California's Slots Operating Tribal Casinos Make Effort to Save Energy
The heat wave that recently landed on California has raised energy consumption awareness among San Diego County's eight Indian casinos. The gaming venues reportedly decided to reduce their electricity consumption by upgrading their air conditioning, heating, and ventilation systems as well as their extremely illuminated slot-machines.
It turns out that the greedy one-armed bandits are voracious electricity consumers. If the casinos were to operate simultaneously all their 13,410 slots at their maximum power, the machines would consume more than 3 megawatts – enough electricity to supply 2,000 homes.
To reduce the power consumed by their slot-machines, over the past two years, casinos converted their terminals to coinless slots that do not require internal motors. Although gaming venues operate a plethora of electronic devices, some casino managers reportedly said that about 50% of the energy they consume was used for the same needs as in other large businesses: mainly air conditioning.
