Nickel High Rollers.
There was a time years ago when nickel slot machine players were the brunt of many jokes. Just the mention of them brought to mind images of little old blue haired ladies playing the machines in Atlantic City. I remember on one trip my friends and I watched these ladies take one coin at a time out of a roll of nickels insert it in the machine and pull the handle with more gusto than we thought possible. At one point a fight actually broke out between two of these ladies over the territorial rights to a particular machine. We listened to a verbal exchange of blue language that would make a sailor blush. With tongue in cheek we refereed to the nickel crowd as the "High Rollers."
Fast forward to the year 2000 and the joke about nickel high rollers has turned into a prophecy of sorts. With the new multi-line, multi-coin machines the nickel players are taking on a new image. Many of the new nickel machine are anything but cheap to play. In a previous article I wrote about the history of these multi-line and multi coin machines. This type of machine was first introduced to this country in 1996 by Australia's Aristocrat Leisure Industries company. As the popularity of these machines grew, more slot makers started offering multi line/coin machines. it seemed that the slot makers were trying to outdo each other in designing multi coin machines. More paylines were added and more coins could be bet on each line.
As the number of coins needed for maximum bets increased it was only logical that the denomination would have to be lower if the casinos expected to get much play out of them from the average player. Playing a machine with nine pay lines that accepted five coins per line would cost the quarter player $11.25 per spin. A 45 coin bet on nickel machine would cost a player $2.25 per spin. The casinos are finding out that many players are willing to increase their bets on the nickel machines because in their minds they are still playing nickels.
A player used to playing two or three coins in a quarter machine will not hesitate to sit down and play one coin per line on a nine-line machine for forty-five cents. Many will increase the number of coins bet per line after a winning spin. These same players would not think of switching over to a dollar machine after a winning spin on a quarter machine but with the push of a button they can up their bet without a second thought.
At the end of a session, players have a tendency to play off credits when they are playing a nickel machine more than they do when playing higher denominations. This fact has not been lost on the casinos or the slot makers. A dollar in quarters will fit in a player's pocket a lot easier than twenty nickels. It is easier to just play that lasts dollar down to zero than wait in the cashier's line to convert your nickels into a buck.
The slot makers are introducing more nickel machines that are fun to play like the Adams Family and Little Green men. Video Poker players are not left out of the multi coin craze either. IGT introduced triple play where a player could play three hands simultaneously. This gave way to Four, Five play and then Ten play video poker. The newest machine gaining popularity is the Fifty Play video poker machine. Playing fifty hands at a time is exciting but it also takes 250 coins to make a maximum bet. That equates to $12.50 per spin for a nickel machine and that falls into the High Roller category.
The new multi-coin machines are fun and exciting to play but you have to remember that losing site of the value of a nickel could add up to a big loss in the end.
Until next time, remember:
"Luck comes and goes...Knowledge stays forever."