Jerry - As I said the machines have a problem and the casino finds it easier to just fill the machine instead of complaining to IGT. As most people have found the strike machines will land on the same tube 2 or 3 times in a row before stopping on a different tube, this has been confirmed by both the casino's and the players, it seems there is a problem in the computer program and so far IGT doesn't seem to want to coreect the problem (would cost them money to fix). Different casinos deal with the problem in a couple of differnt ways, they might fill the machine if it is real low on strikes or as I have seen them do they will open the machine and take a few strikes from a full tube and put them in an empty tube, this still doesn't solve the problem of landing on the same tube 2 or 3 times. Only time will tell if anything is going to be done to correct the problems.
Another thing players are not liking is the 2 creit pay for a cherry or mixed bars and the BIG drop in the Max payout, it went from $1000 on the old machines to 500 credits max if on the right payline, but then it was the players who complained about only a single pay line machine and wanted a machine that had 3 pay lines and would pay up to 3 strikes, sometimes it doesn't pay to ask for something to be like it was.
Walt
P.S. I have found that the casino's that still have a single line pay machine to be better for the player in the long run.