Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002 | 10:44 a.m.
Hurting for funds, the Miss America Organization is trying to turn its 81-year-old brand into slot machine cash. But it's drawing a lot of fire in the process.
Miss America says its purpose is to "reflect ideas about national identity, community and moral standards, as well as beauty, feminity and the roles of women."
Can such a mission continue to be met if Miss America becomes the latest themed slot? There are some who believe it can't -- including, allegedly, the current Miss America, 21-year-old Katie Harman of Oregon.
"(Harman) felt this concept was demeaning to the image of Miss America and that she would not endorse nor promote it if it came to fruition," Dana Phillips, director of the Miss Oregon pageant, wrote in a letter to Miss America Chief Executive Robert Renneisen.
Harman quickly denied reports she was unhappy through a statement issued by the Miss America Organization, though she did say she opposed the slot machine idea.
But whether Harman likes the idea or not is irrelevant to Renneisen.
"By the time it comes out she won't be Miss America anymore and her vote won't count anyway," Renneisen told the New York Times.
Entering the fray was Barron's columnist Alan Abelson, who skewered the idea in a satirical piece Monday.
"As the suspense builds, the whole country -- make that the whole world -- will be dying to get an advance peek," Abelson wrote. "Man, we're talking a promoter's once-in-a-lifetime dream come true. You'll be able to slap one of these numbers in every hole-in-the-wall in America where gambling is legal, to say nothing of newly opened markets like China, whose humongous population is notoriously hot for the slots."
But gambling industry observers don't see what all the fuss is about.
"I would say Miss America is already pretty tacky," said Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno. "It's already schmaltzy and pop culture based, so I don't see much of a risk."
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Professor Bill Thompson, meanwhile, reminded critics of where the pageant is held each year.
"If it (the pageant) is in Atlantic City, what the hell's wrong with putting it on a slot machine in Vegas?" said Thompson.
Money is the driving force behind the idea. The public's interest in the pageant has faded in recent years -- it drew 8.8 million viewers in 2001, the lowest in the 43 years it's been televised. The royalties paid by TV networks to air the annual event have been declining as a result.
And so the pageant's organization has been searching for new sources of revenue. It listened to a pitch by Connecticut's Mohegan Sun, but decided to stay put in Atlantic City for another year, after making it clear moving out of New Jersey was still an option.
Now it has turned to slot machines as a possible answer. Question is, will it work?
Atlantic City could be the machine's best shot at success, given the link between the pageant and the city, experts say. Beyond that, it could be a crap shoot.
Certain themes have been transformed into smash hits by slotmakers, such as International Game Technology's "Wheel of Fortune" and WMS Industries' "Monopoly." Success stories like these have led to a stampede of sorts in recent years, as slot makers fight to latch onto America's best known brands.
Some, like Barron's Abelson, believe the trend might be going too far. In Monday's column, Abelson mockingly suggested slot makers could license the image of collapsed energy giant Enron Corp., then create a slot machine "that's rigged to self-destruct when it tries to pay off anyone but designated players, all of whom happen to have a piece of the machine."
Abelson was trying to be sarcastic, but such ideas aren't completely ridiculous, Eadington said.
"You're just trying to get something out there with adequate entertainment value and shelf life, that can displace other products on the floor," Eadington said.
A listing of themes that have hit slot floors in recent years shows slot makers are willing to consider just about any brand in their goal to produce the latest hit slot.
TV game shows, classic television, cartoons and board games have been fertile ground. But slot makers are branching out even further.
WMS Industries, for example, has seized on '80s arcade hit "Pac-Man" as a slot theme, while Shuffle Master snared Anheuser-Busch's "Budweiser" beer. And in what could be the most bizarre theme of all, International Game Technology created a slot line based on "Spam," a brand owned by Hormel Foods Corp.
As more and more brands come into the picture, it becomes even more difficult to produce a winning slot. Eadington estimates only about 5 percent of branded slot machines turn into a financial success.
"It comes to a point, from a slot manager's perspective, that there's too much branding on a slot floor," said Marc Falcone, gaming analyst with Bear Stearns.
In the end, the biggest factor probably won't be how much power the Miss America brand has, but how good a game its partner can produce. "Betty Boop" and "Popeye," both cartoons with origins in the '20s and '30s, had fading brand power, yet Alliance Gaming Corp. made both a success, Eadington said. TV game shows "Family Feud" and "Let's Make a Deal" are both well-known, but initial slots based on each did not succeed, Falcone said.
"You could have the greatest brand in the world, but if it's not compelling to the customers, it's not going to do well," Falcone said. "If the game doesn't play well, (the brand) doesn't matter."
Officials with IGT, Alliance, WMS and Shuffle Master all said they were not involved in an effort to develop a Miss America slot, and the Miss America Organization would not disclose the company. Atlantic City-based A.C. Coin & Slot has been rumored to be in talks for the theme, but officials there could not be reached for comment.
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