Recently, the couple from Jamaica, N.Y., discovered Wheel of Fortune Super Spin, a communal slots game that takes playing slots to a new level of closeness - and is part of the gambling industry's latest trend.

"You have a lot of options," said Samuel Hunt, 61, as he sat next to his wife in a two-seater chair behind the enormous, carnivalesque game at Showboat casino here last week. The images of Pat Sajak and Vanna White - just like on the TV game show - stared at him from the slot machine screen. "There are more ways to win, and you have a different type of chair where you can relax."

As visually appealing and large as the machines are with their bells, lights and whistles, they are also big moneymakers for the casinos.

Gaming operators in Atlantic City and Las Vegas - under intense pressure to cut costs and find the next big hit in games as a softened economy and neighboring competition have shrunk revenues - have found a way to get more money from their customers - by lumping more of them together. And the gigantic games with the superlative titles are designed to do just that.

Communal slots games, such as Wheel of Fortune Super Spin by International Game Technology, and Monopoly Big Event and Press Your Luck, both by WMS Industries Inc., have really taken off in the last year, say casino operators, industry experts and psychologists. They say today's slots customer is seeking a more social gaming experience, and the technology has finally evolved to allow him to have it.

"Interconnectedness is spreading throughout our culture, and the Internet has facilitated that," said Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University who studies risk-taking and human motivational behavior. "So why not communal slots, which is a spin-off of connectivity?

"In a sense, communal slots are kind of overdue, but it won't work for everybody," he said, because some slots customers are overly competitive.

Wheel of Fortune Super Spin, which covers 380 square feet including the stools and has a 19.5-foot diameter, debuted at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in September 2006 and has been a hit.

"It's fun to watch on a Saturday night," said Tim Burke, vice president of slots operations at the Borgata. "It's like table games, especially if you have a bunch of people who know each other. They are high-fiving each other after the bonus round."

Several of the biggest slots manufacturers in the country, including International Game Technology, WMS, and AC Coin & Slot, of Pleasantville, N.J., are all rolling out new communal slots games this summer to meet growing demand.

Virtually all gambling halls in Atlantic City, including Resorts, Trump Taj Mahal, and the Borgata, have plans to increase their inventory of these games based on the revenue they are producing.

Most operators say the "handle," or total number of coins played into the machine daily, on communal slot machines is 1.5 to three times that of the house average in their casinos. They cite the communal games' larger-than-life presence, familiarity with their themes, and the bonuses they pay out as reasons people are drawn to them first and play them the most.

AC Coin & Slot is rolling out Super Bankroll Bonus, a game that seats six, at a major Indian gaming trade show in San Diego next week. It plans to begin installing the first 15 machines in July.

WMS, based in Waukegan, Ill., is debuting Bigger Bang, Big Event next week in Las Vegas. The game features transmissive reels, adding a multidimensional video experience to the communal slots game.

The company also plans several other product launches of its newest communal slots games for this year and next.

"In our research, we learned what's important to players," said Candace Lucas, director of market research and product strategy for WMS. "Players have the desire to not only play the game, but to play with their friends and family.

"That's why you are seeing us committing our time and resources to bring in these dynamic games to the market."

International Game Technology, of Reno, Nev., is debuting eBay, a five-station communal slots game that has the look and global-commerce theme of the original brand. The company's Price Is Right Cliffhanger game will roll out later this year.

"They are bringing in a premium," Ed Rogich, a spokesman for IGT, said of communal slots games. "They have to because of the real estate they command in order to keep a place on the floor.

"Space is money on the casino floor, and they are huge spectator events," he said. "They are an attraction."

Communal slots games have come a long way.

Ten years ago, AC Coin & Slot introduced the first of its kind, called Road Rally, which stood 13 feet high and was 27 feet in diameter.

"It was an absolute disaster," said Mac Seelig, president and chief executive officer of AC Coin. "At the time, people were strictly into gambling and less into the entertainment aspect of slots. But it was the first game that put 10 people together to play together."

Atlantic City's casinos have seen a steady rise in revenue from communal slots and are looking to order more machines.

The Tropicana is adding a second Wheel of Fortune Super Spin to the 25-cent game it has had since September 2006. The new game, expected to arrive by Memorial Day, will use nickels. The casino also plans to buy a few more Monopoly Big Event games. It currently has one.

"These are definitely among our best-performing games," said Mario DiGuiseppe, vice president of casino operations at the Tropicana. "From a philosophical viewpoint, slot games are typically not interactive with other guests, and that, to me, is what's really given them [communal slot machines] a lot of legs."

And the fact that some allow an underperforming player to share in the jackpot round and jackpot bonus.

Communal slots are called "participation games," in which the casino pays a daily fee to rent the machine (or a percentage of what the machine brings in) and shares in the revenue with the manufacturer.

For instance, Wheel of Fortune Super Spin costs an operator here on average $150 per individual station a day to lease, almost triple the price of a typical slot machine.

The Taj Mahal boasts having the most community slot games among Atlantic City's casinos. It has had the exclusive rights to SuperSlotto Celebration since the fall. The game, which is costing the casino $70 to $100 per station a day to rent, looks like a giant spaceship in the middle of the floor. It is hard to miss.

It definitely caught Dale Nansteel's attention. The retired machinist from Lehighton, Pa., tried it for the first time Tuesday.

"There's an elaborate buildup here," said Nansteel, 64, as he took his seat. "It looks so big and enormous."

Scott Molina, director of slots operations for the Taj, just put in an order for three additional Monopoly Big Events, three Press Your Lucks, and a half-dozen Bigger Bang, Big Events for this summer. He also ordered the newest version of Wheel of Fortune Super Spin that seats five players.

He called Bigger Bang, Big Event, manufactured by WMS, the future of communal gaming.

The high-tech slots game seats up to six and turns into a video game in the bonus round. It is currently before New Jersey regulators for approvals.

"This is where we are going with communal gaming," Molina said. "These games are only going to get better.

"We're in the early part of this."