It’s an old-fashioned joy, one which most Las Vegas casinos have phased out: hearing payout coins pinging into the metal tray below. For slot machine gamblers, it creates a musical din, a chiming of celebration—loud and unmistakeable. Not only have you won, but the sound of winning matches your exuberance and lets everyone else know, too.
But let’s face it, the electronic mimicry of this noise at the now-standard digital machines doesn’t come close to the real thing. And rather than scooping up your winnings in double handfuls of coins in a moment of tangible bliss, you’re watching as a paper receipt comes out of the machine (that is, if you press “cash out”).
For those who crave a more tactile experience with coin-operated machines, the El Cortez Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas has a large collection. In fact, it’s one of the few places where you can play both ticket and coin-operated machines. I stayed at this historic hotel—the second oldest in Vegas—and enjoyed playing the coin machines.
Built in 1941 as downtown’s first major resort, the El Cortez was later owned by gangster Bugsy Siegel and once had a pirate theme. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it’s one of the few Las Vegas casinos that never changed its façade. It’s a vintage beauty with its Spanish architecture and 1952 neon arrow, marquee and signature large roof sign still in place. My husband and I stayed in one of the original 47 rooms (remodeled in 2022 and charmingly period-decorated) where we could see part of the neon sign just outside our window. Best of all, those rooms are up a short staircase from the gaming floor, a refreshing change from the miles of hallways and long elevator rides you experience in the Strip hotels. You’re steps away from the Fremont Street Experience and our favorite restaurant, Evel Pie, which is an Evel Knievel themed pizzeria.
If you want to upgrade your stay, the Jackie Gaughan suite is a masterpiece of pink kitsch where one-time owner Jackie lived with his wife Bertie (she picked out the furnishings that give a retro thrill). You might also recognize the suite from the Ellie Goulding video for “On My Mind.”
I’ve had a fondness for the hotel since decades ago when you could play quarter craps here—as in, yes, playing for only 25 cents. I marveled how the dealers could calculate the payouts with such an odd number. Now, the tables have a $10 buy-in. I headed to the coin-operated slot machines area to talk to players and find out why they were choosing the old-school one-arm bandits.
I caught Texans Rusty and Heather Odom playing the Double Diamond machine. Rusty told me, “It’s the adrenaline of hearing what you win hit the metal down there. With the new ones it’s all electronic, but you don’t hear what you’re winning.” Heather remembers that in the old days your hands would get black from touching the coins. “I looked up on my phone the older machines in Vegas,” she said. “I was looking for a machine called the Monte Carlo. It was my father’s favorite machine.” Her father won $20,000 on that game a few years ago and turned the winnings into a multimillion-dollar solar business. Heather says she tried looking for it all over—on the Strip, in New Orleans—but couldn’t find it.
Deborah Castillo of San Antonio said, “Any time I hear about the old machines, I’m there. For me it’s nostalgia and also, just holding the coin in your hand makes you feel like a winner.” She says a friend told her where to find them.
Barbara Kragor of Atlanta told me she’d been coming to the El Cortez for 45 years. Her favorite of these slot machines is Double Red White and Blue. She said that the machines used to pay out with Eisenhower silver dollars. “I have hundreds at home in bags,” she said. She pointed out that while the machines are coin operated, they use El Cortez tokens rather than your own pocket change. In a later email, Kragor explained that the U.S. stopped producing 90 percent silver Peace dollars in 1935 and not until 1971 was another dollar coin issued: the Eisenhower dollar. These were made until 1978. When the government stopped distributing them, casinos began making tokens that were the same size. The casinos “had reserves that lasted for a while, but they disappeared quickly,” said Kragor. “Every time I found one, I brought it home and over the years collected hundreds.”
Fred Williams of Long Beach said, “I started on these things back in the fifties and sixties and you get used to hearing the clink clink clink instead of the boom boom boom. Money in the tray seems better than money in the credits. It’s psychological.” He also made the excellent point that “it’s more economical to play these because it takes time to put money in the machine and for the coins to pay out, so in the long run you’re putting less money in.”
I left that area and wandered into an entire room full of coin-op poker machines. Kate Roessler was playing there. She praised the machines for their slow and transparent operation, saying that with ticket-based machines you’re not as aware of how the game is going. With the newer machines, “the cards lay out too fast to see,” but the older ones go more slowly and feel like someone is dealing cards to you. You’re also more in touch with your own balance. “I don’t even know when I lose money. I don’t even notice. People like the old machines. Even if they lose, they feel comfortable.” She said that the El Cortez is a locals’ place. She lives in Las Vegas; “that’s the problem,” she joked.
While the El Cortez boasts the most coin machines of any hotel in Vegas with 60 to choose from, there are a few other places you can find them. You can play with $1 tokens in the main casino at Circus Circus or use quarters in some machines at the hotel arcade Slots A Fun. Technically, Slots A Fun has more coin machines than the El Cortez, but it’s not a hotel (it’s owned by Circus Circus and is next door to it). At The D, there’s one coin-op game, Sigma Derby, a horse-racing simulator with five mechanical horses that circle around a course; you play with quarters to bet on your horse to win or place. You can also find a few coin-op machines at the California downtown, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.