Reprinted from the American Casino Guide - 1999 edition

Do Casinos Own Or Lease Slot Machines Near Me
Do Casinos Buy Or Lease Slot Machines
Buffalo Casino Slot Machine Games

By Steve Bourie

It is legal to own a slot machine in Maryland privately if it is 25 years old or older. The state gaming commission is Maryland Lottery and Gaming, responsible for overseeing gaming regulations compliance, employee background checks, the day-to-day operation of machines at each casino, and more. Get My Free Report Revealing. Even if you don't usually gamble, the bells and whistles of a slot machine might draw you in—but that's where casinos make their money. Many of us realize that at a casino, they stack the deck.

Today, the average U.S. casino makes about 65% of its profits off its slot machines. Actually, that number representsall different kinds of a casino’s machines including video poker, video keno, video blackjack, and all other varietiesof electronic games. It didn’t use to be that way. In fact, it used to be just the opposite! Table games were the big revenue producers for the casinos and it was usually the men who playedthose games while their wives were kept busy at the slot machines.

Back in the 40s and early 50s, the old mechanical slots were full of gears and springs and were actually powered by pulling the handle which started the reels spinning. One of the problems withthese machines was that they were limited in the size of the jackpots they could offer because they could only accept one coin, plus the hoppers, still relying on those springs and gears, werelimited in the number of coins they could payout.

In the 60s the next generation of slots was introduced: the electromechanical. These machines still had a handle on the outside, but this time when you pulled it you activated an electricswitch which started a motor to spin the reels. These machines increased the popularity of slots because they allowed multiple coin play and they also had electrically-powered hoppers thatcould pay out much larger jackpots. In the 80s computer-controlled slots were introduced.

These new machines revolutionized the industry because everything was now controlled by a computer chip. These electronic marvels could offer progressive jackpots that were linked amongdifferent machines and it wasn’t long before this new computer technology led to the introduction of a new game called video poker.

Today, the technology is so advanced that it allows slot machines that are hundreds of miles apart to be linked together by computer and offer jackpots that start at $10 million (SuperMegabucks), or video poker to be played from five different decks at the same time (Five Deck Frenzy).

Although the technology constantly changes, one thing remains the same: the person responsible for the operation of the slot department is the slot manager. It is the slot manager whodetermines how the slot department will be laid out and how much the machines will be set to pay back.

As a slot player, you’ve probably had a few questions about how a slot department works: How do they decide where to put those slot machines out on the casino floor? Is winning purely luck? Aresome machines really set to pay back more than others? And, if so, where do they put those better-paying machines? Well, the person with the answer to those questions would be the slot managerand I found two who were gracious enough to sit down for an interview in early 1998 to answer some questions about how their departments work and what goes into some of their businessdecisions.

The first stop was at the office of Rich Marino, Director of Slot Operations, at Luxor, the giant pyramid-shaped casino-resort in Las Vegas. Luxor is owned by Circus Circus, one of the largestgaming companies in the world, and the hotel itself, with more than 4,400 rooms, is the world’s third-largest hotel.

Rich began his career working downtown at the Union Plaza in 1976 in the coin room pulling the buckets under the machines. He eventually became the shift manager and a few years laterhe moved to the Gold Strike which later merged with Circus Circus. After a one-year stint at the Elgin Riverboat in Illinois, Rich returned to Las Vegas to help open the Luxor casino and he’sbeen there ever since.

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Rich has more than 200 employees working for him in his slot department, including change people, floor people, money runners, booth cashiers; supervisors, assistant shift managers, andmanagers.

Bourie: What are the job functions of the various people in your department?

Marino: A change person's main function is to provide our casino guests with change service without having to leave the machine. They also pay and verify jackpots on themachines. A booth cashier's function is to provide change and coin redemption service. Floor persons do minor repairs, fill empty machines, and verify jackpots. Supervisors verify the fillingof machines and the payment of jackpots up to certain amounts. Assistant Shift Managers and Shift Managers verify larger jackpots. ..and manage all operations on their particular shift.

Bourie: What goes into your decisions when you lay out the slot floor and are deciding where to put slot machines?

Marino: Traffic flow is the most important consideration when laying out a slot floor. Placing lower denomination machines in high traffic flow areas to insure that theproperty always looks busy. Also, I place the more popular machines in slower areas to draw people to those locations. I look for what types of machines people are playing and I also runreports continually: which locations are doing best, my top 10 machines, my types of machines, etc.

Bourie: What is the most popular machine?

Marino: Wheel of Fortune is the most popular right now. IGT (International Game Technology) took its reel-spinning slot machine and added a second-feature spinning wheel on topthat offers a bonus to players. They combined that with the popularity of the Wheel of Fortune game show and they now have the most successful machine on the market.

Actually, in the past 10 years, the slot industry has been kind of boring: just pull the handle and let the reels spin. Now, we have all these second-feature-type games with the WilliamsGames and the Vision IGT (International Game Technology) series. It makes it more exciting. It's not a local type of excitement, but a tourist type of excitement. Tourists like them a lot morethan the locals like them.

Bourie: I went to the gaming show recently and some of those newer slots seemed a little complicated.

Marino: In some cases, I have to actually sit down and play those games before I can figure them out. Initially, I thought that the customers would reject them, but it'snot happening. They are really taking to them. I believe a lot of the customers don't even know which combinations they’re winning on. All they know is that they’re having a good time andaccumulating a lot of credits.

Bourie: They actually don't know the winning combinations?

Marino: Yes, but they know they're having fun. They know there's money coming and they're winning credits and they're having a good time. That's the name of the game. Thereality is that the casino has the edge. You know that and I know that and everybody knows that, but what you’ve got to do is let people have as much fun as they can so that even if they don’twin, they're still having fun. It's an entertainment experience. If you're sitting there and take out a $20 bill, and you're playing and that $20 bill is gone and you don't hit anything, you'vegot a negative experience, you know what I mean?

Bourie: How about your decisions concerning the physical layout and where you want to place the machines?

Marino: What I try to do initially is create excitement by the front entrance of the casino so when a customer walks in they see people playing and having fun. I put popularnickel games upfront because it seems the nickel games always fill up first. (Pulls out the floor plan of the casino and points to various locations). As you can see I've located a couple ofnickel banks upfro

Do Casinos Own Or Lease Slot Machines