Can casinos set slot machines

New casino sites to play real money

As an aside, the topic of randomness is actually quite interesting. True randomness is very difficult, if not literally impossible, to generate. Often, when randomness is needed in either an mechanical or electronic device, various methods are used which are “random enough.” so, you’ll likely want to know who controls slot machine odds when you’re choosing between, for instance, an older, pre-2012 casino with standalone slot machines or a racino with many new video slot machines.

Can you guess who controls slot machine odds?

Introduction to controls slot machine odds

Who controls slot machine odds is a popular question from slots enthusiasts. It’s quite an interesting question, which I thought my audience would appreciate an answer to.

My most recent encounter with this general question was during the Q&A segment of another gambling podcast, episode #634 from five hundy by midnight. They had a question from david which was, “when a new themed penny slot debuts, what is the typical hold percentage? Does it vary by machine, casino, or both?”

Tim and michelle, co-hosts of the long-lasting five hundy by midnight, a gambling podcast that’s all about las vegas, answered the question well, if somewhat briefly.

I’m sure my own audience would like the answer too, so I’m providing a few more details as well as a more general answer with a bit of the why of it all.

This segment has the following sections:

Introduction

A bit of background on legal requirements

A bit of history on physically setting odds

Slot machine types based on how odds are set

Identifying who controls slot machine odds

Does it really matter who controls slot machine odds? Yes!!

Summary

Keep reading … or listen instead!

… or watch!

A bit of background on legal requirements

To answer this question, I’ll need to delve into a bit of recent history to explain how odds are set in older-style standalone slot machines using a random number generator (RNG). This way is how many people incorrectly believe the odds are currently set on ALL slot machines.

However, starting around 2008, a lot changed with setting slot machine odds. These changes are due to the emergence of new gaming technologies, not only in slot machines but also with the development of casino operating software. Both provide casinos with an increased operating efficiency and therefore low operating costs.

With so many more people visiting casinos in the last decade, and with their profit margins getting smaller every year, casino operators find they cannot afford to ignore the savings opportunities of new technologies.

The second driver for this change to how slot machines are controlled is due to ongoing developments in statutory regulations for gaming jurisdictions. In the U.S., these gaming jurisdictions are the states, territories, or federal district that legally allow gaming.

In essence, casino operators have to follow the gaming regulations for the jurisdiction wherein they are located. In part, these gaming jurisdictions often include laws which place an upper and lower limit on the pay back return for slot machines.

To not lose their gaming license, or to otherwise get in trouble with gaming control authorities, casino operators must remain in compliance with these legal gaming requirements.

Note that commercial casinos have to be comply to gaming regulations as set by the U.S. State, territory, or federal district they are located in. Native american tribal casinos also have to comply with their own set of gaming requirements, which are usually not based on state law.

Rather, these are defined by negotiation between a federally-recognized tribe and the state within which they are located by carefully crafting a state-tribal compact ultimately approved by the U.S. Department of the interior.

So, within this overall context, who controls slot machine odds? At a high level, gaming regulators determine the legal limits, if any, for payout returns on slot machines. This is accomplished via state law or negotiated compacts, and usually not changed for a decade, if that often.

Casinos operators are, often but not always, required to provide weekly or monthly reports on actual payout returns to show their gaming authority they are compliant. Sometimes, depending on each gaming jurisdiction, these statistical reports are then provided to the public by the state gaming commission.

Going further, these regular reports can break down these actual payout returns by casino, table games, slot machines, gaming machines, by the denomination of slot machines within a specific casino, or even if the machine has a progressive jackpot. What is done is very specific to the gaming jurisdiction where the casino is located.

Given all these variability of what is or is not done within a U.S. Gaming jurisdiction, I’ve created an online series of posts for my audience of slots enthusiasts. It’s meant to help them navigate this dynamic environment of state-specific gaming regulations.

For more information on your specific state, territory, or federal district of interest, see slot machine casino gambling, state-by-state: A weekly blog.

So, at its high level, slot machines are controlled by gaming regulators by the placement of legal requirements for payout return percentages. Sometimes, however, these state-specific gaming regulators do not set limits on payout returns. Put another way, they have deliberately chosen to not set legal limits.

When this happens, somewhat obviously, casino operators do not have a legal requirement for setting payout returns. However, to remain open and not close due to lack of customers, they still have to be careful to not set their payout returns too low.

It’s worth noting that most gaming regulations set a low limit on payout returns to which casino operators deliberately stay well above. To do so is just good business.

A bit of history on physically setting odds

The random number generator (RNG) was developed for slot machines by bally technologies in 1984. About a decade later, most slot machines had this RNG, which allowed for easily adjustable odds of winning.

Beforehand, the odds of winning were set in an entirely mechanical manner. This worked well for decades, until the technical development of slot machines began to cause difficulties. Basically, as credits to bet and number of pay lines increased, the physical mechanisms for determining odds began to reach certain physical limits.

Slot enthusiasts loved having a choice of how many credits to bet, as well as playing a slot machine with more than one pay line. Increased credits and pay lines also led to much higher jackpots.

All of these developments led to odds of winning being needed for many more possible outcomes, which mechanical devices for determining the odds of winning began to not be able to handle. In fact, these mechanical devices began to fall behind and actually became less and less random in nature.

Technically speaking, there is no such thing as an existing perfectly random number generator. At best, there are only pseudo random number generators, one variant of which was patented by bally technologies in 1984.

Moving away from our brief sortie into the philosophy of randomness, the invention of the RNG solved for slot machine manufacturers this limitation of mechanical devices for determining randomness in slot machines. But, it created another problem: with adjustable odds of winning via electronic rngs, casinos would need to have a large workforce to do that adjusting.

And so, that is what casinos did. They built and trained a workforce of slot mechanics to adjust the odds of winning on their new slot machines to meet their desired performance metrics.

However, the size of that workforce would increase tremendously depending on how often those odds of winning were adjusted. For older style slot machines, this is at least 7 days and may be as much as 2 weeks, as I’ve expressed in professor slots episode #21: winning at slots on older casinos-kentucky slots 2018.

Most recently, since 2012 or so, relatively newer casinos have been able to reduce this costly workforce thanks to new casino operating systems. These systems not only help casinos manage large promotional events with less overall issues, but also allow them to remotely adjust the odds of winning on slot machines connected to the casino’s central computer system.

Of course, this connection to the casino’s central computer system is currently limited to a wired connection due to potential security concerns as well as WIFI bandwidth limits. As a result, using a central computer in this manner is only possible if all the slot machines are physically “wired up.”

Doing so requires sufficient building infrastructure, such as clearance beneath floors and behind walls, to allow for these many, many cable connections. This is only practically possible in all new casinos being built as well as older casinos being heavily renovated. That is to say, renovated to have far more than simply new carpeting and wallpaper.

With wired connections from slot machines to a central computer, the reduced cost of a smaller workforce of slot mechanics, much faster adjustment of casino performance metrics to daily or even hourly updates, and more satisfied customers due to efficiently run events, the question remains. Who controls slot machine odds?

To get closer to the answer to this question, we’ll next have to discuss how the legal limits of payout returns are set on actual slot machines. Why? Because slot machines can be categorized by how their odds are set. And, how those odds are physically set will tell us who really controls them.

Slot machine types based on how odds are set

Slot machines can be divided up into methods by which their odds of winning are set. These slot machine types include:

Standalone

Casino-specific progressives

Multi-casino progressives

State-wide progressives

Remotely controlled onsite by casino

Remotely controlled offsite by gaming regulators

Standalone slot machines are those which are most often found in older casinos, but are technically slot machines including within their cabinets the ability to set and provide odds of winning with a random number generator. A workforce of slot mechanics adjust the odds of winning periodically as directed by the casino operator.

In general, there is a limited number of settings available for these older slot machines. Youtube videos are available from individuals who have personally purchased an older style, standalone slot machine showing exactly how these odds are set.

For those videos I have viewed, there were six possible settings which could be entered after opening up the slot machine door. These settings were based on codes from a booklet provided by the slot machine manufacturer.

Keep in mind that videos such as these are the general source of knowledge most people have about the internal workings of slot machines. Employees of slot machine manufacturers and casinos with access to these payout settings simply aren’t sharing this information due to non-disclosure agreements and other legal restrictions.

Besides which, accessing the control for changing the odds of a slot machine is quite problematic. The slot machine is alarmed, so any tampering without official access (employee card key, entry code, physical key) are required to even open a slot machine door. Not to mention, the casino surveillance system sees all.

Discussing the three types of progressive slot machines mentioned will be the dedicated topic for another time. I’d discuss how the ownership of these progressive slot machines matters with regards to how the odds of winning are set. Briefly, the amount of the progressive jackpot is primarily based on how many slot machines are included.

For instance, these can be a carousel of slot machines in a certain area of a casino, it can be a larger number of slot machines located throughout a casino, or a large group of progressive slot machines located at multiple casinos.

These large group could actually be of two types: multiple properties of the same casino operator, or multiple casino operators, within a single gaming jurisdiction, i.E., state.

Already discussed are slot machines remotely controlled onsite at a casino through the use of a central computer operating system. Only new or heavily renovated casinos have the facility infrastructure to handle the sheer number of cables necessary.

If they are controlled onsite, these slot machines have their odds of winning adjusted daily or hourly by remote access. How often these adjustments are made is, rather unfortunately at this time, a matter of debate.

I’m currently trying to track down state legal requirements of which I’d heard rumors. The rumor I heard was that a slot machine must be idle for at least 15 minutes without a players card being inserted before the casino is allowed, if desired, to remotely adjust its odds of winning. Further, the rumor stated that this practice was typical and originally based on nevada gaming regulations.

However, this rumor doesn’t pass the so-called smell test. At this time, I’ve currently reviewed state gaming regulations for over 38 U.S. States, territories, or a federal district. I’ve yet to find any substantiation for this rumor. Alternatively, it may well be an accepted business practice built-in to the advanced casino operating systems.

Why do I feel strongly that slots players are protected from having their odds of winnings reduced while playing? It’s simple – the state control board controls the odds of winning on slot machines, and everything I’ve seen, read, and studied tells me they work for you.

I just can’t imagine state gaming commissions would allow something this untoward, this nefarious even, to occur. They have careful casino operating system approval processes in place to prevent it, they watch casino operations like hawks (often from within the casino), and any casino that decides not to be fully compliant is in for a world of hurt if/when caught.

Finally, there are slot machines having their odds controlled off-site by state gaming regulators. These are most or all video lottery terminals style slot machines.

Video lottery terminals are, as their name implies, instant lottery machines. That means they are controlled by the state lottery, which is set up to remotely handle many, many such terminals at any given moment.

Identifying who controls slot machine odds

Who controls slot machine odds at a casino you are considering whether or not to visit? Who controls slot machine odds on the slot machine you’re sitting at?

As I’ve discussed before, both on my webpage assessing casinos as well as professor slots podcast episode #3: assessing casinos, alaska slots 2017, deciding which local casino you want to spend your time at is an important decision for determining your baseline success at slots.

So, you’ll likely want to know who controls slot machine odds when you’re choosing between, for instance, an older, pre-2012 casino with standalone slot machines or a racino with many new video slot machines.

The top level choice is really about your own gambling goals, as also discussed on my webpage identifying gambling goals or, alternatively, within professor slots podcast episode #5: identifying gambling goals, arizona slots 2017.

But, whether your gambling goal is entertainment, earning maximum comps, or take-home money, having better odds of winning on a slot machine will help accomplish that goal. So, ignoring other important considerations such as drive time, the spread of the buffet, players club, and etc., the type of slot machine is definitely a consideration.

Casinos with standalone slot machines where the actual machine in front of you has its own dedicated random number generator is relatively easily determined. Ask someone, how old is the casino?

Or, if you don’t want to ask someone or look it up online, just take a look at the slot machine in front of you. Specifically, look at the player card interface area. What does its display look like? Is it a touchscreen display?

Or an LED display like those seen outside of a bank showing the time and temperature for a passerby to see? If it’s a touchscreen, the slot machine is most likely not standalone. If it’s an LED, it most likely is a standalone slot machine.

Determining whether or not a progressive slot machine is connected to a single carousel, across several carousels within a casino, across several casinos owned by a single casino operator, or across several casino operator properties will be, as previously mentioned, the topic of an upcoming post.

Next up are non-video slot machines with touchscreens at the players card interface. These are all slot machines centrally controlled by a computer onsite at the casino. You can confirm this by learning the date of the casino’s original opening or when it was last heavily renovated.

Keep in mind that a very few casinos have both, assuming they have expanded their original structure not by renovating it, but by building a new casino facility right next to it.

This is the case with foxwoods resort, which is itself an older style casino. However, they recently build fox tower right next to it, which is a newer style casino.

Finally, there are video slot machines. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to tell the difference between a video slot machine and a video lottery terminal. A video slot machine is controlled onsite by the central computer at the casino. A video lottery terminal is controlled offsite by the state lottery.

The only sure way to tell the difference between these two slot machine types is to take a look at what the state gaming commission says they are at that casino.

For instance, in ohio, there are currently 4 commercial casino resorts and 7 pari-mutual racinos. The 4 casinos have traditional reel and video slot machines all controlled by a central computer located onsite.

However, ohio’s seven racinos have a mix of traditional reel and video lottery terminals slot machines. The traditional reel slot machines are controlled onsite with a central computer while all of the video lottery terminals, which externally look exactly like video slot machines, are controlled offsite by the state lottery’s central computer systems.

Does it really matter who controls slot machine odds? Yes!!

With this improved understanding of how casinos work, let’s consider these two facts. First, that there are types of slot machines, specifically those that are standalone or remotely controlled by casino operator or state. Second, that there are the several ways slot machines can have their odds of winning set on an ongoing basis, depending on their specific type.

So yes, actually, it does matter who controls slot machine odds. Why? Because this is where patterns of winning are found. When slot machines are set up to be as random as possible, and that assigned level of randomness is unchanged over days and weeks, then long-term statistical principles rule.

Meaning, on average over the long haul, people will always loss money playing slots. Put another way, profits are only possible in the short term.. This specifically applies to all slot machines controlled by the state, such as video lottery terminals.

However, when the odds are changed hourly or set over 100% for promotional purposes, then there are better times to play a slot machine – and all that slot enthusiasts need do is figure out when that better time is in order to win more and, potentially, make some level of profit. That’s what I did: I made a profit at slots by looking for and finding winning patterns, when I won 90 taxable jackpots in 9 months.

Only casino operators change their odds hourly or deliberately adjust them for promotional purposes. The state has no need or desire to do so, getting their money no matter what, while the casino is a business, with stockholders and a board of directors, obligated to try to succeed financially.

The casino puts in the time and energy to hit their financial performance metrics. The casinos hire the best general manager who themselves hire the best possible team.

Put another way, the casino has a business need to adjust the odds of winning on their slot machines to eke out a living while the state only needs to be patient. Businesses are not patient – they try things in their ongoing quest for success.

And, really, that struggle is what has changed since around 2012 with the technology behind the winning odds of slot machines. Casinos are always trying new things. And, when they have control over setting the odds on slot machines, they adjust them to try to succeed.

Before 2012, this amounted to increasing the odds of winning to be over 100% on a single slot machine near a busy area in their casino, as a promotional tool with its own limited budget.

With the new casino operating technologies, casinos have been given a finer control over setting those odds. This has allowed them to try new things, which they very much like to do. These new things are to adjust the odds on slot machines more often than ever before.

In financial terms, they’re trying to tune their financial performance metrics on a daily or even hourly basis, something that was never before possible.

I’ve never worked for a casino, so have never been pitched a new casino operating system by a slot machine manufacturer’s sales team. But, it’s obvious that this “tuning” is part of the pitch being made to casino operators. Without having seen it, how can I believe this? Simple. I’ve won a lot at slots through pattern recognition.

What’s happened is that, and it matters not at all how it came about, casinos have obviously bought into the idea of finely tuning their financial performance metrics.

In the case of slot machines, which is the only game as casino offers that I’m interested in, they’ve broken the long-term constant randomness of the odds of winning on a slot machine. Therefore, as all statisticians know, patterns emerge.

So, again, yes it does matter who controls slot machine odds, because those controlled by the casino have had their randomness broken. It matters because slots enthusiasts can look for emerging patterns on these casino-controlled machines, then use them to win more.

In the future, I’ll talk more about the winning patterns I’ve found using this understanding. In the meantime, I hope I’ve made it clear how and why they exist.

Summary of can you guess who controls slot machine odds?

In summary, who controls slot machine odds is answered by understanding they are controlled by the machine, the casino staff, both, possibly the state if the machine is a video lottery terminal, and by slot machine manufacturers themselves in the case of most progressive slot machines.

This control over the odds of winning was historically a mechanical device supplanted by an electronic random number generator invented in 1984, afterwards allowing slots machines to be developed having more credits, denominations, and pay lines as well as higher jackpots.

There’s currently older-style casinos with standalone slot machines and newer-style casinos built to have the facility infrastructure necessary for physically wiring up their slot machines to be remotely controlled by a computer server.

I’ve discussed how to tell the difference, as well as explained how slot machines can be remotely controlled by the casino or, in the case of video lottery terminals, by computers established for this purpose by the state lottery agency.

Finally, I’ve discussed if any of this matters to slots enthusiasts looking for an advantage. It does matter. In essence, any slot machines with odds of winning directly controlled by a casino have patterns of winning because casinos keep adjusting those odds to meet their financial performance metrics.

These patterns make it possible for savvy slots enthusiasts to improve their own gambling performance.

Inside the myth that casinos can change slots RTP at will

Return to player (RTP) is one of the most-important concepts to slots players. Payback determines how much the average player wins from a slot machine.

A slots game with 95% RTP, for example, would theoretically deliver $0.95 back for every $1 wagered. A slot machine with 88% payback would only offer $0.88 for each dollar wagered.

Gamblers want to know slots’ RTP for obvious reasons. Knowing a machine’s payout percentage provides an indication on your long-term odds of winning.

But one of the most-common fears is that casinos can simply change slots odds whenever they feel like it. Many gamblers are convinced that casinos alter RTP for a variety of reasons, whether it’s to lower payback during busy hours or simply earn more overall profits.

This fear seems valid when considering that players don’t see the inner workings of slot machines. But are casinos really able to alter payback on a whim?

I’m going to discuss this matter by looking at how casinos change RTP, common beliefs on the subject and casino limitations in controlling payback.

Slot machine RTP is determined by the pay table and how often each prize is programmed to hit.

The pay schedule shows how many credits each symbol combination delivers. The pay table only tells so much, though, and doesn’t show how often each payout is programmed hit.

A random number generator (RNG) ultimately determines which symbol combinations come up on each spin. Contrary to common opinion, the RNG does not determine payback.

Instead, this program merely cycles through different symbol combinations to determine the results of your spin. The RNG is more likely to include symbols that have a higher number of stops.

An RNG has no recollection of what happens on your previous spins. Instead, its main job is to come up with random results.

Again, icons with many stops will be chosen by the RNG more frequently than other symbols.

Casinos don’t need to worry about programming payout percentages — this is the game developer’s job. Instead, they simply consider what RTP they want to order for a given game.

Providers give land-based casinos a number of options to choose from when ordering payback.

MGM grand wants to order aristocrat’s game of thrones.

Aristocrat offers RTP choices of 88.0%, 90.0%, 92.0%, and 94.0%.

MGM selects the version with 92.0% payback.

Online slots developers usually offer a uniform RTP for any game that they produce. Internet casinos that license their slots are then forced to use the provider’s chosen payout percentage.

But a minority of online slots providers do let casinos choose from preset RTP amounts (covered later).

How casinos change payout percentages depends upon the style of game. Payback for most land-based slot machines is determined by the EPROM chip located inside.

A gambling establishment can alter a machine’s RTP as long as they have the EPROM chip, which is sometimes the case. Theoretically, any casino that has these chips can change payback whenever they like.

The catch, though, is that many gambling jurisdictions require the casinos to report when they alter a game’s RTP. This process requires that a casino manager spends time filling out paperwork.

Some slot machines operate on downloadable software, which comes from a central server. In these cases, the casino doesn’t have to open a game and change a chip.

Instead, they can simply download the software to alter RTP. But just as with replacing an EPROM chip, casinos need to follow their jurisdiction’s guidelines when changing server-based payout percentages.

For starters, gambling venues can’t make these changes when somebody is playing a machine. Furthermore, they have to wait a certain amount of time before altering any game settings.

Some slots players believe that casino owners and management can change RTP across the board by simply flipping a switch. This theory has been furthered propelled bythe rise of video slots.

Very few land-based slot machines operate on mechanical reels and levers these days. Instead, casinos mainly feature video slots that run through software programs.

Of course, gamblers’ fears are only magnified when dealing with online casinos. These websites are headquartered far away from most players, leading to concerns that internet casinos can do anything they want to slots payback without anybody knowing.

But what else beyond suspected greed leads players to believe that casinos will cheat them through lower RTP?

A driving force behind conspiracy theories is how slot machines are the streakiest casino game. Most slots only see players win around 20-40% of their spins, even with every payline activated.

Such low hit frequency leads gamblers to experience long losing streaks. In turn, these cold streaks cause players to theorize that casinos have changed RTP.

Contrary to what some players believe, casinos don’t simply alter payout percentages whenever they feel like winning more money. Instead, gambling venues must go through the proper channels.

Earlier I covered how many jurisdictions require casinos to submit paperwork before changing the EPROM chip inside a slot machine.

Not only does an important employee waste time filling out paperwork and sending it to the local gambling control commission, but the casino must also pay for another EPROM chip. These chips are expensive, meaning it’s not economically viable to continue changing RTP.

Of course, server-based slot machines can be altered faster without opening machines. But there are deterrents from doing this as well.

Some las vegas slot machines are so popular that they have people standing off to the side waiting to play. Therefore, casinos can’t change RTP for these games until things slow down in the middle of the night.

More importantly, gambling establishments don’t like tying up games and preventing people from playing. This creates another situation where it doesn’t make economic sense to put games down for maintenance just to constantly change payback.

Casino employees’ time is valuable, especially with regard to managers. It would be a waste of resources and manpower to alter RTP from machine to machine.

Of course, none of this subsides fears that online casinos can change payout percentages as they please. But gaming sites face roadblocks in this regard too.

In fewer cases, online casinos can choose from different RTP options just like land-based establishments. Realtime gaming (RTG) commonly does this by offering their clients payout percentages ranging from 91.0% to 97.5%.

Casinos must decide on the chosen payback when ordering a certain game. They can’t, however, ask RTG to change payout percentages back and forth every day.

RTG allows gaming sites to choose from different payout percentages due to the various bonuses offered through their software setup. RTG offers total casino packages where they handle the bonuses, games, and more. Clients have some flexibility here and can either choose high bonuses with low slots RTP or vice versa.

In any case, you can see that there’s nothing nefarious going on with the average online casino and game provider. This is especially true when considering that many slots developers and casinos undergo third-party auditing to ensure that their games offer fair and random results.

Earlier I mentioned how some players believe that casinos can merely flip a switch to change all of their slot machines’ RTP.

I dismiss this idea, because casinos need to go through the proper channels to change payback. But is there any shred of truth to the switch-flipping concept?

A 2006 new york times piece offers evidence that it’s possible for casinos to quickly change RTP for many different games.

This article revolves around a treasure island casino executive named justin beltram, who discusses how his casino was undergoing a technology experiment at the time.

The piece reads that “with a few clicks of his mouse” beltram can reprogram the “denominations required to play, payback percentages, even game themes” for all of treasure island’s 1,790 slot machines.

Much of the article deals with how easy it is to change settings in server-based slots versus the EPROM-chip games. Beltram notes that he could change a game’s settings within “20 seconds” using this technology, compared to the lengthy and complicated process of opening machines to alter settings.

The executive also squashed the notion that his casino would abuse this power to win more money from players. Beltram insists that such practices would be bad for business and possibly lead to trouble with gaming regulators.

David G. Schwartz, director for UNLV’s center for gaming research, did express concerns about casinos changing payback through servers. “let’s say you’re playing at 2 and you’re doing great and you come back at 6 and the pay tables have changed,” explains schwartz.

While this is a valid concern, lowering odds and causing players to lose more is counterproductive to business. Nobody wants to play at a casino where they think that the odds are stacked against them.

Overall, the article suggests that while it’s possible for casinos to quickly change slots payback with server technology, this concept is more about meeting customer demands than anything.

Long story short, casino managers don’t have time to sit in their back office and switch RTP every time that they see somebody winning. Casinos already have the edge over players, and it’s not worth the time or repercussions to con gamblers.

The thought that casinos instantaneously change all of their slots payback is only one misbelief regarding the subject. Here are a few more myths surrounding how casinos handle slots RTP.

Slots payback happens on a cycle

Some gamblers are convinced that slots payout percentages happen on a cycle. This idea stems from the belief that slot machines are programmed to offer payouts at specific intervals.

Here’s an example of how one might conceptualize this:

Jackpot pays exactly once every 1 million spins.

1,000-coin prize pays every 250,000 spins.

500-coin prize pays every 50,000 spins.

100-coin prize pays every 10,000 spins.

50-coin prize pays every 5,000 spins.

5-coin prize pays every 50 spins.

1-coin prize pays every 10 spins.

Players who believe that slot machines work like this often think that they can win a jackpot by playing at the right point. They look for a jackpot that hasn’t been won in a while and start playing in hopes that the game is nearing the end of its payout cycle.

But slots results are determined by an RNG, which has no recollection of previous payouts and merely continues generating random results.

Jackpots and other payouts are programmed with specific odds. Certain jackpots may very well be programmed to pay every 1 million spins on average.

But the key is that this prize doesn’t have to pay out after exactly 1 million rounds. Instead, the jackpot can hit at 500k spins or 2 million spins.

Casinos change RTP during the day and night

Another common slots myth is that casinos alter payout percentages throughout the day. This theory is based on the logic that slot machines are more generous during the less-busy day hours and tighter during the busier evening hours.

It makes sense to believe that casinos would tighten payback when they have more slots customers. Doing so would enable them to earn far more profits.

If a slot has a 5% house edge, this means that casinos are winning a nickel for every dollar wagered by players. Assuming a gambler bets $600 per hour, the casino is making $30 on average (600 x 0.05).

The last thing a gambling establishment wants to do is lower payback and discourage people from playing during busy hours.

Many gamblers already become suspicious that payback has changed when they go through cold streaks. Casinos don’t want to add fuel to this fire by actually altering RTP just to increase an advantage that they already have.

Native american casinos can do whatever they want

I’ve covered the limitations facing gaming sites and commercial land-based casinos when altering slots payout percentages. But what about native american casinos?

Some slots players believe that US tribal casinos can do whatever they want, because they’re located on sovereign ground. The reality, though, is that native american casinos don’t have as much free rein as people think.

These casinos must comply with gambling regulations set forth by the tribe’s gambling commission. These standards are defined by negotiations between tribes and the state where they’re located.

Once the state and tribe come to an agreement, the pact must be approved by the US department of the interior.

Contrary to some players’ opinions, native american gambling venues don’t make rules as they go and change slots payback whenever. Instead, they too have regulations that are discussed and approved by multiple parties.

Many gamblers picture casinos fiendishly lowering slots RTP to maximize their profits. But these theories are the result of misunderstandings about how the gambling industry works.

Most land-based and online casinos operate in jurisdictions that impose restrictions on alerting payout percentages. Some jurisdictions go as far as to require paperwork every time that casinos want to change RTP.

In other cases, gambling venues can quickly change payback through server technology. Even this comes with restrictions, though, including a machine being down while the casino changes payback.

You can generally assume that most land-based slot machines offer anywhere from 88% to 95% RTP. Penny and nickel slots comprise the lower end, while quarter denominations and above constitute the higher end.

Online slots usually deliver between 95% and 97% payback. You can google individual slots or game providers to research online payout percentages.

You have little reason to fear casinos lowering RTP to a ridiculously small percentage. They have too much at stake if they’re caught, and gambling jurisdictions have rules against doing so.

Are casinos able to change slot payouts?

Casinos are not able to change slot payouts, slot machines come with an already set payout percentage, when a casino places an order for a slot it specifies the long-term payout percentage it wants. Although, depending on the jurisdiction the casino may or may not be able to change the payback percentages at a later stage.

For example, in nevada, casinos are able to change the slot payout percentages by ordering a new chip from the manufacturer, the chips in the slot machines are then swapped and it is only allowed when all the appropriate paperwork is filled with the state to inform them of the change. Some of the later model slot machines support downloadable software, should a casino request a change in payout percentages the software can be sent via a central server and the slot machine can be updated without physically being opened. Yet there are strict rules in place regarding software changes and the casino is unable to make these changes on any slot while anyone is playing on it.

What is the immediate payback percentage on slots?

What can casinos change via the configuration menu?

What are the typical payout percentages on slots?

When it comes to slots the house edge or advantage is replaced by the payback percentage, these vary from one software supplier to the next and from one slot to the other. Some of the most popular online slots offer a payback percentage of 99%, which is much higher than that offered by land-based slot machines, which offer around 79% to 85% on average. It is most important to remember the theoretical payout percentage are calculated over an extended time-period.

Doug holmes author

Doug is a passionate slot fan and an expert in the gaming industry and has written extensively about online slot games and various other related information pertaining to online slots. In his spare time, he enjoys time with friends and family, reading, travelling, and of course, playing the slots.

Do casinos control who wins on slots?

The first time I saw people use member cards for slot games, I didn’t know what they were. I asked the man sitting next to me and he explained a few details about the rewards club. But he wasn’t using a card himself.

When I asked him why, he said he once had a card but stopped winning when he played with the card. He thought the casino was monitoring his playing and adjusting the slot game results.

This rumor has circulated both online and offline for many years. It’s normal for people to hear something repeatedly and wonder if there is truth to it. But I’ve never found any proof that casinos can change the way slot games play by flipping a switch.

What makes it difficult to combat this idea and other rumors about slot machines is the many different markets where you find them. Slot machine games are regulated by each country. Complying with different regulations may mean that a slot maker must change how its games work.

The clearest example I can give is how slot games are decided in the united states. Class II slot games decide the outcome on the basis of one random number then configure the display to match that result. Class III games use several random numbers to control the reels.

How modern slot machine games work

There aren’t many physical slot games left. They’re all electronic now, and the electronic machines use random number generator chips to decide results.

But there is more involved than just generating a random number. The “slots” in the slot games are spaces on reels. The computers now simulate these reels.

Former and current slot machine manufacturing employees answer questions about game design on several websites including quora. This answer was posted in september 2014, and it explains how the simulated reels are managed by software.

The programs to simulate the reels and assign the random numbers are etched into roms, read-only memory chips. These roms must be physically changed by a technician to change how the game payout percentages work.

Legitimate online casino operators lease games from service providers

There are over 2,000 online casinos. It’s impossible to be sure about how they all manage their slot games. But what is known about the most popular casinos is that they don’t run their slot games from their own servers.

Instead the online casinos lease game services from secure data centers. These gaming platforms are run by companies like blue ocean and everymatrix. Some of the game design companies also run their own servers, leasing resources to online casinos.

Although it would be simple for online gaming companies to switch things up, they would risk losing independent certifications if they allowed the games to be rigged.

There’s no need for casinos to adjust the percentages. They can order the percentage breakouts for house edge and return to player that they want to offer. This way, they maintain competitiveness and support long-term profitability.

Many games publish the theoretical return to player

Some slot games include the theoretical return to player in their help screens.

If the players see that RTP has been adjusted downward, they can play elsewhere. If players only suspect that the RTP has been adjusted without proper notification, they might still leave.

Casinos need players. The best strategy to grow their customer base is to keep game rewards high enough to make the risk worthwhile.

Some governments regulate return to player percentages

Licensed gaming casinos must comply with local laws governing their businesses. Some countries provide more regulation than others.

In the united states, commercial land-based casinos are regulated by their states. However, native american casinos are mostly regulated by the tribal governments that own them. Each jurisdiction has the authority to set minimal RTP percentages to ensure the casinos don’t make too much money.

The 1988 indian gaming regulatory act creates the legal framework used by tribes to protect their traditional gaming activities from state regulatory laws. The act also defines the three classes of gaming and how they are to be regulated.

Class II games are regulated by the tribes but only in states that allow any kind of gaming. Only class III games are subject solely to state regulation.

True slot machine games are class III games. Native american casinos offer class II bingo games that are made to look like slot games. The game cabinets must display the casino bingo games that are used to determine wins.

Class II slot machines may have reels and bonus games but they’re not really slot machine games as defined by federal law.

How do you determine the odds that a slot game pays?

Casinos may or may not be required to declare the return to player for their slot games. Some casinos place a plate or sticker on their slot games with a notice. Other casinos leave it to the game help screens (thus, the manufacturers) to inform players.

The games’ odds may be reported as a theoretical RTP percentage, but they could also be reported as a ratio, similar to the way lottery games declare chances of winning a prize. Either way, these games don’t have to tell you how often to expect to win a prize of any amount.

Some players merely judge the looseness of slot games by how much money they win or how often they win as they play the games.

Some players judge the looseness of slot games by how popular they appear to be. This observational strategy assumes that the crowd knows more than the individual.

One of my friends tells me he only plays slot games with low jackpots. His reasoning is that players need to lose less money for someone to win $10,000 than for someone to win $20,000.

Slot machines may have programmed payout limits

In another post on quora from 2016, someone claimed to have industry experience in the caribbean.

In his post, he said that a machine won’t pay more than it has accumulated after the first month of operation. That first month establishes the limit based on the profit the machine made.

The system is designed to be random within a range of percentages. The software decides when and how much to pay but won’t go over the monthly limit.

It should be obvious that this limit could be reset.

The games are designed to be as random as possible

People who design and repair slot machine games express much trust in the random number generator chips these games use. The rngs, as they are called, use the latest available algorithms at the time they are manufactured.

Math has not yet progressed to the point where truly random numbers can be generated. Mechanical devices require input from an outside source to be truly random.

The way slot game designers handle this limitation is they design the chips to generate thousands of random numbers every second. The random numbers each take a turn at being available for use by the game.

Because of the percentage payouts and internal limits they use, slot machine games don’t have to be reprogrammed to improve casino profits. Everything is designed to run with as little intervention as possible.

And that is better for the casino because the more they can intervene in a game’s function, the more likely they’ll face regulation over that intervention.

Casino game techs often say that replacing chips in slot machines must follow a special procedure (in the united states). They are closely monitored and every part must be accounted for. So, it’s less expensive for casinos if they don’t tweak the games.

Conclusion

An honest casino doesn’t need to control who wins at a slot game. They already control who can play a slot game. They can ask anyone to leave for any reason.

Naturally, casinos don’t do that. Instead. They purchase gaming systems that are designed to create an entertaining experience for patrons while legally retaining a profitable percentage of wagers.

No matter how much one’s frustration tempts a player into wondering about big brother casino tweaking the game, it’s more profitable for the casino to let nature take its course.

How casinos use math to make money when you play the slots

Even slots with physical reels use sophisticated software and circuitry.

Now that I’m the director of the center for gaming research at the university of nevada, las vegas, every now and then someone asks me, “which machine is the one that’s going to hit?” my usual response is the same, but I’m in a better position to explain how slots work, why people play them, and what you should know about them.

Slot machines remain the most important money-making part of casinos in the united states. In many states, casinos make between 65 and 80 percent of their gambling income from slots. In las vegas, the percentage varies from 88 percent in casinos that cater primarily to locals to 50 percent on the las vegas strip, where high rollers betting tens of thousands a dollar a hand skews the results in favor of table games. Every day, players put millions of dollars into slot machines. Why?

A modern slot machine is simple to play. Players insert currency, decide on their bet amount, press spin, and hope for the best. There are many varieties of slot machines in casinos today, from machines with physical spinning reels (industry folks call them “steppers”) to slots that replicated spinning reels on a video screen, but they all play essentially the same way. Video poker is a special variant of video slot in which players can use some skill in holding the most advantageous cards. All other slot machines, whatever their branding, are games of pure chance.

The chance aspect of slot machines is what makes them so appealing to so many people. If you know how to put cash into a slot and push a button, you have just as good a shot at winning a jackpot as someone who’s been playing for twenty years. In the end, it all comes down to luck. And who doesn’t feel lucky, sometimes?

Slot machines are deceptively simple to play, with four steps from "want to play" to "cashing out."

Slot machines appeal to casinos because they are, as long as enough people play them, stable money-makers. To explain why they are so reliable for casinos, I talked to bob ambrose, who broke into the industry at the tropicana atlantic city in the early 1980s and is today a gaming consultant and casino management instructor at fairleigh dickinson university. “it is all,” he says, “about the game math.”

When casinos look at how a slot machine is performing, the most basic number they look at is the drop. That is the money deposited by the player in the machines. Another number you might hear is handle, which ambrose defines as the total amount bet by a player. How can a player bet more money than she puts in? Well, if she puts in $100, wins a $50 jackpot, and keeps on playing until all her money is gone (including that $50 "win"), she has generated a drop of $100 and handle of $150.

What’s left after the machine pays out its jackpots is the casino win, also known as revenue.

So how do slot machines decide who wins and who loses? “payouts on slots are statistically calculated,” says ambrose. Pressing spin activates the random number generator, which is an algorithm that determines whether each spin is a win or a loss, and how big a win is. Each game, ambrose says, has a set hold percentage and a pay table that details how often and how much games will pay back.

Video poker games, which have elements of skill, often return more to players than other slot . [+] machines.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/getty images

Games with low volatility, like video poker, pay back more frequently but in smaller amounts, while high volatility games, like the megabucks progressive, have fewer, bigger (think several million dollars at most) hits. So while the potential payoff from a high volatility game can be bigger, your money will usually buy you more time playing on a low volatility game.

Can a player get an edge on a slot which relies on pure chance? Not really. “there is a statistical advantage for the casinos,” ambrose says. “the math of the game ensures that casinos generate a consistent positive win for themselves.”

But the player can benefit from one thing: if slot machines never paid out anything, players would stop playing, and casinos would go out of business. Most jurisdictions mandate that slots return a set minimum amount to players (85 percent is the magic number in nevada, though most machines return more than that on average). It might not be much comfort when you’ve lost your last credit, but someone has to win a piece of that 85 percent, and next time it might be you.

And that is the appeal of slots, to casino manager and jackpot hunter alike. “for the player,” concludes ambrose, “there has to be a realistic chance to win. But in the long run, the edge will always fall in the casino’s favor.”

Something to remember, because no matter how lucky you feel, eventually the casino will get luckier.

Have fun playing slots, but remember, they don't build all this by giving money away.

Back when I worked security in an atlantic city casino, patrons would often ask me, “which slot machine is the one that’s going to hit?” my usual response was, “if I knew that, I wouldn’t be working here anymore,” followed by a knowing chuckle. Never failed to get at least a smile in return.

Even slots with physical reels use sophisticated software and circuitry.

Slot machines are deceptively simple to play, with four steps from "want to play" to "cashing out."

What’s left after the machine pays out its jackpots is the casino win, also known as revenue.

Video poker games, which have elements of skill, often return more to players than other slot . [+] machines.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/getty images

Something to remember, because no matter how lucky you feel, eventually the casino will get luckier.

Have fun playing slots, but remember, they don't build all this by giving money away.

Slot machine facts you should know

Slot machines have become most casinos’ bread and butter.

Just a couple of decades ago, these games were targeted at women and the elderly. Casino managers didn’t take these games or the people who played them seriously.

Most of their money came from high rollers at the blackjack and craps tables.

This all started to change in the middle of the 1980s, but these changes really took off during the 1990s.

Now slot machines and their players dominate the industry.

If you’re interested in gambling and casinos, you should know the following facts about slot machines.

1. “time on device” (TOD) is the #1 metric that casinos and slot machine manufacturers are concerned with.

Casinos and gambling machine manufacturers have figured out that the #1 predictor of a game’s profitability is the average amount of time a gambler spends on that device. When designing new games, the slot machine manufacturers (IGT, bally, WMS, and others) focus on features that will increase this number.

One way to look at a game with a high “time on device” is how well it hooks a gambler into “the zone”. This is a state of mind where it’s just the gambler and the machine. According to some anecdotal reports, this type of thinking takes the place of concerns about winning big.

You can think of this zone as a space where time and normal social stresses cease to have meaning.

I’ll leave that for the reader to decide.

2. Slot machines are the only casino game with opaque odds.

All casino games have a house edge that can be calculated if you know 2 things:

The payoffs for each bet.

The odds of winning each bet.

Most casino games use a deck of cards or a pair of dice or something comparable to generate their random results. Those are examples of games where you know the odds of winning a bet.

After all, there are 52 cards in a deck, so the odds of getting a particular card are 51 to 1. All the other probabilities can be calculated if you know the make-up of the deck.

There are only 6 sides on a die in a game of craps, so there are a finite number of combinations. Calculating the odds of any given outcome is relatively simple math.

But on a slot machine, you have symbols that pay off at a certain rate when you get certain combinations of those symbols on the screen at the same time in a line. But you have no means of determining the odds of getting a particular symbol on any particular spin.

Without that piece of information, you have no way of telling what the house edge is.

As a result, the house edge for slot machines is often higher than the house edge for other games. Blackjack has a low house edge of between 0.5% and 1% (assuming you play well). Even if you play badly, the house edge at blackjack probably maxes out at 4% or so.

But the house edge for most slot machines is 5% or more. And you have no way of knowing if the game you’re playing has a house edge of 5% or 25%. In fact, 2 identical machines sitting right next to each other can have dramatically different payback percentages.

That’s because the random number generator is inside the machine. You can’t examine it.

Some online slots games have certified payback percentage information posted on the internet casinos’ sites.

3. Slot machines now make up 85% of the average casino’s revenues.

The casino industry changed dramatically in the middle of the 1980s. At that time, slot machines were considered a distraction for women. The boyfriends and husbands were the real gamblers and stuck with games like blackjack and craps.

The slots didn’t even have stools in front of them in those days. They were placed in the hall or near the elevator—the idea was to avoid taking up space on the gambling floor. They were located in spaces where people were moving from point A to point B.

It only took a decade for slot machines to start generating twice as much revenue per year as all the table games put together. By 2003, gambling machines were generating 85% of the casinos’ revenues.

You’ll often see 65% or 70% quoted on various websites, by the way. My best guess is that this number WAS true at one time, but the internet is like a giant echo chamber. Once someone has written a page somewhere quoting a statistic, other webmasters publish similar pages paraphrasing those earlier pages. Few online writers spend a lot of time doing actual research from legitimate in print sources.

4. Modern progressive slots often have jackpots comparable to lottery sized jackpots.

A progressive jackpot game is one in which the size of the top jackpot grows with every spin of the reels. You can find 3 kinds of progressive slots:

Standalone progressives

Local area progressives

Wide area progressives

A standalone progressive jackpot only grows when you play that individual machine.

A local area progressive is networked with a group of other slot machines within the same casino. Play on any of those machines causes the jackpot for all those games to grow. If the jackpot is hit on any of those machines, the jackpot on all the machines resets to its starting point. (it’s a shared jackpot.)

Wide area progressives are the games that are networked across multiple casinos. These are the games where the jackpots get high enough to compete with lottery games.

The biggest example of a wide area progressive is megabucks. The jackpot for this game starts at $10 million and grows until it’s hit. The jackpot has grown to over $30 million on at least 2 different occasions.

This kind of jackpot has a couple of significant differences from the lottery:

The odds of winning are roughly double that of winning the lottery.

You can play rapidly and see your results instantly. (when playing the lottery, you have to wait for the drawing.)

Even though the odds of winning a progressive jackpot are significantly better than the odds of winning the lottery, a progressive jackpot is still a bet where the odds are stacked against you in an almost comprehensible way. The odds of winning the lottery are about 1 in half a million. The odds of winning the megabucks jackpot is about 1 in a quarter million.

Another difference is that you’ll see smaller payouts more frequently when playing on a megabucks slot machine. It is a slot machine, after all.

5. Today’s slots have little in common with the original games.

Slot machines were originally made up of a few mechanical parts:

Modern slots are made up of over 1200+ individual components put together by 300+ people from design to the manufacture and assembly of those components. The parts involved now include items that charles fey, the inventor of the slot machine, wouldn’t even recognize:

Bill validators

Machine cabinets

Random number generator software

Touchscreens

These games used to be straightforward. You inserted coins, pulled a lever, and looked for a combination of symbols across a pay line. Now you have to choose how much to bet, insert paper money or tickets, and press buttons or a screen in order to start the game. You can bet as little as a penny per line per spin or $100 per line per spin—on the same machine.

The reels are 3D animations on a video screen, and instead of a single pay line, you have potentially dozens of ways to win (and/or lose). The pay table is also available on screen, but you have to navigate to another screen to look at it.

And many of these games are now linked to other games and to computer programs which gather data that goes straight into the hands of the casinos’ marketing departments.

6. Gambling machines’ growing popularity has been the result of a perfect storm.

Multiple factors have added to the growth of these games’ popularity throughout the united states. Some of this has to do with the economy during the reagan and bush administrations.

Those 2 administrations cut federal funding to most states during the recession. The governments of those states needed to find ways to generate revenue without directly raising taxes. Legalizing and taxing gambling proceeds was an easy way to do it.

While this was going on, video games in general were also exploding in popularity. And since most machine gamblers were women and elderly people playing for low stakes, industry spokespeople began discussing their industry using a redefined term—“gaming”, rather than “gambling”.

The combination of these factors with the technological innovations going on at the time created the perfect storm that made slot machines far and away the biggest source of revenue in the united states gambling industry.

7. Slot machines are now legal in 41 states.

In the year 2000, slot machines were only legal in 31 states. They’ve since been legalized and regulated in 10 additional states. Other states are considering legalization, too.

But these close to 1 million machines aren’t the only example of the industry in action. There are countless underground machines available even in states where gambling machines aren’t legal. These games are unauthorized and unregulated—you’ll find them in bars, gas stations, and restaurants in states like texas, where there are no legal casinos.

These unregulated games are often billed as “amusement devices” or “sweepstakes games”. In texas, the colloquial term for them is “8 liners”, and entire businesses (“game rooms”) are dedicated to allowing gaming enthusiasts the opportunity to play for prizes you could easily buy at dollar general. I visited one game room where you could win a dozen cans of creamed corn or some garden tools.

8. Slot machines are more popular and common in japan than the united states.

It would seem that 800,000+ slot machines in one country would set a record. But it doesn’t. It just makes the united states #2 worldwide.

The #1 country for slot machines is japan. They have close to 5 million slot machine games in the country. And considering that japan has a population roughly 1/3 of that of the united states, the number of slot machines per person is considerably greater.

For every 27 people in japan, you’ll find a slot machine. In the united states, you’ll find one slot machine for every 350 people.

So, yes, we have a lot of slots in the united states. But we don’t even come close to having the kind of slot machine fever that they have in japan.

9. Slot machines are more popular with locals than with tourists.

Another example of how the gambling landscape in the united states has changed is the rise of the local gambler. The population of las vegas quadrupled from 1980 to 2010, from 450,000 people to 2 million. But 2/3 of vegas residents gamble.

And 2/3 of THOSE gamblers play at least monthly, for 4+ hours per session. Many of those play twice a week or more. Neighborhood casinos cater to these local players by offering them amenities specific to their needs (like child care).

These factors have combined to make low rolling local gamblers a more dominant force in the economy of the local vegas economy than high roller tourists.

Station casinos, in particular cater to local gamblers in las vegas. They’re known for offering some of the best odds on video poker machines in the world. Their house edge might be lower on these games, but they make up for it in volume.

10. Slot machines don’t really get “hot” or “cold”.

One of the best examples of the gambler’s fallacy is the belief that a slot machine game gets hot or cold. The idea is that a game which is paying out a lot is somehow “hot” and will continue to pay out. Alternatively, if a game is not paying out much, it will continue to be “cold” and will be less likely to pay out.

The reality is that in any situation dealing with random results, apparent streaks of luck (both good or bad) will happen. But those streaks of luck are only apparent in retrospect. They don’t affect future results in any way.

If you have a 1 in 1000 chance of winning a jackpot on a spin of the reels, you have a 1 in 1000 chance of winning on the next spin of the reels—regardless of whether or not you won anything on the previous spin.

In probability terms, a spin of the reels on a slot machine is considered an “independent trial”. This means that previous results have no effect on future results.

Modern slot machines use a random number generator to determine their results. This is a computer program that generates thousands of random numbers per second, each of which is tied to a particular result on the reels. The split second that you hit the “spin” button (or pull the lever), the RNG (random number generator) stops.

There’s no way to realistically predict which number it will land on. The machine goes through too many numbers per second.

11. The majority of attendees at gamblers anonymous meetings gamble exclusively on machines.

This has been true since the middle of the 1990s, which is a remarkable difference from the decades prior to the 1980s. In previous decades, the majority of attendees at gamblers anonymous meetings were sports bettors or card players.

This coincides with another, related historical event. In 1980, the american psychiatric association endorsed “pathological gambling” as an official psychiatric condition. It has since been renamed “disordered gambling”.

Here’s an interesting statistic about gambling addicts, too. They have the highest rate of suicide attempts (20%) of any type of addict.

But the percentage of the general population that meet the criteria for this condition is less than 2%. A less serious version of this diagnosis is that of “problem gambling”, which makes up 4% of the general population. But these gamblers make up a disproportionate amount of gambling revenue—possibly 30% to 60%, depending on which estimate you’re looking at.

The percentage of the general population that engages in general gambling, on the other hand, has been estimated to be 20%.

12. Slot machine gamblers become addicted gamblers 3 to 4 times as fast as other types of gamblers.

Multiple studies have demonstrated that the nature of slot machines and their design contribute to the rapidly addictive quality of these games. The easy availability of such games also contributes to this figure.

Some people are more likely to develop an addiction than others. But some activities are also more likely to cause an addiction, too.

You could draw a comparison between marijuana use and heroin use. One is clearly more addictive than the other. Slots are almost certainly more prone to cause addiction than blackjack or craps.

13. Online slot machines work in essentially the same way as land-based gambling machines.

Brick and mortar slot machines might look and sound a little bit different from the games you play at online casinos, but in reality, they’re actually quite similar in how they work under the hood. The big difference is the technology you’re using to access the results.

Online casinos use the same kinds of random number generator programs as land-based casinos. They just serve up your results via animation that is sent to your computer via the internet.

Land-based casinos are using slightly different hardware to give you your results, but the games actually work the same way in terms of how the random number generator works.

14. The nature of slot machines contribute to their addictive quality.

What is it about slots that make them more addictive than other kinds of gambling?

Multiple factors contribute to this:

It’s a solitary game. You’re not dealing with other people at all when you’re playing slot machines or video poker.

You’re in action more or less continually. In other gambling games, you have to wait for results and to place your next bet. With any kind of gambling machine, the bets and results happen so quickly that they’re practically continuous. The average slot machine player makes 600 wagers per hour. Compare that with the average of 100 roulette spins per hour or 200 blackjack hands per hour. (and those numbers are the average for a player with no other players at the table—if other players are at the table, the number of bets per hour can drop by 70% or more.)

These rapid events stimulate and de-stimulate the brain faster than most non-gamblers can even imagine. Even experienced gamblers probably underestimate (or don’t even think about) the effect that this kind of gambling has on your brain chemistry.

This kind of gambling creates a trancelike state. It’s no wonder that slot machine aficionados are sometimes called “slots zombies”. You can compare this kind of difference from other forms of gambling to how television differs from movies. Craps is all about adrenaline and excitement compounded with camaraderie at the table. Movies are all about entering a dreamlike state. Slots and television both create more of a state of hypnosis. It’s a type of psychological numbness.

15. Slot machine systems and strategies don’t work.

You’ll find plenty of snake oil salesmen on the internet who claim to have some kind of inside insight into how these games work and how you can win at them more often. But they’re all equally worthless.

Many of them like to share the idea that you can get a clue as to which machines are ready to pay out based on the symbols that are showing on them while they’re at rest. This is called the “zig-zag” system.

The reels are just for show. The actual results are determined by the random number generator inside the slot machine.

This kind of thinking MIGHT have had some relevance in the 1970s, but modern slot machines don’t have mechanical parts and aren’t subject to this kind of prediction.

Other systems have to do with using the gambler’s fallacy to predict which games are hot or cold. Gambling author (if you can call him that) john patrick promotes several nonsensical (and complicated) systems that try to predict whether a machine is hot or cold. One of his theories is that you should stop playing a game if you’ve had 7 spins in a row with no winnings.

These systems and strategies can make for an interesting way to pass the time and play, but they don’t do anything in terms of increasing your chances of walking away a winner.

If you are going to try some kind of betting system when you’re playing slots, please don’t spend money buying someone’s system. Those kinds of gurus are preying on the weak-minded and uninformed. You shouldn’t support such business practices, online or off.

16. Slot machines have a lot in common with “skinner boxes”.

B.F. Skinner was a behavioral scientist who studied how motivated animals became when they got rewards from a box. He learned through his experiments that animals were more motivated by a box that gave our periodic rewards than they were by a box that gave out consistent rewards.

If you think about the implications of that for a minute, you’ll see the obvious application to slot machine technology. If you won on every spin, you’d be less motivated to play than if you won on occasional spins.

Slot machine designers and casinos can test various hit frequencies to see which games generate the highest TOD figures. (remember “TOD”? It stands for “time on device”.)

This kind of testing is comparable to split testing in the world of marketing. It’s a simple task to put 10 almost identical slot machines on a casino floor, but have half of them with a 60% hit frequency and half with a 70% hit frequency. All you have to do is track which game has the higher average TOD, then adjust the parameters accordingly.

Copy writers have used a similar approach with sales letters for decades. They’ll write 2 versions of the game letter, but they’ll change a single word from one letter to another. Then they’ll send out 1000 versions of each letter and see which letter generated the better response rate. They use that as their new control letter to beat by changing another word.

17. The most popular games are riding on the coattails of another intellectual property.

You can find plenty of slot machines with original themes. Lucky larry’s lobstermania is a good example of such a game.

But you’re more likely to find games which are based on other intellectual properties. The most famous example of this is the wheel of fortune slot machine game.

You can find multiple variations of this game, and all of them are hugely popular. IGT was so interested in the popularity of this game that they actually did surveys to find out why customers like it so much.

Here’s what they found out:

Most of the people playing wheel of fortune slots on a regular basis said it reminded them of watching television with their grandmother.

Game shows are a popular source of intellectual property that is used to create slot machine games. Wheel of fortune is just one example. You’ll also find slot machines based on jeopardy, the $20,000 pyramid, and who wants to be a millionaire. Many of these are available both online and off.

Television shows are also a popular source for slot themes. The beverly hillbillies, gilligans island, and bewitched are just 3 examples of this kind of game. You can find plenty more by visiting any nearby casino. Baywatch is a more recent example.

Movies are also ripe for adaptation into a gambling game. Titanic is one of the more popular slot machine games based on a movie, but you can find games based on the terminator and aliens, too. There are countless examples, in fact.

Even individual celebrities often lend their names and personalities to these games. Some of the more popular ones include elvis presley and dolly parton.

In fact, anything you can think of that people are interested in can (and probably has been or will be) converted into a slot machine game. Online games inspired by other intellectual properties often include superhero based games like those from playtech, which holds the license for online gambling games based on marvel comics characters like captain america and iron man.

Conclusion

You might think that slot machines are a relatively uncomplicated subject, but the reality is that they’re a fascinating phenomenon. Enormous amounts of revenue are generated for companies worldwide by these machines and the people who play on them.

Casino management and the companies designing these games understand how they work better than almost anyone.

But you owe it to yourself to know about slot machines, too, especially if you’re a gambler who’s going to play them.

Some anti-gambling activists argue against slot machines in the same way that gun-control activists argue against guns.

Admittedly, some of their arguments are compelling. The nature of these games seems to be significantly different from the nature of other games.

I still don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying slot machine games responsibly, though.

G aming G uru

Can casinos set slot machines to pay only small amounts?

Thanks for you wonderful columns.

Will every slot machine in a casino eventfully make a large payoff, or can the casinos set some of the machines to only pay off small wins over a long period of time?

Thanks for the kind words about my column.

All jurisdictions require that a combination displayed on the paytable must be possible on every spin.

The only way a casino can make a machine pay off only small wins is to have only small wins on the paytable. If there are any winning combinations that pay a large amount, the machine will hit them eventually.

Some jurisdictions are considering regulations to put a limit on how unlikely it can be to hit a winning combination. (at one slot seminar I attended, a regulator made a slight exaggeration when he said that the jackpot on one machine presented to them was so unlikely that the machine could have been played nonstop since the last supper and it still would not have hit its jackpot.) the limit usually mentioned is 1 out of 50,000,00, which is roughly your odds for hitting the jackpot on a megabucks machine.

If a combination is on the pay table, it has to be possible — but it doesn't have to be likely.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
john

Send your slot and video poker questions to john robison, slot expert, at slotexpert@comcast.Net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.

This article is provided by the frank scoblete network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact casino city press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the frank scoblete network. To contact frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.Net.

John robison is an expert on slot machines and how to play them. John is a slot and video poker columnist and has written for many of gaming’s leading publications. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the prestigious stevens institute of technology.

You may hear john give his slot and video poker tips live on the good times show, hosted by rudi schiffer and mike schiffer, which is broadcast from memphis on KXIQ 1180AM friday afternoon from from 2PM to 5PM central time. John is on the show from 4:30 to 5. You can listen to archives of the show on the web anytime.

Books by john robison:

Casino city is an independent directory and information service free of any gaming operator's control. Warning: you must ensure you meet all age and other regulatory requirements before entering a casino or placing a wager. There are hundreds of jurisdictions in the world with internet access and hundreds of different games and gambling opportunities available on the internet. YOU are responsible for determining if it is legal for YOU to play any particular games or place any particular wager.

Are casinos able to change slot payouts?

What is the immediate payback percentage on slots?

What can casinos change via the configuration menu?

What are the typical payout percentages on slots?

Doug holmes author

Slots jackpot chances: crowded casinos vs. Empty casinos

Looking for the best chance to win a big jackpot is practically the reason for existence for some slot machine players. Among the most frequently asked questions about slots are, "how can I tell when a slot is ready to pay a jackpot?", "is there anything you can do to make a machine pay a jackpot?", "how can I track a loose slot?" and "are you better off playing a hot machine that has just paid a jackpot or a cold machine that is due to pay a jackpot?"

And there's a fifth question: "aren't there more jackpots in crowded casinos?"

The answers to the first four:

"how can I tell when a slot is ready to pay a jackpot?": results are random and there is no way to tell when a machine is going to pay off.

"is there anything you can do to make a machine pay a jackpot?": there is nothing you can do, no strategy you can follow that will force the random number generator to produce a jackpot number.

"are you better off playing a hot machine that has just paid a jackpot or a cold machine that is due to pay a jackpot?": there is no tendency for hot machines to stay hot or cold machines to stay cold. Neither strategy is more likely to lead you to a jackpot.

"how can I track a loose slot?": you really can't.

"aren't there more jackpots in crowded casinos?": let's explain in detail.

It is true that there are more slots jackpots in crowded casinos. However, you are no more likely to hit a jackpot in a crowded casino than if you're the only player on the floor.

That runs contrary to the feelings of some players, a number of whom have made their opinions known via email with comments including these;

"I feel luckier in a crowded casino. When I see others winning around me, I just feel like something good is going to happen."

"you know when they announce over the P.A. That someone has won a big jackpot at slots? That's always in a crowded casino."

"everybody knows you have to go at the crowded times. That's when they hand out all the money."

Nonetheless, feeling lucky and actually being lucky are two different things.

There are more slots jackpots when more people are playing, but that’s because there are more players, more spins and more chances at a big payoff.

For individual players, the chances of hitting a big slot jackpot are the same regardless of how many others are playing.

Let’s make up a hypothetical situation. Imagine a casino filled with slot machines that pay their top jackpot an average of once per 10,000 spins.

Slot machine results are random, so it’s possible for the jackpot combination to show up two spins in a row, or not at all for 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 or even more spins. But as a long-term average, the slots jackpots in our hypothetical casino show up an average of once per 10,000 spins.

Now let's stipulate that on a slow wednesday morning, 100 people are playing, each playing for 1,000 spins (free spins included)

In all, there are 100,000 spins. With average results for these machines, we could expect about 10 jackpots.

Depending on where you are in the casino, you might or might not see a slot player win big. The big win could come right next to you, or it might be all the way across the casino floor or in a different room or nook.

Next, let's say you come back on a saturday night with 1,500 people each playing 1,000 spins.

Instead of the 100,000 spins on the slow wednesday, there are 1.5 million spins.

This time, average results would yield 150 jackpots.

Those 150 slts jackpots come in the space as the 10 jackpots when there are fewer players and more empty machines. With more jackpots in the same space, there’s a much better chance you’ll witness a big win or two or three.

With all those big jackpots, the lights and sound effects from the machines and the hubbub with slot attendants, supervisors and casino security paying off the big winners, it will feel as there’s a whole lot of winning on the busier night

But notice that whether the numbers are 10 slot machines jackpots for 100 players or 150 jackpots for 1,500 players, it’s still an average of one jackpot per 10 players.

Your chances of winning a jackpot are the same in the busy casino as in the smaller crowd, no matter how much winning might be going on around you.

The notion that there’s a better chance to win on busier nights is an illusion.

Real-world conditions vary. Not all slots within a casino have the same jackpot hit frequency, most paying a lot less often than once per 10,000 spins. On a game with a big multimillion-dollar jackpot like megabucks, the jackpot chances are closer to 1 in 50 million.

So your actual chances of hitting a jackpot will differ than in our hypothetical, which was designed for easy arithmetic.

But the principle remains the same. There are more slots jackpots on crowded nights, but the individual players' chances remain the same regardless of crowd size.

HOW TO WIN AT SLOTS

Slot machines are games with odds based in math, just like all other casino games. But few players understand just how those odds work, and whether they can do anything to improve their odds.

Slots machine results are as random as humans can program a computer to be.

Odds of the game are set so the house will have an edge

Except in rare cases, slot machines are not games of strategy

The objective of this chapter is to introduce you to how slot machine odds work and what that means to your chance to win.

HOW THE HOUSE GETS ITS EDGE IN SLOTS MACHINES

Casino games make money for the house by paying less than the true odds of winning the bet. On table games, that can be relatively simple. At double zero roulette, for example with numbers 1 through 36 plus 0 and 00, the true roulette odds against any specific number are 37-1, but the house pays single-number winners only 35-1.

HOW MANY POSSIBLE OUTCOMES?

Slot machine odds work in a similar fashion to the roulette example, except there are many more possibilities on the slots. There are thousands, and sometimes millions, of reel combinations. There also is an open field for game designers to assign how much each winning combination pays. The number of winning combinations and the payoffs per winner work together to determine a game’s odds.

The sheer number of possibilities makes the math that goes into slot machine odds more complicated than on table games.

On early three-reel slots with 10 symbols per reel, there were 1,000 possible combinations (10 x 10 x 10).

If blank spaces between lines are used as stops, the number of combinations increases to 20x20x20, or 8,000.

With bigger reels holding 20 symbols and 20 spaces, combinations increase to 40x40x40, or 64,000.

The change to virtual reels enabled programmers to make the reels to behave as if they had any number of stops. With 100 stops on each of three reels, there are 1 million combinations. The megabucks three-reel slot that paid the world record jackpot of more than $39 million has about 50 million combinations. Most modern video slots have five video reels can be as long as the gamemaker needs them to be. With 100 symbols on each of five reels, there are 10 billion combinations.

A SIMPLIFIED SLOT

To see how slots pay less than true odds to give the house an edge, let’s set up an example that’s as streamlined as slot odds can get, a game of the type used in the early decades after charles fey invented the three-reel slot machine in 1895. A hypothetical three-reel slot game with one 7, two bars, three cherries and four watermelons per reel would have 1,000 possible combinations and return 83.2 percent to players with this pay table.

IN OUR SAMPLE GAME:

Each of three reels has 10 symbols. Each reel has one 7 – that’s the top jackpot symbol.

Each reel also has two bars, three cherries and four watermelons.

There are 1,000 possible three-reel combinations – 10 symbols times 10 symbols times 10 symbols.

Only one combination – or 1 x 1 x 1 – will be three 7s.

Eight combinations will be three bars, 27 will be three cherries and 64 will be three watermelons.

900 of the 1,000 combinations mix different symbols.

If the game paid at true odds, then the payoffs would be set up so that each 1,000 coins wagered would bring 1,000 coins in payoffs. One way to do that would be to have payoffs of 170 coins on three 7s, 30 on three bars, 10 on three cherries and 5 on three watermelons. But the casino must have an edge, or it couldn’t pay the bills and offer the game. So instead it pays 160 on three 7s, 25 on three bars, 8 on three cherries and 4 on three watermelons. Multiplied by the frequency of wins, those payoffs total 832 coins. By paying less than the true odds of the game, the machine has a payback percentage of 83.2 percent, or a little less than today’s 1- cent games.

SLOTS TODAY

Modern slot machine or online slots odds work in much the same way, except that the math is more complex for several reasons:

Random number generators work from much larger number sets, leading to exponentially greater possibilities.

Many more than four reel symbols are actually used.

Most modern slots have more paylines than the one line in the sample slot above.

Game programmers have to account for the effect of bonus events.

SLOTS EXAMPLES AND EXPLANATIONS

In the classic WMS gaming video slot super jackpot party, there are eight reel symbols that form winning combinations, plus the noisemaker and party guy symbols that launch a bonus event. All of the symbols need to be assigned sets of random numbers, and payoff values assigned to three-, four- and five of a kind winners. That makes calculations much more complex than in our example game above.

The number of paylines also complicates the math. Even if there’s only one jackpot symbol on each reel, a 30-line game means there are 30 chances to line up those symbols in a winning combination, instead of just one. So it goes for every possible combination – programmers have to account for each combination 30 times.

As for bonus events, nearly all modern slot machines have events in which regular play stops, and with no further wagers, you get a spin of a bonus wheel, a pick’em event, free spins or some other extra. Bonus event payoffs have to be included in the calculation of the game’s overall return.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

We can’t see the random numbers being generated, and it’s those numbers that really determine whether we win. In fact, there’s a list of things we can and can’t see that are important to our chance of winning.

We can’t see the odds of the game.

We can’t tell if one machine is higher paying than another.

We can see a machine’s pay table, and that gives us a clue to volatility.

We can see what kinds of bonuses are offered, and that also is a volatility clue.

Casinos don’t post payback percentages on individual games, and there’s no way for a player to calculate the odds since all the random number details are regarded as proprietary and not revealed. Even on different machines with the same game, we don’t know if the paybacks are the same. Game manufacturers make several versions of the same game available to casino operators, and each version has its own payback percentage. Two machines can look identical, but have different payback percentages.

However, a machine with a large top jackpot gives back less on smaller wins than a game with a smaller top prize, and that means the big jackpot games usually are more volatile. That’s not always the case – the big jackpot can be rare enough that the game still has a normal percentage of lower payoffs, but it’s a starting point.

In addition, games with free spin bonuses are more volatile than games with pick’em bonuses. Volatility matters in choosing what you want out of a game. Are you the type of player who wants to maximize chances at a really big win and are willing to accept that fast, bankroll-eating losses are part o f the game? Then you want a high-volatility game.

Would you rather have a game that gives frequent small wins and extends your playing time, but rarely pays big? Then you want a low-volatility game. But regardless of whether the game you choose has high volatility, low volatility or something in between, you can be sure the house has taken an edge with payouts that are less than the true odds of winning your bet.

Casinos have an edge on slot machines because winners are paid less than true odds.

Slot odds are mathematically complex because of the number of possible outcomes and the different paybacks per winner.

You can’t look at a slot game and tell the odds. In fact, two identical-looking games can have different odds.

Looking at a machine can give you a clue as it its volatility, and that can help in choosing a game.

HOW SLOTS CAN BE BOTH PROGRAMMED AND RANDOM

When a casino buys a slot machine from a manufacturer, it can choose from a variety of targeted payback percentages. The manufacturer might make the same game available in 87-, 89-, 91- and 93-percent versions, and it’s up to the operator to choose which works best in game mix and for its competitive position.

That the games have targeted payback percentages in their programming leads to misconceptions from players. A common theme in my email over the last 20 years has been, “how can games be both programmed and random? The programming must keep them on track for the percentage.”

The short answer is that slots are programmed for a target percentage in the same way table games are: odds of the game are set so they will naturally lead to an expected payback percentage.

A TABLE ANALOGY

Let’s use roulette as an example, because the math is uncomplicated.

A double-zero roulette wheel has 38 numbers – 0, 00 and 1 through 36.

The odds against any specific number coming up on any spin are 37-1.

The casino pays only 35-1 on any winning single number.

The two-unit difference between 37-1 odds and 35-1 payoffs is kept by the house.

Divide that two-unit difference by 38 possibilities and you get 0.0526, for a 5.26- percent house edge.

In that way, roulette is “programmed” so that in the course of thousands of wagers, the house will keep 5.26 percent. Results can be random. The same number can turn up three or four or five times in a row. But over time, the odds of the game lead to that percent-edge.

SLOT “WHEELS”

What if instead of reels with symbols and results driven by a random number generator, we set up a slot-like game with slot-like payoffs by using a series of roulette-like wheels?

Let’s say we line up three roulette-type wheels, each marked into 100 segments.

We mark each segment with a slot symbol. Each wheel gets one 7, five bars, 10 cherries and so on.

We have a dealer spin and drop a ball on each wheel.

The total number of three-wheel combinations is 100x100x100, or 1 million.

That’s the same number of possible combinations you’d get on a slot machine if the random number generator was working with sets 100 numbers for each reel.

From there, it’s easy to calculate the number of possible combinations that have the ball landing in the same symbol on each wheel. For the 7, since there is only one on each wheel, it’s 1x1x1 – there is only one three-7s combination. For bars, it’s 5x5x5, or 125 out of the million total combinations. For cherries, it’s 10x10x10, or 1,000 three-cherry combos.

Note that we’re not using computer software here. We’re using physical equipment, but it’s giving us the equivalent of “programmed” combinations and odds. That’s just how the odds work on modernized computerized slot machines. They don’t force a game to pay an exact percentage, they just let the normal odds of the game drive long-term results to an expected percentage, the same way table games do.

PROGRAMMED VS. RANDOM, FAQ

The notion that slots are both programmed and random can be difficult to fathom. Confusion over slot programming has jammed my email box for years. Here are some of the questions readers ask most often.

A. “random results” is not the same as saying “equal results.” A game doesn’t have to be programmed so that a jackpot symbol shows up as often as a blank space, or a bonus symbol as often as a cherry.

The odds of the game are set so that blank spaces will show up more often than winning symbols and small winners will show up more often than big winners. On three-reel slots, that will lead to there being more losing spins than winners, and on five-reel video games it will lead to more “wins” for amounts less than the size of your bet than bigger winners. The programmer sets the odds of the game, and then lets random chance take its course.

A. Streaks are a normal part of the probability of the game. Let’s take a three-reel game with a 12% hit frequency -- you’ll have a winner an average of once per 8.333 spins. On your first spin, there’s an 88% chance it’ll be a loser. There’s a 77% chance you’ll lose two in a row, 68% chance you’ll lose three in a row, and so on.

At 20 in a row, there’s still a 7.8% chance of every spin being a loser. That’s easily within normal probability. Anyone playing a machine with a 12% hit frequency for very long will have streaks of 20 or more losses.

A. Your choices do make a difference in pick’em-style bonus events, but not in any way you can predict or control. The programmer knows that over a very long time, the bonus even will yield an average payback.

Let's make up a simple slots bonus event, in which you pick one of three symbols to reveal a bonus award. If you touch one symbol, you get 25 credits, if you touch a different one, you get 50, and if you touch the other you get 75. You don’t know which symbol hides each award, so your results are random. However, over a very long time, you’ll get each award about a third of the time, so will average 50 credits.

The programmer can build that average into calculations for the payback percentage. You have a random result contributing to odds that drive paybacks into a long- term average – the same as on the reel-spinning part of the slot game, and the same way table games work.

Slot machines have targeted payback percentages built into their programming, but results are random.

Programmed percentages on the slots work in the same way as percentages on the tables – the odds of the game lead to expected returns.

Random results are not the same as equal results. Odds are set so big winners turn up less often than other combinations.

BEATABLE SLOT MACHINES

With some rare exceptions, las vegas-style slot machines with random number generators are not designed to be tests of skill. There is no strategy that can overcome the house edge.

Games are not beatable in the long run. There could be a change coming as both brick-and-mortar casinos and online operators try to reach out to the millennial generation. The state of nevada legalized fully skill-based electronic games in 2015, and it’s expected some games will make their way onto casino floors in 2016. In some international markets, skill already is part of the mix. Japanese pachinko parlors offer games known as pachisuro, a blend of slot game play and traditional pachinko, and skillful play may improve your results. Still, las vegas is the trend-setter in slot development, and its random number generator slots are designed to so the house can count on its edge. Even so, a few beatable games have made it to casino floors.

BANKED BONUSES

In the mid-to-late 1990s there were a flurry of games where you could collect coins or symbols on a video screen until you reached a trigger point for a bonus award. Players in the know could look for machines that were already part way toward slots free bonus territory, and play only when enough of the trigger was completed to give the player an edge. Such games are rare today.

In a casino with older equipment, you still might spot such games occasionally.

Piggy bankin:

This WMS gaming three-reel slot was the banked bonus trend-setter. Piggy bankin’ had a dotmation screen in the top box, above the mechanical reels. Every time the reels showed three blank spaces, a coin was added to a piggy bank animated in orange dots. When the break the bank symbol landed on the payline, an animated hammer broke the bank, and the player collected the amount displayed. It was soon discovered that if you played only with enough coins in then bank, you had an edge.

Racing 7s:

Before taking a full plunge into video, IGT had its “vision series” with a color LCD panel in the top box. Racing 7s featured red, white and blue 7s on a track. Each time a corresponding 7 would land on the payline in the main game, that color 7 would move a notch closer the finish line. To get an edge, you looked for a screen with 7s already close to the finish and a bonus payout.

Fort knox and buccaneer gold:

Silicon gaming, no longer in business, offered several games with banked bonuses.

On fort knox, if five numbers in a 10-digit code had already been solved through reel spins, you had an edge. Once the full code was solved, the vault would open for your bonus. In buccaneer gold, the object was to collect five daggers sticking in the ship’s rail. If there already were three or four daggers when you started, you had an edge.

S&H green stamps:

This was bally technologies’ entry into the banked bonus field. During play, you’d collect green stamps as they landed on the video reels. If you filled a book of 1,200 stamps, you’d go to a slots bonus event. The trick was to look for machines with 600 stamps or more already in the book. At that level, the player had an edge. In casinos with all new equipment, you won’t find these games. In casinos with older equipment, it’s possible. More important than the specific games is that you understand that if you ever see such a build-a-bonus, banked game, starting close to the finish improves your odds.

JACKPOT HUNTING

A number of players over the years have told me they beat the slots by looking for larger than usual progressive jackpots. It’s a method that works better on video poker where the house edge on the base game is smaller than on the slots. Slot payback percentages are low enough that even what looks like an oversized jackpot may not be enough to overcome the full house edge. Still, if you always wait to play a game until its jackpot is a certain size, you will be playing a game with a lower house edge than if you played for lesser amounts.

Here’s the method a jackpot-hunting player relayed to me:

She starts by making daily rounds and charting jackpot amounts on different machines.

Of the machines she tracks, she notes the payoff amount when someone wins the jackpot.

Over many readings, she gets an idea of the average size of the jackpot when it hits.

She then plays only when the jackpot reaches that average. For example, if the jackpot starts building from a $1,000 base and her chart of dozens of jackpots or more shows it hits at an average of about $2,500, then she starts playing the game only when the jackpot is $2,500 or more.

JACKPOT HUNTERS, BEWARE

If you’re going to play such games anyway, there’s no harm and some gain in delaying your play until the jackpot exceeds a targeted amount. However, profits are not guaranteed.

Knowing the average size of the jackpot does not tell you the break-even point.

There is no guarantee that you’ll be the one to hit the jackpot.

Waiting for the jackpot to be a certain size does not increase your chances of winning the jackpot.

Let’s expand on that a little. Imagine a game where the jackpot usually hits at about $2.500. Unbeknown to you, the jackpot has to reach $5,000 before the game’s return reaches 100 percent. That means even if you start playing only when the jackpot is $2,500 or more, you still are playing a game on which the house has an edge. Waiting does ensure that when you do hit the jackpot, your average payout will be higher than if you started playing at the base level.

So if you’re jackpot hunting, good luck, but be aware there are pitfalls as well as big rewards.

SKILL-BASED BONUS EVENTS

Chapter 5, BONUS EVENTS, will deal more extensively with skill-based events. For now, understand that even though fully skill-based gaming has not yet launched in nevada, there are games with skill-based bonuses. Among those marketed in recent years are IGT’s centipede, where you play a version of the old arcade game in your bonus event, and GTECH’s zuma, based on the popular online game.

Though your skill makes a difference in these games, they are not beatable slots. Even if you’re a centipede grand master, the house still has an edge. With some variation by jurisdiction, a maximum of 4 percent of a game’s overall payout can be based on skill, and the house edge is high enough that getting the full 4 percent will not take you into profitable territory.

HOW TO WIN AT SLOTS - FAQ

Question 1: does the house gets an edge on slots by blocking winning combinations?

No. The house gets an edge by paying less than the true odds of winning on slots.

Question 2: on a mechanical slot with three reels and 10 symbols on each reel, how many possible three-reel combinations are there?

1,000 possible combinations.

Question 3: how many reel combinations are possible on modern slots with video reels or virtual reels?

Slots can be programmed with any number of slots on a virtual reel or video reel, so there can be as many reel combinations as the game designer needs.

Question 4: do identical-looking machines always have the same payback percentages?

No, identical-looking machines don’t always have the same payback percentage. You can’t tell a game’s odds by looking from the outside.

Question 5: do the slot payback percentages are “programmed” only in that the odds of the game are set to lead to a desired payback percentage?

Yes. Slot payback percentages are “programmed” only in that the odds of the game are set to lead to a desired payback percentage.

Question 6: does randomness mean all symbols must turn up on an equal portion of spins?

No. Results can be random while still setting the odds so some symbols occur more often than others.

Question 7: do long winning or losing streaks defy the odds of the games?

No. Long winning or losing streaks are part of normal probability.

Question 8: on most slots, is there an opportunity to overcome the house edge and be consistently profitable?

No. Most slots do not offer an opportunity to overcome the house edge and be consistently profitable.

Question 9: what is a “banked bonus”?

A banked bonus is an event in which you collect representations of coins or symbols until you have enough to trigger a bonus event.

Question 10: does waiting until a progressive jackpot reaches a certain size increase your chances of winning the jackpot?

No, until a progressive jackpot reaches a certain size does not increase your chances of winning the jackpot, but it increases your average payout when you win the jackpot.

So, let's see, what we have: who controls slot machine odds is answered with the slot machine, the casino staff, both, the state for vlts, and by the manufacturers of progressive slots. At can casinos set slot machines

Can You Guess Who Controls Slot Machine Odds, can casinos set slot machines.

Can casinos set slot machines

New casino sites to play real money

Can you guess who controls slot machine odds?

Introduction to controls slot machine odds

Keep reading … or listen instead!

… or watch!

A bit of background on legal requirements

A bit of history on physically setting odds

Slot machine types based on how odds are set

Identifying who controls slot machine odds

Does it really matter who controls slot machine odds? Yes!!

Summary of can you guess who controls slot machine odds?

Inside the myth that casinos can change slots RTP at will

Slots payback happens on a cycle

Casinos change RTP during the day and night

Native american casinos can do whatever they want

Are casinos able to change slot payouts?

What is the immediate payback percentage on slots?

What can casinos change via the configuration menu?

What are the typical payout percentages on slots?

Doug holmes author

Do casinos control who wins on slots?

How modern slot machine games work

Legitimate online casino operators lease games from service providers

Many games publish the theoretical return to player

Some governments regulate return to player percentages

How do you determine the odds that a slot game pays?

Slot machines may have programmed payout limits

The games are designed to be as random as possible

Conclusion

How casinos use math to make money when you play the slots

Slot machine facts you should know

1. “time on device” (TOD) is the #1 metric that casinos and slot machine manufacturers are concerned with.

2. Slot machines are the only casino game with opaque odds.

3. Slot machines now make up 85% of the average casino’s revenues.

4. Modern progressive slots often have jackpots comparable to lottery sized jackpots.

5. Today’s slots have little in common with the original games.

6. Gambling machines’ growing popularity has been the result of a perfect storm.

7. Slot machines are now legal in 41 states.

8. Slot machines are more popular and common in japan than the united states.

9. Slot machines are more popular with locals than with tourists.

10. Slot machines don’t really get “hot” or “cold”.

11. The majority of attendees at gamblers anonymous meetings gamble exclusively on machines.

12. Slot machine gamblers become addicted gamblers 3 to 4 times as fast as other types of gamblers.

13. Online slot machines work in essentially the same way as land-based gambling machines.

14. The nature of slot machines contribute to their addictive quality.

15. Slot machine systems and strategies don’t work.

16. Slot machines have a lot in common with “skinner boxes”.

17. The most popular games are riding on the coattails of another intellectual property.

Conclusion

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