which will pay annual debt service on the state's $348M share of a new Vikings stadium. That's expected to initially run in the mid $30M range for the first few years.
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