\nCasinos chase away customers with a combination of tight slot machines and too much free play for the wrong bettors, two gambling consultants say.
\n\t\u201cThe fundamental gaming experience is starting to change,\u201d says Andrew Klebanow, a partner with Gaming Market Advisors, a Las Vegas company that offers independent analysis of all facets of the gambling industry. \u201cWe think we’re hitting a tipping point now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSlot payout rates are falling at casinos throughout the country, he says, and that leads players to visit less often.<\/p>\n
\tSteve Gallaway, another partner in Gaming Market Advisors, is more blunt:
\n\t\u201cCasinos are issuing too much free play,\u201d he says from the company’s Denver office. \u201cMy theory is that it’s getting harder and harder for casinos to attract new customers. You go to the casino, you lose your money much more quickly than you would have traditionally pre-free play, you have a lousy experience, and you don’t return.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tTwo years ago, Klebanow declared players and casinos were in the \u201cgolden age of free play.\u201d Casinos entice customers to return month after month by loading slot machine credits onto player’s club cards. Gamblers can’t cash out the free play itself. They run it through a machine and have the option of taking or playing their winnings.<\/p>\n
\tFree play offers advantages for players and casinos alike. For players, it’s almost the same as free money. Casinos are not taxed on free play in Pennsylvania and some other states, making it an attractive marketing tool.
\n\tMultiple factors combined to tarnish the golden age, according to Klebanow and Gallaway:
\n\t\u2022 Slot payout rates are falling nationwide as casinos and players flock to \u201cpenny machines\u201d that use one-cent credits but encourage spending multiple credits per spin.
\n\t\u2022 To make slot machines more entertaining, manufacturers have added bonus rounds, videos, musical tracks and other attractions. That increases the amount of time to learn the result of each spin, leading casinos to increase the house edge.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 Manufacturers design machines that reward players frequently with small payoffs. If you bet 100 credits per spin and win 60, then 20, then 80, the payoffs give the illusion of winning even though you’ve lost overall.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 Players sense the reduced payout rate, and casinos find themselves needing to offer an incentive for them to return. \u201cThey do so with free play,\u201d Klebanow says.<\/p>\n
\tThe problem, the consultants say, is that most casinos base free-play offers on \u201ctheoretical win\u201d \u2014 how much the casino expects to win based on a player’s total wagers and the house edge. The wagers include how much money the player puts into the machine and winnings played. In Pennsylvania, the casino’s overall \u201ctheo\u201d for slots is about 10 percent of wagers; it could be higher for some machines.<\/p>\n
\tGallaway says that approach ignores people who lose their stake quickly. For example, a player who loses his $100 budget in less than an hour is down the whole $100, but the casino’s theoretical win for the time he played is closer to $10 or $15. That’s too low to qualify for free play, and he’s less likely to return. \u201cIt’s very easy to under-reward your most valuable players,\u201d Gallaway says.<\/p>\n
\tGallaway says that despite player superstitions, slot machines can’t tell the difference between a free-play credit and a cash credit. Players have an equal chance of winning with either. No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Casinos chase away customers with a combination of tight slot machines and too much free play for the wrong bettors, two gambling consultants say. \u201cThe fundamental gaming experience is starting to change,\u201d says Andrew Klebanow, a partner with Gaming Market…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tMike Shackleford, the brains behind the gambling strategy website http:\/\/www.WizardOfOdds.com<\/a>, says the optimum way to spend free play is at a video-poker machine with the best pay schedule available. Video poker, with proper strategy, offers payout rates of 97 percent or better in Pennsylvania, compared with 90 percent or less on traditional slots.<\/p>\n
\nReplies:<\/h3>\n