hi and welcome to our series of educational videos
that are designed to make you a smarter gambler. My name is Steve Bourie
and I'm the author of the American casino guide which is the number one
bestselling book in the US
on the subject of casino gambling and travel and the
only book that comes with more than one thousand dollars in casino coupons
if you want to know more about me or my book be sure to visit my website at
americancasinoguide.com
In this video we'll be hearing from nationally-syndicated gaming writer
John Grochowski
and he'll be answering some of the most common questions that players have about slot
machines
Besides his gaming column john has also written
five books about gambling including the very popular slot machine answer book
john has appeared on three Travel Channel specials about casino gambling
and he also writes monthly articles for several gaming related magazines
I'm sure you'll learn some great tips from John on how slot machines work
and now here's John Grochowski
Players ask me all the time just how slot machines work
and modern slot machines are all entirely computerized there are
no more mechanical slot machines where
there was a clockwork type thing and the number of symbols on each reel were
that determined the odds of the game
Today everything is run through a random number generator and it doesn't matter
whether it's a three reel slot machine or a video slot machine with five reels
any configuration it's all computerized a random number generator selects
random numbers that correspond to reel symbols and that determines whether you
win or lose on a slot machine.
You know some players still think that
reel slots give you a better shot to win than
video slots I get emails about that all the time the people who just don't
trust the video games
and really it doesn't make any difference they
both run on a random number generator you can program
whether it's a video slot or a reel slot a programmer can program
any pay-back percentage on it within legal limits
One is not more fair than the other it's not necessarily a bigger pay
back percentage on one or the other
all I would caution is that in casinos today as has almost always been the case
higher denomination machines do pay higher percentages than lower
denomination machines
So whereas most video slot machines are lower denominations
therefore have lower pay back percentages so in that sense it makes a difference
but a programmer can program any kind of machine to have any payback percentage
I had a long correspondence with a player recently we kind of
went back and forth on just how random number generators work and what's legal
on slot machines and what's not and one other thing he brought up
was that he wanted to know if a machine is programmed to pay a certain
percentage does that mean that it can't pay anything out until there's already
money in the bank
and that's not the way it works you know the slot machine
can pay any jackpot, any amount at any time
in the long run it's going to hit its targeted pay-back percentage and it does
it because of the odds of the game
not because it has to go in any makeup mode or
because it has to hit a certain target payback percentage the programmer
just sets the odds of the game and over a very long time
the odds of the game will make the machine gravitate toward that targeted
payback percentage
It doesn't have to go into any make up time it could hit for a top jackpot
on the very first spin, that's possible. If that does happen
it doesn't have to make that up on the succeeding spins its just that over
a long time
that top jackpot will fade away into statistical insignificance and it'll
hit its targeted payback percentage.
Another thing players wonder about a lot
is whether all slot machines are regulated by gaming authorities and whether there's a
required minimum pay back percentage and
they're not all regulated that's the thing you need to look
for jurisdictions where the slots are regulated
Traditionally for years there've been slot machines
in bars that weren't supposed to be there In Chicago where I'm from that's a big
to do
getting rid of unregulated slot machines and unregulated video poker machines
In jurisdictions where the casinos are licensed, in licensed casinos
then they are regulated the random number generators are checked the chips
for every game
have to be checkedby the gaming board's but you have to have to be a little bit
careful you can't just walk into any bar that's not a licensed casino and
expect that the
the game is going to be regulated like that. In licensed casinos
every state has its own minimum payback percentages in Nevada I think what is
it 75 percent?
In Illinois its eighty percent, in Indiana it's 82 percent
so there are minimums in all regulated jurisdictions
some of them also have maximums Nevada doesn't have a maximum
in Illinois no slot machine may have a theoretical pay-back
of more than a hundred percent and that limits
certain video poker games that they can put in the casinos in Illinois
But every jurisdiction that licenses casinos
has minimum payback percentages.
You know some people ask specifically about Indian casinos, are
Indian casinos regulated, do they have minimum pay back percentages?
and that's the dependent on the compact that they negotiate with the state
Indian casinos are in
sovereign nations the Indian tribes are sovereign nations they regulate
themselves more or less
but they do have to negotiate a compact with the governor of the state
before they build the casino and start operating so just what the minimum pay
back percentage is depends on the compact
that's negotiated between the tribe and the governor of the state.
Players often wonder if a casino can change the payback percentage on a slot
machine
after the machines already on the floor they might have a game that
initially is programmed as a ninety-six percent game, can they change it to a
ninety-two percent game?
Well yes, they can change the payback percentage but it's not done routinely
because with today's slot machines it would require changing out a chip,
changing the random number generator chip
changing the interior workings of the slot machine
that can be done. In most jurisdictions what it requires
is that the slot machine be opened up
evidence tape be broken, chip taken out
new chip placed in, new evidence placed in
machine closed up and locked and a gaming board agent sign off on it
It's a complicated process it's not something that the casino is going to be
doing routinely they will do it sometimes
but it's not done all the time it's not a day or night thing or a week or weekend thing
some players have asked me about that you know, do
slots pay different on weekends than on weekdays? They don't
they can't change it that routinely. Now in the future
it's going to become possible to do that as server-based gaming comes into play
when the games are going to reside on a server the
casino is going to be able
at the click of a mouse to change the game change the payback percentage
provided they clear it with the gaming board. Not all processes have been written for this
yet
But for right now games you're seeing in casinos most casinos in the United
States
you cannot routinely change the payback percentage on a slot machine.
One thing that nearly all slot players seem to be confused about I get asked
this
all the time if a slot machine
is programmed to be random if they're supposed to act randomly
how is it that they can be programmed for a certain pay-back percentage
And the answer here is that a programmer sets the odds of the game just as
a game designer who could call a programmer sets the odds ofthe game in the
table game
It's the same thing in roulette you have 38 numbers
a single number bet is going to win about once per 38 times
it pays 35-1 and that leads to a 5.2 percent
house edge. It's programmed
you see, with 38 numbers and then the possibilities flow
randomly from that. It's the same thing in a slot machine
a programmer programs the symbols
so that they will occur a certain amount of times that will lead
to a payback percentage in the long run it doesn't have to happen now it doesn't
have to happen tomorrow
but the odds of the game that are programmed
as long as the game remains random will lead to that targeted payback percentage
way back when I first started writing about gaming 17 years ago now
I got letters by snail mail, we got snail mail in those days
asking me what the difference was between hit frequency and payback
percentage because I'd write about both of them at the time
and people still ask about it now and then: what is the difference
between hit frequency and payback percentage? Hit frequency
is the percentage of winning spins and pay back percentage is the
overall percentage of money played that's paid back to players
its different. For example on a 3 reel slot machine
you can have a game that with a hit frequency of 12 percent
you know on 12% of spins you're going to get something back
that same game can have a payback percentage of
ninety percent, or ninety-five percent or any number percent depending on how its
programmed,
what the paybacks are worth so
hit frequency is the percentage of winning spins
pay-back percentage is the percentage of money that is paid back to you
One of the new trends, one of the things that's coming
to casinos it's not in every casino yet, it's not in most casinos yet
is server-based gaming I've written about this and people immediately ask what is
server-based gaming
is this something that's just for video slots or can it be real slots too?
server-based gaming is going to enable
the games to reside on a server rather than on the individual game
the casinos are going to be able to change games at a click of a mouse they'll be
able to change payback percentages at the click of a mouse
they'll also be able to have two-way interaction with players one of the big
things that is called a server window
in which a casino that wants to make a special offer to a player
can open the server window on the screen in the slot machine and say
hey we have extra tickets to the show tonight do you wanna go and they can do
targeted promotions that way
the player can also interact with the casino to order drinks or make reservations
whatever
in the server window that's all coming
it is not necessarily only for video slot machines IGT last year started
showing some
reel spinning slot machines that had underneath the window with the reels was
a long but
not deep video screen where they could bring up the server window and have
those same kind of interactions with the players
So the game was still being played on three reels or five reels
but you also have the server window for the two-way interaction
that's coming it's more difficult to program a slot machine with
variable pay back percentages and
variable types games from a remote location
but it can be done it all they have to do is them programmed so at the
click of a mouse
it changes the hit frequency or changes the pay table
and you can do this so that you can change
reel spinning games as well as you can video games
Now players do have some wariness about server-based slot machines
they wonder you know are the casinos going to be able to change the pay-back
percent while I'm playing?
If i sat down at a 96 percent game is it suddenly going to be an 88 percent game
while I'm playing? And that is up to the regulators
to make sure the systems are in place that that's not going to happen in
Nevada
the way that's working is that before a game is changed out
there has to be a four-minute period were the casino is
flashing a message
on the screen that says this game is going to change
and then after it changes there has to be another four minutes
in which the screens says this game
has changed so there's actually eight-minutes
and the machine has to be sitting empty now they can't change the paytable
change the pay-back percentage while you were playing they have to wait until the
game is empty
then flash these messages for eight minutes before they can actually
go ahead and change the game
It seems like we've been talking about the coming of server based gaming
forever it's been the next big thing for
four or five years now but regulators have been slow to approve it so one thing I
get asked
is how widespread is server based gaming are there any jurisdictions where it's just
not available?
And it's not that widespread yet Nevada has it, the Aria opened up with it
but not every casino in Nevada has it, most don't
California has had field tests with it,
there are pockets of places with server based games
some jurisdictions have not approved it yet Illinois has not approved it,
Indiana has not approved it
There are a number of jurisdictions where these games just
are not available even if the operators wanted to buy it
that's going to change, not going to change overnight but you're going to see
server-based gaming
in increasing proportions over the years. Slot machines
are the most popular games incasinos and so player ask questions
all the time about slots and how they work and what to play
every now and then somebody will come to me with the one that leaves ut open ended for
me you know what is your best advice for slot machines?
And the best advice I can offer is to play them for fun
enjoy the wins when they come but to stay within your bankroll
don't be playing dollar slot machines when you have a nickel slot players
budget
don't be betting money that you cannot afford to lose
the games can be fun, the jackpots are a riot, the bonus rounds can
be a blast
have fun with all that but don't be betting money you cannot afford to lose
play for fun and leave it at that
If you wanna know more about me and my work you can check out my books
the casino answer book, the slot machine answer book, the video poker answer book
you can find me every month in Midwest gaming and travel magazine you can
find me most months in strictly slots and casino player
you can find me every week on casino city times and you can check out my
website
casinoanswerman.com.
Don't forget that you can see more of our educational gaming videos on our YouTube channel
just go to youtube.com/americancasinoguide