Penny Slot Machines: Only a Penny?

As with any business, a key to increase revenue is to make a product as appealing to the consumer as possible. This marketing approach holds true for casinos as well. The result of this line of thinking has produced the newest slotting sensation of Penny Slot Machines. Penny Slot Machines purport to be affordable to every player that has an interest in slots. Indeed, it only cost a penny. While this is certainly true, there is a little more to this game than the cost of a single penny.

Penny slot machines are actually an obvious next step in the evolution of slots. Slots in general are the most popular casino-style game on the market. Casinos make a great deal of money off these simple, yet exciting games. As a result, there are constantly new innovations that are being applied to the game in order to increase the games appeal and reach. One such innovation was the multi-line slot machine. Multi-line slot machines allow players to play more than one line at time. Each line allows players to add coins for individual play on that line.

Now on the surface this sounds great. But let’s say for example, that there is a 4 line slot machine, and the cost is twenty-five cents. If a player plays the maximum number of lines available, this will actually cost him $1.00. What this resulted in is that it was becoming very expensive for players, prohibitively expensive, to play slots as more and more lines were added. The result was to reduce the per line cost while continuing to increase the number of lines.

This resulted in the nickel slot machine explosion. By decreasing the cost and increasing the number of lines, the casinos still made a profit. So now, for example, a game may now have 30 lines. At a nickel a line the actual cost of playing the game is $1.50. However, the psychological effect for the player is that they are only paying a nickel for play, even though in reality they are paying much more.

However, the same problem reoccurred with nickel slots as had quarter slots. As more lines were added, it again became cost prohibitive for players. The natural result of this was the same as well. Casinos introduced penny slot machines to the public. Of course, there were even more playable lines added with penny slot machines to offset the reduced costs. Additionally, in order to qualify for many of the big prizes that penny slot machines offer, players are required to play all of the lines. As such, the cost of a penny is somewhat misleading in regards to penny slot machines. The cost is really much more than advertised.

Penny slot machines are the newest rage in casinos and with good reason. Many of the slot offerings feature fantastic payouts. Further, if a player is only playing a line or two, then the penny slot machine is truly an economic godsend. However to really cash in on a penny slot machine, players will have to invest a little and play all the lines. Nevertheless, whichever means a player’s decides to play, penny slot machines bring the same gaming excitement as its predecessors.