‘Lifetime jackpot’ planned

Friday, Sept. 6, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

Nevada gaming regulators Thursday recommended approval of a new slot machine game by Las Vegas-based Alliance Gaming Corp. that offers players a chance to win a jackpot of weekly payments for the rest of their lives.

The game, called "Cash for Life," guarantees winners a minimum jackpot of $1.4 million, paid in weekly installments of $1,000, over the next 20 years.

The jackpot could go higher depending on how much gamblers bet on the machines, which are called "wide-area progressives" in that they are linked across several casinos.

Players who don't live beyond 20 years would have the payments sent to their heirs for the remainder. Those who live longer will receive the payments as long as they live, a feature that is unique among games in this country, Alliance officials said.

Similar to other lottery-style jackpot games, players can choose to receive the installments or a lump-sum payment. The lump sum would be equal to the regular payments made over 20 years.

The state Gaming Control Board needed to approve the game concept because of a rule that requires jackpot payments on progressive machines to be at least 1/ 20th of the total jackpot each year. Alliance still must receive regulatory approvals for the actual games once they are developed, a process that could launch the slots in Nevada casinos before the end of the year, Alliance's Chief Financial Officer Robert Saxton said Thursday.

Saxton downplayed the importance of the game, saying it is among dozens of new slot machine concepts the company will unveil this year in its continuing effort to attract customers in a hotly competitive market.

Slot players' tastes can be fickle, with some machines playing well in certain states or casinos and not in others, he said.

"It may catch on, it may not. The underlying game still has to be entertaining for people to play."

Though the game tested well with focus groups, "no amount of testing has ever been able to determine what plays well in the field," he said.