Coin slot machines offer old-school Vegas experience at El Cortez

[NLG-BOT-1]

Coin slot machines offer old-school Vegas experience at El Cortez

During a recent morning at the El Cortez, Phyllis Henry heard a noise that has become all but extinct on Las Vegas casino floors. It was the ching-ching-ching of coins crashing down from a machine into a metal tray. In this case, it was ...

Source: Coin slot machines offer old-school Vegas experience at El Cortez

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[Sunrise Side]

https://vegasinc.lasvegassun.com/business/gaming/2019/oct/07/coin-slot-machines-offer-old-school-vegas-experien/

[shortrackskater]

I sure hope this makes a comeback! I read an article like this a few years ago but didn't remember which casino it was, but I hadn't heard anything since.

[mvco]

Could be the "D" in Downtown which also has, or had, many machines on coin play, upstairs, second floor. 


BTW, we always go to ElCortez every trip there to hammer away on the old S-Plus games on coin.   

[jay]

Coin Handling is expensive, and I don't mean theft. Coins are very heavy and for someone to pocket more than $10 becomes pretty obvious quick.
The cost is that the hoppers only hold so much, so you need to refill them often, a tech with a change cart on the floor is accompanied by at least one security person.
Lots of paper work everytime that slot door is open. You need bill breakers, you need to stock coinage, cups, wet wipes. Then there is all of the whining about the coin that got dropped in and didn't register. When that happens you need to review the counters, manual and electronic and perhaps even review the security footage. Its not just about giving the quarter to the little old lady but rather than validating that you don't have an issue with the machine which is what is required by Nevada gaming law. Since this is almost all mechanical things there are repairs to be done.  All of this is laborious. Labor = $$
 
There was a slot manager in the late 80's from Harrahs that said he would never have a penny machine on the floor because they cheapen up the joint.
He was interviewed in slot tech magazine and admitted that he had to eat his words in the 90s when TITO was introduced.
You have the people that will balk at putting in 3 quarters (0.75) but think nothing of playing 10 lines at 20 or 30 coins per line because its a penny machine.
Can you imagine someone feeding in 120 coins (pennys) - that's more than 2 rolls.....
Basically coin-in is a lot slower than bill in. This leads to two things.. Play time at the machine becomes longer (less $$ for time invested)  and then biological instincts do take over - Ie' Food input and output.... albiet there are those who have been known to wear a diaper (or not).  This being a novel thing they say there are line ups to play but I don't see it being wide spread.



What I did take away from the article is that they have found a way to use a newer bill validator with an older machine. Ie JCM (Japanese Coin Machine) were never paid by IGT to develop software for the newer bills. Specifically the $5 was developed in anticipation of IGT paying for it (they did not, and it has slipped into the wild) but the new $100 was never developed. What is funny is the same validator that won't take new $100's for the S+ will take it when used with a S2000 - a simple dipswitch flip.


The intent of IGT was to kill off the S+ in favor of the S2000 platform that they were having a hard time selling because the S+'s were just that rock solid and beyond a few newer games like Musters with cool sounds they basically looked the same and played the same games. S+ uses protocol 22/23 for the bill validators and the S2000 use 24 (I think). Its been quite a while since I have been in the ElCortez but if they are still using the PE+ (Video poker) they are the same protocol platform as the S+. I also watched a video about a protocol converter but I never did hear anything about these and no one ever responded to my emails about them.


Another possibility is that the S2000 can do coins - although most shipped with out coin entry or hoppers. The S2000 can even play the S+ games so perhaps the machines are a bit newer than they let on.

[mvco]

No S2000's on coin there that I have noticed.  Tons of S-Pluses.  Very cool   Those things are tanks, I bet they still run pretty well, I know I cannot break any of mine, LOL.

[lookes]

This article makes me want to go to Vegas for a few days... The last time I was there and played coin in games was about 20+ years ago. I played coins at Circus-Circus. 

[Z71OFFROAD]

Love playing my ching-ching-ching machines.

[smoothgrh]

I visited the El Cortez in August with the intention of playing coin slots. But when I got there, the memories of my bad luck ($40 gone in less than 10 minutes  ) from the '90s returned, and I balked at playing!

Nice to see the machines still in use, though!