The One-Armed Bandit Finds Friends Online

After Dennis Wright hit it big on the slots last year during a trip to Las Vegas, he bought a new computer and started spending more time online. He discovered that many of his fellow slot enthusiasts were congregating on a social networking site called Player’s Life, where they exchange tips, post videos of their casino triumphs, and arrange what might be best described as “play dates” to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The garbage dump manager from Greeneville, Tenn., became a frequent visitor himself. “I don’t really get to the casinos that often,” says Wright, 56. “This way I can keep up with what’s going on.”

Created last year by WMS Industries, the nation’s second-largest slot machine manufacturer, Player’s Life has quickly attracted 650,000 members. It’s an example of how social networking is creeping onto the casino floor—and increasing revenues in a part of the gambling world thought to be the domain of low-rolling retirees with cups of quarters in hand. John Grochowski, a Chicago-based slots columnist and author of The Slot Machine Answer Book, says it’s only a matter of time before these innovations sweep through the global slots industry. “It’s somewhere that everybody is going to go,” he says.