Atlantic City Casino Going Back To Ike Dollars

[markhart]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-coin-slot-machines,0,3363570.story

[jdkmunch]

They need to do something......

Atlantic city is a ghost town.

[jay]

Can you say COIN CUPS !!!!!!

These are becoming rarer...

[StatFreak]

Here is the article:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-coin-slot-machines,0,3363570.story


The clack is back! Atlantic City's oldest casino bringing back coin slot machines

WAYNE PARRY | Associated Press Writer
2:24 PM EDT, April 3, 2009



Eisenhower dollar coin winnings sit in the tray of one of Resorts Atlantic City's new dollar- coin slot machines on Wednesday, April 1, 2009, the machines first day of play in Atlantic City, N.J. Over the past decade, new electronic slot machines that spit out paper voucher slips to winners, or credit winnings directly to a player's club card, have made coin machines nearly extinct. Now Restorts, Atlantic City's oldest casino — with one of its oldest customer bases — has brought back coin slots. (AP Photo/Curt Hudson) (Curt Hudson, AP / April 1, 2009)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — It used to be the signature sound of gambling: the clacking of coins spilling into metal trays on slot machines. But newer electronic machines that spit paper vouchers or credit winnings to cards now emit only canned noise.

Now Atlantic City's oldest casino is bringing back the real clang amid indications that some gamblers miss the way things used to be.

"You think you're playing a real slot machine here," said Jeanette Snell of Union, who won two $25 jackpots less than five minutes after she started playing Friday at Resorts Atlantic City. "This feels like a game; the other ones, it's just losing money."

She cashed out soon afterward, enjoying the clacking sound as 47 $1 coins spilled into a metal tray at the bottom of her machine. She grabbed an oversized plastic cup — they used to be EVERYWHERE in Atlantic City casinos — and scooped up her winnings.

"This is real money!" she said. "I like this better."

Resorts is banking on others liking it, too. It became the nation's first legal casino outside Las Vegas when it opened in 1978 and has since seen more than 14,000 slot machines come and go.

Its coin experiment is definitely swimming against the tide in the casino industry, where nearly 90 percent of the 900,000 or so slot machines in use in north America do not accept or pay out in coins. None of Atlantic City's 33,010 other slot machines use coins, though a small handful use tokens for high-denomination bets.

The trend accelerated in 2003 when the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa opened in Atlantic City as the resort's first coinless casino. Casinos liked the fact that the new machines didn't jam nearly as often, had to be maintained far less, and best of all, required fewer employees. No longer was it necessary to pay workers to stock machines with coins, transport them to or from cash cages, count and roll them.

"It's very time-consuming and costly to run coins," said Christopher Downey, Resorts' director of slot operations. "As soon as this technology became available, the industry grabbed onto it."

Resorts opened eight of the coin machines this week, and will add others if they catch on. The casino, with one of the oldest customer bases in Atlantic City, has been doing well with a nightclub called "Boogie Nights," where '70s disco rules.

They used the "Boogie Nights" retro theme for the slot machines as part of a deliberate appeal to older players.

Some of them gamble at the Skyline Restaurant and Casino in Henderson, Nev., where half of the 420 slot machines use coins. Those machines generate about 15 percent more revenue than do the paper voucher ones, said general manager Mike Young.

"It fills a niche, particularly for the older player," he said. "They just love the coins. They like to get their hands dirty, they like to cash out, they like to hear the money drop into the trays."

Nonetheless, coinless slots are the future of the industry, said Ed Rogich, vice president of IGT, a leading slot machine manufacturer.

"There was that casual player who liked the sound of the coins and being able to handle them and the sound of hearing the coins clinking into the tray," he said. "But today that's been replaced by flat-screen TV panels or LCD panels of fireworks and celebratory noises, and people like that, too."

[uniman]

"Nonetheless, coinless slots are the future of the industry, said Ed Rogich, vice president of IGT, a leading slot machine manufacturer."

Unfortunately Ed is right. People want that instant gratification, especially the younger crowd. Casinos want it as automated as it can get.

Coin trays and handles disappearing too!

Nice to see the old way still hanging on. Main reason I have slots of my own is to play coin instead of paper. 

[jay]

Uni - I am with you there......
I can't see why they can't have both the displays, other sounds and the coins......

I can see how a 60 line, 20 coin per line penny slot would be impractical..... thats 1200 pennys ... 24 rolls of coin .... practically a full hopper load ....

A long time ago casinos figured out that they need to increase the speed of play.... dealers have a quota of so many hands per hour.... they use 8 deck shoes instead of 10 to minimize shuffle times.... shuffle machines have replaced manual shuffles.
Tables have been squeezed to have 10 spots instead of 8. Bet minimums have increased, side bets (7's, Lucky Ladies, Pairs)  have increased in popularity with the casinos.

So having an old lady stand in front of a machine for an hour plugging in pennys for a single bet isn't going to happen....

A Harrahs floor manager was once quoted as saying he would never have a Penny Machine on his floor as it cheapened up the place"..."They only appeal to retirees who take up two parking spots with their motor homes"
... basically he never expected to have a penny machine generating $12.00 a pull and was speaking of the 1 to 5 coin (5c max bet) machines of our generation.

A penny denomination in this case is really a physiological ploy vs a 2 token $5.00 slot which can be found in the high roller area.
I am sure the casino would rather have an army of tea-todling grannys who drive up in their 500k motor homes playing penny slots than some loud mouth in the high roller area bitching that the drink service isn't fast enough.

The other trend that is unspoken is that machines are expected to get smaller and this will entail the loss of the slot arm. I think there was a study done and only 25% of slot players actually used the arm and only about 2% of those used it consistently.
The majority of the people who used the slot arm reportedly did so just to change up their luck or used it on their last bet before walking away. Smaller machines = more machines per square foot.  Personally I would think that the machines have to be spaced so that I can properlly stand in front of the machine without bumping elbows with the player next to me. Given the expanding girth of the American Ass... you would think that machines would be getting wider.

For me a 3 reel Quarter machine with a bit of nudge action is my comfortable place. I can probably pound the quarters in fast enough to suit the casino, and I dont seem to go through as much money as the dollar slots.  Yes I am a dinosaur.

I have always wondered if the pay - 2 - play concept would work. You setup a slot room with say 50 machines and a couple of tables.
They pay $20.00 as an entrance fee, but get to play on machines with 98% payback, 2 or 3 cocktails waitresses working the room for some decent drink service, and perhaps they issue the ladies a big hat (think the 30's) and men something like a Fedora. You get some lively jazz going. The casino would really make their money on the entrance fee, and perhaps volume. Set them up as big heavy dollar slots... You would need the room small enough that the cowded space had the "club" kind of feel but between the bells from frequent pays,  and coins and such. I think the concept may be a winner.... You could probably put in some spin off businesses selling 30's memoribilia, old-photos where they dress you up like Al Capone and take your picture with a saloon girl or two, perhaps a suit shop with some of those blues brothers styled suits or pint sripes, wide ties. I bet in a month you would have people dressing the part and making a night of it at the gin-joint.

Vegas is doing some of this now but they are doing the pool scene at night. They charge $50 cover and only let the beautiful people in.  The $200 cabannas in the afternoon that include bottle service (extra) and plasma tvs are a bit too pretentious. I could see this working if I was down with say 10 friends and we were hanging out all day and partying... I think they would get more atraction if they created the Tiki scene, let fat guys in with loud hawian shirts (who have money) and staff it in bikini clad hotties. Sort of like the hooters concept but with perhaps a bit more blatentcy..... and do it outdoors with tiki torchs, coconut drinks, and bongo music.

[brichter]

Jay, those are some excellent marketing ideas there. I especially like the 30s theme, there are a lot of adults that really go for the Halloween and costume parties (I should know, I've been known to trick or treat as recently as last October!)

[StatFreak]

I agree with Bill, Jay. Those are very good ideas, and I also agree that the pay to play idea is probably the best pitch, especially with music and excellent service. I'd put lots of drink servers in there, and by having a theme that can be expanded to include the neighboring floor space with a themed gift shop, etc. that would give them a complete attraction package to advertise.

In a way, they tried this at the Star Trek Experience. The problem there was that the Spacequest casino was outside the ST Exp and they never put any real entertainment in the casino. Still, that small casino was very popular for a while. Once they moved out the unique slots and started redoing it to look like any other casino, business dropped off. I think that if they had the slots inside the Experience area, and perhaps in the tabletops at Quarks bar & grille they might have made more money.

It would be interesting to do some marketing research to see if dollar slot players would be willing to pay a flat fee to be able to play higher paying slots. I'd consider going to 99%.

... Given the expanding girth of the American Ass... you would think that machines would be getting wider.
...

[Op-Bell]

Nonetheless, coinless slots are the future of the industry, said Ed Rogich, vice president of IGT, a leading slot machine manufacturer.

Well he would, wouldn't he. The royalty on IGT's TITO patent is $1200 per machine per year. If the "90% of 900,000" was right (I think it's less) and IGT had half the coinless market (I think it's more), that would be about half a billion a year. Their 2008 annual report shows gross revenues of $2.52 billion, 17% of which came from "network systems and licensing" - that would be about, hmm, $430 million. Not a bad return for a patent they bought for $33 million - what, you didn't think they actually invented something themselves, did you?

[brichter]

what, you didn't think they actually invented something themselves, did you?

When you get big, acquisitions and mergers seem to be the way to go, whether its the whole company or just the IP. The company I work for is famous for it.

[FOXSSLOTS1]

Ike dollars? like to know where the casino is getting them from - unless they had them in their vaults all this time.  Since the Fed stopped dealing with these old coins in favor of those oh so popular SBAs  they can't be getting them thru the banks.  If the casino is working with IKEs would be a great investment for us "SLOTERS" to grab as many of those coins rather than pay the 35c each for TOKENS.  You guys in AC - heres a money deal in the making.

[Op-Bell]

When you get big, acquisitions and mergers seem to be the way to go

I was unfair to them - it's not true that they haven't invented anything themselves. They came up with a brilliant idea for using an electric fan to cool electronic equipment, for which they were granted a patent in 2001. Seriously.

[stayouttadabunker]

The thing I've noticed about S+'s,  by working with them is,  all the parts seems to be from somewhere else really.
It would be amazing to see what percentage of an S+ is actually made in the USA....lol

[jay]

Fox,

The Dominican Peso is about the size of a quarter. 35 pesos to $1.00
Much better than 35c per token.

Of course they are not dollar sized.

[blueridgeslots]

See below, this is what he means, they are worth more than a dollar in the market, usually 14-35% more, but here were the first ones I found

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310127994283&ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX&refitem=270364830649&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget&_trksid=p284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%252BP%252BS%252BIA%26itu%3DIA%252BUCI%252BUA%26otn%3D4%26ps%3D10

[jay]

Well i like those odds.... put in 100, cash out with IKEs make 35%. HOPPER FILL please.

I guess proof is in the pudden.... it will be interesting to see what the AC casinos use. I suspect this might have just been a matter of sloppy journilism.

[StatFreak]

http://www.brokencc.com/bulkdollars.php

They have been selling IKEs for years. $1.27-$1.37, depending on quantity. Look halfway down the page under "Nice Circulated Eisenhower Dollars"

[rickhunter]

I get the feeling they are tokens. The last time I was in Vegas when coins where used (late 2001), all casino's used tokens.  I think the last time I saw IKE's on machines was sometime in the late 80's. (I did have a long void in the early 90's going to Vegas).

[StatFreak]

I don't even remember ever seeing Ike dollars in casinos  -- too young I guess. But I did gamble in the mid 80's, so maybe it's a combination of being too young and too old (CRS).

[Ron (r273)]

We were at the Fitz inTunica a couple of weeks ago and they had a few dollar token machines.
Tried to pay them but they were always busy.

Ron

[StatFreak]

We were at the Fitz inTunica a couple of weeks ago and they had a few dollar token machines.
Tried to pay them but they were always busy.

Ron

I would think that that was a good sign.

[rickhunter]

We were at the Fitz inTunica a couple of weeks ago and they had a few dollar token machines.
Tried to pay them but they were always busy.

Ron

I would think that that was a good sign.

I agree, hopper based games get played a lot.  Hint, hint, to casino slot managers.

[Billythekid]

Circus Circus has a section of 1$ machines as well as some old old bally e series machines and they are full!!! those machines look so warn out!!!!! Fitz  on fremont street has S+'s upstairs running quarters...

[steelcitykid]

Going to Vegas 8/10-8/13. So Fitzgeralds and Circus Circus have coins dropping? I'm there!!!!! Anyone know of anymore? I miss the clunkin'. I think of all the jobs that were lost. I did like the option of playing credits, then cashin' with a clunk. Also miss the red racks of dollar tokens. I live in Pittsburgh, and casino's are just getting off to the races. TOO MANY 20 LINERS!!!!!!!! Looks like a Pachislo arcade. Table games are imminent, now casino operators can contribute to political funds. West Virginia casinos are getting nervous!!! Payoffs are few and far between. When they are, bigger jackpots. Just like Atlantic City. Drinks are 3-5 dollars. They tell you state law prohibits complimentary cocktails. So when I tell the waitress, " why don't they give them away for a quarter?", they laugh. Told them that in Mountaineer, Wheeling, Niagra Falls and Rising Sun, In. too. I'll be at Caesars, do they have any 4-line poker machines? I know Vegas is hurting too, is it a ghost town also? Can't wait to get there!!!!!!

[dpalmi]

There is always Slots-A-Fun next door to Circus Circus - they have lots of coin-in machines, 50 cent roulette....and one hell of a hot dog!

Dan #2

(I love posting that pic whenever I get the chance...lol)