Earlier this year, Las Vegas lawmakers announced their plans to bring skill-based gaming to casinos. While the move is quite controversial, we definitely see the potential in this.

We’ve had a quick brainstorm about which skill-based games would be best suited for casinos in Las Vegas.

E-Sports

E-Sports games like League of Legends, CounterStrike and DoTA are hugely popular in the online gaming world.

Over the course of the past year, we have seen it become a major player in the spectator sports market. In 2014, League of Legends tournaments saw 60 million viewers online – and several new start-ups launched allowing viewers to wager on e-sports.

There is a major opportunity here. In the same way that casinos host viewing parties and bookmaking services for major sporting events, we can see the same thing happening for e-sports.

Arcade Games

This is likely the most obvious choice for skill-based games at Las Vegas casinos. We can certainly see arcade cabinets being set up alongside slots and other electronic games. Racing games, shooters and pinball would turn casinos into literal adult arcades. It would definitely attract a new demographic to land-based casinos.

Sports

While having basketball hoops and soccer nets may seem out of place in a casino, there is actually the potential for this to work. The Borgata in Atlantic City has demonstrated just how successful bringing sports into casinos can be by hosting its first-ever ‘free throw tournament’.

When the plan was announced, it was met with scepticism but over 1000 people came out to compete.

“This is awesome. It brings more people to Atlantic City,” says Pat Devaney, a former college basketball player. “This is for people who don’t gamble. It’s really more skill.”

Skill-Based Slots

This is another idea that Las Vegas casino operators have been throwing around. It would see slot machines fitted out with skill games as bonus rounds. So, instead of a free spins round, you could play a quick racing game or first-person shooter in order to rake in bonus cash.

Like arcade games, this would bring a new generation of players into casinos. We’ve already seen online slots with luck-based bonuses that resemble skill games, and they are hugely successful.

So, it would not be a far stretch for games developers to have actual-skill games as part of slot machine gameplay.