I got into this discussion on another forum so I thought I would ask the question here:
Do casinos still seed the floor with loose slot machines in high visibility areas? When I was with the news about 15 I did a report on the believe that the casinos did in fact put loose slots in certain high visibility areas including:
at the end of rows
at entrances
by buffet and restaurant lines
near the hotel check-in
on major walkways
The purported strategy was that the payoffs and jackots would get the maximum attention and prompt more play.
NYNY was notorious for having some loose slots seeded in high visibility areas on main walkways. I remember a kiosk under a model of the Statue of Liberty that had machines that frequently paid out $100, $200 or $300 for a $2 or $3 spin. And then along a walkway near the craps pit there were 5-Times Pay and 10-Times pay reel slots that seemed to constantly deliver W2Gs. I hit several back in the day per trip on those machines.
But the strategy changed about five years ago, when I read that casino slot managers were now putting their better paying machines in the "back" of the casinos to force patrons to walk through the entire casino to see all of the games available.
I haven't seriously played slots in about 13 years so I haven't kept track of trends, except that higher denomination slots are supposed to have a better return than lower denomination slots, with penny-slots having the lowest return.
Anyone else keep track of this fact-or-fiction??