Let’s look at your bet panels
Sometimes, when I ask a casino person what the price of a slot machine is, it’s common for them to reply with the slot hold or even the denomination. “That’s a dollar game with a six percent hold,” for example. What surprises me about these answers is that the number one factor that’s likely having the highest impact on a machine’s win per unit isn’t the denomination or the hold percentage at all, it’s the configuration of the bet panel. When I say bet panel, I’m referring to the lines and credits the guest gets to select when making their wagers. To me, this is the price of the game. It’s the price the player bets per spin on every wager, and the options we give those players to make those wagers is likely the largest factor affecting the game’s financial performance.
As a wild example, one time I was asked by a casino director if I could figure out why a penny game just wasn’t making any money. It was set up in a bank alongside a bunch of other penny games, but for some reason this game was always doing terribly. I love these types of challenges, so I went out onto the floor to look at this game and immediately saw the problem. This penny game had a bet panel with a maximum of nine lines and five credits per line. That means the maximum bet possible on this game was a measly 45 cents. Even worse, gamers have a fascinating habit of betting all the lines, but at the minimum credits per line, which meant most of the betting on this game was actually at nine cents a spin. This means that even if this penny game with a 10 percent hold was one of the busiest games on the floor and played all day and all night, non-stop, it would likely never clear $200 a day in win. This game will always be a dog.
My point is that it’s interesting to me how little attention we sometimes pay to the bet panels. If the price we offer on the game is too low, the win per unit will suffer no matter how popular the game is. It’s fairly common to see games removed from a floor for low win per unit that were actually extremely busy, extremely popular games with handle pulls way above average, but the minimum price to play was set too low, which dragged down the win per unit, leading to its eventual departure. It’s sad that popular games are often taken off the floor and away from guests because of low win per unit, when a simple price adjustment likely would have made the product soar.
In studying the bet behaviors of players, particularly on penny devices, I’d like to point out here that the vast majority of all betting slot players make on the games is going to be at the “minimum” bet of the game, or the maximum lines betting one credit per line. This is critical to understand whether a game will have a high win per unit or not. For example, if a penny game has a 30-cent minimum next to a game with a 50-cent minimum, regardless of theme, I’d be comfortable wagering that the 50-cent minimum game has a higher win per unit. Why? Because a vast majority of all betting happens at the minimum, and in this case the 50-cent game’s minimum is 67 percent higher than the 30-cent game, meaning that you’re getting 67 percent more win on each and every pull.
A little more about this betting the minimum phenomenon. For example, often when you look at the average bet of a penny game, you may see averages like 64 cents, 95 cents, $1.05, etc. Keep in mind that this is not the bet that people are playing per spin, this is the total average. If you break down and look at every spin that occurs on the slot machine, you’ll likely see the vast majority of all betting will be at the minimum (max lines and minimum credits per line). A much smaller percentage of bets will be at or near the maximum (I love these folks), and an even smaller distribution of betting will be in between. What this means is that the average is primarily driven by the minimum, and the wonderful betting that some of the higher players are putting into the games is making the total average seem higher. Keep in mind that the minimum bet is king when it comes to win per unit of a good theme.
By paying closer and closer attention to the prices we charge per spin on slot machines, we can have a much better chance of hitting win per unit targets and selecting games that will drive win above the house average. Don’t forget to take a look at those panels; it’s one of the few things the players actually have direct interface with. When I walk floors today, I cannot help but stare at the slot screens, looking for the amount that the players are betting per spin. It’s second nature now. By far the most common observation is players betting the minimum. I’m sure you’ll see the same. Heaven forbid I pass a keno game where I’ll see someone plunking away for hours at just two nickels a spin! Ouch. That always hurts a bit.
