A Serious VP Machine Error

[Vol]

I visited a large, prominent casino last week.  I had a problem on one VP machine.  I would touch a card to hold it, and the card next to it would be held instead.   There were two technicians standing nearby, and I informed them immediately.  I escaped unscathed, but a fast player could dig a pretty deep hole.  It shakes one's confidence in the integrity of the machines and the entire oversight process.  Anyone ever encounter this before?

 
Vol

[BobDancer]

What was happening is that the touch screen feature wasn't calibrated properly. This happens periodically. When reported a slot technician "de-Gausses" the machine. He turns it off, and on and goes through a calibration procedure. You weren't being cheated. The casino doesn't make the machines do this. It happens if it's been awhile since they were calibrated. When reported, casinos will fix it promptly --- depending on how busy the slot techs are. If it can't be fixed promptly, the casino will give you the option of playing with the buttons (which usually aren't affected by this), or having them shut down the machine until they can get to the fix.  Bob

[rascal]

Any casino machine can malfunction, just as any machine anywhere can. What counts is whether or not the casino has an unreasonably large number of maintenance issues. There is a casino I play at frequently in Laughlin that formerly was almost famous for its excellent tech service --- the machines rarely malfunctioned and when they did the service was fast and efficient. However, like many casinos, this one is looking for places to cut back, and routine maintenance appears to have taken a hit. There are more machines at that casino with ongoing maintenance issues than ever before.
 
I am seeing this in other casinos also. In my opinion this is a very penny-wise and pound-foolish expense reduction, because frustrated customers who are not happy with malfunctioning machines (to include sticking or broken buttons) will go elsewhere.
 
I agree with Bob Dancer --- the problem Vol described is a malfunction problem, not an ethical problem.

[BillyJoe]

Yes, I have seen this issue before. I rarely use the Touch Screen feature on VP machines - I rely on the buttons. The buttons, of course, can stick or 'double-clutch', so you have to be careful either way.  



 
I, too, have seen a cutback in casino personnel across many properties. This, unfortunately, includes the technicians. One had thought that with the elimination/reduction in the 'coin fill ladies' with the TITO introduction, maintenance may have been spared the cutbacks. Alas, that has not seemed to happen.
 
I get frustrated sometimes when I visit a property in Vegas, report a machine problem, and then return months later to find that the problem on that machine has not yet been fixed .   

[Vol]

Bob et al.,
 
Thanks for putting this into perspective.  I'll be sensitive to this problem from now on.
 
Vol

[olds442jetaway]

I have had VP machines at Mohegan Sun show " held"  and in the split secone it takes to hit the draw button, the " held disappears".  I recently lost a four of a kind that way. They are having serious maintenance issues and software problems there as well. The new supposedly user friendly screens sometimes shrink for no reason causing you to hold incorrect cards and if you are playing fast you will throw away the card or cards that you wanted to keep.

[player_7394]

Many (most?) casinos will pay you if the machine malfunctions during the draw.  For example, I had a dealt flush on a 5-play machine at a LV casino.  I held all 5 cards and pressed draw ... and 2 cards unheld.  I called an attendant who opened the machine and verified that I did indeed have a dealt flush and that the buttons were not functioning properly.  He called a manager who paid me for the dealt flush.

[Lucky Larry]

Vol,
I have had screens and buttons malfunction many times. Techs just recalibrate.

The strangest similar malfunctions occurred when a machine I played began to malfunction. Sweet C had just given me the machine (she experienced no problems) and it immediately began to malfunction for me finally locking up. Tech reset the machine, I sit down again and within a few minutes the machine locks up. The tech (who we know) jokingly really gives me a hard time. I realized I was alternating occasionally between buttons and the screen. Somehow it was causing the malfunctions.

[spxChrome]

Yup happends all the time, or maybe I just play at rundown casinos lol.  What I hate is when you put $100 in and hit deal then the machines locks up after the deal.  Now that is annoying. I've left money in a machine just because I didn't want to wait 20 minutes on the slot tech to come over a reboot a hung machine.