Some weeks ago, 87 video slot machines were pulled from several casinos in Canada, because they showed subliminal messages to players. Now, Canadian casino operator Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. is to decide whether to return the machines to the gaming floors after the manufacturer delivered software to fix the failure.

"We are looking at several weeks before we implement the new software, and at this point it hasn't been fully decided if we will," a spokeswoman for the government agency explained. She added that a decision is expected next week.

In February, the matter became public when the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. filmed the machines and showed the tape in slow motion, showing the subliminal messages. A winning hand was flashed to players every few seconds before the screen began a spin. Some critics argued that such images were used to keep players gambling.

The video slot machines were manufactured by Konami Gaming Inc., a company based in Las Vegas. Although the company denied the existence of the flashing images, they developed software to delete the winning hand image.