By John Grochowski
- What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Back
- What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Start
- What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Turn
- What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Hand
- What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Arm
What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Back
Maggie is a friend of a friend of my wife's, someone I met at as holiday party when someone told her I was just the person she needed to talk to about slotmachines.
'Tell me how to win,' she said, and I laughed. That's the most common request I get about slot machines, and it's one I can't fulfill. There's nothing you can do to change the resultsdetermined by a machine's random number generator.
'All right then. Tell me something. I was in a casino last week, and they had a sign up that said ‘Our slots pay back 93 percent.' Does that mean every machine pays 93 percent?'
No, it doesn't, I told her. Each casino has a wide range of payback percentages within its game mix. By and large, higher denominations givemore money back to players --- dollar machines pay more than quarters which pay more than nickels which pay more than pennies.
Even within the same denomination, there's room for a range of paybacks. In a casino whose nickel games return 89 percent of money wagered to players, there's likely to be games that pay inexcess of 90 percent, and games that pay 85 or 86 percent.
For that matter, it's possible for games of the same denomination and theme to have different payback percentages. A quarter Red, White and Blue machine that returns 93 percent could sit rightnext to one that returns 89 percent. That's not as common as it once was, but the game chips to make that possible are available to casinos.
'So if there are all those different paybacks, how can they say, ‘Our slots pay back 93 percent'? Where does that come from?'
That depends. Was it a plaque on a wall somewhere? Was it a sign over a particular bank of machines?
'It was on a wall, not really next to any particular games.'
OK, I've seen that in a few casinos, but not everywhere. It's a casino-wide average. The total of all money won by the casino at all electronic gaming devices --- including video poker, videokeno and video blackjack as well as slot machines --- is divided by the total number of wagers at those games. Multiplied by 100, that gives us a casino hold percentage. Subtract that from 100,and you have the payback percentage to players.
For example, if $1 million is wagered on a casino's electronic gaming devices, and the casino keeps $70,000, dividing that $70,000 by $1 million give you .07, which multiplied by 100 tells usthe casino kept 7 percent of all wagers. Subtract that from 100, and we find that 93 percent of money wagered has been returned to players. That's the payback percentage.
'But not every machine is paying 93 percent?'
Right. Some payback percentages will be in the 80s. Some will be in the high 90s. Most will be in between. Most of the low-denomination slots will pay less than 93 percent. Most of thehigh-denomination games will pay more. But the casino-wide average in the casino where Maggie plays will come to 93 percent. Other casinos will have their own averages.
'I don't suppose you could tell me how to tell which games have the better paybacks.'
I'm afraid not. Two slot machines that look identical on the outside can have different payback percentages.
She sighed.
'Oh well. Trial and error it is. At least keep your fingers crossed for a jackpot for me, will you?'
Will do.
Maggie was asking about a sign that listed a casino-wide average, but sometimes you'll see a sign over a bank of machines that says, '95 percent payback,' or 'Up to 98 percent payback.'
Such signs refer specifically to that bank of machines. If it's specific, with no qualifiers, such as '95 percent payback,' most states require that all machines in the bank be programmed for95-percent return. There's room for some short-term variation. If you sit down at a 95-percent machine and have a cold streak, running through a hundred bucks with zero return, there is norequirement that the next player get back 190 percent to even things out. Over time, with enough play, your cold streak will simply fade into statistical insignificance, overwhelmed by theresults of hundreds of thousands of reel spins.
Conversely, if you hit a big jackpot, there is no requirement that the machine then go ice cold to get down to the 95 percent target. The machine will keep operating as normal, and over timeyour jackpot will be overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of plays and fade into statistical insignificance.
Ver pelicula deal poker online latino. When the sign does have a qualifier, such as 'Up to 98 percent payback,' then let the player beware. At least one machine in the bank is likely to be a 98-percenter, but others can be lower.Not all states permit such fudging, and this ploy isn't as common as it was a decade ago, but when you see it, be wary.
Tilting at Slot Machines Call it a fool's mission, but Jeff Greenfield, the CNN political analyst, headed off to Atlantic City with a pocketful of cash destined for the slots By Jeff Greenfield From William Shatner, Sept/Oct 2006 You sense it first: the hint of salt in the air, the widening, flattening of the horizon, the glimpse of marshland. What does BAR mean in slot machine terms? I was just playing this pokemon Hack game and I keep on missing the BAR by one up or one down position of the BAR. I just want to know what BAR means, I never did know. Full Tilt Casino has a massive selection of Slots to keep you entertained for hours on end.If you like to do your research before you jump into a game, you've come to the right place. Just click on any link below to discover more about each of our exclusive games.
What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Start
What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Start
What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Turn
John Grochowski writes a syndicated newspaper column on gambling,
and is author of the 'Casino Answer Book' series from Bonus Books.
What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Hand
By John Grochowski
Video slots are the most popular, most played and most widely available games in modern casinos. They're also the games with the most variation, full of little wrinkles that affect gameplay.
One of those wrinkles introduced in recent years has been the use of stacked symbols. When symbols are stacked, a reel can show three of the same symbol, from top to bottom. That symbol this ispart of the mix on all paylines.
The effect is to add volatility to the game, which was apparent in a session I played while my wife was elsewhere in the casino searching for old favorites.
I came across an area where machines are marked as new games, and went try one I'd never played before, IGT's Cherry Mischief. It was a 40-line penny game, so I was wagering 40 cents a spin.All symbols were sometimes stacked in the IGT Super Stacks feature. Among the symbols were young women with fairy wings, and a butterfly symbol that if stacked on reels 2, 3 and 4 launched afree games feature.
I slid a $20 bill into the validator, and quickly ran into the downside of stacked symbols. Symbols in a stack can block potential winning combinations, as when blonde fairies on reels 1 and 2were separated from the match on reel 4 by a stack of red-headed fairies on reel 3.
That happened fairly often. The good news: I was seeing stacked symbols frequently on all reels, giving me hope that at some point, I'd see stacks of like symbols on adjacent reels startingfrom the left. That could give me a big multi-line win. The bad news: The stacks were interrupting sequences that could bring small wins to extend my bankroll and keep me at the machine.
Before long, my 2,000 credits were down to 85. I had to face the possibility that I might run through my $20 without ever really seeing what the game could do.
But my luck turned. The 'Q' for 'Queen' symbols stacked on all five reels, a screenful of Qs for a 520-credit win. It wasn't an enormous win, but large enough that I had a little room to work,some extra spins to see if something bigger would come a long.
A few spins later, it happened. Reel No. 2: Three stacked butterflies. Reel No. 3: Three stacked butterflies: Reel No. 4: Three stacked butterflies. I was going to the free spins bonusevent.
On free spins bonuses, there is never any guarantee of wins. You can come out of 15 free spins with thousands of credits, or with barely enough for another minimum-coins spins. My first fewfreebies, it was looking like the latter. Three 10 symbols in a row here, three Aces there, but nothing big. After four spins, my bonus stood at 60 credits.
Then a couple of good spins made my round. Three dark-haired fairies stacked on the first three reels for an all-payline win, and there was one matching symbol on the fourth reel to enhance thepayback. Next, three golden-haired winged lovelies stacked on the first three reels for another all-line win.
The free spins put 1,860 credits on my meter, briefly putting me into the profit zone by a couple of dollars. I played down to my original $20 and moved on.
When you play stacked symbol games, that's the kind of experience you expect. There will be fast losses, and there's a fair chance of big all-line wins. You're just hoping the balance falls inyour favor.
A WORD ABOUT VOLATILITY: Stacked symbols are one of the tools game designers use to put volatility into video slots. When the video games first rose to popularity in the late 1990s, most werenickel games, and most had pick'em-style second-screen bonus events. Part of their attraction was that they were less volatile than three-reel slots, where it was possible to go a couple ofdozen spins without winning anything. The pick'em games were designed to extend the playing experience and keep people in their seats with frequent small wins.
When penny games started to take over casino floors, designers had to find a way to give players meaningful wins. A 200-credit pick'em bonus was a nice $10 win on a nickel game, but withpennies it's only 2 bucks.
Free-spin games, where the bonuses can be next to nothing but also can be thousands of credits, already had been pioneered by Australia's Aristocrat Technologies. Other manufacturers puttheir own spin on the format, and the majority of penny games today are free-spin games. Pick'em bonuses are still there, and so are hybrid games with both kinds of events, but playing forpennies largely means playing for free spins.
What Does It Mean When A Slot Machine Tilts Down Arm
John Grochowski writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column on gambling, and is author of the 'Casino Answer Book' series from Bonus Books.
