If you’ve begun to think that all slot floors are alike and casino patrons’ tastes are the same everywhere, you likely haven’t heard of Diamond Lotto.
The game, created more than a decade ago, is rarely played across the United States. But it dominates South Florida. Of the 450 Diamond Lotto machines in circulation in the United States, about 400 of them are located in South Florida said AGS Vice President of Slot Products Andrew Burke.
AGS, which specializes in Class II games, bought the game, created in 2001, from a Quebec company and it boomed about 10 years ago at the Miccosukee Resort & Casino in west Miami-Dade. The Miccosukees have only Class II games, and at the time the South Florida slots had not yet been approved by referendum in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
“But my in-laws live in South Florida, and I took a trip to see the Miccosukee casino,” Burke recalls. “At 11 a.m. on a Tuesday there were people five deep, with rows and rows of Diamond Lotto machines.”
When the racetrack casinos came on board in South Florida, some casino officials, including former Gulfstream President Steve Calabro, scouted Miccosukee. They asked AGS to create a Class III version of the game (Class II slots play an instant game of bingo; Class IIIs work on a random number generator.).
AGS, which has converted other products from Class II to Class III, sent machines to Gulfstream Park and everywhere else in South Florida, including Hialeah Park, where Calabro is now general manager.
The game consists of players choosing six numbers from 0 through 9 and then seeing if the numbers drawn are a match, making it very like an instant Pick Six lottery game. (A Diamond symbol acts as a wild card, improving the odds.) South Florida has a massive Hispanic population – especially Cubans, who grew up on a lottery game called “bolita”—so the game is something they are familiar with. It also fit well at Miccosukee because a large part of their business is bingo. This is a crowd that likes to play numbers. And the idea that a slot player can have control over winning – by playing their lucky numbers, anniversaries, etc. – also sits well with the patrons.
Each South Florida casino has at least a row of Diamond Lotto, and slot managers who track play say the games are among the most active. They also help goose up a casino’s slot payback rate by returning higher than the usual 92 percent. But casinos don’t mind because the game “plays fast,” meaning player get in many more spins her hour.
Wade West, senior director of marketing at Calder Casino in Miami Gardens, said his casino started with about five machines. “Now we have about 50 on the floor,” he said. “I think people kind of get to help determine outcome by selecting their numbers, like a lottery. You feel a little more in control.”
He said requests for more games have come not only from low-stake players but from VIPs.
But Burke acknowledges the game somehow is just a South Florida thing.
“It’s funny we had a guy go from here to Arizona and say ‘I have to have Diamond Lotto’ and we told him ‘they may not do very well,’” Burke said. “It just doesn’t work anywhere else.”
And while most machines have modernized, with curvy screens and updated sound effects, Diamond Lotto is still in its bulky blue box.
“It’s totally underwhelming. Until you see the revenue numbers,” Burke said.
