Coinless Slots.....NOooooo !!!!!!

[monaghj]

I have been reading various posts and asked about Pashilo Cups vs token trays.

Somebody quipped that they use Vegas cups but even that will soon be a thing of the past. Horrible thoughts just went through my mind. I did a quick search and found this article. Its from 2001. The scary find was that IGT shipped 20,000 coinless to Vegas.

http://www.freep.com/news/casinos/slots11_20010711.htm

The Japanese are usually ahead in such things so does that mean our precious token machines will no longer exist.....or will we need to start adopting new equipment such as token writing units. Where would we get programable cards ?

[monaghj]

Its just not right....
http://scoblete.casinocitytimes.com/articles/14522.html
http://www.suntimes.com/output/pilar...ews-bet04.html
http://casinogambling.about.com/libr...y/aa110600.htm

[azlew]

Yep this is basically old news and has been kicked around before.

There are a few of us that will be hitting Las Vegas soon and we will report back to you on this. The last time we were there most of the slots were paper only but there were enough old coin only ones to make it tough as they didn't except the paper tickets. This time when we go we expect it to be mainly ticket in ticket out.

You bring up an very interesting point about the newer pachislos. If they don't accept tokens etc. Hmmm that could be very interesting...

[arbycoffee]

I have not read anything on tokenless Pachislos on Japanese Manf. sites. They have Card Readers for Balls & tokens next to each machine. when you turn them in for counting, that is where you trade them for items.
I dought they would go tokenless, for all the Balls & tokens are wasked & dryed before they are cycled back to the machines. That is something Vagas never did!

[azlew]

You are right on about Pachinkos arby unless they go to ball cycle closed Pachinkos with counters that either print out a ticket or use your card and update the total credit on it. Pachislos are another story altogether and the parlors could easily go modular on them and save a lot of yen in the long run but the initial parlor setup fees would be huge.

I agree that I don't think we will see this anytime soon.

[monaghj]

The way I see it.... you could easily create a machine that you simply insert your ATM card or VISA into it and the casino wouldn't even need to have their own equipment. I think this is a long ways off as the current transaction fees would kill it, and who would want to look through 200 credits/debits when they got their statements but to have a "token" card like you use at Dave&Busters or other game establishment would not be much of an investment. Just like the credit mod chip interface. Peanuts.

The alure is getting rid of all the coin mechs, tokens/coins, theft, jamming, emptying. With the slots is pretty obvious but its a different story for Pachinko.

Pachinko relies on the balls. You can't make those go away. Perhaps Video Pachinko ??
Can you just say NOooooooo

[wolfsblood]

All the native american casinos here in Wisconsin have gone coinless on all their machines, and for the nickel computer games I am very happy they did cause they only paid out up to 1500 coins, and you would have to wait to be paid, or have the hopper needing filling. These casinos are greatly understaffed, and I have had to wait an hour or more many, many times to be paid out or hopper fills so I think it's great in that respect, in my opinion.

[azlew]

Pachinko relies on the balls. You can't make those go away. Perhaps Video Pachinko ??
Can you just say NOooooooo

The vintage pachinko I used to own covered by this thread :

http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1945

had the balls(it only needed 20 balls total) all self enclosed in the case because it was/is a coin operated pachinko. You would see the balls line up to the shooter area but they were behind the glass. All of the noise from hearing them hit the pins and targets was there but you just didn't handle them. Fron what I was told it was/is an example of the first cyclic pachinko made.

It could work with modern Pachinko but us ol' pachinkers like to handle the balls

[azlew]

....so I think it's great in that respect, in my opinion.

I agree 100 percent.

But my girlfriend doesn't because what she would do is put the 20 dollar bill in and then cash out and then put the 3 quarters in and play that way. She feels it slows the game down so it can't take as much cash from her in the long run. Me I like the tickets and being able to hop around and play as many as I can until I find one that feels right plus the grime is gone !! But I hae to admit she has won a heck of alot more on slots than I probably ever will

[scooby_doo_m2002]

I agree 100 percent.

But my girlfriend doesn't because what she would do is put the 20 dollar bill in and then cash out and then put the 3 quarters in and play that way. She feels it slows the game down so it can't take as much cash from her in the long run.

Same here. I like having the tokens. I like the ching, ching sounds. The thing I have found is I go to the local river boat here, and basically go to have fun and waste time. I started with a tokenless machine once. used a 100 bill. I won some, but ended up going through that hundred in 25mins. and it was a .25 machine with .50 as a max bet. I went to the next floor and played a token in/ token out. didn't do didly on that one but $40 lasted me almost 45minutes. and it was .75 max bet.

However, on the nickle machines, I can see doing the ticket thing. get $20 worth of those suckers commin out at ya and they are all over the place plus they give me hand cramps. they are like the size of a dime.


My wife and I drove 3hours to a Ceasars river boat as part of our honey moon to check it out, Cause they were advertising over 3,000 slots. when we got there every single one was ticket only. the gosh dang things wouldn't even take bills.. You had to go to a change machine, put your cash in and it would give you a ticket for the amount you spent. We where there about 1hr. and left. Only saw 8 security gaurds. 2 @ entrance, and 1 on each level. and we also saw a bartender and that was it... I was talkin to this one older fella and When I asked him where all the players were, He said "this is concidered busy. Ever since they went to tickett in/ tickett out. its went to h-e double hockey sticks." How busy were they?; it was 10pm Sat. nite. and in the parking garage that held 2,000 vehicles on 8 levels, we were parked on the FIRST level. after an hour we left of boredom and drove 5hours to our "regular" river boat and had a blast!!!!!!!!

But if you and your wife walked in with $200 each to spend and between the both of you guys you walk out with 3400 you would probably have a blast also......

[slotter]

Yep, there's just something about WINNING that makes things a lot more fun! LOL!

[monaghj]

......if you can't afford to lose you can't afford to win.....

[Tony Junior]

My nephew took us to a casino in St. Charles(?) that was ticket only machins. Not only did we have to stand in line to get a card, Which wasn't too bad, but not hearing the sound of slots paying off by the dropping of coins was really dissapointing. :02:

I'm of the old school I guess. Plus carrying a bucket full of coins to cash in is exciting, at least to me.

[scooby_doo_m2002]

Same here Tony Junior. its the excitement of " oh boy, oh boy. I wander how much I have here!!!!!!!"

[Utopia1dc]

This is simple for me, no tokens/coins, me no play. Part of the fun is dropping the coins in and counting them up after winning. Hearing them drop in the coin tray is fun as well. Take all that away and slots/pachislo's have no interest to me.

[azlew]

This is simple for me, no tokens/coins, me no play....

Ah now Utopia1dc remember it's always out with the old and in with the new. That's called progress

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Actually I remember reading something a year or so ago that after lots of surveys by the people that get paid to do them, that it was determined that paper ticket machines would be preferable at least to the players surveyed . I will try to refind those surveys and their stats but Ilike I say it was over a year ago. I do remember that it was a very popular idea to people 25-35 years old. I guess they didn't like get their hands dirty.....

[Tony Junior]

Kinda like my two antique nickle machines, 1930's Mills Castle Front and Evans Galloping Dominos (BIG old console). I won't spend any nickles, they always go into the machines.

Lord only knows how many nickles are in this house!

I LOVE the sound of a Pachislo paying off, all those tokens! Makes me feel rich or something.

Quick story. A good friend back home in Galveston has a beautiful collection of antique pinball and slots. He recently bought a touch screen slot that has a bill acceptor. Right after he got it he hit a jackpot.

"It was GREAT," he said. "only trouble was, I couldn't afford to pay myself that $48,000.00 jackpot!"

I've been trying to get him into Pachislos, maybe someday.

[wmas1960]

Guess I am chiming in kind of late on this one. As was mentioned, Old news. Has been a topic of controversy for some time. TITO is the name. Ticket in ticket out. You still have to have a means for inputting tokens, money or credits. Whether it means that you go slip a bill into the validator or go to a cage and pay them and they give you a Voucher, or you put tokens into the machine.... Then, when it is time to cash out, you get a paper voucher instead of any cash, coin or tokens. You take that voucher to the cage for redemption.

This has been a growing technology for, at least, 3 years now. Last Fall, or maybe a year ago, about last spring???, I think it was, the local river boats here in Illinois started putting the ticket printers onto the machines. You still insert paper money but get tickets when you cash out. For a while they did still have tokens and cups while they, progressed through the modification of all their machines. At first sight of these validators and printers, I started collecting the cups and tokens, whenever I could. Now the thing is collecting the vouchers themselves.

2 years ago, I think it was, the hotel we go to in Las Vegas had started to install the validators on some nickel machines. The next year, almost all machines had the TITO systems. In conjunction with this, now they had penny and dime slots also. TITO seems to have allowed them to more efficiently add more video slots at lower denominnations like .01, .02, .05, .10. Of course those machines offer as many as 20 pay lines and 5 or 10 tokens per line. Hit it big and a ticket is nicer than 20,000 pennies.

Problem with collecting the vouchers is that they are thermal printed and the printing on them fades over time. You end up with a blank sheet of paper with the casino logo on it.

If you see a casino that is still using coin or tokens, collect what you can. It is only a matter of time. The savings on workers injuries or customers by having employees with heavy bags on their shoulders roaming around... to the costs of armored car services to deliver coin to a casino, combined with the wrapping and counting of coins and tokens, the employees themselves, (fewer security to protect from theives stealing coin cups..., change people, slot attendants, cashiers...) is too much to keep the tickets from taking over. It is good for the player, in so far as it comes to large pays where you would have to take a huge bucket of tokens to a cage to be counted, or wait for a hand pay or refill. Now, you just take your little piceces of paper to the cage. For the casino, there is the fact that between your machine and the cage, you might see an attractive machine pleaing with you to play it. In goes your ticket and you end up with NOTHING.

[wmas1960]

After reading a the rest of the replies, a thought came to mind. All of the TITO systems that I have seen, have seemed to be modular, add on, devices that were put into normal every day slot machines. They mount on top or into the face of the machines. Plates are put over the area where coin slots used to be and so on.

That leads me to question if Aristocrat(?) IGT, Bally's, Williams and the other machine manufacturers would really abandon coin operated machines entirely, or would they have the TITO systems as optional add ons or options on machines. Thus, would the situation be similar for the Pachislo manufacturers. Depending on the buyer, and their needs, coin or token operated machines might still have some demand and be available.

There is more to the system than simply a printer and reader in a machine. Smaller clubs, grocery operators, gas stations etc. that might have only a few video poker or slot machines might not find it practical to add the computers etc. to complete the systems. Thus coin op might still be desirable in some cases.

I would imagine that, even if a machine was built and equipped as coinless, coin acceptors etc. could be put back into them if needed.

[Utopia1dc]

Ah now Utopia1dc remember it's always out with the old and in with the new. That's called progress

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Actually I remember reading something a year or so ago that after lots of surveys by the people that get paid to do them, that it was determined that paper ticket machines would be preferable at least to the players surveyed . I will try to refind those surveys and their stats but Ilike I say it was over a year ago. I do remember that it was a very popular idea to people 25-35 years old. I guess they didn't like get their hands dirty.....

But, I don't consider that progress in this case. To me, the coins making the sound, and holding the coins in my hand, and putting the coins in the machine is part of the fun. If that is taken away, then it is no longer fun to me. If it's not fun any more, why play? It's rare that you ever win on a regular basis, so if the fun is gone, it's pointless to me.