The newest phenomenon in online gaming is the political slot! This is the latest manifestation of the political climate since the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. Whereas the news about slots used to be about the latest slot within a common theme or the latest casino bonuses news, now we have slots that portray Trump in less than flattering ways.
Game Providers
Even though there are many theme categories for slots, game providers have always maintained the fine line between imagery that would entertain versus imagery that might offend a sizable portion of the gaming public.
So, although buxom women have long been de rigueur in many slots, that caricature has not caused demonstrations or protests. We can only speculate whether a slot that depicts Donald Trump touching a woman’s bikini bottom will cause the kind of protest online casinos are always afraid of.
Rocket Men
This new slot by Red Tiger Gaming features Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un as duel rocket men. North Korea’s Kim has been called rocket man as a belittling term in some political quarters for a few years. By juxtaposing Trump onto Kim in the same manner, the slot definitely tells the story that these are two buffoonish leaders who may be meeting to talk disarmament but may actually talk about the sexual exploitation of women, their proclivities on the golf course, or nuclear war as a kind of sport. This slot is highly pointed and direct in its political message.
The slot is also tongue-in-cheek as the music has a mocking military tone and the features all take serious world crises and turn them into little boys’ games. The slot has several features including one in which you get to fire off some rockets of your own.
Rocket Men is certainly entertaining. It fits the cliché of online casinos that their games, especially their slots, are meant as entertainment above all.
Trump It
This game is a lot less pointed in its political view that Trump and his counterpart from North Korea are buffoons playing with nuclear missiles. Trump It features many contemporary political figures including Hillary Clinton and Vladimir Putin along with the ubiquitous Donald Trump. The game seems to be offering the political view that the world’s political leaders are no different than the funny caricatures that festoon slots generally.
The Dictator
There is no question from the title that this slot will be “just” entertainment. The thing that people who live in free countries fear the most is the possible rise of a dictator.
Simply as politics, people on the left now portray Trump as a dictator while during the presidency of Barack Obama many people on the right portrayed him as a dictator.
So, from the name alone, this slot portends a highly charged political approach, something that is very new in the world of online slots.
To its credit, this slot features only those dictators from the past and the present who were generally recognized as terrible dictators by all sides on the political spectrum. So, we have Hitler, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong-un, Fidel Castro and others are the dictators who spin around this slot.
In the bonus round, you take a high powered long range rifle and pick off the dictators one by one.
President Trump Slots
This is a social gaming slot that you can play just for fun. It features many political figures from America’s past all revolving around the theme of Donald Trump as the least likely presidential candidate in American history.
Will Political Slots Get Even Feistier?
There are still only these few slots that smaller game developers have created as much to get themselves in the news as for any specific political reason. But, if the political climate that has obtained since Donald Trump’s unexpected win in 2016 continues, might we see even more pointed slots in the future?
Will a game provider produce a slot about the alleged Russian interference in the election that has been alleged to have enabled Trump’s victory?
Will a slot be developed that blames Trump for the inevitable mushroom cloud over the Middle East because he pulled out of the nuclear deal Obama negotiated with Iran?
Will a slot be developed that blames Trump for the climate Armageddon because he pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords?
Will a slot be developed that blames Trump for furthering the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer because of the tax cuts he shepherded through Congress?
Will a slot be developed depicting the huddled masses yearning to be free on the other side of the “wall” between the United States and Mexico?
Much to Criticize
As with any political leader, there is much to criticize about Donald Trump. That there are now several highly political slots at some online casinos, all depicting Donald Trump in an unflattering light, is newsworthy in and of itself. It will be even more newsworthy if we look back in another year and consider these forerunners as having been precursors of a new wave of even more highly politically charged slots.
There are actually two opinions on this matter. One is that Donald Trump does deserve all the enmity that has come his way. The other is that Donald Trump is simply reaping the release of pent up emotions through which all presidents have been criticized except Barack Obama who was never seriously criticized on the left because of the fear of being labeled racist.
So, we may be in for six more years of political slots!