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Why Are Some Casinos Removing Slots?

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Reasons why casinos are removing slots
Reasons why casinos are removing slots for players beyond maths
Reasons why casinos are removing slots
Reasons why casinos are removing slots for players beyond maths

Reasons why casinos are removing slots for players beyond maths. While operators are motivated by financial gains, there are also many other factors to consider when choosing to hold on to games. 

Have you ever been disappointed to discover that a slot you love has disappeared? 

This might seem strange if it always seemed to be popular among other players, so what are the reasons for this happening?

Some Slots Lose Money

One of the main reasons why a slot machine disappears is simply because it doesn’t earn the casino enough money to justify keeping it there. In theory, the house edge should always see the casino come out ahead, but this can go wrong.

For example, the house edge is worked out on millions of spins. But what if the slot isn’t popular enough to get that many games played on it? If a few massive wins are claimed by relatively few players, this can skew the numbers for a long time.

In fact, in some way, we could say that the math suggests that fewer slots make it easier for a casino to control the amount that it earns. Let’s imagine that a casino has 100 slots and they get 100,000 spins played on them each day.

Reasons why casinos are removing slots
Reasons why casinos are removing slots is more than just optimizing for house odds.

Those spins won’t be spread out evenly over all of the machines, but for the purpose of this calculation, we’ll say that they are. So, each machine gets 1,00 spins a day, which isn’t a huge amount in terms of trying to get the house edge just right.

But this could be made easier with fewer slots. If they have just ten slots getting 10,000 spins each, then that would theoretically make each slot get closer to the house edge due to the law of large numbers. 

Indeed, studies have shown that casinos typically make more money when they have fewer slot machines that players can choose from. From their point of view, removing more of them would make good financial sense.

Yet, they need to strike a balance that suits everyone, as players prefer to see a good selection of games that they can choose from. So they keep more slots than would be ideal from an economic point of view, but they know that the option is there to strip some away if they need to boost revenue in the future. 

Some Other Reasons

Or maybe they get offered a set of new slots that have better technology or are more attractive, so they think that these machines will bring in bigger profits. You might not see why it’s been removed, but you can be almost certain that there is a solid reason for it.

Another possibility is that the casino no longer has an agreement with the slots developer. This is easier to see in online casinos, like with Bovada’s slots, where you can see a list of the developers they use. The idea is generally to add more over time, but the operator might decide to remove a software company for one reason or another.

The theme might also have gone out of fashion. For instance, a lot of big slots have been based on popular movies like Jurassic Park and Terminator, but there may come a point when players aren’t really as interested in these movies as they once were.

We should bear in mind that older machines may be more expensive to keep in good working order. In some cases, getting spare parts or finding a technician who fully understands it might be more trouble than its worth.  

There are other reasons that might not be immediately obvious to a visitor. What if the owners don’t like the impression that a row of empty slot machines gives? They might prefer to make the place look busier by having the same number of people using fewer machines.

This could create a feeling of anticipation, as people need to wait for the slot they want to play. They might also want to use the physical space for other games that are more profitable or that regular visitors have asked for.

With online slots, there are no such limitations on physical space. However, they might like the idea of having a tighter, better selected group of games that players can choose from, rather than having to go through a big, unfocussed collection of slots.   

There’s also a feeling that land slots have a slightly outdated feel for younger players, who look for something fresher and more interesting. It can’t be denied that land-based slots can’t keep up with the speed with which online slots can be updated and new features added.

Summary

If a slot machine disappears from a casino you can be sure that the decision wasn’t taken lightly. Casinos put a huge amount of effort into understanding how popular each part of their operation is and how much money it makes.

The main reason for removing a slot machine is financial, but this isn’t the only reason for taking this action.

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