Tribal Slots Casinos Suffering
If you are wondering about the economy, just as the tribal casinos that have lost millions on lagging sales. If you compare numbers from this year to last years, there is a notable difference in revenues. Most Indian-owned casinos were doing relatively well before the market bottomed out. The result is number are declining steadily, rather than picking up sharply now that the recession has been declared “over” by many industry insiders. Despite the end of the recession, tribal casinos are seeing lower and lower numbers of people com in to play their slot machines. There have been reports of the slot machine manufacturers themselves feeling the pinch because casinos are not ordering more machines. Though the technologies available are changing, casinos can’t start ordering top-notch games because they don’t have the players to support them.
The tribes in California say that there are still people coming to play the slot machines, but that they are not seeing the numbers that they used to. There is a reported overall 6% drop in revenues from last year. Many casinos are arguing that people are still playing at slot machines, but they are not playing the high-end slots. The penny-slots are always full, but the machines with wager requirements of over $5 are rarely busy. That is the overall change in the market– people are still gambling, but at a much lower wager than previously. Now players are making themselves content with longer play time, but less wagering and less potential payouts.
There are still people coming to gamble at the slot machines, they just don’t have the money that they used to, so they are turning to lower denomination machines to have their fun. Las Vegas had reported something similar in that they saw that they still had people playing, but they were bringing in more penny slot machines because that is what people were choosing to play. The overall feeling is that playing small lets you play for a long time, without losing a lot of money. It’s a tactic many gamblers are taking to quite easily these days. Tribe-owned casinos are voicing their concerns saying that they were bracing for the economic downturn, but didn’t expect the afteraffects to last as long as they are.
