On a slot community forum recently, an interesting question came up: Usually on a slot machine, when you get a handpay, the message “Call Attendant” appears. So, do you actually have to call a slot attendant?
STATUS: No – they usually know about it and are on their way to you pretty quickly thanks to technology.
Slots are networked to a computer system like most computers in the modern era, and among the things they can alert slot attendants is when they’re out of paper, are having a technical issue… and when you handpay.
In newer casinos like MGM Springfield, along with those who have upgraded technology, I see them with mobile devices where they get an alert when something happens that requires their attention. The machines are all networked, so one of the benefits of that is when something comes up information can be routed to the right person quite quickly.
My first and only handpay so far was at The D in Las Vegas, and there they were at the machine less than a minute after the handpay triggered. I was in the high limit room with another player (we were playing together) and so that could have something to do with it, but even at larger casinos I usually see a pretty prompt response.
Aside from the newer technology, older technology comes into play too – the two lights on the top of the slot can help indicate a variety of things, one of which is that a slot machine has triggered a handpay.
I haven’t personally encountered a casino in awhile where you need to actually call an attendant over to get paid, but during my recent Las Vegas trip I did encounter scenarios where you had to get paid out by hand on any slot machine because they didn’t have ticket printers on them, and another where you had to bring all tickets to a counter because they didn’t have a ticket redemption machine.
So, I won’t ever say never, but it’s definitely more likely the case in this day and age that most casinos will have the machines alerting some sort of central system so slot attendants know to come over and get the process started.
But if you hit the service button, it won’t slow down service or harm anything, so if you have been waiting a bit and you want to be absolutely sure, go ahead and hit that button as well!
