Friday, Jan. 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
There's a storm brewing at Circus Circus, and Todd Simons is in the middle of it.
Simons, the youthful slot director for the sprawling Strip resort, has taken a big gamble for a casino that generates the bulk of its gaming revenue from slot play.
This week, Circus Circus became the first Las Vegas casino to unveil the "Hurricane Zone," an innovative Acres Gaming offering that couples traditional reel slot machines with interactive entertainment and bonus payouts.
Judging from the early returns, Simons' gamble seems likely to pay off.
"So far they love it," he says of the slot players drawn to the 33-machine bank of dollar slots on the north side of the casino. "They hear the noise and see the action and walk over to find out what's going on.
"We think this will generate about three times the business a normal dollar carousel would do."
The noise and action Simons refers to stems from the simulated flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and gusting winds that signal the carousel's machines are entering a bonus payoff mode -- the "Hurricane Zone."
When the mode is activated, players receive payouts ranging from double to nine times the normal amount paid for winning spins.
Acres developed the Hurricane Zone concept -- the theme can be altered to fit the needs of individual casinos -- to allow slot managers to create a self-funding marketing program that can generate increased play.
Like multi-site progressive games such as Megabucks or Cool Millions, the Hurricane Zone links all the slots in a particular carousel and allocates a percentage of each dollar played to build a jackpot.
Yet unlike the multi-site progressives, the Acres' product spreads bonus payouts over several players rather than just one jackpot winner.
The bonus mode is triggered by criteria set by the casino operator through a patented hardware-and-software package Acres has developed. It allows the slot manager to determine the percentage of coin-in that will be allocated to the jackpot, the frequency and duration of bonus modes and other factors used to start an event.
"When it goes off, people run over to see what's happening. And when they understand the potential for multiple jackpots, they want to get in on it," Simons says.
John Buchholz, Acres Gaming's sales director, says the company expects the Circus carousel to attract business similar to what the Hurricane Zone array accomplished at the Edgewater Casino in Laughlin.
The Edgewater carousel, installed last summer, quickly transformed the worst producing dollar slot area of the casino into the best, he says. It also helped propel the Edgewater from eighth to second place in slot revenue among the 11 Laughlin casinos.
"Slot directors are always looking for new and exciting ways to attract players," Buchholz says. "But they're concerned about devoting valuable floor space to new, untested machines.
"The Hurricane Zone takes traditional IGT slots and adds special effects that appeal to all the senses and lets people share in a winning experience to make playing the game more enjoyable.
"People come away convinced they've had more fun and won more money."
"This takes slot play to another plateau, another level of excitement," says Simons. "It's not only the interaction, the entertainment and the sense that something's going on around you, but also the bonus-play feature.
"We were attracted to this concept because we're always looking to one-up the competition. The Hurricane Zone gives us the flexibility to adjust the frequency and duration of the bonus period, as well as the bonus payouts themselves."
It's the ability to provide that flexibility that makes Acres executives optimistic about the four-year-old company's future. Casino operators wanting to offer more variety to their slot customers can modify a bank of traditional slot machines for far less than buying a carousel of new ones.
If those modifications provide an entertainment experience as well as the potential for bonus payoffs, they're likely to attract customers who can turn an under-utilized area into a successful one.
Acres is negotiating with more than 30 Nevada casino operators to install Hurricane Zone-type carousels, offering either a straight purchase of the hardware, software and installation of the equipment or a revenue-sharing agreement that features no initial cost to the casino and provides Acres with a recurring revenue stream.
In a move that bolstered Acres' outlook, International Game Technology bought a 6 percent stake in Acres last summer and agreed to exchange technology in developing marketing, entertainment and game-enhancement tools.
The agreement calls for Acres to install equipment that makes each IGT slot "bonus-ready," giving casino operators the capability of modifying games quickly and inexpensively, Buchholz says.
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