Casinos are always looking for ways to drive customers to their products. To achieve this goal, casinos have started tapping influencers – people on social media platforms promoting their talents in particular areas – in a symbiotic relationship that works well for both parties. This weekend at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa is one of those weekends as several slot influencers and their fans have descended on the property for a weekend of fun and celebration, including several slots tournaments.
Fans Go to Work
On Thursday night, the fans and the influencers hung out together late into the evening, with a “meet and greet” taking place after Scott ‘Vegas Matt’ had captured the gold in the “Spins for the Gold” battle against his fellow slot influencers. The denizens of the slots were thrilled to meet their idols – Francine ‘Lady Luck HQ’ Maric, Scott ‘The Big Jackpot’ Richter, and Narek ‘NG Slot’ Gharibyan – after the battle on Thursday, but the tables were about to turn. On Friday, the fans would be the ones in the hot seat.
On Friday, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino was packed with slot players who were looking to emulate their idols. The reason? The $100,000 Champion of the Reels slots tournament was taking place, and if you have never seen a slots tournament before, there are correlations between it and a poker tournament. While a player may not be trying to eliminate their opposition, they are looking to be on top of the standings at the end of the battle by garnering the most points.
In a slots tournament, the object is to play the same machine as the other competitors. Each player is given three minutes on the machine, in this case, the SpinFerno TournXtreme machine, to do their best. Over those three minutes, the players slap, stab, punch, swipe, and rub the machine (there is a touchscreen that must be played simultaneously), earning points as they do so. At the end, the machine tells you how many points you earned, and you are done with the tournament – unless you finish among the leaders.
Seemingly hundreds of times on Friday night, a player looking to be the next ‘Lady Luck HQ’ or ‘Big Jackpot’ took their shot. “We’re going to have 500 players…if not more!” one of the slot attendants, Grace, told me while she expertly assisted the players with any questions. And for the entirety of the day, the SpinFerno machines were frantically spinning: players walked up, entered their specific ID code on the machine (to identify their entry), and, roughly three minutes later, the players walked away after playing the tournament, awaiting the completion of the tournament to see how they finished.
“That’s a Lot of Work!”
This was not being done for fun; the tournament had a $100,000 prize pool, provided by the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa, and first place was a $40,000 credit given to the champion. The remainder of the twenty-five qualifiers would divvy up the remainder of the prize pool, so there was a bit of seriousness along with the fun and games as players strolled through the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center.
As people strolled away from their machines, there were similarities to a poker tournament in that they were either happy with their performance or lamenting a ‘cold’ machine. “It’s mostly luck,” one competitor told me. Perhaps sheepishly, she then added, “Sometimes you can sense a “hot” machine, but you just keep spinning until the time runs out!”
There were many first-timers on the reels (there was no entry fee for this tournament, simply an online or live registration), and they seemed to enjoy their time on the machines. “That was my first time trying this…and probably my last!” a gentleman told me. “That’s a lot of work!” he said, laughingly, indicating that he did, at the minimum, have some fun.
But there were preparations at hand for the finale of this slot tournament and the ‘Lady Luck HQ and Friends: Birthday Triathlon Weekend.” Lorraine Bencivengo-Ziff, otherwise known as the ‘Goddess of Slots,’ was in the arena, and she will be taking part in the final day of the weekend festivities on Saturday. It should serve as a fitting finish to what has been an enjoyable weekend for slot fans, for the slot influencers, and for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa.
