For this answer, we went straight to the source: Arnie Rothstein, our pseudonymous casino manager extraordinaire. Here’s what he has to say.
Slot and video poker machines are to the casinos what milk and meat are to supermarkets: Both use their perishable products to lure shoppers/players deeper into their arenas.
For example, if a certain section or area of the casino has little or no foot traffic, the slot director will move the latest and most popular machines to this area to increase traffic and revenue, in the same way that the supermarkets force you to walk through the entire store to get a gallon of milk or a steak.
Another way of looking at this is to observe the machines around the restrooms. Only a fool would put a popular in-demand machine outside of area that people are naturally drawn to by necessity. By the same token, who would put a popular new guaranteed moneymaking machine next to an open sewer (in this case, the restrooms)?
Another similarity. Both milk and slots have expiration dates. The milk has its date stamped on the carton; the slot machine has a counter on the bill acceptor within the machine. When the milk’s date is up, it gets taken off the shelf and destroyed. Casinos keep a tight watch on their machines, and good ones bring in an easy $60 to $100 a day. When they consistently come in under, the slot director might move them around or pull them off the floor altogether (after getting permission from the Gaming Control Board).
So how long is the shelf life of a slot machine in a casino? The average is two years, and that's actually stretching it. Popular machines like Monopoly and Red White and Blue Sevens have been around for years, but those are strictly the exceptions that prove the rule. Meanwhile, the manufacturers like Williams, Sigma, and IGT have also built "planned obsolescence" into their machines. This is the same trick that the computer industry pulls on us by changing and upgrading hardware, and especially software, every year of so.
Some professional video poker players might believe that slot managers sometimes move the good machines around to confuse or annoy just them. But I’ve never worked for such a proactive casino. Again, the main reason machines are moved around is that they lose money. So if a pro or a team of pros is whacking certain good machines, they would naturally show to be losers. Thus, they would fit into the same category and would be part of the musical-slots shell game: If they're not holding enough, the payouts can be changed or the machines removed.
Ultimately, the casinos are simply rotating their stock, moving their most popular products around so that their customers are forced to search for them, thereby exposing the players to more temptations and making sure that all the floor space gets foot traffic.
