Preference: coins or credits?

[SolidSilver]

I happen to dig the CLANG CLANG CLANG of a slot machine dumping ten bucks of quarters into the payout tray, and I really don't feel like I'm betting unless I feed solid chunks of metal into the coin slot.
But today, most all machines pay only in credits or little paper slips, and damned few will even accept an actual coin.
So naturally, since it's all they can get any more, most of the slots-for-home-use dealers "recommend" coinless slots.

OK, folks: for home gameroom machines, that you and your friends will play for fun, which do you prefer?

Real coins
or
Paper/credits?

[4 Deuces]

Hey SolidSilver, great question!  Looking forward to seeing the answers.

Personally, I switched to paper (Bettor TITO) so I could play higher denominations for longer period of time.  I also found that after a while, I never put coins in anymore, so I got rid of them.

However, I've never had a dollar-sized token machine before and I agree that nothing beats that sound.  I too like the feel of the larger coins.  I've thought about setting up a dollar-like machine, but just haven't done it.

Okay, so my official vote is "paper". 

C'mon coin fans!

:Dave

[TheAirBalancer]

I own two Game King machines. Both are set for each quarter dropped to give $25 in credit. They also can accept bills but I never use them since they only credit the machine at the bill's face value. I have both set to hand-pay only but credits in the machine rack up to $100,000. If I run out of credits or quarters I just open up the machine and scoop the coins out of the hopper. I really enjoy this set up because I can "high roll" quite easily.

[cowboygames]

All my slots are 3 reel, two or three coin max bet. All use tokens and I set the credit limits to make payouts to the coin tray a little more likely because I also like the traditional slot sounds from the pre-ticket/bill days because that's the true casino sound My Red Hottie machine is the only one with a BV and it just got a Bettor Tito upgrade with a 100 credit option on the service switch, but it still uses tokens with a split pay limit set and the BV will ONLY take tickets, no bills. Tito works great and if someone messes with the cash out button I don't spend time putting the credits back on. By the way, THANK YOU Jim at Bettor Slots for a great working, easy to install Tito board

[Styx]

I would prefer coinless, but since I'm looking into the laws of owning a machine, I'm so far finding that here where I live, I may not be allowed to own a machine if it can take currency. I'm not exactly sure how to get around that yet. Maybe it will allow Americain bills, and maybe that will be allowed. I still have so many hoops to jump through on this prospect.

-Styx

[Yoeddy1]

Mine are setup with TITO, but will accept 25 cent tokens as well.  Cashing out will payout 5 dollars worth of tokens (20 tokens) and the rest on a ticket.  I like the "clank" as well.  I've actually disabled currency on my bill acceptors.  The games will only accept tokens and tickets.

Thanks,
Jason

[tkrozleski]

All my machines use coins. Quarters, nickels, dimes, and I have some with quarter sized tokens and two machines with dollar sized casiino tokens.

My family, friends and customers I sell machines to, all like the machines that pay out with the noise of the coins. I have the older Bally EM and E series so they pay on all hits. No paper money, tickets or credits.

I like handling the Dollar Ike sized coins and the noise they make

[channelmaniac]

.984 tokens FTW!

Don't have to worry about sticky fingers and I get to hear the clang clang clang.

[uniman]

My GameKing is bills only.
But my slots are quarter, dollar, and my favorite, five dollar tokens!
The five dollar tokens make that solid CLANG when hitting the tray.
Other option with my Universal slots is to set all wins to payout immediately to the tray. 

[SolidSilver]

FIVE DOLLAR TOKENS? Wow!
I can see the headlines now: "Man crushed to death by slot machine jackpot."
...but what a way to go. I want one!

[Simple Sam]

This is one of the questions I will have to answer before I buy my first slot.  I think I want coin in/out because that is what I remember most about casinos; the sound of dropping coins.  On the other hand, I'm also concerned about adding one more point of failure and figure coinless would be more reliable.  Decisions, decisions.

[SolidSilver]

Sam, in my opinion (and it's only my opinion), you should stick with the coins for two reasons:

1. It's what you remember & enjoy, the prime reason for acquiring a slot. For instance,
if you really dig the Jaguars of our youth, why would you buy an '83 Ford Mustang?

2. The alternative to coin handling is $bill & ticket handling. Both involve electro-mechanical
devices. Coin mechs are simple and very solid, with minimal "programming" or software involved.
$bill and ticket devices involve more variations and software, and thus a bit more "mystery." If you
parse this forum, I suspect you will find more threads relating to DBV and ticket printers/acceptor problems/questions
than relating to coin machinery.

To be fair, both approaches are quite reliable, else the slot manufacturers and casinos would not
have survived. Once up & running, the two approaches are about equally reliable.

Thus, I would urge you to go with what's most enjoyable, and comfortable, for you. It sounds like
that would be coins; and I will confess it is for me as well, probably because I'm a 69-year-old fart
who remembers (as do you) the delightful noise of Solid Silver dumping into the payout tray.

(Aw, cheese! I'm about to get a poopload of flack from the younger kids now....

However, note: most slot platforms, particularly IGT S+ and S2000, were built to handle BOTH.
If you get a machine with coin hopper and  DBV/ticket printer, it will be merely a matter
of how you set it up, and what you stuff into it.

And welcome to the hobby: I'll bet a quarter that within 6 months after you install your first slot,
you'll acquire another one. It's kinda like snorting coke...

[jay]

I bought a coin rolling machine... I use tokens as I don't want any $$ shrinkage to occur and I don't want any real gambling to occur.

When I left a ton of credits on the machines, or simply placed a big bucket of coins next to the machines I found that people would play a few then move on.

If I gave them a roll of coins they would crack the roll, play until broke and then come back looking for more.

Quite the study in human behavior.... no sense of loss/risk, no sense of enjoyment.

My machines are not equipped to deal with TITO but I could see handing my friends a slip with 40 credits on it... and letting them play down..... with similar effect but providing 200 credit slips probably would be the same as the big bucket effect.

So for my 2c - it probably doesn't matter coin or slip...... but I do prefer coin.

[stayouttadabunker]

I wonder what laws solely TITO machine/s circumvents or bypasses?
No real currency is involved?

[CVslots]

I wonder what laws solely TITO machine/s circumvents or bypasses?
No real currency is involved?

Maybe we could ask the sellers on eBay (and elsewhere) who ship machines to every state in the U.S.! I'm sure they'd at least give "their" interpretation of the law, not that it's going to be legit. With the eBay clause about a machine being "easily (or is it readily ) converted to accept coin or currency" being so vague, it does get into a gray area (and pardon me for not quoting it directly, but that's the gist of it) .

Easy for who? Grandma? or a Tech?

Same goes for the laws about sellers having to comply with the laws of the state to which the machines are shipped...they (the sellers) apparently miss that part as well.

[Simple Sam]

I'm a little unclear about coins, bills and tickets.  I know that the current machines on casino floors (and available used) are bill in, ticket out which means they have a bill validator and a ticket printer but no coin handling mechanism or coin hopper.  Many of the online dealers offer, as an option, coin handling which gives you coin and bill in and coin out.  It appears that they remove the ticket printer (but leave the bill validator) when they convert to coin in/out.  Are they removing the ticket printer just so they can reduce the cost of the coin in/out option?  How much does it cost to add a ticket printer?

[rickhunter]

Depending on where you buy your ticket printer.  Between harness, printer and maybe a bracket, around $50.00  The newer IGT AVP, WMS BB2 and BB3, and Bally Alphas were never designed to handle coins, they are all TITO machines.  The S2000, BB1 can handle coin in/out.  If I was buying a machine, I'd get it with coin/in out and validator, it is easier to add a ticket printer than add al lthe coin stuff, if your machine was truly coinless.  My mother's s2000 was purchased as a TITO machine, coinless.  I had to chase down and buy all the parts to add coin-in.  After all was said and done I spent about $100 worth of parts with the shipping, my machine did not have ANY coin equipment, so I had to get every piece.

[brianfink]

I like haveing the coin handling on the machine as an option but I rarely use it. The only real drawback to coin vs. bills that I can think of is you can set BV and printer tilts to soft and machine will still function
with coin if you have an error, a hopper jam or coin in jam wont go away until you fix the problem.

[dcpyatt]

My S2000 is currently nickel coin in/out and TITO with 1/5/10/20/50/100 bill validator. 

My ProSlot 6000 is set at 10¢ but is 1/5/10/20/50/100 bill validator in. but hand pay currently.  I have the hopper and coin in parts and a printer, but have not tackled it yet. 

My Aristocrat 500MAV shells need coin in, I have the hoppers and a coin tray coming.  They will be homebrew video slots or video poker.  My Bally S5000 video poker is quarter in/out.

My arcades and pinballs are all coin... I want to hear that metal drop... in and out!

DaveP in Ohio

[bigslope]

Coin, nothing sounds better than lots hitting the tray, especially if your in a casino lol

[Foster]

For amusement game coins are good don't own any as of yet.
The S2000, I like TITO only
All currency is disabled - prevents issues with guests
I had one try to say he put $50 in my S+
The law got involved and sided with me when they realized it would not take bills and they had prior issues with him.
DBV was unplugged and disabled in settings, over 3000 credits, didn't even have locks on it either.