More about the year of the penny

 

Here’s my latest from the Las Vegas Business Press, in which I continue to deconstruct the popularity of pennies:

When the year-end Nevada gaming revenue figures came out, two trends dominated the news: Gambling in general was down again in 2009, while baccarat play toward the end of the year showed a surprising spike. But one historic change went all but unnoticed — for slot machines, 2009 was the year of the penny.

Penny slots have been on the rise for several years, making an unforeseen comeback. Never plentiful in Nevada casinos, their numbers dipped so low in 1995 that Nevada regulators stopped including them as a separate category in their gaming revenue reports. In 2004, they reappeared on the revenue reports, with more than 12,000 of the machines in casinos statewide. Since then, they've added to their numbers every year, which is all the more impressive given that the overall number of slots has fallen. Last year, just less than one out of every four casino slots was a penny machine.

via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : Pennywise or slot foolish? Casinos must decide.

At the end of the article, I hint at some of the possible downside of the increasing popularity of pennies–I might expand this into another article.

Posted in business of gambling, writingon 03/09/2010 10:12 am by Dave

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10 Comments

  1. Pardon me to question the wisdom of the number cruncher, but pennies in 1995 were almost just that, playing a penny at a time.

    The pennies of the last decade are multi-line affairs with so many different paylines, and occasionally an additional bonus game bet, that although they are listed as pennies people are gambling anywhere from 60 cents to $3 a spin, unless they’re willing to settle for either less than optimal conditions or a smaller jackpot. Nobody’s playing a 100 ways machine like Stinkin’ Rich just one cent at a time, unless they’re already lost and are trying to avoid a redemption ticket for a few nickles.

  2. Yes, I reference that in the article:
    “A maximum bet per spin typically ranges between $2 and $5, so it’s not necessarily a case of recession-dogged trading down to a cheaper product.”
    -but they’re still called penny slots.

  3. i agree whit you whole heartedly regarding calling them penny machines, Dr. Dave. If they will play one penny, they should be called penny machines. The trend I saw last week at Aria, however, makes me wonder if something is coming that needs to be watched: The penny machines we played at Aria (Dean Martin and Penguins) did not have the lugs knocked out on the control to allow a bet under 25 cents. I think if you can’t bet one penny only, it shouldn’t be called a penny machine.

  4. Schopenhauer
    03/09/2010 at 2:40 pm

    Yeah. Your mission today is to find out if the GCB classifies these “penny-denominated-but-min-bet-25-pennies” as pennies, 25c, or multi, or if they are thinking about introducing a new category.

    It may be a question of just where the definition of the machine is. If the min bet is 25c, but you can vary the bets by increments of pennies per line, is it a 25c or penny? That is, is the significant difference in min bet or in min denom change? Which classification makes more sense? Or should the GCB collect instead the actual varying bet sizes, such that there will be a breakdown of 25c, 30c, 35c, 367c, and so on? Would this distinction give any significant insights?

    It seems “min denom change” is the more important (regardless of min bet). A 25c machine is not just a 25c min bet, but all bets must be multiples of 25c. On the other hand, a “penny machine,” while (at this point I am sure we are all aware whether we actually play slots or not) not always having a min bet of just 1c, can have bet sizes of most multiples of 1c (after a certain min point).

    As a good academic, I call this “Denominatorial Saltation Theory” and submit it humbly for peer review here on the internets.

    Maybe we should just let Michael Wasserman define it.

  5. This is an excellent article and if I was a ’slot manager’ I’d take good heed of the ‘burn-out possibilities’ mentioned.

    ‘Penny Thru Five Dollar Machines’ [PTFDNs] (hereafter referred to as “PuttFudEn” machines) offer players greater excitement and more betting choices while concurrently (or simultaneously?) “burning” the player of ‘Time Spent In the Casino’ {hereafter referred to as TSIC} [pronounced "TeaSick"].

    If the ‘Puttfuden’ machines cause bad ‘TeaSickness’ people will leave the casino too soon feeling ‘Exasperated & Frustrated’. [The well-known condition of "EF"....the condition that causes players to tell their friends "Lets get the EF out of here and go bowling"].

    When players get “Effed” too many times they end up not tipping, not partaking in other casino games, not going shopping in the casinos…or partaking of other ’side-casino-experiences’. In fact. many of these players simply stay home, because it’s not worth their effort, money and energy to just spend 45 minutes getting “Effed”.

    I think this article’s author supplies a very futuristic ‘take’ (and Long-Term Perspective) [LTP] on this issue and matter of ‘Shortened-Actual-Gametime’ [known as the "SAG"].

    Simply put, “The Puttfuden Sag” causes the gamers to get “Effed”.

    “Effing” the gamers is not a good, long-term plan (IMO).

    Something needs to be done to lessen the “Puttfuden Sag”.

    The fast Hyper-Play that happens in the new Cashless Digital Casinos [CDC] has a likelihood of alienating the game players over the coming years.

    The potential ‘Burn-Out Possibilities’ [BOP] of these “Effing Puttfuden” machines…might…in the long-run actually hurt the Casino Industry Numbers [CIN] more than is currently realized.

    Most slot-players are don’t actually think too deeply about the new-effects of the CDC (Cashless Digital Casino). All they know is that they are having to leave the casino much sooner than they used to…and without even enough money left over to buy a Dollar Hotdog or to properly tip the Valet Guy.

    That doesn’t seem like a good thing and a solution to The SAG might be needed.

    The CDC SAG rarely even allows a player to get a free cocktail anymore.

    The very first thing that should be done to alleviate the players’ feelings of getting “Effed by the Sag” is to get a drink into a player’s hand ASAP.

    IMO

  6. Woops. I made an error in devising a new term. The accurate term for ‘Penny Thru Five Dollar Machines’ [PTFDMs] should actually be termed Puttfudem’s (with an M instead of the letter N).

  7. Jeff in OKC mentions in his post that there are “Dean Martin” penny slot machines in the Aria casino. Hopefully whoever is in charge of Frank Sinatra’s estate does not sell out to his likeness to the video game manufacturers and put The Chairman of The Board on a penny slot machine. Frank Sinatra would roll over in his grave if they did that to him.

  8. Jeff in OKC
    03/10/2010 at 5:14 am

    Paul, the Frank Sinatra machine was done around 2004, I think. IGT had a run of famouns people machines, such as Marilyn Monroe, and Humpherey Bogart, I think. It was a really good machine. The second payline had the bonus feature where Frank took over the whole line (vertically) and sang a live version of “Fly Me To The Moon”. I still look for it when we go to a new casino, especially the older joints that don’t update their machines as often.
    I have a theory that the Sinatra Estate demanded that no used machines be sold to the public after they were retired. I have never seen one on ebay.

  9. Jeff, thanks for the information about the Frank Sinatra slot machine. I do not play slot machines that much (I like to play blackjack) so I am not that familiar with what celebrities or brand names are on slot machines. I have noticed plenty of “Wheel of Fortune” slot machines in casinos, those seem to be pretty popular.

  10. @Paul and Jeff: hello, I’ve been able to see and actually tried to play with that “frank sinatra slot machine. I also saw that machine when I visited macau in Nov 2008. I just remembered :) though I don’t usually do slots, I’m more interested with poker, bingo and baccarat. Anyway, thanks for the good read.

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