Slots Are Back!

As the pandemic winds down, we’ve heard lots of anecdotal evidence of the return of the slot player. Now that has research behind it in the form of a report put together by Brendan Moore, the senior analyst, slot performance and analytics for Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. While most casinos are almost back to the levels of slot revenue they were achieving before the pandemic, there’s a question of what has changed on the slot floor as a result, and what impact those changes will have on slot operators and manufacturers. Most casinos are almost back to pre-pandemic slot counts (Figure 1), with commercial casinos doing the most downsizing, only at 92 percent of the slot numbers.

There’s a sea change in legacy machines, which have dipped from 48 percent of the total pre-pandemic to 40 percent in June. In Figure 2, we see how the units remaining on floor have rapidly decreased in age, indicating that operators took off the oldest product. Before the pandemic, the average cabinet age was about 5.5 years old, and now cabinets are 4.5 years old. Meanwhile, for themes, the average age has also reduced dramatically from around 3.9 years old to 2.9 years old. Legacy hardware has the lowest performance KPIs and less lucrative conversion opportunities. Naturally, they retired at a rapid rate. For a full copy of the report, contact Moore at bmoore@ekgamingllc.com.