Behind the Slots: How New Games Hit the Casino Floor

Ever wonder how new slot machines make their way onto the floor at Hollywood Casino Bangor? In this episode of Lights, Slots, Action, hosts Alton and Marc sit down with Chris Kirk, Director of Operations, to reveal the secrets behind slot selection, placement, and the trends driving today’s hottest games. From towering 14-foot machines to classic reels, discover how your favorite games are chosen, where to find them, and what’s coming next.

🔑 3 Key Takeaways:

1. How New Games Are Picked – Learn how guest feedback, manufacturers, and licensing shape which machines arrive on the floor.

2. Why Placement Matters – Discover why the biggest and flashiest games land in high-traffic spots and how attendants can help you find your favorites.

3. What’s Next in Slots – Hear about the balance between trendy new titles, timeless classics, and why guest input keeps the casino floor evolving.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You might notice new slot machinesfrequently on the gaming floor.
The inside scoop on how those machinesare chosen is straight ahead first.
Here's what's happening thisweek at Hollywood Casino Bangor.
Welcome to Light Slots Action, aHollywood Casino Bangor podcast.
I'm Elton Buzzle, director ofMarketing at Hollywood Casino.
And I'm Mark Westell, generalmanager at Hollywood Casino.
Bangor, welcome back.

(00:21):
Mark.
How are you doing today?
Doing great.
What about you, Elton?
You know, I am just livingthe dream as I always do here.
That's good to hear.
In Bangor main.
Well, we've got someexciting stuff for this week.
We have a special guest.
Yes, we do.
We have Chris Kirk from Hollywood Casino.
Bangor.
He's our director of Operations.
Welcome, Chris.
Good morning everybody.
How's it going?

(00:41):
Chris is going to chat to us a little bit.
Abouting casino related, right, Elton?
Absolutely.
And, and we're gonna talk aboutone of, uh, my favorite topics.
Of course, I say that every week.
But, uh, you have my favorite topics.
I do.
I do.
We're gonna be talkingabout slot machines.
Yep.
Slot machines for sure.
And, uh, you know, there, there'sso many things with slots.

(01:03):
I hear a lot of, uh, questionsfrom customers all the time,
which is, you know, what?
Related to our casino floor,there's so many, how do I choose?
What's the difference?
Why are they in certain locations?
There are so manyquestions that we get and.
The goal today is to clarify a little bitof this, and obviously Chris being such
an expert in this area, is gonna give ussome really good information about those

(01:23):
things I just mentioned, right, Elton?
Absolutely.
So let's start things off with, uh, Chris.
You know, we've got a ton of games on the,on the floor at Hollywood Casino, Bangor.
How do we figure outwhich games get on the.
Well, we take into considerationa lot of different factors.
Uh, we get a lot ofinformation from our guests.
They travel around the country,they play different casinos.

(01:43):
They have their favorite games, andthey're not always here at Hollywood.
Uh, so we take that and we run with it.
We get with our manufacturersthat, uh, are in our market.
And if those games are availableto us, uh, we can get 'em to
the floor at some point in time.
Uh, it's not always a, you know, asnap of the finger to get 'em there.
Uh, sometimes we have to gothrough a licensing project

(02:05):
or process with the state.
And you know, once that happens, weget 'em the cabinets from the sod
bender and get 'em on our floor.
That's awesome.
And there's so many different ones.
Some of them these days are almosttouching the ceiling, right, Chris?
Yeah, we do have a, they're huge games.
Yeah.
We have a set that's about 14 feet tall.
Wow.
I'm so glad we have tall ceilings.

(02:27):
Yes, that is good.
You can see it all the way acrossFlorida from no matter where you're at.
Awesome.
So when you're, when you guys arethinking about what slot machines
to put on the floor, do you thinkabout like, the size of the game?
Obviously, like you said, youcan see it from across the floor.
Does that mean you're, you wannaput more of those on the floor
so that they're more visible?
We do.
So the, the object.
Of, you know, our casino flooris for, to enhance the gaming

(02:51):
experience for each of our guests.
Uh, you know, the bigger, thebrighter, the flashier, the things
that drop people in, you know,it's all about the experience.
You know, how a game playsthe characters on a game.
Uh, you know, those, uh, youlook at some of the manufacturers
like light and wonder.
They have the Huff Andp Puff Series, andif you walk across our casino floor, a

(03:15):
Huff Andp puff is probably one of our,uh, favorite games for all of our guests.
The Huff Andp Puff is a favorite.
What, what are some of the otherthemes that you notice that our
players are always asking for?
They're coming in, they'resaying, Hey, where's this theme?
Couple of the other ones are likeDragon Link and Dragon Cache.
Those are.
Fan favorites.

(03:36):
And uh, recently we added a new gameto our floor called the Rake and
Bacon, triple Soda Fountain Fortunes.
And that mouth say that three times Fast.
Mouthful.
Exactly.
Uh, since we put that, uh, set of games onthe floor, you, you can't even get at 'em.
So, you know.
That's awesome.
It was.
Like things that just draw people in.
So when we have games like that,do, does that mean we go out and

(03:58):
try to get more of that game?
Or is there some value in,in supply versus demand in
keeping that supply tight?
Yeah, we do keep the supply alittle tight because you never
know how long a game is gonna run.
Uh, some titles they run forever.
You look at the Dragon League and DragonCache, they've been around forever.
Other games are, arelike a flash in the pan.
You'll have 'em on the floor.

(04:20):
For a year or two and as timegoes, the game fades and we look
at adding something new to the for.
That's awesome, Chris.
And you know, one of the other things we,we get a lot of questions about is, you
know, as you mentioned, so many new games,flashy, they're gigantic and they have so
many different functions, but you know, onour floor as well, there's, there's some
more traditional games, traditional reels.

(04:42):
Obviously we want to, you know,accommodate all of our customers.
How popular are, are more of thoselegacy games that we have on the floor.
So legacy games fade over time.
But you know, you look atour reel component across our
floor, the traditional reels,they still make 'em, uh, yeah.
But they have different features now.
So it's not just your one line, youknow, get bars or sevens on 'em.

(05:06):
You know, now they're nine linesto 45 lines with bonuses added to
'em, which was a different featurethat they didn't have back in.
That when they first created them, andI know the bonus rounds are very, very
popular and they happen on all of the, thenewer games too, which is really exciting.
Going back to just the locationon the floor, you know, when we
look at it, there's something foreverybody is, is there specific

(05:28):
places people should go and look forgames or when they enter the casino?
How would you suggest somebody navigatesthe floor to find the game that they want?
Or who could they ask about, uh,what game they would prefer to play?
So when we, uh, add new games to thefloor, a majority of the ones, uh,
you know, the bigger, the flashierones, we put 'em right on an aisle.
'cause that way it draws people in.

(05:49):
They, as they're walking throughthe casino, they can see 'em.
If anybody has any questions, theycan ask any team member on the
floor, more specifically a slotattendant as they're walking by.
'cause the slot attendant knows where eachand every game is on our casino floor.
And we have 633 of them.
Very good.
That, that's a lot of games.
Uh, you know, I, I get this questiona lot, Chris, and, and so maybe you

(06:11):
can help shed some light on that,but where are our penny games?
So I just wanna bet a penny.
You wanna bet a penny?
Well, you're gonna have to bet justa little bit more than a penny.
Uh, you know, we have pennygames throughout the floor.
A lot of the games aremulti-denominational.
Uh, you could play apenny up to two to $10.
Uh, we even have a hundred dollars gameon our casino floor, uh, but as you're

(06:35):
sitting down at a game, if you look at it,it's gonna have little buttons on there.
It's gonna say 1 cent, 2 cent,5 cent, 10 cent, and so forth.
But you also have to takeinto consideration how
many lines you wanna play.
So it's gonna give that option as well.
So, so what does that mean?
How many, how many lines I'm gonnaplay if I'm a brand new player?
Uh, you know, that couldbe intimidating, right?
You've got, you're talking about allthese options and these giant machines.

(06:58):
I mean, that, that can be a little scary.
So, so how does that all work?
You kind of need to go intothe, the gameplay, uh, feature.
Uh, it'll show you all the paytables for each and every line.
Plus it'll show you where those lines arebecause they're not just straight lines.
They're up and down, they're sideways.
Some of them are in a square.
So you know, if you ever have anyquestion about, you know, how a game

(07:22):
plays, you know where the lines are.
Your best option is grab a slotattendant or somebody on the
casino floor that can help you out.
And do we always have slotattendants on the floor for folks?
We have a slot attendant from thetime we open to the time we close.
That is so awesome and it just sounds, youknow, when you, us all being a part of the
casino, hearing all of these things, uh,that we have on the floor is so exciting.

(07:43):
And you know, like we always say, comedown to Hollywood Casino of Bangor
and we have something for everyone.
And honestly, the floor isthe sights, the sounds, the.
Energy, the excitement.
It is truly awesome.
Right, Elton?
It really is.
It's, uh, such a phenomenal placeand, and Chris and his team, uh,
have done such a fantastic job.
Phenomenal job.
Yeah.
It really, in the last year, andthis, we can talk about this real

(08:03):
quick, you know, we've seen a lotof new machines hitting the floor at
Hollywood Casino, Bangor, you know, isthat gonna continue to happen, Chris?
100%. You know, as the year goes on,we add additional product to the floor.
Right now we have some big thingson the horizon with more to come.
There's gonna be a lot moreexcitement on the, the slot floor
as we get later in the year.

(08:24):
Fantastic.
And we love, thank you so much Chris.
And I know that there's a lot ofexciting things happening, but anyone
listening, you know, we'd love feedback.
You know, as Chris mentionedearlier, we take off.
Feedback from our customersvery, very seriously.
And a lot of the adjustments wewe make is because of feedback,
because we're, we're always tryingto evolve the casino to be the best
possible experience for our guests.
So we really appreciate your insights.
This is awesome.

(08:45):
And just shows how muchexcitement is on the casino.
And again, if you come down to HollywoodCasino, Bangor, please if there's any
concern or any questions you have, asChris mentioned, there's an entire team.
Looking forward to assisting andmaking sure you have a great time.
Absolutely.
And I just wanna take a momentand, and thank Chris for, for
coming on and, and chatting withus today about slot machines.

(09:06):
Hopefully everybody found thisinformative, but as Mark mentioned,
reach out, let us know what elseyou'd like to know so that we
can get that information to you.
One of the thing is, this isthe last parting question.
No more machines with handlesthat you pull anymore, Chris?
Well, the, the handles aregoing the way of the dinosaur.
You know, we, we do still havesome that come in and those

(09:29):
are on the, uh, the real games.
So very cool.
They're not going away.
Those are some of the,so the classic games.
But again, like Elton said,great to have everyone here.
And again, thanks.
Thanks to everybody for, for listeningin today, and we'll see you next time.
But first, here's what's comingup at Hollywood Casino this week.