How To Play Slot Machines: Part 2

Etiquette:

Etiquette? Etiquette, really? Is this really a word to associate with slot machines? After all, you may think that casinos are a free-for-all environment, no-one cares what the person next to them is feeling/doing, why pay them any respect by respecting etiquette? Well, let me tell you, there are rules of behaviour when playing slot machines at a casino.

For example, during quiet periods, many players will play multiple machines at the same time, but at busier times and many players are trying to find machines at which to play, never play more than one machine. Even when the casinos are less busy, it is not such a good idea to play multiple machines, as from a practical point of view the more machines you have to watch, the less able you are to keep track of them and the less efficient becomes your play. When you play multiple machines you need to watch out for the lurchers, they steal your money when you are not looking if you are playing multiple machines, by jumping on to one as soon as you move to your next one and winning the jackpot that should have been yours.

Many regular gamblers will go by the following etiquette, if they need to go for some refreshments, they may lean their chair against the machine to show that it is taken, or leave a coat, or some other sign to show it is taken and that this means they will be back soon, be careful not to break these casino codes of conduct, if you do play at a machine that somebody else has perceived as theirs at that moment in time then expect a confrontation, and with all the free alcohol that flows at casinos it could turn nasty.

Payouts:

Good news for gamblers everywhere, casinos have decided that it is more profitable to them to increase the redistribution rate with regards to slot machines. This means that more money is returned to the players over time than before. Redistribution rates in a bricks-and-mortar casino is nowadays set to around 5%, in the end, it could have been as much as 10%, that means that now, for every $/£ played, 5c/p is kept by the casino, before they would keep up to 10 c/p. The greatest rates of redistribution are, unsurprisingly, found in Nevada. Of course, redistribution rates are actually long-term averages and you may not see any results in one session, they work out over 100,000 or 200,000 spins, but that also means that you may be one of the lucky punters who wins first time (to find out more about redistribution rates use the search option located above).

So, given that redistribution rates operate on a longer-term basis than the average gamblers slot machine session, the individual players may not see anything for up to 50 pulls, although it must be said that video slot machines do normally pay out more frequently than other slot machines. Additionally, you may be one of the lucky players who find a machine that is paying out at a rate of 150%, as this is also fairly common, and can last for up to 12 spins at a time. However, over the duration of a specific period, the redistribution rates will hold up.

With all the developments in the rest of the digital realm, it is no surprise that the slot machine has also been affected. In the past, slot machines were solely mechanical, if you could work out when a particular number was designated to stop on each of the reels, then you would have been able to establish the odds of getting the jackpot. So for example, a machine of three reels, with ten stops per reel, with one symbol per reel needed to unlock the jackpot, then to calculate the chance of winning the jackpot you would need to calculate the following: 3 reels, with ten stops, and one winning symbol per reel then three winning symbols will occur, roughly, every 1000 pulls.

But, although it was easy to calculate the odds of winning on these old-style machines, the jackpots that could be won were largely marginal, $50 or $100, good in themselves, but not life-changing.

Today, it is computer components, namely the microprocessor that determines the outcome of the game, they use random-generators to ensure that the winning combinations are distributed according to a random, but pre-determined (? an apparent oxymoron) process, so that the computerised components cannot be guessed by the gambler, it is random, but within parameters. So, they may be told to pay-out at 98%, so working from the value of one unit to one unit, with 100 spins, 98 will pay out, 2 will lose, but which of these 100 spins will be the losing ones will be unknowable to people, but the computer will generate which ones loses or wins, one at a time so it will know for example, I have 91 left to win and 2 left to lose and I have played 7 so far. But, although this is the basic principle, it is more complex because I have used a simple explanation explaining random processes in reference to single units, but they involve more, and are mathematically complex.

The random-number generators will receive signals from external stimuli in order to establish their behaviour, they will take account of past actions and assimilate this with the action being performed at the time (such as the push of a button or the entry of a coin) in order to establish how to behave, which it does digitally by assigning numbers to the actions and calculating the outcome from this basis, with no human interference.

Even whilst the slot machine is out of play, the random-number generator is running through combinations, excluding the ones it has already used in that sequence, but continuing to catalogue through the numbers it has yet to choose on that sequence. This has two effects on the player, if you leave the machine and the next player wins, it is their timing that has done it, not their timing in relation to you, if you had hit the button you would have hit at a slightly different time and that would not have triggered the same event (as opposed to older mechanical machines where when you walked away and the next player won with one coin, one extra coin put in by you would have won). The numbers are constantly ticking and it is the time that they are landed on precisely, there is no order, but all numbers are stored, and they will be hit a predetermined number of times before they re-appear.

So, you may now have realised, although I doubt it because this is rather convoluted, that there is no real way of ensuring a win on a video slot machine. Although some strategies can be used and will be explained in the next article.

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