Do casinos still seed their floor with "loose slots"?

[Alan Mendelson]

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??

[slingshot]

That sold a lot of books.

[Vegas Vic]

higher denomination slots (are supposed to) have a better return than lower denomination slots, with penny-slots having the lowest return.

This is the only part of your post that has any basis in fact for casino managers to consider when they set up their floor.

[Count Room]

Alan:

I can say for sure that I know of several casinos that keep their VP machines with better paytables nestled deeply towards the "back" of their establishments just as you described. This management strategy makes perfect sense to me.

[Alan Mendelson]

Let me give you an example of "hiding" the better paying machines "in the back." It's not a dramatic example, but it is a valid example. At Caesars Palace in Las Vegas there is a high limit slots and video poker area off to the side of the Palace Casino and it is called "the small dome room." The Palace Casino is under the giant dome. If you stand inside the big dome of the Palace Casino and look at the "high limit small dome room" you will see video poker machines that face out on the main casino floor. The pay tables on these machines are lower than the paytables on the machines opposite these machines and facing the inside of the small dome room. The machines visible from the main casino floor, for example, pay 7/5 Bonus while the machines facing the inside of the small dome room have 8/5 Bonus as well as 9/6 Jacks. There are only three of these on the inside of the small dome room.

Only one other machine in all of Caesars has 8/5 bonus and 9/6 Jacks and that machine is literally in a corner of the Palace County high limit slots area where you most find $100 slots and $25 and $100 video poker -- but there you'll find the only other $5 8/5 Bonus and 9/6 Jacks unit.