Slot Machines – Fiction And Reality

We have prepared for you a series of questions and answers, in which we have tried to debunk the established myths and misconceptions concerning slot machines. What really exists, and what is the fruit of the paranoid imagination of players – read in this article.
Reality and fiction in the slot machines.

FICTION: Internet gambling institution can simply click switch to reduce the probability of winning players in the slots. They use it, when too many players win in them or it is full of players to the limit. Or, well, they can, on the contrary, increase the number and the amount of winnings, if the business of this online gambling establishment does not go too well, and it has few players.

REALITY: the so-called switch winning is the most persistent myth in the world of gambling. However, the reality is: on the staff screen there is no button to change the program of winning.

Moreover, in case when we talk about online casino – the owner of the software and its owner – are totally different companies, interested in different things. The operator of internet gambling-house, of course, makes a profit on the players’ lost. But the developer of the software receives a percentage of the turnover, and not of his win, therefore he has no reason to reduce the payments of the slot machines. The more bets players will make – the more will the developer of the establishment earn.

The principle of work of the traditional slot machines is as follows. Their producers demonstrate their gambing software in the form of prototypes for the leadership of the gambling-house – potential buyers. If the leadership like what they see, they order a set of slot-machines, choosing usually from 5-7 probably installed beforehand in the programmes of slots percentages of the payments, which are offered by the manufacturer.

Such interest payments are recorded at the play chip by factory programmers, which theoretically calculate interest payments on a computer model simulating the work of a slot machine in several years (!). Then chips receive confirmation of the state control institutions, which produce exactly the same calculations to check the theoretical winning percentage, specified by the manufacturer. In the end slot machines are delivered in the hall of the gambling establishment. At this exciting moment all the chips are already tightly installed and closed for access from the staff of a gambling house.

Once installed, the chips, as a rule, remain in the slot until the end of his service in a gambling house. Although it must be said that usually the term of their life is not great, because manufacturers are constantly receiving new, even more attractive models of slot machines. Older cars can be replaced if they are not profit-making. However, such an action on the part of a gambling house, too, will require the confirmation of the regulating authority. In practice, for the management of the gambling house it is cheaper and easier to replace the slot-machine itself than to change the probability of winning in it, if it does not bring profit to the owner.

According to current legislation, a change in the probability of winnings in online slot machines of Las Vegas requires the opening of the case and re-programming of the microchips. The inspectors of the commission for the gambling business must be informed about the time and the place of the replacement, in order to control the progress of these changes. Casino just can not afford it, because simple any downtime of their slots without work – are losses of thousands dollars for the owner.

Regulation of interest payments (the probability of winnings) in this game of chance – is one of the main statements of the policy of the authorities, regulating the activity of the gambling houses in any country. If you doubt this, then pay attention to the annual awards, awarded to slot machines and published in bulletins of the producers of slot machines in Las Vegas. These numbers are stable every year, and show the actual payment in one or other models of slots, fixed by the employees of gambling houses in practice, and not in the theoretical modeling. If the machine does not bring profit, the gambling institution does not change the payout percentage in it. It just changes the slot for the new, popular among the players.

FICTION: If programmers can determine the probability of winning, then the results of any of rotation in it may not be accidental.

REALITY: the results of any of rotation of the virtual barrels in the slots are random. The influence of the engineer-programmer on the probability of winning is achieved by changing the huge set of numbers from which a random result is selected, as well as changes to the remuneration for every combination of symbols.

What I mean? If a greater number of figures low or not winning results are set, the percentage of payments of such a slot machine will be lower. If more rare and expensive symbols are put on the barrel or payments for the frequent combination is increased, then the payout percentage of such slots will be higher.

If you set a larger number of figures jackpot, the probability of winning will be more – not because of the manipulations of the engineer as such, but because of the theory of probability. Once modified, the set of numbers will be generated at random. In this case, if the probability of combinations will be the same, but the remuneration for them increases – the result, I think, will be obvious.

Imagine that the programmer wants to create such a slot machine, which will demonstrate a banal tossing of a coin. One number engineer will set as the front side of the coin, and another number – as the opposite side.

As in this case, we have only 2 numbers, the front side of the coin will fall out as often as and its opposite side throughout the game. Thus, this slot machine will return the player just as much, as it has taken. It turns out that our theoretical slot is programmed to 100% of the payout percentage.

Payout percentage is the ratio of the absolute value of profits and losses in the slot-machine. The actual flip of a coin is a random event. The front side may fall out five times in a row, or two reverse sides will change the three fronts… in any case, in the end, the payout percentage of this game will be equal to 100%. Anyway, the actual flip of a coin, just as the actual generation of the result of using the RNG is random.

FICTION: the probability of winning is always greater when the maximum bet is made.

REALITY: the RNG and the computer just don’t care how much you bet on this rotation in the slot machine. The RNG generates numbers at random, regardless of the gambler’s bet. The truth is that, in the slot-machines with the table of payments – there are exact multiples of the numbers of wins. For example, if you put 1-2-3 coins, you get the prize of 10 coins for the one coin bet; 20 for two; 30 for three. So there is no point in increasing the bet up to the maximum. The probability and the frequency of success also do not depend on the bet.

But the situation usually changes, when we speak about a very rare win. In this case, with the same 1-2-3 coins, the prize may be 1000-2000-5000 coins. That is, there is a sense in stating that to gamble with the maximum bet is profitable only in the case of disproportionate increase in payments for the maximum bet. At the same time pay attention that the probability of winning absolutely doesn’t change. No matter how much you bet – 1 or 10 coins.

The probability of a winning may be modified only with the help of the program of payments or the compilation of any other winning combinations. If we are talking about gambling machine of buy-a-pay type, you will see in the table that some of the winning combinations can be activated only with the second or third coins. In this case, the probability of winning is indeed growing with the increase in your bet. However, it is not the bet that increases the probability but the programme of payments. The actual result will be the same, despite the size of the bet. I will repeat once again that only payment will differ.

In case of a multilinear slot-machine (or a video slot) the probability to win at least something will be lower, if not all lines are activated. And will continue to increase with each coin, activating the following payment line. As soon as all game lines are activated, the same thing will happen. You’ll win more often, but you will have to bet more.

FICTION: Game machine will be ready to pay more (or less), if I put in it my club card.

REALITY: One more persistent myth concerns the operation of the club card of the player. The device for reading the information from the cards is not connected any way with the computer chip of the slot machine. Moreover, this device is located in quite an isolated place in the upper part of the case of a slot machine. It is intended only for registration of the fact of a game of the specific player, for information, if his card is put in or out in a given moment. This device transmits the information to the main computer in the casino only with the purpose of rewarding a gambler in the future for his devotion to the gambling establishment. A member card of the club does not affect the results that will be achieved as a result of the work of the RNG.
programme.

FICTION: An employee, who knows how slots operate, can predict exactly when the machine will pay out a jackpot.

REALITY: gamblers often pay the staff for pointing out the slot machine, which “must” pretty soon give big winnings. But those of you who do so waste their money! Each spin of the barrels absolutely does not depend on the previous or the next.

RNGS tries every possible combination more than 1000 times per second. Therefore, even if the jackpot hasn’t fallen out for several months at a certain slot machine, it does not mean that it will fall out today, tomorrow or next week or, on the contrary, that the jackpot will not fall out already for the next rotation. Neither you nor any employee of the casino can be aware of this.

The same applies to the case when the employee is watching any of the slot-machine for a long time on purpose, and then advises to use in exchange for tips from the players. As, for example, in the case of the Megabucks (jackpots, at times, achieve in it $30 million), when the absence of winning reaches unprecedented terms, then this slot machine is a real magnet for the players, patients with the so-called “jackpot fever”.

Of course, in this slot will play a greater number of people, thereby increasing the probability that sooner or later, it will fall out anyway. But, as we have already said, this does not mean that he must fall out today or tomorrow. Better leave your tips for deliverer of cocktails.

FICTION: the player who sits down at the slot machines, and immediately gets the jackpot, “steals” the win of the previous player.

REALITY: no One can steal your jackpot. As noted above, the RNG the set of all possible results many times per second. To believe that the next player “stole “your jack-pot is to be certain that you would have clicked the rotation button in the same nanosecond that he did. Are you sure exactly? The probability of this event, as you know, tends to zero. You could have hit the jackpot… or lost, as usual. It is impossible to know it; therefore, it is not worth being sorry.

FICTION: Gambling establishments always place the most generous slot machines at the entrance to make it evident that people always win.

REALITY: Well, there’s some truth in it. After all, it is quite logical – to place winning machines in the most visible places. However, in fact, controlling gambling establishments mix them as they want. As it was noted earlier, the probability of winnings – is the policy of the gambling house, so slot machines located at the entrance, in the end, too, should earn their keep, as well as those that are in the center of the gambling hall. Therefore, the probability to meet a generous slot among all of the machines located in the gambling establishment is the same.

FICTION: the Result of the prize game is predetermined, so if there is a choice of a hidden bonus, the player’s choice is of no significance.

REALITY: In fact, the choice of the player in the so-called prize game has a value. When the prize-winning game is started, the mechanism of the RNG selects the numbers of special massive of prize values. After that the player decides which of the hidden objects to open. Most of the new slots control it by generating all possible variants, already after the player has made his choice. This function has no effect on the game; manufacturers of slot machines began to do so only because they, like us, constantly receive questions from the gamblers about the importance of their selection in a prize game.

FICTION: Having calculated the number of intervals and symbols on the barrel to pay for every winning combination, a skillful player can calculate the probability of winning in the slot machine of barrel type.

REALITY: This indeed happened in the good old days, when the system of virtual barrels was not yet available. However, as it was already mentioned in the introduction, now the number of characters in the gambling barrel means nothing. A winning or losing of a player is now determined by the computer RNG.

Assigning a set of numbers to a single symbol or a set of symbols, programmers achieve the result as a virtual barrel tape with hundreds of symbols, despite the fact that the barrel has only, say, 25 positions to stop. This is the “virtual barrel”. Barrel tape on the traditional slot serves the same purpose as the video screen to display the result, selected by RNG for slot-machines. The counting of the symbols and making mathematical calculations will bring you nothing but headaches.

The computer does not depend on your bets. It generates numbers at random, regardless of your decisions.

FICTION: the warming or cooling of the coin increases the probability of winning in the slot machine.

REALITY: this is another terrible error, as strange, as all the rest. Once upon a time people really warmed up the coins with a lighter, and even packed them in ice bags so that they will receive some special properties, which will help in the game of slots.

What was the result? This made the coins hot or cold. Nothing else changed. Whether you like slot machines with note-receivers or not, but, at least, these new machines will finally dispel this myth. You won’t warm up a bill for $20 with a cigarette lighter, will you?

FICTION: If the barrel sways, it means that it is ready for a large payment.

REALITY: See above. Barrels are only needed to display the result, counted by the computer. Even if they swing, jump, dance a jig or sing the national anthem, the result will be the same – displaying the result, corresponding to the appropriate choice of the RNG from the whole set of numbers, embedded in the program of the slot.

There are other myths, which from time to time we receive in the letters of our readers, and which stubbornly continue to exist, in spite of the actual information… Here are just a couple of examples. Someone prefers to pull the lever slot machine instead of pressing the button of rotation. Somebody believes that the gambling establishment never let him win, because the employees change the probability of winning when working with a slot machine directly during the game… And the list can be continued endlessly. However, we have not so much space for the enumeration of the entire list, so something has to be postponed until the next times.

In conclusion I would like to say the following: the majority of the myths are based on the concept of the casino as a place where people want to deceive the gambler and take his money illegally. If you believe it, think about the fact that any gambling house in fact has absolutely no need in it.

Any of gambling houses already has the license to take your money in the area of 2-5% of the bet quite legally in most games of chance, and we, the players, gladly pay the money to the counter in exchange for the exciting feeling of excitement, and regular big winnings. In this case everyone is content. The gambling house derives profits, players take a break from the routine life, and, well, from time to time win impressive prizes.

The most important thing is that games of chance shouldn’t become your obsession. It is impossible to guarantee getting rich, playing in slot machines. It is simply a pleasant pastime, and nothing more. Remember this, and luck will always be with you!