When you spend as much time playing with slots as we do, you start to see certain things. Today’s question comes from someone who is dealing with something one of our local casinos has had a weird issue with for some time:
Why after many years playing the same slot games at the same casino, why does the service window open every time I hit a bonus? The service window does not close until the bonus spins end. Even when I manually push the service window, it will shut just for a second, then automatically opens again? What’s up?
Sherri
We were playing slots off hours with Brian at one point recently and pointed out how the service screen would open up when cash was inserted. It ended up not happening on the first game he played that night and pooh poohed it, only to point it out when it happened on the rest of the machines.
The slots themselves may not have changed, but the players club software that manages that service screen probably got an update at some point that on the surface looks the same, but under the hood perhaps implemented some changes. The players card systems are connected to, but separate from, the slot machines, so they can be revised or replaced within the same slot machine that otherwise has the same game.
Some players card systems are simply better designed and maintained than others. Some companies contain things to a separate screen, while others can intrude into the main slot monitor and push the slot into a smaller space on the screen to show what the players card system wants to show.
For those latter examples, sometimes the screen opens up because some special bonus is won, an important message needs to be conveyed… or it’s a bit more glitchy and opens up when you put in cash or when a wager hasn’t been made in awhile (in the case of your bonuses).
It doesn’t help that casino bonuses are getting longer, so the window of time the system is designed to wait before opening up may have made more sense in an era of shorter bonuses, but is less helpful now that bonuses are taking longer.
In your case, the setting probably got changed or updated at some point, whether during an update to the software or just revised settings after a review. If it’s getting in the way of your enjoyment, share the feedback with the players club team for them to pass back to those who have a handle on those settings.
Many casinos listen carefully to feedback and will consider changes based on things that both excite or frustrate players. This feels like it falls into that category, especially since something changed that is now making the experience a more negative one.
