Last month I wrote an opinion piece about whether or not players can “feel” if you’ve tightened your slots. It didn’t set any records for hits, but it did prompt a high number of comments on both CDC Gaming and LinkedIn.
Not a single response disagreed with my argument that players CAN feel that you’ve tightened your machines. While I’m sure there are dissenters, it’s not surprising that we didn’t hear from them since it is not a good look to boast on a public forum that you increased your quarterly revenue by gouging your players.
I chose five, from the dozens of comments received, to repost. Their remarks were unsolicited, but I did get their prior permission to reprint them:
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Brooke Dunn (Retired cassino marketing and gaming supplier executive)
Brooke Dunn here. Yes, I’m retired from the business. That doesn’t mean that I still don’t know things.
I read your article about if players can figure out if the casino has tightened games. Of course they can. Why? Here’s why:
- Slot Personnel Can’t Keep Secrets – Trust me, slot players get an earful from the slot employees. Those on the floor actually complain to the slot players that they are paying off less jackpots (and thus their tips are down) and they hear from their friends and customers, “I just don’t seem to win any more”. Slot mechanics are the worst. They tell people, be it friends or casino patrons, that they just updated some “conversions” to a higher hold percentage. I’ve been told by casino employees all sorts of information regarding individual casino operations from slot mechanics or other personnel when I am playing.
- W2Gs – Players compare this year’s accumulation of W2Gs with previous years and you guessed it, they have less. They know how much they played and/or lost over the same time frame, but alas, fewer forms collected.
- Slot Points – Players notice that they are accumulating far less points yet playing at the same level they always have. If you took a flight from Reno to San Diego in 2025 and got 500 miles, then fly in 2026 and got 450 miles – do you think you would notice?
- Time on Device – Talk to slot players. You will hear a recurring comment, “I sure don’t play as much as I used to”. Don’t tell me they don’t realize how short their evening out has become. They know it, and they know why. The machines take their money faster. Of course, this is accomplished by three factors: Shorter spin cycles, higher wagers and higher house advantage (tighter).
Another factor that isn’t discussed, the 4- or 5-level progressives. With 2% (sometimes more) of the handle going to the meters, the losing patrons are playing a 2% higher hold game. Let’s say the game is set at 90%, add the progressives, and it plays at 88%.
There is another item no one discusses: The Bonus Feature accounts for about 40% of the payout. Thus, if a player doesn’t trigger the Bonus, he/she is playing at an incredible house advantage of 46%.
The Government fools lottery players by saying the game pays out 50%. Sure it does, but most of that 50% goes to one winner. Thus, everyone else is playing a 99% hold game. They can’t tighten the game, so they just raised the price of the tickets. How’s that doing for them? Lottery sales are down.
I support your position and let’s hope an operator or two take what you are saying to heart before it is too late.
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Robert Allen (Long-time slot executive, principal at Winning Edge Gaming, and 2024 Slot Operations Hall of Fame inductee)
Thank you, Buddy, for not letting go of this topic.
For many properties that rely on repeat visitation, the entertainment value they offer to players in the form of time on the game truly matters. A fundamental truth that every slot operator knows is that slot players want to play. And they will ultimately, through that, lose their money. So, the real question for operators is – how quickly do you want to take their money?
Markets differ of course and so does the degree of slot floor utilization. I do applaud those properties that have demonstrated that they understand the imperative to provide value to their slot players. Through that they have acknowledged the importance of taking a longer-term business approach to building truly sustainable gaming operations.
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Dennis Conrad (Long-time casino marketing executive, consultant and gaming author, president emeritus of Raving Consulting)
Buddy, you’re right on this, and you’ve always been right. Don’t get off your soapbox!
Anything I write in a public forum you can use any time! Especially when you use those remarks to rebut the short-sighted and greedy trying to justify stealing from players the thing they value the most—time in action.
And by the way, a REAL study on this topic should involve measuring frequent players for an extended period of time at a casino that has significantly tightened ALL of their games, then comparing the changes in their play. Would anyone suggest it would remain the same???
This all helps me understand why the best embezzlers steal slowly, almost imperceptibly, over time. Until they get busted.
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Drew Pawlak (VP & GM of Latin American Operations for AGS)
Reposting this because Buddy Frank, the living legend, confirms something we’ve agreed on for years: players feel the hold, even when the researchers say they can’t. Sorry Tony.
Look at the split. Strip properties that tightened hardest (Caesars & MGM properties) landed on the “unlucky” list in a new Casino.com survey. South Point, Palms, and Yaamava’, properties that held the line on value, ranked as the luckiest in the country. I bet Rampart Casino makes that list next year. These guys get it.
Then the kicker: Reno grew slot revenue faster than the entire Las Vegas Strip in 2025. Washoe County up 5.7%. The Strip up 1%. The “little city” beat the big one.
Here’s my theory. Wall Street shows up, and suddenly every department gets graded (and bonused) on best-in-class yield, quarter over quarter. Problem is, vice industries can’t attract the really patient money, pension funds, sovereign wealth, so we rebrand. We’re not a casino anymore, we’re “entertainment.” We’re “hospitality.” We’re the “fun economy.” Say it enough times and maybe nobody notices we’re still just gambling for a living.
And somewhere in the delusional rebrand, we lose the plot. What’s left looks like a casino. It just forgot how to act like one.
Slot hold isn’t just a quarterly printout. It’s what the players experience. A fair hold gets you a twenty-year relationship with the player. And for them, a commitment to the property, the front desk, the porter, the host, the bartender. It used to include the valet, the change lady, and the concierge, but Wall Street got rid of those somewhere along the way. Roll a player on a strong double-digit hold and you get some visits, and a spot on the bad list.
I’ve worked public, private, and private equity owned, so I’ve seen all sides of this from the inside at the table. My honest take: no part of this industry should be public, operators or suppliers. Public markets force 90-day decisions onto a business that only works as a long game. Neither side of this business works that way. For as smart as Wall Street analysts are, they still don’t know this. And Wall Street analysts have no business running the table.
Value isn’t a marketing line. It’s the whole business model.
And don’t even get me started on the REITs.
Fred David (Former slot director, gaming performance & strategy executive)
Industry icon Buddy Frank recently wrote an article titled: Can Players Tell You’ve Tightened Your Slots? Buddy explores how players perceive luck, drawing on visitor reviews from TripAdvisor. It’s a must-read for anyone in the casino industry.
When discussing higher slot hold, I think two ideas can both be true:
1. Tighter slot machines generate more revenue.
2. Players who feel unlucky are less likely to return.
When a slot machine is tightened, either the frequency of wins decreases, the value of wins decreases, or some combination of both.
Players can’t identify those changes on any individual spin.
You don’t know that a losing spin would have been a winner on a looser game, or that a small win might have paid more.
What players do notice is how they feel.
On tighter machines, more players experience fewer winning moments and fewer meaningful wins. That shapes their perception of luck.
For destination markets like the Las Vegas Strip, that may not be a significant concern. Las Vegas benefits from a constant stream of new visitors and can often replace returning guests with first-time ones. But the long-term health of the industry may be a different story.
When I was younger, Las Vegas was known as a value destination.
That reputation surely helped propel the city to what it is today.
If value continues to give way to luxury, what does that mean for the future—not just for Las Vegas, but for the broader casino industry?
The question isn’t whether tighter machines make more money.
The question is whether that additional revenue outweighs the long-term cost of making more guests feel unlucky.
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End note
Many thanks to all above for permitting me to grab their comments. Most (including me) agree with the conclusions of Dr. Anthony Lucas and Dr. Katherine Spilde that no single player can detect a change in slot machine hold percentages in any individual session or perhaps even some multiple sessions1 (you can, and should, Google the original research these two academics did on the subject).
Likewise, I’m sure everyone knows that you can be quickly wiped out playing the world’s loosest machine and become a multi-millionaire playing one of the tightest.
But…just because you can get away with it, should you? If a version of the Golden Rule is good enough for almost every religion on earth, why should your casino be exempt? ‘Nuff said!
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1 – Video poker is the lone exception where players can instantly see hold changes since they are listed clearly on the paytable.
