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Ask the Slot Expert: Buffets, slot tickets and the Olympics25 August 2021
Answer: Thanks for the kind words. I assumed that the "Live" bug in the corner of the screen meant that the coverage was live. I don't think I saw it on anything that I knew was not live. I found it impossible to not find out the results of some events that were aired (on NBC, at least) on tape delay. I got many news alerts on my phone when something noteworthy happened at an event. Speaking of spoilers... Up until a few years ago, ABC had the rights to show the Indy 500. When I first started watching the race, instead of showing the race live, as has been done since 1986, ABC showed edited coverage of the race in primetime. ABC also used to air a brief (30 seconds, maybe a minute) news recap right before the primetime lineup. On Indy night, right before showing the edited race coverage, the newsreader said, "And finally, the winner of this year's Indy 500 is...." That's a good point about rally scoring making a volleyball set end sooner. One of the pages I read explaining the change to rally scoring said that it would make the length of a game predictable and that would help with scheduling venues, matches and coverage. Did I like the elimination of coins? Yes, immediately. I didn't get any pleasure from scooping tokens out of the coin tray and getting my hands covered in grime and ashes. Let's not forget the joys of waiting for hopper fills and carrying buckets of coins to a redemption booth. I once told my friend who was the slot director at the Desert Inn that they needed larger buckets. He said that they do have larger buckets, but they were so heavy when they were filled with coins that the redemption personnel were getting injured when they dumped the contents into the coin counter. They put the large buckets in storage and used only the smaller buckets on the slot floor. Years ago, some suit at Treasure Island didn't like the look of buckets sitting on top of slant-top machines. Every time I would leave a bucket on top of a machine, a slot floorperson would move it to between two upright machines. If you were playing a slant-top, you might have to make a mad dash to a carousel to get a bucket. TI had installed machines just outside the casino in the corridor from the parking garage. I was playing a machine there and I wanted to cash out. I was cursing myself for forgetting to bring a bucket with me. I got up and ran over to a nearby carousel to grab a bucket. My back was turned for less than 10 seconds and someone was already about to sit down at the machine and play my credits. The casino industry was already looking at ways to decrease or eliminate the use of coins before 2000. One idea I saw demonstrated was the Cash Cage. When you cashed out, the machine would pay most of what you were owed with paper money from a bill dispenser and spit coins from the hopper for the balance. Thank heavens Ticket-In-Ticket-Out (TITO) won. We wouldn't have the video machines we have now without TITO. The video revolution started with penny and nickel machines. They would not have been as popular if we were still carrying around buckets of coins. Not only are the change people and their carts gone, but so are the people who worked the coin redemption booths, the people who collected the drop buckets under the machines, and the people who worked the hard count room. Well, the jobs are gone. The people may have been reassigned. But that's progress. My father had to give up on his dream of following the family tradition of being a pin setter in a bowling alley. He became a research chemist instead. Last week Rampart Casino sent me an email announcing that its buffet was going to reopen. The next day, I went to Red Rock and saw workers putting up wallboard to close off the area that had been their buffet. I said to one of the slot floor supervisors that the bean counter was serious when he said that Station Casinos was not going to reopen the buffets in their casinos. I asked her what was going to be there instead and she said that it was going to be a new high limit room. Suncoast got a new management team about five years ago. The new team had a little reception to introduce themselves to the emerald (the highest level in the slot club at the time) players. One item addressed was overhauling the buffet. They never got around to it and now who knows if they ever will. We might have a bifurcated buffet ball game in Las Vegas. Strip casinos, which don't want to give their guests a reason to leave the property, will have a buffet, possibly with a hefty price. (I wonder how easy it's going to be to get a comp at a $75 buffet.) Many locals casinos won't have a buffet. They don't care as much if their guests leave. The guests are probably just going home. Besides, they'll be back in a few days. Click here for the latest Covid data. Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.
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