You are somewhat correct. Everything is currently in a state of flux -- the industry itself is trying to figure out where to go. Different manufacturers have different visions and operators have different visions yet. Will it end up like a NY Racino where you have a seemingly endless assortment of identical gray terminals or will it look as exciting as today's casinos (hint: people won't come to LV for blandness).
The Gaming Standards Association has come up with a standard interface that will permit variety. In fact Class II casinos like those in Florida already do what the rest of us will have to do in the future. But it's not all or nothing. My own take is that there will still be themed banks of single use machines mixed with multi-use machines. What is very likely is that at busy times the costs will go up like in the pit. Today you might have $5 minimum blackjack in the morning and $25 minimums at night. Something like that but probably much more complicated.
The following paragraph seems to be IGT's vision. Most operators do not want to do this, at least at this time. And, in my view, it prima facie violates Nevada's regulations since everyone must have an equal chance at all games (paraphrased). I believe that if this vision comes to pass it will severely damage the industry.
Finally, the final paragraph is very much an over-simplification. The operators want to minimize their hardware expense, of course, but not at the risk of alienating patrons. In my opinion we will have a gradual adaptation with a mix of stand-alone cabinets along-side server-based games. And you probably won't be able to tell which is which.
Different manufacturers will co-exist and in several cases share technology. Still, Aristocrat games will have their distinctive look-and-feel as will Bally, IGT, Konomi, and others. We are still a long way from roll-outs. As things progress I will post public information.
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When you insert your player card, your most recent
games, or list of favorites will show on the screen.
You cna pick them, or scroll through a menu for
others. Obviously, the games and paytables could be
screened for each player. Some players would not or
could not, for instance, play FPDW. The casino could
set games or paytables to show for only a certain
level of player, or keep a very good player, or very
lucky player, from playing positive games.
The hang up on introducing this, is that the casinos
only want to buy one server, but still have machines
from all manufacturers interface with the one server.
Obviously, a manufacturer wants to have all the
machines of their brand, and their server.
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