Today’s question was originally addressed to Brian, but we actually want to hear from you, while sharing our thoughts on the question:
Do you find it increasingly off-putting when the newest slots offer smaller and smaller line hits, more and more dead spins, and a reliance on hitting a bonus with greater and greater difficulty that more often than not is underwhelming??? (Afraid that’s what I’m experiencing with the latest slots).
Phil L.
What you’re experiencing is pretty much true. Slots are more volatile than they used to be, so this tends to mean various changes that can make it tougher to ride out the droughts:
- Higher betting requirements
- Less frequent bonuses (but more bonus potential if the stars align)
- Lower paying line hits
- Games with multiple features
- Games with multiple upgrades to a single feature (such as triple pot games, where the best winning chances is the really hard to reach triple bonus)
Take the triple pot games as an example. Talking with various manufacturers during the recent Global Gaming Expo, a triple pot bonus could be anywhere from once every 1200 to 2000 spins, depending on the game and how tough it is. And even when that’s the most potential, it can be underwhelming – see this triple pot bonus example that barely broke 50x.
During a recent casino trip we sat down at a machine and within minutes got a 150x bonus. We moved to another machine, and a couple minutes later got a 200x bonus. We were hundreds of dollars up in just a couple of minutes. Our editor also shared the recent example of winning two majors on $1 or less bets within a week.
But a similar session removing just those two bonuses could find us hundreds of dollars behind without too much time in the casino.
The wilder swings are what we’re experiencing. We are hearing from players, and seeing comments online, that players think it’s the casino cutting back payouts. Instead, it’s less players winning more, and more players losing overall, because of how the volatility redistributes the payouts.
There’s a lot of talk about how Vegas visitation is down, but gaming wins are up. A lot of talk is about the economy and lower budget players skipping Vegas. We think it’s more than possible that those with lower budgets have just realized that the swings are too wild to make a trip like that fun, because money can run out long before the trip does.
Some players are shifting play to local casinos – that also tracks because at least if you run out of money and you’re 20 minutes from home, it’s easier to bail than when you’re on a long weekend away from home.
So we want to know from you – do you like how the newer slots play, or are you finding the swings too uncomfortable or fun to want to play? What do you do to take the edge off?
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