{"id":16614,"date":"2015-08-20T12:18:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T20:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16614"},"modified":"2015-08-20T14:55:21","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T22:55:21","slug":"those-tight-slots-a-birthday-for-horseshoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/those-tight-slots-a-birthday-for-horseshoe\/","title":{"rendered":"Those tight slots; A birthday for Horseshoe"},"content":{"rendered":"

When one reads that casino revenues were up in, say, Indiana<\/strong>, despite lower foot traffic, you’ve got to wonder how its done. Applied Analysis<\/strong> has the answer: Slot holds are at “all-time highs,”<\/a> meaning that some of the economic recovery we’ve been seeing is artificially \"Parx<\/a>generated. The study was commissioned by the\u00a0Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers<\/strong>, who are to be commended for essentially blowing the whistle on themselves<\/a>. Except for Florida<\/strong>‘s drop from 9.5% to 6% hold, most states have seen 6%\u00a0increases in hold since 2007, even as actual slot play fell by double-digit amounts.<\/p>\n

Applied Analysis takes issue with Wall Street<\/strong> pundits on the subject of recent comebacks, saying, “a rising hold percentage has not translated into incremental gaming revenue for operators during the post-recession era.\u00a0In fact, they very \"slots\"<\/a>well may be contributing to its decline.\u201d Besides, blowing through a player’s budget faster diminishes that Holy Grail of slot play, time on device. Casino expert Frank Legato<\/strong> describes slot floors as being in “an unprecedented funk,” though he doesn’t place\u00a0the blame just on holds, though he does cite a\u00a0Buckingham Research Group<\/strong> study that came to the same conclusion Applied Analysis did.<\/p>\n

According to a Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> boffin, “we\u2019re looking for an entertainment experience for the guest that will allow them to have the right play experience and allow us to meet our budgeted numbers. It\u2019s a balancing act …”<\/p>\n

The Buckingham report says the slot industry is suffering from a depressed replacement cycle and a cutback on participation games<\/a> (as when Caesars conducted a purge of Wheel of Fortune<\/em> machines). \"AC<\/a>Increased game speeds and tight penny slots were also held to blame.\u00a0\u201cThe net effect is that it doesn\u2019t matter what anyone says or does\u2014if you have a higher-hold game, the player will lose quicker,” WMS<\/strong> design chief\u00a0Allon Englman<\/strong> told Legato, “\u201cAnd eventually, you will notice it. You may not notice it from one game to another, but you\u2019ll notice it if you have to drive an hour to a casino and you play 30 percent less over the course of a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legato’s own conclusion was that slots faced “a perfect storm of changing game style, faster play, increasing minimum wagers, free \"Slot<\/a>play replacing cash coupons and yes, the economy.” The rise of social gaming in lieu<\/em> of slot play was also noted. The rise of free play as a marketing incentive tightened the screws on slot-floor managers still further, as they had to compensate for those promotional allowances. And with machines having gone from eight spins a minute to 17, the tighter-slot effect is bound to be felt sooner and more sharply. However, monthly casino revenue reports from the field suggest that (with the notable exception of Atlantic City<\/strong>), consumers don’t mind.<\/p>\n

* The Las Vegas Club<\/strong> went out with a whimper<\/a> last night. One player told Vegas Inc<\/em>. that\u00a0\u201cThe employees here made the place.\u00a0The more time went on, the more appreciative they were of the people who still came here,” perhaps because there were so few of them. New owner Derek Stevens<\/strong> is taking his time to evaluate his options for the building, which will no longer be called the Vegas Club, and — with his own Golden Gate<\/strong> casino directly across the street, he may well not want to go into competition with himself.<\/p>\n

* On a happier note, Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> celebrated its first anniversary, a tumultuous period that saw the casino briefly closed due to race riots in downtown Baltimore<\/strong> (though not as strange a spectacle as the Florida Marlins<\/strong><\/del>\u00a0 Baltimore Orioles<\/strong> playing a game before a completely \"Horseshoe<\/a>empty stadium). It’s been a rough first year, one that saw fistfights in the casino, that weeklong curfew and a three-month recovery period. However, Horseshoe is to be commended for continuing to pay employees while the casino-hotel<\/del> was closed and for not using Baltimore’s troubles as an excuse to sack employees en masse<\/em>. There has been some deflation of the workforce since Horseshoe Baltimore opened, but new casinos always over-hire at the beginning and weed out the superfluous employees as business stabilizes. Were Horseshoe to live up to its projections, it would have to lay on more workers, which is a nice thought for the day.<\/p>\n

* The transition of the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> to Penn National Gaming<\/strong> is a done deal<\/a>. Penn CEO Tom Wilmott<\/strong> told the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> that “many of our customers come to Las Vegas<\/strong> today and are staying at our competitors.\u201d So Step One will be to install Penn’s loyalty program. Although all the Trop rooms were refreshed five\u00a0years back<\/a>, Penn is promising additional upgrades over the long term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When one reads that casino revenues were up in, say, Indiana, despite lower foot traffic, you’ve got to wonder how its done. Applied Analysis has the answer: Slot holds are at “all-time highs,” meaning that some of the economic recovery … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,23,113,155,51,14,7,68,72,69,25,47,8,9,38,89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16614"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16620,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16614\/revisions\/16620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}