gaming:

Wheel of Fortune, Michael Jackson, Megabucks take top slot spot

Aaron Thompson / Special to the Las Vegas Sun

Gene Gabaldon puts a few dollars on a Megabucks machine at the South Point Casino on Friday, Feb. 13, 2009.

Click to enlarge photo

Wheel of Fortune, Michael Jackson and Megabucks ended last year as the top performing slot machines, a quarterly survey of casino operators showed.

Gaming researchers Todd Eilers and Frank Fantini found that Wheel of Fortune outperformed all other slots in the fourth quarter of 2012. The Michael Jackson slot and Megabucks machines tied for second.

IGT, which makes Wheel of Fortune and Megabucks, led the fourth quarter in sales with survey participants purchasing 34 percent of their games from the Reno-based company. Bally, a Las Vegas manufacturer that makes the Michael Jackson game, was second with 16 percent of sales. WMS accounted for 9 percent in sales but was the leading company in leased games.

For new systems, picture-in-picture technology, such as the Bally's iView system drew the most interest among casino operators. A third of survey participants said they plan to install a system this year.

The survey represents 73 operators of 245 casinos with 256,000 slot machines worldwide.

Tags: Business
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