Periodically I have a player ask me why some slots disappear from the floor faster than others, or why a specific game is gone all of a sudden. There are various reasons this can happen, and while the list below may not be completely exhaustive, it should offer a good understanding of some of the factors that go into the decision.
Popularity
This one is the most obvious, and does play into account for many of the machines on the floor. If a game is doing really well, casinos will keep those games in place, and perhaps even bring in more of them.
Conversely, if a game is sitting idle, particularly a newer one, it will be more likely to get swapped out. The casino will look at metrics such as daily win or coin-in to get a sense of how popular the game is, and whether it’s doing its job.
Leased or Bought
Slots can be acquired in a few ways, with the two core ways being bought or leased, and the terms are exactly as they sound. Bought games are ones the casinos purchase and own, while leased ones are ones they pay a daily fee to have on their floor.
In the case of the latter, it’s going to need to continue to perform over time to stay in place, as there’s that continuous cost of leaving it out on the floor. Bought games have less pressure since they’re paid for, but if they’re not being played, that still could mean they get swapped out.
Licensed Themes
Generally speaking, licensed games are more likely to be leased than unlicensed ones, although that’s not absolute – the Rakin’ Bacon Deluxe game, for instance, is leased, compared to the original which was not. (The next generation of games will be bought games too.)
But because licensed themes tend to have more going on and more unique development, they tend to also lean on the leased format more, which means that if a game doesn’t perform, it will get swapped out more quickly.
It also can mean that in certain cases a game may simply no longer be available for the casino to have on the floor – one casino advertised the end of their long-standing license for a Titanic slot because the maker wouldn’t renew it.
The Cabinet a Game is On
Sometimes if the game is on a cabinet that’s in low supply, or has much more popular games available for it, it’s in the casino’s best interest to swap out the game to something that will perform better.
They’re much less likely to do this on older cabinets that may not have new games coming out on it; many casinos have three reel machines that haven’t been updated in a decade or more, for instance.
However, it’s certainly not impossible – one of my home casinos swapped out some games on one older cabinet in favor of more Ultimate Fire Link when the banks they had were consistently full with players. The new larger banks are still quite busy, but you can actually get on it now and then.
