Grannie's Slot Machines Get Hip

After years of catering to the little old lady crowd, slot machine manufacturers are reaching out to the video game generation with a line of skill-based games, the New York Times reports. “We need to appeal to new buckets of players, or we’ll die,” said one slot exec. New machines will sport joysticks, multiplayer modes, and advanced graphics.

Skill will still only get you so far. Casinos love slots because they’re fixed, guaranteed to keep 5-10% of the money they take in. But young gamblers, craving skill and human interaction, flock to less-profitable table games. Getting the message, slots have added interactivity, competition, and hand-eye coordination. “We’re talking about a different vernacular, a whole different machine,” an exec said. (More casino stories.)