Private email to vpFae:
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At EC their positive machine count is continously shrinking. It
is being replaced by penny slots, video keno and horrid pay table
VP. However, for the discerning player, there is still plenty of
good stuff available!
In the "Tower" area (formerly known as the "Classic" area, are
the only 3 remaining marvelous .25c "Downtown Deuces" machines.
You usually have to get up VERY early in the morning to get on
one. All 3 are single-line, slow moving coin-droppers, but
worth the effort to play. One upright is directly in front of
the Lady's Room, another upright is in an angled bank in the
left center of the "Tower" and the third is a slant-top at right
angles to the JW prog.
Also in the Tower Area are 6 slow, coin droppers with
single-line .25c FPKBJW. They are also exceedingly busy.
Additionally, there are 3 M/G machines with the same FPKBJW game.
There are also 6 single-line .25c coin dropper DDW scattered
throughout the Tower.
The Tower has 2 fast meter progs. One is a 10 machine bank of
8/5DDB, at right angles to the stairs, which twice during my
stay had a RF meter over $2800. The other is a KBJW (75 on 4OAK)
along the back wall, which was broken at $4,100 while I was
playing it!
There are several banks of 9/6 DDB in the Tower area also.
In the $1.00 denom. in the Tower Area are one 8/5BP, one M/G
with JOB & BP, four 9/6DDB, one KBJW paying 90 coins on 4OAK,
and $4700 on the RF.
There's not much else to play in this area except 9/6DDB. All
the Multistrike, STP SpinPoker etc. are short pay. In Jan. the
Multistrike had 9/6JOB. Now it's 8/6.
I couldn't find a single NSUD in the entire casino! There used
to be a number of them, on fast TITO machines, in the "alcove
that is no more". Most of the Deuces games, other than those
I've mentioned, are short-pay "Triple Deuces" ($750 for 3 ducks).
I also could not find a playable multiplay machine. All
3/5/10/50/100 play games are short pay. This is a major drawback
for me, since I love multi-play games.
In the casino area that runs along Fremont St., from Careful
Kitty's Coffee Shop to the table game area, are a range of
.25c/.50c/1.00 single line, upright coin-droppers. Among the
games to be found in these slow machines, at all the above
denoms., are FPJW, DDW, 10/7DB, 8/5BP & 9/6DDB.
Also, in this area, and all the way to the end of the "L"
section, are a multitude of fast TITO banks with a lot of short
pay games, as well as 9/6DDB & 8/5BP.
All in all, though I miss good multiline play and NSUD, there is
still plenty of good machine selection at the old El Cortez.
They also offer quarterly FP (now good on all VP) and same day
CB, as well as (IMO) generous comps.