Page 17 - July 2002 • Southern California Gaming Guide

No other segment of the gaming industry has bene ted more from the technology revolu- tion than the slot machine. Once considered the ugly stepdaughter, placed on the gaming oor to appease the spouses of table players, the slot machine has been transformed into
the Fairy Princess of the gaming world. With her she has brought a dowry of riches no one would have imagined for the casino and a few lucky players as well. Twenty years ago the slot machine accounted for 30 percent of the casinos pro ts. Today it accounts for about 70 percent. Hi-tech
due to hit. Each spin is a random occurrence and has no bearing on what has happened previously. Don’t ever play more than you should because of this myth. It will be devastating to your bankroll if you do.
The temperature of the coins played will affect the way a machine pays.
False. The machine is not affected by temperature. It doesn’t matter if you play hot, cold, old or new coins. The coin slot is a mechanical device and has no feeling. There is one potential danger with this myth. I once saw a fellow burn his ngers while trying to heat up a coin with a lighter!
After hitting a jackpot, you should change machines because the machine will stop paying out.
False. The odds of hitting another jackpot on your next spin are the same as they were before you hit the jackpot. The payback percentages are programmed over the long run; anything can happen in the short run. Whether you chose to play the same machine or move on to another, you should make sure that you lock up some of your winnings to take home with you.
If you use your slot club card the machine will pay back less.
False. In my opinion, this is the most damaging myth of them all. There is no link between the card reader and the RNG. By not using you player’s card you are denying yourself valuable comps and sometimes cash back from the casino. I will discuss slot club bene ts in a future article.
Until next time, remember: “Luck comes and goes...Knowledge stays forever.”
Bill Burton is the Casino Gambling Guide and columnist for the Internet portal About.com. He also writes for several national gambling publications. He is the author of the book, Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold’em scheduled for release in October 2002. Read more Bill Burton articles online at: http://casinogambling.about.com
computer chips also make it possible to turn a Pauper into a King.
This new technology also brings with it many myths and misconceptions as players try to unravel the mysteries
of the modern computerized slot machine. Here are a few of the myths surrounding the slot machine.
Someone hit a jackpot on
the machine you just left;
you would have gotten that
jackpot if you kept playing.
False. The slot machines have a
computer chip inside that runs the
Random Number Generator (RNG)
which selects the winning or losing combi-
nations of numbers. The RNG is continuously cycling through numbers even when the machine is not being played. These numbers correspond to the stops on the wheel that display the winning or losing symbols that you see when the reels stop. When you hit the spin button or pull the handle, the RNG picks the combi- nation at that given microsecond. If you had stayed at the machine, it is highly unlikely that you would have stopped the RNG at the exact nano-second to display that same combination of numbers. In the time it takes to talk with a friend or sip your drink, the RNG has cycled through thousands of combinations.
You can tell the odds of winning by counting the symbols on each wheel.
No. The RNG generates a set of numbers for each spin. The numbers correspond to the symbols on the reel. Many numbers generated by the RNG can cor- respond to the same symbol. This is known as a virtual stop. There can be hundreds of virtual stops on each wheel even though you only see a few symbols. For
offer life-changing jackpots big enough to
example, you may see 20 symbols on each wheel of a three-reel machine. You gure 20 x 20 x 20 = 8,000 combinations and your chance of hitting the jackpot is 1 in 8000. In reality, the computer chip may program 256 stops for each wheel which makes the odds 256 x 256 x 256 = 16,777,216 combinations. Being able to generate millions of combinations is the reason that the new slots can offer such large
jackpots.
Casinos can loosen or tighten the slot machines with the flip of a switch.
False. The slot machines have a computer chip in them that determines the pay-back percentage. These are preset at the factory. In order for a casino to change the pay back, they would have to change the chip. In most jurisdictions there is paper work that has to be lled and submitted to the Casino Control Commission for each machine if the chip is changed.
It is time-consuming and the chips are very expensive. For this reason, it is more economi- cal to decide on the pay-back percentages before purchas-
ing the machines and having
the factory ship them with the proper chip.
A machine that has not been paying is due to hit. False. There is no way to determine if a machine is
July 2002
Page 17
THE SAN DIEGO GAMING GUIDE