Regular readers by now will have become familiar with a number of non-slots machine types that have become available to casinos over the years, such as Bingo Machines, Historic Horse Racing machines, and Video Lottery Terminals. How do casinos end up with what they end up with? And are games available across types?
Do slot manufacturers make bingo and non-bingo machines of the same type/version and it’s up to the Casino to order whatever version they use? I’m pretty sure that both my locals, which are on Indian Reservations, are 100% bingo but don’t always show the bingo card on the machine.
Joy R.
Increasingly, game makers are introducing popular themes across a variety of game formats, including slot machines, Bingo Machines, and Historic Horse Racing machines, as well as some that do end up in video lottery terminal form as well. So this does create a question of which versions to place in casinos.
Sometimes, it’s what a casino is approved to have – if your casino is a tribal gaming facility without approval to have banked games and slots (known as Class III), they will have to rely on Bingo Machines, as that’s what they can offer without an agreement with the state.
Casinos that are licensed by the lottery could end up with Video Lottery Terminals or actual slots, depending on the scenario of what they allow.
Sometimes, a property can have more than machine type. This is commonplace in California, where many casinos are approved to have traditional Vegas-style slots, but sometimes supplement with Bingo Machines for a variety of reasons, such as hitting their cap of Vegas-style slots allowed in their agreement.
So that could be the scenario in this case, although we can’t know for sure without knowing the location/casino (there’s a lot of scenarios depending on where). And as far as Bingo Machines and whether they can exist without a bingo card showing, no – the whole point of them is they’re machines facilitating the play of bingo, under regulation anyway, so Bingo Machines will reference bingo somewhere.
That location can sometimes be very surreptitious – we’ve seen them way in the far corner of a tall machine, where people wouldn’t be looking, or down on the bet panel. But somewhere there’d be a reference, including in the pay tables – some manufacturers show the various bingo patterns and payouts, for instance, which can be another indicator.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
