Plaza Casino To Open Slot Area With Brian Christopher, Targets Younger Players

Posted on: January 29, 2021, 03:28h. 

Last updated on: January 29, 2021, 02:29h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More

Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

Today, Las Vegas’s Plaza Hotel & Casino opens a slot machine gaming area named for popular online gaming celebrity Brian Christopher.

The gaming area at the downtown property will provide players the chance to try their luck on the popular games they have seen Christopher play in videos posted on YouTube and Facebook.

It will open with 16 slot machines, and more will be added to the mix in the coming months. Slot games at the new Plaza space include: Cleopatra II, Dollar Storm, Lightning Zap, and Huff N Puff.

Christopher’s online channels have over 302 million views and some 528,000 followers, his company says. Often in videos, he is shown playing slots worldwide.

The gaming space at the casino will formally be known as “Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza.” A ribbon-cutting for the gaming area is to take place at 4:30 pm Friday.

A Draw to Younger Players

“This is just trying to provide entertainment to a much younger group of gamblers,” said the Rev. Richard McGowan, a finance professor at Boston College who closely follows gambling trends, to Casino.org. 

Slots have traditionally been associated with older age groups,” McGowan said. “So Brian Christopher made playing slots acceptable for a much younger age group.”

But there’s another benefit to the partnership, according to James P. Whelan, a psychology professor at the University of Memphis, where he also directs the Institute for Gambling Education and Research.

“From the psychological end, people will be drawn to things that they believe will be enjoyable,” Whelan told Casino.org.  “Certainly, it will draw the attention to those familiar with Brian Christopher’s YouTube page.”

For decades, slots have been a draw for Las Vegas’s gaming properties. Last month, a lucky slot player at Las Vegas’s Suncoast Hotel and Casino got a historic present Christmas Eve after winning almost $15.5 million during a brief stop at the Boyd Gaming property.

GGR Remains Low in Vegas

But the new gaming space at the Plaza comes as Truist Securities recently reported that December gross gaming revenue (GGR) on the Strip was down 51 percent when comparing year-over-year. That represents “the worst Y/Y figure since a 61 percent decline in June,” Truist’s Barry Jonas said in a note to investors.

Slot GGR was down 55 percent year-over-year on the Strip, he added in the report about December totals.

In contrast, GGR for downtown Las Vegas declined 28 percent year-over-year in December. Jonas said it was “likely impacted by decreased tourism and visitation.”

GGR on the Strip in November totaled $349.8 million, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. That’s a 32.5 percent reduction from November 2019.