The casinos has become something of an obsession for las vegas gaming companies.

Many of them believe it's essential to win over the next generation of gamblers.

Tonight paul joncich looks at the extreme ways two gaming companies are going about it.

<<< ((paul joncich)) the downtown grand... is betting on e-sports to bring in millennials.... (( i'm max curtis, i'm the new esports manager here at the downtown grand.")) ((paul joncich)) 24-year-old max curtis has been hired to turn the hotel... into an e-sports hub.

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E-sports is becoming very popular.

Competitions among professional video game players draw huge crowds.

Followers pack arenas to cheer on their favorite players.

Curtis says the downtown grand is the first hotel in the country to tap into that success.

By having teams of professional gamers live at the hotel, and train at their e-sports bootcamp.

(( max curtis/e-sports manager: "our bootcamp is currently upstairs in the hotel, we've converted one of our hotel rooms into a bootcamp room.")) (( we've got computers up there for them with a great internet connection and a white board and they'll play and they'll scrim vs.

Other teams online and then they'll think about strategies and how to improve and what they need to work on for tournaments.")) ((paul joncich)) curtis is in the process of overseeing the transformation of one of the hotels' restaurants... into an e-sports lounge.

Where video game enthusiasts can watch the best players in the world play popular games like call of duty, counterstrike, ,and league of legends.

There are even e-sports groupies.

(( max curtis: "laugh....yeah, i'm sure there are.

There's some people who have a huge fan base following...//when they go to tournaments they have to close them off so they don't get mobbed by a big group of people.

(( what better way to bring in a young crowd than with something so beloved and growing as esports?")) ((paul joncich)) meanwhile, a few miles away on the strip, the mgm grand has opened a bar specifically for millennials level up is 12-thousand square feet of arm wrestling, 4 way air hockey, souped up foosball, and this: the level up arena.

Where you can play all the traditional table games - in a more social environment - against 40 other people - it's like blackjack on steroids.

((" scott sibella/mgm grand president: "you can play black jack, roulette, and you're playing against the dealer so, she's mic'd, she's an entertainer and she's talking to you and when everybody wins, everybody goes that was fun and cheers, and if you lose, you lose together.")) ((paul joncich)) level up opened in late december, and mgm grand president and c-o-o scott sibella says it's off to a great start.

(( " sibella: "i don't think anybody's created what we have on the las vegas strip.")) ((paul joncich)) millennials want control, and these interactive touch screen table t-v's give it to em.

Cell phone charging stations are always nearby.

As is the sigma derby.

Where you can place bets on tiny mechanical horses circling the track.

There are several beer pong tables, and giant pac-man, the pre-cursor to the next generation of skill based games - where you can win money playing games you grew up with.

(( sibella: "you'll be able to play games that are more skill based and not traditional slots.

In a couple weeks we'll have the frogger game here.

Frogger's been out forever but now you can play it as a skill based game and the better you do with it, the more you win.")) ((paul joncich)) skill based games are the center piece of mgm's strategy to win over millennials.

(( sibella: "we've chosen mgm to be the test ground for this to see how this does this is like trial and error we're gonna see what works and what doesn't work and how to we take this to our other properties.")) ((paul joncich)) not everyone agrees that pursuing millennials is the way to go.

The ceo of penn national gaming, who's properties include the "m" and the tropicana, believes that quote: "focusing on millennials over the next 5 to 10 years is not going to produce good economic results."

Instead, penn will concentrate on the 50 million plus gen-x's...people 35-50.

Paul joncich 8 news now./// >>> ((dave courvoisier)) >>> now for