El Cortez Slot Handle

In the "Loosest Slots" thread, the Wizard describes how he received a copy of the documentation for the El Cortez's claim to have slots looser than the Clark County average. In the document, it is stated that the El Cortez's slot handle from April 1, 2010 - March 31, 2011 was $675,789,245.71.

Is anyone else floored by that figure like me? That's an average of $1.85M+ each day through the machines... at the El Cortez. Did I mention it's the El Cortez I'm talking about?

But it's the handle, right, and not the drop? If I put $100 in a red white & blue $1 machine with a 3% HE and bet the max ($3), my expectation is to make 1078 $3 bets before I run out of money (I'd have $2.98 left, I think). So every $100 of drop should equal $3,234 in handle on this machine.

Looking at it that way, it's kind of depressing - $1.85M is 572 * $30k. So 572 people each playing $100 through could make that daily number.

Edited: fat-fingered the number of plays and was off by a factor of 10.

Thanks for clearing that up rdw. I'm still shocked that an average of 572 people every day would play $100 through. There must be many bigger players (or a few less "really big" players) to make up for all the fleas (like me), who only put $10 in a penny machine and play one line. It is hard for me to even visualize 500 players a day in the El Cortez casino.

I was one of those 1 day last year.

Quote: Ayecarumba

In the "Loosest Slots" thread, the Wizard describes how he received a copy of the documentation for the El Cortez's claim to have slots looser than the Clark County average. In the document, it is stated that the El Cortez's slot handle from April 1, 2010 - March 31, 2011 was $675,789,245.71.

Is anyone else floored by that figure like me? That's an average of $1.85M+ each day through the machines... at the El Cortez. Did I mention it's the El Cortez I'm talking about?

For $675,789,245.71 divided by 1016 machines is $665,147 per machine per year. The downtown average for the top 10 casinos (Golden Nugget, Strat, El Cortez, Fitz, 3 Boyd casino, Four Queens, Binions, Las Vegas Club) for the same time period was $554,222 per machine per year.

So the machines are getting 20% more play than average. So the lower than average return is partially made up for by the higher play.

So your average slot machine in those 10 casinos downtown makes $35,249 /year per machine using the posted 6.36% win percent.
Assuming 32.62% "looser" as advertised by El Cortez that would end up being $28,504 / year. per machine.

El Cortez makes almost $29 million from their slot machines. It certainly isn't record breaking, but it's not bad money considering their probably hasn't been a mortgage on the main property in decades.

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Higher play? Loyalty? Location? Ambiance? Knowledge of the higher payout and belief in the higher payout?

I enjoy playing slots. I know it's dumb but I used to be a drug addict and I still like getting hypnotized. EL Cortez slots let you play for a long time for a small amount of cash. Sort of like drinking or smoking pot. Harrahs is a crackhouse.

Quote: ncfatcat

I enjoy playing slots. I know it's dumb but I used to be a drug addict and I still like getting hypnotized.

A drug addict is rarely addicted to the heroin, he is addicted to the needle. Now your addiction is not to the "quarters dropping" or the flashing lights, its to the little red button that gives you the same sense of control as the hypodermic needle did. The same sense of anticipation. You hit the needle, you feel euphoric. You hit the red button, you get rich. Same thing.

So you don't think casinos attempt to hypnotize people?

Quote: Ayecarumba

In the "Loosest Slots" thread, the Wizard describes how he received a copy of the documentation for the El Cortez's claim to have slots looser than the Clark County average. In the document, it is stated that the El Cortez's slot handle from April 1, 2010 - March 31, 2011 was $675,789,245.71.

In Pennsylvania they use "wagers" instead of the more traditional "slot handle" thinking it is easier to understand. Philadelphia PARX casino has about 3.5 times as many slots as El Cortez. However, instead of El Cortez's $676 million the wagers are $5.130 billion last fiscal year.