Loose or tight slots: Which makes more for the casino?

22 January 2013

By Frank Scoblete

You can take a quick look at the slot paybacks in this issue of Strictly Slots to get some idea of which areas of the country have the loosest slots payout percentages and which areas have the tightest payout percentages. You can also go casino by casino in those jurisdictions that report individual percentages.

On penny, nickel, quarter, 50-cent, one-dollar and five-dollar machines, the percentages reflect quite a large amount of play. You can be sure these are quite accurate. You can not be as confident in the statistics of the 25-dollar and higher machines, as the variability of these machines is immense in short-term calculations.

Obviously, my designations are based on a comparative study. A loose slot is loose in relation to one that is not as loose. Read that sentence again; it makes sense. This is Einstein’s Special Slot Theory of Relativity.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see that a 25-cent slot machine returning 95 percent is looser than a 25-cent machine returning 89 to 90 percent. Now, if a casino had 95 percent machines throughout its slot aisles and a competing casino only had 89 to 90 percenters, which casino property would make the most money in the long run?

I say that the casino property with the loose machines would make more money. I think there are several reasons for this.

First, players would have a tendency to win more sessions. The more they win, the more they prefer to play at the casino where these wins take place. They can also play longer without fully draining their bankrolls in a short period of time. This is the repeat customer scenario. A happy customer is one who will come back time and time again. The casino might not make as much on one visit as a tight casino would but with far more multiple visits I can hear the cash register ringing.

The casino might win less per player but it will have many more players to win less from, meaning they are making more money in toto than the casino winning more money from fewer players. Read that sentence again, it makes complete sense.

The more casino players coming back time and again, the more money they spend in the restaurants, bars, clothing stores, sundry shops and stationary stores and the more they spend for rooms. This can be considered the reverse of collateral damage; it is collateral profitability.

Happy players have a tendency to tell other players which casinos have made them happy. In short, they spread the glad tidings. So our happy player not only comes back to play at that casino but often brings relatives and friends or sends relatives and friends there. This might be considered a “friendly relative enhancement” for that particular casino.

Now what about those casinos that have relatively tight slot machines? Are they in the forefront of long-term slot play? I think not.

Come on you casino executives, no one likes a tightwad. These “Silas Marner” properties might make some money in the short run but they must recruit new players all the time. The old players will often divorce them. Slot players are always looking for their one true love and, unlike in life, they want that one true love to be loose.

Slot aficionados tend to hunt for the better payouts. Or they get tired of losing and make fewer trips. They stay at home and eat in their own dining rooms. A casino restaurant can’t be full of eaters if those eaters have decided to stay home. I think those tight casinos are just asking for long-term trouble.

So what can you do if you find yourself in an area of the country where your local casinos have super tight machines? You can write a letter to the slot director. Chances are that won’t work as slot directors are probably looking at their bosses to see if such a boss might make the slot director the casino director. Casino directors are often sloths in the change department.

Of course, you could just moan and bear it. I’ll admit that isn’t much fun. Or you can save up your money and take a trip where the slot sun is shining. Yes, the trip will cost you money, but such a trip is a vacation. That trip will cost the tight casino some money, too. Maybe that will change the slot director’s mind.

So here’s the plan, plain and simple; you must steal your mind against any machines that are tight. Look up the figures and be aware of who’s who and what’s what in the casino slot frontier. Tell your relatives and friends the good slot places to play and shoo them away from those casinos where the players are the nails and the slot machines are the hammers.

I think we should have a slot players’ rebellion in this country. The heck with the Tea Party; the heck with the Occupy Wall Streeters; the heck with everything that annoys you like nuclear war – we want slot machines that are really, really loose. We will not settle for anything less. If slot players win more, the casinos will ultimately win more.

Freedom! I call for freedom to be loose.

Sorry, I got a little carried away there. But I am sure you all get the picture. After all, it is in high definition and 3-D; we want loose machines everywhere!

Frank Scoblete's newest books are "Slots Conquest: How to Beat the Slot Machines!" featuring advantage-play slots and "Casino Conquest: How to Beat the Casinos at Their Own Games!" Frank's books are available on Amazon.com and by calling 1-800-944-0406.