Wave a Slow Goodbye to Coin Based Slots

When you think of a casino based slot machine you likely think of inserting coins in hopes you will win. This has been true, coin-based slots have continued to dominate casinos, until recently. Now, there are very few coin-operated slots found on Las Vegas gaming floors. The LA Times reports that of Vegas’ $50.5 billion in slots revenue last year, less than 3% of it came from coin-based games. At the last Global Gaming Expo, the gaming industry’s largest convention, you didn’t see even one coin-operated machine on the floor. This is surely a sign that coin based slots are dying out. There are a number of upcoming trends of the future, including lotto, fantasy football, and sports bets but coin operated slot machines just don’t make the grade anymore. There are folks that enjoy these older slot machines and prefer to use coins but that market is getting smaller every year. Besides a declining player base, coin-operated slot machines are also becoming extinct because they’re less convenient for casinos. The truth is that coin-operated machines just can’t keep up with the volume of money that casinos deal with. And because casinos don’t want millions of dollars sitting in the bellies of slot machines for days, it’s so much easier to use TITO slots, according to Mark Yoseloff, director of the Center for Gaming Innovation at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Yoseloff went on to explain, “Machines today will get maybe 500 spins an hour or more, whereas in the old days, you were lucky to get 200 to 300 spins per hour. It almost doubled the velocity of money.” So, while there is a definite sense of nostalgia for many who rely on the coin based slots, it appears they truly are on their way out. The new rave will be TITO (ticket in-ticket out).