Slot machines being tightened?

I know the table minimums are up but how about the slot machines.  Are they being tightened up to make up for lost revenues due to the decrease in numbers of visitors?

As always, we can only infer how tight the slots are in two ways:

1) There's a rough correlation between slot machine and video poker payback percentages. If a given joint has lousy VP, or if it downgrades its formerly OK VP, that's a strong indication that the slots are lousy, too. Given that the destruction of fullpay--or even decent--VP is continuing even in the midst of the pandemic, I strongly suspect that slots are being tightened as well. And as you've observed, table games are being tightened, so I would expect them to take that general approach with every game they offer.

2) Slot payback percentages overall, sorted by denomination, are regularly reported to the Gaming Commission, and that info is supposed to be public knowledge--I don't know how you ask for it, though. The reports are sorted by region of the city--Strip, Downtown, Boulder Highway, etc.--rather than by individual casino.

As in general, Vegas is tightening everything up and making everything more expensive (the exact opposite of what they should be doing IMHO), I think that the probability of the slots being tightened is somewhere around 90% for a given casino. For what it's worth, I would expect that to NOT have happened at locals' casinos, because their customer base is already strapped for cash and they want to shear the sheep, not slaughter them.

During my 4 trips to Vegas since April, I have noticed no difference in video poker payback at the casinos where I stay/play. I do not play at any casino on the strip - their video poker payback has been decimated for years and is not worthy of being played, in my opinion.

I totally agree, Kevin - the casinos should be looser, not tighter.  The bean counters are ruling the roost, and that is crazy thinking to make things tighter now.  Everyone wants to hear stories of winning, not losing, since winning drives foot traffic to the positive.  Bean counters have ruled too long and have almost destroyed gambling in the process. 

Tommy

Have to agree David. I live in LV and play VP almost every day at non-strip casinos. There have been no changes to any of the "better" paytables. Plenty of 100% (including earned points, mailers, promos, etc.) games available. 

Yes, though Stations and Boyd have both removed some of their few remaining good machines in the last several months. That wasn't really coincident with the pandemic.

The real tightening of the sphincter has been with the Strip properties, which have made NO efforts to lure players back. I don't know if they've tightened their slots, but since they've tightened everything else to the point where it squeaks...

What Stations did when they reopened after the pandemic in early June was unbelievable. They quietly changed the coin-in requirements on VP from $1 = 1 point to $2 = 1 point. 

Never told anyone. Player noticed, went to the boothlings and they knew nothing about it. Took several calls up the chain of command to find out.

What Stations has done is just a setp towards totally removing all playable video poker ( because no one will play their Video poker because of the decimation) by saying that video poker is no onger profitable to their casinos. 

Actually, Stations still has some of the best VP in town. But that's only a few machines, and only because everyplace else has turned so crappy. Points aside, they still have some over 100% games, including, if memory serves, the only 10/7 DB besides the Four Queens.

Also, if you played their Optimum machines (the only ones with +EV games), you never got more than 1 point for $12 coin-in anyway. The point devaluation hurts those who play their "next tier"--the 99.8% games that they have scattered around. Those games went positive on multiple point days in the past.

K-Man

I too will be in Vegas in December

Hopefully the Cincinnati Kid will show up at the craps table at the gate