Blaine Preston, gaming enforcement manager of the Missouri Gaming Commission, told more than 350 gaming regulators in Las Vegas last week that that was going to be the message flashed to gamblers whenever casinos changed anything on their slot machines with the new server-based gaming technology.

As audience members exchanged puzzled looks, Preston explained he was just joking, and only then did his audience begin chuckling.

But for the millions of people who play slot machines, the notion that somebody in a backroom could change something about their slot machine without them knowing it could be a confidence killer for the integrity of the game.

"The player perception is, 'They changed the game just as I was getting ready to win a jackpot,' " said Faisal Khan, a technical compliance manager with New Jersey-based Gaming Laboratories International.

Developing policies and regulations that dispel perceptions about server-based gaming was the primary reason gaming regulators from around the world gathered for the seventh-annual regulators roundtable and users conference sponsored by the gaming lab at the Tuscany.

Regulators spent a day hearing from gaming lab experts, machine manufacturers and the Missouri regulators who already have server-based gaming in their jurisdiction to gear up for the next big technological upgrade heading onto casino floors worldwide.

Server-based gaming technology enables casino floor managers to make changes to slots from a central computer that functions as a server for several machines. With a few keystrokes, a manager could change a machine's denomination, its percentage hold and the machine's look.

Systems enable quick changes so large banks of machines can be modified to take advantage of different demographic mixes at casinos at different days of the week or different times of the day. For example, a slot floor may have a preponderance of nickel slots that attract low-budget players on weekdays, but those same machines could be modified to quarter slots for a higher-spending demographic on weekends or at night.

By learning the capabilities of server-based systems, regulators are attempting to be ready when they start arriving on casino floors late this year or early next.

Preston and his colleague, Todd Nelson, were star attractions at the conference since the Missouri Gaming Commission oversees the first casino to install a server-based system. They said that so far, a system at the Ameristar St. Charles riverboat has worked flawlessly.

"The reality is that most consumers, the people playing the machines, can't tell the difference between a game on a server-based system and an existing slot machine," Preston said.

Local players can check for themselves whether they can see any difference. The Nevada Gaming Commission recently gave its approval for MGM Mirage's Treasure Island to conduct a field trial of a server-based system. Once the trial is completed, the system would be licensed and available for use statewide.

Steve Zanella, vice president of slots and entertainment at the MGM Grand and the overseer of the parent company's server-based gaming program, concurs most players won't see the difference between the upgraded slots and everything else on the floor.

"The untrained eye won't spot it," Zanella said. "There's nothing on it that really makes it stand out."

Zanella won't say how the Treasure Island trial is going, but he said "nothing out of the ordinary" has occurred. Thirty-two slots on the casino floor are driven by a server. The casino started out with four, then six, then added machines to reach the current total.

Although Treasure Island is watching on how consumers interact with the machines, the main focus of the trial is to determine how the technology performs.

"We're working with configuring the back end, the server, who can have access, who can't, how the fire walls are working, things like that," he said.

MGM Mirage led the last major technological advancement on the casino floor, becoming the first company to transform all if its Strip floors to ticket in, ticket out technology. When that was introduced, Zanella said, the public didn't like it. Now, most people embrace it, and he thinks the switch to server-based gaming will play out the same way.

Prior to Treasure Island placing a server-based system on the floor, Nevada had to develop its own set of rules for its operation. One key regulation from the consumer perspective is how to notify players when a change is imminent.

In Nevada, it was ordered that machines could only be changed after four minutes of inactivity.

"Under our regulation, if there's no play for four minutes, the presumption is that the player has physically left the machine," state Gaming Control Board member Mark Clayton said.

After four minutes, a message would appear on a screen indicating the machine is being serviced. When the changes are complete, the message clears, and the machine is available for play.

Missouri also allows modifications on server-based games after a period of inactivity, but the changeover is a little easier there since regulations prohibit casinos from being open around the clock and changes can occur when the casinos are closed.

The manufacturers of server-based systems said other changes would arrive as they become more mainstream.

A panel of manufacturers representing Aristocrat Technologies, Bally Technologies, International Game Technology, Cyberview Technology and WMS concurred server-based systems may lead to the development of skill-based casino games that more closely resemble the fare offered by PlayStation and X-Box.

"It'll be X-Box games for money," predicted Todd Elasser, technical compliance director for Cyberview, which has a Las Vegas office.

The Nevada Gaming Commission recently gave the green light to skill-based games in Nevada casinos, but only as a bonus component of a game of chance.

Elasser said he also thinks games requiring team play will be developed for casinos to further enhance the social aspect of gaming.

Panelists also said they expect server-based systems will enable regulators to log in remotely to casino systems so they can monitor games in real time.

"You may be able to resolve player disputes without having to leave your office," Elasser told regulators.

Panelists also said they don't expect slot technician positions to be eliminated as server-based systems come on line. Instead, they said, slot machine staffs will become more information-technology centered.

James Maida, Gaming Laboratories International president, said his organization has been preparing regulators for server-based systems since 2005 when manufacturers first indicated they were working on them.

Over the years, the lab has watched the progress of the systems up close since the organization's prime function is to test games and systems in their worldwide labs before they go on casinos floors.

Nevada has its own gaming equipment lab, but Gaming Laboratories has a cordial relationship with the state, and Nevada regulators interact with it and the world's approximately 400 gaming regulators.

"I don't think anybody wants gaming regulators going off into separate directions," Maida said. "We bring the manufacturers together with the regulators so they can get information straight from the people who create these systems. And, during breaks in the program, they'll get together with each other to discuss mutual concerns."

The Missouri regulators, for example, were making the rounds with the hypothetical issue of whether casinos should be banned from allowing better slot paybacks to players who gamble more - a feature that is possible with server-based games.

Clayton said Nevada regulations prohibit casinos from offering one player a better chance of winning than another. But in reality, casinos already play favorites by offering different levels of rewards for members of their slot clubs. Casinos also single out high rollers at table games with better complimentary offers.

But regulators in other jurisdictions may consider whether they want to allow their casinos the ability to give $1,000-a-night players better odds than $100-a-night players to encourage more play from the big spenders.

Most industry observers concur that tiered payout tables wouldn't fly any better than a message announcing a casino is preparing to take more of your money.