Casinos adjusting odds after shutdown

Good question !
Remember after the 2008 crisis, we didn't see many change about win/loss, paradox was the 2 or 3 last years, it seemed to us that slot machines were more and more thighten everywhere we played, the last years we have just one trip/year in the USA but we stayed 30/35 days each and we played every day (hum and night...) !
What will be the casinos strategy to get people back?

Edit: TR on Vmb: "Yesterday we got destroyed on slots Downtown and at the Wynn besides from a few hits on Dragons Voyage and Planet Moolah."

It's just one case and it seems that Vegas is totally empty...

 

Yep, sure..

..

 

Considering in most states (including Nevada) it takes some sort of state gaming approval to change the payback percentages and most state governments were shut down or work from home over the past couple months, it seems unlikely that many things were changed.

It is well-known, however, that payback percentages have been trending downward for a decent number of years now.

 

The people who are going to Vegas right now are the ones that would like to keep coming back. It doesn't make sense to fleece them in one trip.

 

Harrah’s and the Cosmo did much better for today last trip then our home base Bellagio

 

Yep, this is pretty much the case. It's not something that they can just flip a switch on in a control room, but it's also true that NGCB has been running more-or-less as usual even during the shutdown; official correspondence has still been going out, and I just watched a meeting this afternoon, though it was conducted by Zoom. But I'd speculate that casinos have bigger fish to fry right now.

That's the biggest thing. There's no way anyone can get a sample size in such a short period of time (which is the ongoing problem with trying to figure out whether machines are "tighter" or "looser" based on single trips). And Vegas is definitely not that empty. Cosmo is probably far busier than it should be, but while MGM Grand, Bellagio, and NYNY weren't totally back to normal, it's also very much not a ghost town anymore.

 

This got me to thinking of the Amarillo Slim quote "You can shear a sheep many times, but skin them only once", which lead to a youtube search for the quote, but instead I went down the rabbit hole on sheep shearing videos. Makes me wonder if the casinos are in the mindset to get back as much as possible now, or promote play and wins to get more people in.

A video that shows how it feels on some nights in the casino.

 

But for most "standard" tightening/ loosening requests, I assume the NGCB signs off on it 99%+ of the time, right?

As far as VP goes, I haven't seen any significant reports of paytable changes in either direction. The most notable thing I've read is a few Station casinos removed banks near entrances for temperature checks. This is notable because many Stations casinos have a 100%+ VP bank right by the entrance and those have been (temporarily?) removed.

 

Can't speak to percentages. They do tend to be pretty deferential to the larger operators. But they truly have a fundamental focus on consumer protection and gaming propriety.

 

I did ask at the cosmo, and they told me there was no changes in the slots (but they don’t have to tell me the truth, I guess).

The one thing I did notice- they did adjust one VP machine back to normal in the high limit room. My last trip in December, the pay table appeared to be as good as you can get on the games (e.g. like ddb 10/6) on one machine, maybe someone forgot to adjust the paytables? However that’s now gone...

Clearly they adjusted all the table limits higher (no competition from Aria they told me).

 

To be fair, anyone you asked on the floor probably wasn't in a position to actually know. But yeah, it's not really worth the time to mess around with.

Interesting. On opening day it was only at $50 in HL. At MGM Grand, it was a little higher than usual this weekend, but still plenty of $25 blackjack (albeit at 6:5, 3:2 started at $50) and $15 craps.

 

I'm sure @Cosmo_Slot_Vice_President will admit that 10/6 DDB machine was a mistake. It lasted quite awhile though. I wanna say it was there since late last year.

The first 10/6 DDB glitch I played was on one bartop at Gustav's bar at Paris in 2014. It lasted months because @Royal Flusher played it as well a few months after my trip. And I was proud that my gf first noticed it because she was sitting at the machine initially. I've taught her well!

 

The 10/6 DDB game was a mistake. I run, in my opinion a casino floor that is looser than most... but I will admit I don't run games over 100% payback. That error lasted on the floor a lot longer than it should have as.
As for changing odds during the closure, I can't imagine a single casino would do that, but I can assure you we most certainly did not. Very shortsighted to just tighten up a floor.
-KS

 

Really, all a guy needs is good food, good whiskey, and a good gamble. And an excellent soundtrack.

 

Best thing I ever found was a video poker machine that gave double points if you were the right tier. Still not enough to make it a positive machine. But I’d still play to get the few extra points.

 

Are you stating that machine is currently on my floor?

 

ixnay on the double pointsay