ShareThisLAS VEGAS - While the recession has slot players tightening their spending habits, Nevada casinos appear to be loosening up.
From 1995 through 2008, the percentage of wagers kept by Nevada slot machines crept up while the percentage paid out to players declined. Last year that trend was reversed, with slots paying back 93.9 percent of wagers versus 93.8 percent in 2008.
Such minute differences mean little to individual players -- these figures indicate theoretical payback percentages over millions of spins and aren't reflected in any single gambling session. And yet, trends can reveal how casinos do business.
Frank Streshley, chief of the Gaming Control Board's tax and license division, couldn't determine the reason for the increase, though it could have something to do with the fact that casinos aren't spending money installing new penny slots like they did before the recession.
Before 2009, decreasing paybacks were tied to the spread of penny denomination slot machines, which are popular with players and have replaced higher denomination quarter and dollar games at many casinos. Penny slots allow gamblers to wager in credit increments of a penny, though most gamblers spend more than a dollar per spin. These games historically pay out less of gamblers' wagers over time than higher-denomination slots, though gamblers like them in part because they offer more chances to win smaller jackpots.
Streshley says he receives collective slot payback information from the casinos and therefore can't determine whether specific machines at a particular property have been proactively tightened or loosened.
Overall, Nevada casinos are making a lot less money on nearly all of their games except for baccarat. A surprise big loser for the casinos: blackjack.
While gaming revenue as a whole has plummeted to 2004 levels, blackjack -- which generated about $1 billion last year -- has fallen to levels not seen since the late 1990s. Blackjack, the biggest moneymaker among casino table games, generated $996 million in 1998.
Blackjack revenue fell 20 percent last year, on top of a 12 percent drop in 2008 from the previous year. The games also are holding less for the house than they did a few years ago, or about 11 percent versus 12 percent in 2006.
On the Strip, blackjack is down 34 percent from its peak, while slots are down about 20 percent, according to calculations by Frank Martin, a San Diego-based mathematician and gaming analyst.
Martin attributes some of the decline to backfired attempts by casinos in recent years to make blackjack games more profitable. These include the spread of 6-5 odds games and a proliferation of specialty blackjack games and side bets with worse-odds jackpots that attract novices while turning off seasoned blackjack players.
"Unlike slots, where the payback setting is a mystery, blackjack has to advertise the rule changes that increase house edge," Martin said.
The rapid descent of casinos' biggest moneymaker in table games is a bad sign, especially for older or smaller casinos that can't afford other attractions like baccarat, which is attracting Asian players with money to burn and other high rollers who prefer the mystique and relatively little decision-making involved in baccarat versus blackjack, Martin added.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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