T he Gaming Technology Summit in late May provided a window into the thoughts of some of the leading technology thinkers in the gaming and hospitality industries and, based on a sampling of comments, the future is, as always, partially known and mostly unknowable.

The overarching theme of the day is that the technologies that proliferate in our daily lives are changing consumer behavior in profound and permanent ways. The convergence of work and play spaces, the ability of individuals to customize content and patron mobility were all primary themes of an opening keynote by Tim Stanley, chief information officer and senior vice president of innovation for Harrah’s Entertainment. The question, as he put it, isn’t so much what is happening but how casinos can deliver the types of environments that consumers are increasingly coming to expect when they enter a facility that endeavors to both entertain them and make them comfortable when they go to their rooms.

Of course, this basic challenge is what the casino industry has been working on for some time now, some would say in earnest since the late ’80s when The Mirage was built. What followed was the era of the full-service entertainment megastore of the ’90s, to use Glenn Schaeffer’s old phrase. These properties were designed to capture as many discretionary dollars as possible, from both gaming and non-gaming sources, and that remains the mandate. What couldn’t have been predicted by most mortals is the extent to which technology has changed fundamental aspects of our lives and — the unknowable part — what that would mean for the casino industry.

Subjecting consumers to low-tech experiences at the hotel check-in, bulky TVs, often with limited channel availability, $12.99 daily charges for Internet service and rooms that make no concession to the primordial role of the iPod are probably things the gaming industry can get away with for a few more years. But, make no mistake, an era is ending. The average casino hotel room, which is a damned sight better than the typical product of the ’90s, will look obsolete and be considered inhospitable if it isn’t supplemented in the next three years with iPod sound stations, flat-screen TVs with greatly expanded entertainment options and free wireless Internet. Consumers who presently select their own seat and print out their airline boarding passes in the privacy of their own homes are not long from now going to wonder why the same convenience isn’t available at casino hotels, especially once mainstream business hotels start offering personal at-home check-in services with printable bar codes that you can use to enter your self-assigned room upon arrival and bypass the front desk.

These easy-to-identify conveniences are the things that casinos can comfortably invest in over time. The real mystery is what the era of personalized digital solutions means for the gaming space. Blood will be shed trying to figure that one out. In fact, if you’ve been following the conversation about server-based gaming and what it should, could and would mean for the gaming industry, it’s already being shed.

The benefits of server-based gaming have been straightforward from the operational side from the outset. The ability to change game mixes, denominations and even payout percentages from a central location has always been enough to set the hearts of slot managers and bottom-line-oriented executives pounding with anticipation. What remains less of a sure thing, far less, is how all this flexibility will benefit players. Do they want all these “opportunities,” such as game libraries at their fingertips, or are they just as happy playing an old-fashioned game with mechanical reels that might even be fraying in parts? Those games have another distinguishing characteristic that makes them appealing to operators: they were paid for a long time ago.

On the other hand, server-based gaming and its accompanying capabilities seem a perfect fit with all of the basic technological trends outlined above. Customization, flexibility, high production values … these are things people want, correct? Why not, then, give it to them at the slot machine? Why isn’t that an instant home run? One answer might be found in a question posed at the Southern Gaming Summit by Mick Roemer, now of Roemer Gaming and an accomplished slot manufacturing executive, in a session on digital signage and slot player interfaces. In so many words, Roemer asked if one of the reasons that some of the new game technologies aren’t catching on as quickly as hoped is that gambling activity simply uses a different part of the brain than, say, Web surfing. If there is a good answer to that question, I haven’t heard it yet.

Still, the logic of choice and convergence (which I take to mean, people bearing devices who can’t sit and do one thing anymore, in fact, they are rapidly becoming fundamentally incapable of doing so) continues to drive the march toward server-based gaming, and buy-in is happening everywhere that matters. “Server-based gaming is part of a path that we want to travel,” said Tom Peck, chief information officer of MGM Mirage, during his keynote address at the Gaming Technology Summit. “Ultimately, it’s about bringing the whole guest experience together, and the slot machine is one of the channels that we want to use.”

Peck’s main focus these days is CityCenter, which might best be categorized as the entertainment megastore on steroids, a project that offers a technology-enhanced lifestyle with a high-tech gaming component rather than just gaming with comparatively low-tech lifestyle offerings. There’s no more forward-looking project in the industry, so it’s fitting that the most meaningful chapter in server-based gaming will be written there when its casino opens next year.

In the meantime, there will be no shortage of ground-breaking. Take, for instance, Harrah’s new Microsoft Surface tables that enable guests to flirt via e-mail and photo messaging with each other from across the bar or, if that doesn’t work out, surf the Internet or play computer games — better yet, in the spirit of the Age of Distraction, all three things simultaneously (or more). Harrah’s last month opened a new iBar at the Rio that features six such tables, which Microsoft sells at a cost of up to $10,000 each. An interesting lab experiment for much bigger things to come, with conclusions sure to be unmarked by any mysteries about the part of the brain that is being engaged. Igwb

Charles Anderer is senior events manager, Gaming, for BNP Media Gaming Group, overseeing content development, sales and marketing for the company’s trade shows and conferences, which include Bingo World, Southern Gaming Summit, Gaming Technology Summit, New York Gaming Summit and Casino Marketing. He may be reached by e-mail at andererc@bnpmedia.com.