Hi I'm Steve Bourie the author of the American casino guide
which is a 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 wanna know more about me or my book be sure to visit my website at americancasinoguide.com
today we're here in Las Vegas at g2e this is the Global Gaming Expo
it is the world's largest trade show for the gaming industry
today I'm going to interview Frank Legato
Frank is the editor of gaming business magazine and Frank also writes
two
gaming columns about slot machines for consumer publications
so let's go in and see what Frank has to say on the subject of slot machines
I am here with Frank Legato. Frank is the
editor of global gaming business magazine which is the largest trade
publication for the gaming industry
he writes about slot machines, he writes about the casino industry in general
and Frank also he has a book
how to win millions playing slot machines or lose trying
and Frank's written about slot machines for how many years now?
26 Wow 26 years and you know everything there is to know about slot
machine, yes?
Except how to win on them, yes. Well that's funny because I
I have a list of questions for you here and number one
is what is the secret to winning on a slot machine? Its dumb
winning a slot machine is dumb luck I mean you can't guarantee yourself that
you're gonna win on a slot machine
nobody can guarantee you a win. The best you could do is minimize your
chances of losing and the way you do that
is up by choosing the best games to play
and choosing your bankroll accordingly bankroll your game accordingly, in other
words the best games to play
are the if you're main goal is to win
money you're probably best going with
more traditional style games which have a lower house hold or a higher pay back
percentage
higher pay back percentage means the house edge is lower
that's what it translate into. So if you can play a higher
end game a dollar game or higher have the highest return
overall and play them with a sufficient bankroll and I'm talking for a dollar game
at least a couple hundred dollars. That gives you a better chance to
to wait out that 2 percent house edge and when you do win
you're gonna win a lot bigger. Okay well let's go to the basics so
when you walk up to a slot machine
what's going on inside that machine? What's going on inside that machine is
that there's a computer program into which
numbers have been entered for each possible symbol
that can come up on a reel and for a blank that can come on a reel
they all have a number assigned to them and
then there's duplication the lower-paying symbols the blanks
have more numbers assigned to them
to the same to the same positions the jackpot symbols have
a couple you know one or two numbers assigned to them and
what's going on when you walk up to a slot machine is a random number
generator program
is generating all the numbers that have been entered into their program in a
random sequence
a hundred numbers a second it's generating a hundred numbers a second
so when you put money in it's still
generating those numbers until you hit the spin button or pull the handle
and at that instant you do that you push the spin button
the computer freezes this sequence of numbers
that the RNG has generated at that instant
and translates it into your reel result tells the reels where to
stop. If you're talking about a traditional game
you know or tells the video screen what to display and it all happens in a
fraction of a second
so that's what's happening when you walk up
it's generating those numbers at a hundred numbers a second and
when you sit down, your timing
when you push the button will determine what reels
what reel results you get. Okay so if push it at the right time you'll get a winner
if you push it at the wrong time to get a loser?
Yes in other words it's luck I mean you can't determine
what the right time is there's no way to determine
when that random number generator is gonna come up with that
great combination. Alright now people always hear about
loose machines or tight machines people refer to a casino oh this casino has loose
machines oh this casino has tight machines
now is there any truth to that? Yes there is
I mean magazines like casino player have logged it
for years and the casinos
are generally commercial casinos are
required to report their hold numbers to
whatever regulatory authority
is there and those hold numbers
report how much of the wagers on slot machines
were held by the casino as earnings but if you flip flop those numbers
that's a public record of the pay back percentage of how much
of the slot wages have been given back to players in jackpots
and those numbers can be logged
and looked at and you know what magazines like casino player and strictly
slots do
is they take those numbers and compare them between casinos
in between casino jurisdictions so you can see by historical record
which casinos have given more back to their players than others
and you know generally what you're going to find is
those casinos are in North Las Vegas
the northern suburbs of Las Vegas, the western suburbs just
the outskirts of Las Vegas the locals casinos
Is a slot machine ever due to hit?
It's impossible to know it's impossible to know. No, it's never do to hit
because
every spin is independent of every other spin as far as what it's going to
do
don't forget the RNG is generating numbers at a hundred times a second
hundred-numbers a second and it's constantly
generating those numbers so there's no way of determining
what number is gonna hit. On a classic slot machine
there's only a
very small you know number there might be 8 paying combinations
there might be you know maybe a hundred reel stops physical reel stops in other
words physical spaces
that can stop on that single payline
So there's really
it can cycle through the entire possibility
of reel results the entire possibility of jackpots
or or losing spins can cycle through a couple a times between the time you hit
the button once in the time the next time you get the button so there's really
no way of determining
when a slot machine is due. It can
a slot machine can you know can hit jackpots 10 times in a row and not hit
jackpots
for another you know for another week
Okay so another question along the same lines
there are some players who say well this machine hasn't hit for a while
it's due to hit and then there's people with just the opposite theory who say
well this machine's been hitting for a while
so it's a good machine to play because it's gonna continue to hit So are
either one of those are valid or invalid what would you say?
There's really no way to determine whether a machine is going to hit on
the next
spin or not regardless of what it's done in the past
past a results are no indication of what the future's going to hold for any slot
machine
If a casino wants to change the payback percentage on a machine
they can do that and what is the procedure if they wanted to do something
like that?
Yes, it's perfectly legal to change a percentage and
you know the procedure right now in ninety-nine point nine percentof the
casinos out there
is they have to buy a new chip and they have to have technicians go out
open the door take out one e-prom chip it looks like a little brush
put in another one and close the door and
have a regulator there generally to verify
the new pay-back percentage
That's the way it's done now, now with server-based gaming coming in
a few years they can do that they can change a game program remotely
but generally you know they have to still
tell regulators ahead of time when the program is going to change
now and generally what they're doing
with the the initial applications out there is not changing
a percentage on the same machine what they're doing is they're changing game
styles
you know they're changing denominations they're changing from pennies to nickles from
pennies to quarters you know they're completely changing the game
that's in the same box and that's what they're doing remotely
the pay-back percentages the rules in place now
say that you can't change it while somebody's playing you have to
wait till machine has been idle for for for several minutes
to change anything on it.
How widespread is server-based gaming at this point?
It's still in the experimental stages it's still just being tried on a few
banks of machines here and there
at various casinos I just you know did
just moderated a couple panels on it as a matter of fact
and what's happening now is the casinos
and the manufactures are working on
new applications for the system and what they need to do with the applications
is provide something for players
that they don't have now and something the players will enjoy
in other words if the system's don't
allow casinos to make more money you know
if the systems don't drop more players in
and allow incremental revenue then you know they're just a convenience for the
operator
and they're you know they're not go then there's a big investment involved
they have to have an Ethernet equipped floor these are basically they're
setting up a local area network computer network
for their slot floor and especially older casinos have to completely
tear out their casino floor and equip it for for Ethernet
thats a big investment you're talking so you're talking big investments here
and if there's not a big return on investment it's just not worth it
and the way you get a big return on investment is providing players
a play experience that they don't have
with standard slot machines
If you had to give an estimate of how widespread you think
server-based gaming is right now what percent of the casinos in the United States have
it what would be your best guesstimate?
A fraction of one percent, not even a fraction of one percent I mean it's very small
and a lot of the casinos
at least in North America the vast majority of casinos
that do have it are just having it on a bank or two and they're trying it
out
and they're seeing what kind of applications they can do they can
customize
play experiences for players in other words if a high end player comes in
they can they can as soon as he puts his player's club card in
his favorite five games will appear on the screen you know
and you can choose from that menu that's that's one that's one way
it's providing more value to players
I had one lady who told me that she
her father was in the gaming business he was a slot manager
and he had a little clicker in his pocket and he could go around
and click it and change the pay back percentage on a slot machine
now you said before that that couldn't happen?
You have to open the door and it won't happen with server based gaming either
because you have to
actually provide regulators with a
schedule of when you're gonna change pay-back percentage so they can
look on their computer screens and make sure
the new pay-back percentage is what you say it is so you can't just go around
and you have the rule that you can't change percentage you can change
anything on a game while somebody's playing
so all those rules are against it and I go back to the to the gaming license
why would a casino risk its gaming license
okay just one last question for you what is your best advice for slot players?
Bankroll for the game that you're gonna play in other words
you might have to make sure you have enough to ride out that house edge that's on
a slot machine
if you know if you sit down at a dollar machine
with with a twenty you know you have to be extremely lucky
extremely lucky to
actually play that slot machine for a while hey it happens
you can make you can have thrown a twenty into a dollar machine and hit on
the first
round and then you play for a while but you know really
you have to really know how that machines going to behave a
traditional slot machine is gonna have
dry spells punctuated by big wins so you plan for that eventuality
if you wanna play if you're if if you're in it for entertainment
you can sit down at a multi-line penny machine
and you can play for a long time on
a small investment you know so sit down with with twenty dollars
but know in the end you're probably still going to lose
but know that going in you know you you'll be entertained and
those people are playing for the it entertainment over they already know
that penny machines pay the lowest on the floor
they pay usually you know usually you're giving away more like 12 or 13
percent on a penny machine
as opposed to you know 10 or nine or on a dollar machine maybe only two or three
so you know basically a know what could how your machine's going to behave
and bankroll accordingly That's my best Alright sounds like good advice now if
people want to find out more about you or your book where can they do that
The book is available on Amazon and it
it was written in in 03 so it's already kind of outdated
but you know
you can go to our website today ggbmagazine.com
our magazine is always up on there and it's a very good source of information
for the gaming industry
Okay thank you Frank Legato thank you very much you're spending time with us
today
Don't forget that you can see more of our educational gaming videos on our
YouTube channel
just go to youtube.com/americancasinoguide