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Participation Slots: Pros and Cons

Have you ever played a slot machine with a really recognizable and popular theme – something based around a favorite TV show or movie, for instance? Most gamblers have. Slot games based on the Wheel of Fortune television game show and the Tomb Raider video game and movie rank amongst some of the most popular pokies of all time. Players love the experience of playing games based on familiar and well-loved characters, and tend to automatically orient themselves towards these titles. You may knot have known, however, that many casinos do NOT love these games as much as players do. Why?

Well, because these titles are known as “participation slots,” and casinos are obliged to share revenue with the folks who hold the copyright over these titles. Not surprisingly, this is a frustrating situation for casino bigwigs. They naturally do not want to share their profits with anyone, and would rather swap these troubling titles with ones that they own. Many of the big Vegas casinos, for example, have proprietary slot games that they have developed for their exclusive use. It would make sense that casino owners switch over totally to these self-owned games, yet, they still keep participation games around.

The reason for this is because many participation slot machine games have what are referred to as “appointment” players. These are gamblers who come to the casinos specifically to play these games of choice, and who may not come at all if they were removed. Casino operators do not want to risk losing even the partial share of “appointment” players’ dollars, so they keep the controversial fruit machines.

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