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Slots How did people play high limit slots before TITO?

Discussion in 'Slots' started by casinoboy, Jan 29, 2020.

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  1. casinoboy

    casinoboy Low-Roller

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    Just curious how anyone played higher limit slots when it was just coins? did you have to stick in like 500 $1 coins just to play $500 or did they have some other option? did the machines still take bills and just dispense coins? i was watching some of the movie Hard Eight the other day on amazon prime and was wondering because they were playing with the dollar coins.
     
  2. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    Yes, in the "old" days, you would get a rack of silver dollar tokens and take them to a slot machine. Cashing out was "fun" (sarcasm), stacking the coins into the racks ($100 in 5 rows of 20 coins) and hefting them over to the slot cage.
     
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  3. andyg99

    andyg99 VIP Whale

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    great question - I always wondered about that but never wondered enough to look it up. So I guess there was never really any high limit slots then? Funny because my first time gambling was in AC in '85 - barely remember it but I do remember putting coins into machines and even winning $50! back then that was like $500 to me, treated by friend to dinner at Beefsteak Charlies on the boardwalk! anyone remember that place back east?

    When did slots switch to primarily the TITO system? my first time after AC was my first trip to Vegas in '97 and for the life of me I can't remember if slots still used coins...
     
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  4. thegov2k2

    thegov2k2 VIP Whale

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    If I remember correctly, the switch took place about 2003 or so. I remember when Borgata opened, none of their slots took coins.
     
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  5. stlguy197239

    stlguy197239 VIP Whale

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  6. Ten_On_The_End

    Ten_On_The_End VIP Whale

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    I seem to remember that some of the casinos had their own tokens larger than a dollar. Not being a high limit player I never used them but I just did a quick check on eBay and someone is selling a 5 dollar Caesars slot token. The dollar tokens I played on my first trip to Vegas are now worth $2.50 due to inflation.
     
  7. mikeinctown

    mikeinctown High-Roller

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    OMG before TITO, a win was AMAZING. The machine made all the noise and then coins just flowed like a river into the specially designed for sound hopper. You grabbed a bucket and shoveled your loot into the bucket and then lugged it around everywhere you went. I still miss those days, because there was actual currency you had in your hand rather than a slip of paper. The downside? Your fingers would turn black from the coins.
     
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  8. DiamondD

    DiamondD High Roller in Training

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    "Quick, get me another plastic bucket! The hopper is filling up!"
     
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  9. AyDee

    AyDee is getting too old for this

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    That thunk of dollar coins dropping..
    The red racks.
    Trying to squeeze the bucket under so you don't have to scoop them out...
     
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  10. fraygul

    fraygul Low-Roller

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    Our casino had little garbage cans next to the slots, the kind you would have in your washroom. Once you had too many buckets you would start piling them in the garbage cans. The slot attendtants would help you drag them to the cage so they could run them through the counting machine so you could start over. For as long as I remember you could put bills in and coins, but it was coins that came out, unless your machine would lock up for a handpay (which where I was in Canada was usually about $250). One you hit a certain dollar amount in the machine the coins would come out after your win too. I don't remember how much that was exactly. It was great money management.Your machines would run out of coins and they would have to come refill them all the time. Was way more fun than TITOs.
     
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  11. FullPay

    FullPay When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

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    In the nineties I played a five dollar machine at Caesars. I loaded five silver dollars for each pull and it dispensed the five dollar tokens on my small win. I remember standing outside the high limit room watching someone sitting at a $500 denomination slot machine and wondering whether it was going to dispense huge five hundred dollar tokens, but he had been staring the machine down for over ten minutes and I never saw the pull.
     
  12. Frankr163

    Frankr163 High-Roller

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    The sound of those coins falling out cannot be replicated by computer programs.
    The coins were always hot to the touch too!
    I used to love watching the collection crews, working in the early morning hours. Big 4 wheel carts filled with big 5 gallon buckets of coins.
     
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  13. julia

    julia VIP Whale

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    I was wondering the same thing...

    I would guess slot revenues increased dramatically after the introduction of TITO.
     
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  14. bshowell

    bshowell VIP Whale

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    I never thought about this. Cool! I know when I first went, there were still coins on many machines and I had NO idea there was any such thing as high limit.
     
  15. tee6395

    tee6395 Downtown Dreamer

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    IIRC, many of the large casinos had their own tokens in larger amounts, i.e. $25, $100 etc. The machines typically wouldn't spit out wins as most of them were W2g generating anyway. I remember this specifically at Caesar's but I imagine that other large resorts would've done the same.
     
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  16. flyguyfl

    flyguyfl MIA

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    Maybe some person will come up with the idea off a retro casino where coins are used. Have the machines make the noise too.
     
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  17. Ten_On_The_End

    Ten_On_The_End VIP Whale

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    I remember walking in front of the Flamingo many years ago and there was a man wearing a business suit and a red fez walking the other way. I thought how cool it was that he wore his own personal coin bucket. True story.
     
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  18. fugsworth

    fugsworth VIP Whale

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    @flyguyfl Fremont Street had a couple places that still used coins, for many years. They're gone now (so are the handful of machines they had at the D) and I'm not aware of any others.

    Edit: Apparently the El Cortez might still have them? I never go there.
     
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  19. SMG

    SMG VIP Whale

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    At first, I didn't like the change over to TITO, since it was fun feeding coins into those machines and hearing the cha-ching cha-ching of the coins dropping into the metal bin when you cashed out or hit a big jackpot. Although, it was always a hassle when the machines would run out of coins and you had to wait for the slot attendant to refill the machines with more coins.

    Although now, I like TITO, since I no longer have to lug around those heavy contains or get dirty fingers handling all of those dirty coins. Those old style machines all had bill readers, so you didn't need to get coins to play when starting out. Although, I've known some folks who would feed bills into the machine, hit the cash out button, and then feed the coins in one at a time while playing.

    I also remember one time when I was playing the dollar slots at the old Sahara. I was on a machine that kept hitting and I filled up so many containers that I had to call the slot attendant for help. She brought over a small cart, so we could move all those containers over to the cashier. LOL

    Another thing that was sorta bad about those coin machines was that you would occasionally see someone going around to the various machine checking the bins to see if anyone left coins behind. Of course nowadays, they go around looking for TITOs which is just as bad.
     
  20. julia

    julia VIP Whale

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    The Cal still has coin in.
     
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