Ask the Slot Expert: Why would a casino remove a popular machine after only three months?

Question: Do you know how a casino chooses which slot machines to have on their gaming floor?

Do you know why a casino would remove a seemingly popular slot game after only 3 months on their gaming floor?

The slot game in question is an IGT game called Zodiac Lion and because of the way the game plays, not like any I have seen up till now, it allows smart players to win repeatedly by "cleaning up" potentially winning screens left by other less experienced players.

Answer: Casino execs work with their manufacturer's reps to pick games that they think will appeal to their players. They also listen to their players and if enough players request a particular game, it may appear on the slot floor.

To answer your second question, I prepared a list of all of the reasons why a slot machine would be taken off of the slot floor. Looking over the list and considering the short time frame in your question, I realized that there are really only two reasons why a machine would be removed after only three months.

The first reason is that the machine is on trial. Here in Las Vegas, we sometimes run into new games that are on the slot floor so that the gaming commission and manufacturer can get real-world experience for how the game operates and get public opinion.

For a few months before it closed for the pandemic, Red Rock had a carousel of machines from Synergy Blue. The games on these multi-game machines were all skill based. I tried them all and settled on the Mahjong game. Well, the only thing this Mahjong game had in common with the four-player Mahjong game is the tiles. The slot-based Mahjong game was the tile-matching game that I think is called Mahjong Solitaire to distinguish it from the four-player game.

I found some glitches in their programming. There were sometimes problems with the card readers and sometimes a machine would get stuck on a particular game. You could play that game, but you couldn't switch to one of the other ones.

There were five or so levels at which you could play the Mahjong game. The higher levels had more tiles and more complicated patterns. The object of the game was to pick matching tiles, which would then disappear, and clear the board to advance to the bonus round.

I was frequently able to clear the board and go to the bonus round. In the bonus you had the option of taking a guarantee or taking a shot at a larger bonus by picking an icon. The guarantee, the number of icons, and the range of values all increased with the higher levels. The highest level was something like seven gongs with a top value of $10,000.

When I took a chance on the big bonus, I always ended up with am amount that was equal to the guarantee or lower. I came to the conclusion that improving on the guarantee happened so rarely that it wasn't worth playing the bonus game. (The Expected Value of picking was probably the same as taking the guarantee, so the casino didn't care which option you chose.)

There was frequently a rep from Synergy Blue at the games, showing people how to play them and getting their reactions. The reps got to know me because I was a regular. Talking with one rep about the bonus game, she said that they agreed that the way the bonus was working was not working and they were going to redo it.

Red Rock put the machines in a particularly bad place. They were right in front of the entrance to the buffet. Perhaps they thought that players in this high-traffic area would see them and give them a try. What really happened was a lot of people sat in the seats at the games while waiting for the rest of their party to arrive.

The machines were gone when Red Rock reopened. I believe Synergy Blue is gone too.

Game on trial is a rare event. What's the most frequent reason a game would be removed after a short period?

They think another game would make more money. Why replace a machine with one that you think will earn less?

Wheel of Fortune being the exception, machines based on movies, TV shows and celebrities tend to have a short shelf life. The Game of Thrones-themed machines at Suncoast are always gone before I'm finished with them. A few weeks ago, I was very disappointed to find the Red Keep machines I wanted to play replaced by Crazy Rich Asian machines. I saw the flick, but I'm not compelled to play the game.

The machine you mentioned is not a machine based on licensed Intellectual Property. Still, the machines may not have been as popular as you think they were and the execs thought that other machines would do better.

There's another possibility. The casino may have decided that the games were too disruptive.

About 20 years ago, slot manufacturers created banking slot machines. The machines would occasionally add credits to a bank, which would then be won by a player. It was kind of like a mini progressive that hit more frequently and at lesser amounts than its bigger brothers.

These games led to jackpot vultures. Some Advantage Players would check the games and play them only when the bank was above a certain amount. Vultures, on the other hand, would stand near the machines and try to intimidate players into leaving them when the bank was high enough for the vulture to swoop in. Some casinos decided that the games weren't worth the hassle.

Piggy Bankin' and Fort Knox are two banking games that I remember playing. In fact, I think it was a Fort Knox game that was involved in a situation I witnessed at the Desert Inn.

A man was playing the game and the bank was large. He ran out of money and wanted the casino to disable the machine while he went back to his hotel to get more money. He didn't want someone else to win the bank that he thought was ready to hit and should be his.

I believe that the DI wouldn't disable the machine because he was not a member of the players club and he wasn't staying at the DI and who knows how long it would have taken him to return.

The man was just sitting at the machine -- he had run out of money -- and telling his story to everyone who passed by. He got more agitated with each retelling.

I saw my friend who was the Slot Director at the DI and told him the situation and that he might have a problem brewing. He and another suit stood near the machine, in plain view, but otherwise didn't do anything but stand there and talk to each other. The man eventually left without creating an incident. And, no, I did not swoop in after he left and win the bank.

I thought that manufacturers had stopped making banking slot machines, so I was surprised to see books and articles on advantage-play slots again a few years ago.

In the broadest definition, a banking slot game is a game in which some aspect of the game is maintained from one spin to the next. In the old days, it was usually some credit amount in a bank. Today it could be coins or wild symbols or some other symbol that remains on a reel. It could be some column that grows with play until reaching the top and triggering some bonus.

I used to be very fond of an IGT game called Scarab that is very similar to Zodiac Lions. It even has similar graphics and the same music for some events.

On Zodiac Lions, when a lion symbol lands on the screen, it leaves behind a frame that could turn into a wild symbol. The scarab symbol on Scarabs does the same thing.

On Scarabs, though, all of the frames turn wild every 10th spin. On Z-Lions, a frame turns wild when a lion symbol lands in it and it turns any frames that touch it wild too.

On both games, it can be advantageous to play them when there are many frames displayed on the screen. Some players may run out of money or patience and leave a machine even though there are many frames on the screen. Others don't know what the frames mean. Both scenarios can be profitable for the smart players, as you say.

Just be careful about playing machines in what you think is an advantageous state. Slot Player Banned at Bellagio

Your casino may have decided that these machines are more trouble than they're worth. It's also possible that the machines were profitable and popular and they were just moved to a different spot on the casino floor.

Casino love to move machines around once in a while to make the slot floor look new even though the machines are old.

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