I was thinking of this during my last trip to LV. I think there was someplace that offered the option of cash or ticket. You would push an icon on the screen. I could never seem to get the machine to issue coin though. Other times I noticed that while the machine took tickets it was spitting out coins.

All of this made me think that it isn't that bad of an idea to have the tickets. I did find some convenience to it, as has been mentioned, where it would save me from waiting to have all the coins drop, deal with refill and carrying a large bucket of coins to a cashier. Unfortunately I didn't have much experience with the latter problem though.

My biggest gripe was at The Orleans where they have put these devices on almost all of their machines. When playing I would get down to less than enough coins to play another play. Rather than getting a few nickles out of the machine it would print me a ticket for 15 cents. Like I am going to walk half way accross the casino and wait in line at a cashier to cash in my 15 cents. I have a handfull of tickets that I never bothered with. A nickle here. ten cents there. I then found that the nickle ticket that I brought home last year is nearly blank. Further I found a lot of machines that wouldn't read the tickets when they were inserted.

Now, if only they could program the machines so that if your pay out is less than say 20 coins or something it will pay you with coins but if you have a large number of coins it will just pay you with a ticket. With all the video slots like Reel Em In, My Rich Uncle, and so on where you play up to 45 coins, I can really see a benefit of being able to take a ticket for my 1200 nickles rather than have to wait while all those coins are paid out.

I remember one time at Barbary Coast playing Austin Powers when I hit for over a thousand nickles. I couldn't find a slot cup and had to dump my margarita, VERY LARGE SOUVENIER GLASS, In the garbage of course, I am not a total slob, and put all the coins in the glass to carry them home. Would have cashed out at a cashier but was running late for the shuttle to The Orleans. A ticket, then would have been nice but then again, I wouldn't have had this colorful story.

I can understand and respect the attractiveness of the casinos though. Fewer Counting Machines, Fewer Change People, Cashiers cages, NO MORE SLOT CUPS. Not as many workmans comp claims for workers throwing out their backs with huge heavy bags of coins... Add all those savings up and it could be significant. One other thing that I will miss as this becomes common place is the custom coin rolls. I never thought of collecting them but noticed when going through some old LV souvenirs where I had a roll of quarters in a Coast Resorts roll. I had thought I would start collecting rolled coins but then got out there to find that many places were not using much coin anymore.