A slot machine ( American English ), known as the fruit machine ( British English ), puggy ( Scottish English ), slot machines ( Canadian English and American English), poker machine/pokies ( Australian English and New Zealand English ), Fruities (British English) or slots (American English).
The standard layout of a slot machine has a screen showing three or more reels that “spin” when the game is activated. Some modern slot machines still include a lever as a skeuomorphic design trait to trigger the game. However, the mechanics of the early machines have been replaced by random number generators, and most now operate using buttons and buttons. touch screens.
Slot machines include one or more currency detectors that validate the method of payment, whether it is coins, cash, vouchers, or tokens. The machine pays according to the pattern of symbols displayed when the reels stop “spinning”. Slot machines are the most popular method of gambling in casinos and make up about 70% of the average US casino income.
Digital technology has resulted in variations from the original concept of the slot machine. Since the player is essentially playing a video game, manufacturers are able to offer more interactive elements, such as advanced bonus rounds and more varied video graphics.
Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York, developed a slot machine in 1891 that was a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained five drums containing a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. The machine turned out to be extremely popular, and soon many bars in the city had one or more of them.
Players inserted a nickel and pulled a lever, which spun the drums and cards they were holding, with the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of kings could offer the player a free beer, while a royal flush could pay for cigars or drinks; the prices depended entirely on what the establishment would offer.
To improve the odds of the house, two cards were usually out of the game, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts, doubling the odds of winning a royal flush. The drums could also be rearranged to further reduce a player’s chances of winning.
Due to a large number of possible payouts in the original poker-based game, it turned out to be virtually impossible to create a machine capable of awarding automatic payouts for all possible winning combinations. Between 1887 and 1895, Charles Fey of San Francisco, California, designed a much simpler automatic mechanism with three reels containing a total of five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts, and a freedom bell .; the bell gave its name to the machine.
By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of playing a win was greatly reduced, allowing Fey to design an efficient automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest win, ten nickels (50 ¢). Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry.
After a few years, the devices were banned in California, but Fey still couldn’t meet demand elsewhere. The Liberty Bell machine was so popular that it has been copied by many slot machine makers. The first of these, also called the “Liberty Bell”, was produced by the manufacturer Herbert Mills in 1907.
By 1908, many “bell” machines had been installed in most cigar shops, saloons, bowling alleys, brothels, and hair salons. The earliest machines, including an 1899 Liberty Bell, are now part of the Nevada State Museum’s Fey Collection.
The first Liberty Bell machines produced by Mills used the same symbols on the reels as Charles Fey’s original. Soon after, another version was produced with patriotic symbols, such as flags and crowns, on the wheels. Later, a similar machine called the Operator’s Bell was produced which included the option of adding a rubber sales prop.
As the gum offered was flavored with fruit, fruit symbols were placed on the reels: lemons, cherries, oranges, and plums. A bell was preserved, and an image of a stick of Bell-Fruit Gum, originally the symbol of the bar, was also present. This set of symbols has proven to be very popular and has been used since then.
One technique commonly used to avoid gambling laws in a number of states was to award food prizes. For this reason, a number of chewing gum and other vending machines were viewed with suspicion by the courts. The two cases of the Iowa State v. Ellis and State v. Striggles are both used in criminal law courses to illustrate the concept of trust in authority with regard to the axiomatic ignorantia Juris non-excusat (“ignorance of the law is no excuse”).
In these cases, a mint vending machine was declared to be a gaming device because the machine, coincidentally made in-house, would occasionally give the next user a certain number of tokens redeemable for more candy. Despite the display of the result of the next use on the machine, the courts have ruled that “The machine appeals to the player’s propensity to gamble, and that is a vice.”
In 1963, Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey (although earlier machines such as Bally’s High Hand poker machine introduced the basics of electromechanical construction as early as 1940).
Its electromechanical operation made Money Honey the first slot machine with a bottomless hopper and automatic payout of up to 500 coins without the help of an attendant. The popularity of this machine led to the increasing predominance of electronic games, the side lever soon becoming a vestige.
The first video slot machine was developed in 1976 in Kearny Mesa, California by the Las Vegas-based company Fortune Coin Co. This machine used a modified 19 inch (48cm) Sony Trinitron color receiver for the display and logic boards for all slots. machine functions. The prototype was mounted in a full-size slot machine cabinet, ready for the show.
The first production units were tested at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. After a few modifications to defeat attempts at cheating, the Video Slot was approved by the Nevada State Gaming Commission and eventually gained popularity on the Las Vegas Strip and in downtown casinos. Fortune Coin Co.
The first American video slot machine to offer a “second screen” bonus round was Reel ‘Em In, developed by WMS Industries in 1996. This type of slot had appeared in Australia at least as early as 1994 with the Three Bags Full game. . With this type of machine, the display changes to provide a different game in which an additional payout can be awarded.
Depending on the machine, the player can insert cash or, in “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, a paper ticket with a barcode, into a designated slot on the machine. The machine is then activated by means of a lever or button (physical or on a touchscreen), which activates reels that spin and stop to rearrange the symbols.
If a player matches a winning combination of symbols, the player earns credits according to the paytable. Symbols vary depending on the theme of the machine. Classic symbols include items such as fruits, bells, and the stylized seven lucky charms. Most slot machine games have a theme, such as a specific aesthetic, location, or character.
The symbols and other bonus features of the game are generally aligned with the theme. Some themes are licensed from popular media franchises including Movies, TV Series (including Game Shows such as the Wheel of Fortune ), artists, and musicians.
Multi-line slot machines have become more popular since the 1990s. These slot machines have more than one pay line, which means that visible symbols that are not aligned with the main horizontal can be considered winning combinations.
Traditional three-reel slot machines typically have one, three, or five pay lines, while video slots can have 9, 15, 25, or up to 1024 different pay lines. Most accept a varying number of credits to be played, with 1 to 15 credits per line being typical. The higher the amount wagered, the higher the payout will be if the player wins.
One of the main differences between video slots and reel machines is how the payouts are calculated. With reel slot machines, the only way to win the maximum jackpot is to play the maximum number of coins (usually three, sometimes four, or even five coins per spin).
With video slot machines, fixed payout values are multiplied by the number of coins per line that is bet. In other words: on a reel machine, the odds are more favorable if the player plays with the maximum number of coins available. However, depending on the structure of the game and its bonuses, some video slot machines may still include features that improve the odds of winning by making increased bets.
“Multi-lane” games avoid fixed pay lines in favor of allowing symbols to pay out anywhere, as long as there is at least one on at least three consecutive left-to-right reels. Multi-lane games can be configured to allow players to bet per reel: for example, on a game with a 3×5 pattern (often referred to as a 243 lane game), playing a reel allows all three symbols on the first reel to potentially pay off, but only the center row pays on the remaining rolls (often referred to as darkening the unused parts of the rolls).
Other multi-lane games use a 4×5 or 5×5 pattern, where there are up to five symbols in each reel, allowing up to 1,024 and 3,125 ways to win respectively. The Australian slot machines manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure marks games with this system such as “Reel Power”, “Xtra Reel Power” and “Super Reel Power” respectively.
One variation involves patterns where the symbols pay next to each other. Most of these games have a hexagonal coil formation, and just like multi-lane games, all unplayed patterns are darkened out of use.
Denominations can range from 1 cent (“penny slots”) up to $ 100.00 or more per credit. These are commonly known as “high limit” slot machines, and slot machines configured to allow such betting are often located in dedicated areas (which may have a separate team of attendants to meet the needs of those who play them).
The slot machine automatically calculates the number of credits that the player receives in exchange for the money inserted. Newer machines often allow players to choose from a selection of denominations on a splash screen or menu.
Each slot machine has a table that lists the number of credits the player will receive if the symbols listed on the pay-out table line up on the slot machine’s pay line. Some symbols are wild cards and can represent several or all of the other symbols to complete a winning line.
Especially on older machines, the paytable is shown on the face of the slot machine, usually above and below the area containing the wheels. On video slot machines, they are usually contained in a help menu, along with information about other features.
Historically, all slot machines used spinning mechanical reels to display and determine results. Although the original slot machine used five reels, which were simpler and therefore more reliable, three-reel machines quickly became the norm.
One problem with three-reel slot machines is that the number of combinations is only cubic – the original slot machine with three physical reels and 10 symbols on each reel only had 10 3 = 1,000 possible combinations.
This limited the ability of the manufacturer to offer big jackpots since even the rarest event had a probability of 0.1%. The theoretical maximum payout, assuming a 100% return to the player, would be 1000 times the stake, but that would leave no room for other payouts, which would make the slot machine very risky, and also quite boring.
Although the number of symbols eventually increased to around 22, allowing 10,648 combinations, this still limited the size of the jackpots as well as the number of possible outcomes.
In the 1980s, however, slot machine makers incorporated electronic components into their products and programmed them to weigh particular symbols. Thus, the chances of losing symbols appearing on the pay line have become disproportionate to their actual frequency on the physical reel. A symbol would only appear once on the reel presented to the player, but could, in fact, occupy multiple stops on the multiple reels.
In 1984, Inge Telnaes received a patent for a device titled “Electronic Gaming Device Utilizing a Random Number Generator for Selecting the Reel Stop Positions” (US Patent 4448419), which states: “It is important to make a slot machine that is perceived to have a greater chance of winning than it actually has within the legal limits that games of chance must operate. ” The patent was later purchased by International Game Technology and has since expired.
A virtual reel that has 256 virtual stops per reel would allow up to 256 3 = 16,777,216 final positions. The maker could choose to offer a $ 1 million jackpot on a $ 1 bet, confident that this will only happen, in the long run, once every 16.8 million plays.
With microprocessors now ubiquitous, the computers inside modern slot machines allow manufacturers to assign a different probability to each symbol on each reel. To the player, it might appear that a winning symbol was “so close”, when in fact the probability is much lower.
In the 1980s in the United Kingdom, slot machines incorporating microprocessors became common. These used a number of features to ensure payment was controlled within the limits of gambling laws. When a coin was inserted into the slot machine, it could go either directly to the cash register for the benefit of the owner, or to a channel that formed the payment reservoir, with the microprocessor monitoring the number of coins in that channel.
The drums themselves were driven by stepper motors, controlled by the processor, and with proximity sensors monitoring the position of the drums. A “lookup table” in the software allows the processor to know what symbols were displayed on the drums for the player. This allowed the system to control the payout level by stopping the drums at the positions it had determined. If the payment channel was full, the payment became more generous; if it was almost empty, the payout became less (therefore a good control of the chances).
Video slots do not use mechanical reels but use graphical reels on a computerized screen. Since there are no mechanical constraints on the design of video slots, games often use at least five reels, and may also use non-standard layouts.
This greatly increases the number of possibilities: a slot machine can have 50 or more symbols on a reel, giving odds of up to 300 million for 1 against – enough for even the biggest jackpot. Since there are so many possible combinations with five reels, manufacturers don’t need to weigh the payout symbols (although some still can).
Instead, the highest paying symbols will usually only appear once or twice on each reel, while more common symbols that generate a more frequent payout will appear multiple times. Video slots machines generally make more intensive use of multimedia and may feature more elaborate mini-games as a bonus.
Modern cabinets typically use flat screens, but cabinets using larger curved screens (which can provide a more immersive experience for the gamer) are not uncommon.
Video slots generally encourage the player to play multiple “lines”: rather than just taking the middle of the three symbols displayed on each reel, a line could go from top left to the bottom right or any other pattern specified by the manufacturer. As each symbol is equally probable, there is no difficulty for the maker to allow the player to take as many lines as possible – the long-term return for the player will be the same. The difference for the player is that the more lines he plays, the more likely he is to get paid on a given spin (because he is betting more).
To avoid giving the impression that the player’s money is simply decreasing (whereas a payout of 100 credits on a single line slot machine would be 100 bets and the player would feel like they made a substantial win, on a 20-line slot machine it would only be five bets and don’t seem as large), manufacturers usually offer bonus games, which can pay off multiple times their bet. The player is encouraged to keep playing to reach the bonus: even if he loses, the bonus game could allow him to regain his losses.
All modern slot machines are designed using Pseudo-Random Number Generators (“PRNG”), which constantly generate a sequence of simulated random numbers, at a rate of hundreds or perhaps thousands per second. As soon as the “Play” button is pressed, the most recent random number is used to determine the result. This means that the outcome varies depending on the exact time the game is played. A fraction of a second sooner or later and the result would be different.
It is important that the machine contains a high-quality RNG implementation. Because all PRNGs eventually have to repeat their sequence of numbers and, if the period is short or the PRNG is otherwise faulty, an advanced player may be able to “predict” the next outcome.
Having access to the PRNG code and seed values, Ronald Dale Harris, a former slots programmer, discovered equations for specific gambling games like Keno that allowed him to predict what would be the next set of numbers selected. based on previous games played.
Most slot machines are designed to overcome this by generating numbers even when the slot machine is not playing, so the player cannot tell where they are in the sequence even if they know how to play it slot machine has been programmed.
Slot machines are generally programmed to pay out winnings of 0% to 99% of the money wagered by players. This is called the “theoretical payout percentage” or RTP, “return to player”. The minimum theoretical payout percentage varies by jurisdiction and is generally established by law or regulation.
For example, the minimum payout in Nevada is 75%, New Jersey 83%, and Mississippi 80%. The winning patterns on slots – the amounts they pay out and the frequencies of those payments – are carefully selected to bring in a certain fraction of the money paid out to the “house” (the operator of the slot machine) while returning the rest to the players during the game a certain slot machine costs $ 1 per spin and has a return to player (RTP) of 95%.
It can be calculated that over a sufficiently long period such as 1,000,000 spins, the slot machine will return an average of $ 950,000 to its players, who entered $ 1,000,000 during that time. In this (simplified) example, the slot machine would pay 95%. The operator keeps the remaining $ 50,000.
Within some EGM development organizations, this concept is simply referred to as “by”. “Par” is also manifested to players in the form of promotional techniques: “Our” Loose Slots “have a return on investment of 93%! Play now !” who inserted $ 1,000,000 during this period. In this (simplified) example, the slot machine would pay 95%.
The operator keeps the remaining $ 50,000. Within some EGM development organizations, this concept is simply referred to as “by”. “Par” is also manifested to players in the form of promotional techniques: “Our” Loose Slots “have a return on investment of 93%! Play now !” who inserted $ 1,000,000 during this period. In this (simplified) example, the slot machine would pay 95%.
The operator keeps the remaining $ 50,000. Within some EGM development organizations, this concept is simply referred to as “by”. “Par” is also manifested to players in the form of promotional techniques: “Our” Loose Slots “have a return on investment of 93%! Play now !” “Our“ Loose Slots ”have a return on investment of 93%! Play now !” “Our“ Loose Slots ”have a return on investment of 93%! Play now !”
The theoretical payout percentage of a slot machine is set at the factory when the software is written. Changing the payout percentage after a slot machine has been placed on the gaming hall requires a physical swap of software or firmware, which is typically stored on an EPROM but can be loaded onto non-volatile RAM (NVRAM). ) or even stored on CD-ROM or DVD, depending on the capacities of the slot machine and the regulations in force.
Based on current technology, this is a time-consuming process and as such is performed infrequently. In some jurisdictions, such as New Jersey, the EPROM has a tamper-evident seal and can only be changed in the presence of officials from the Gaming Control Board. Other jurisdictions, including Nevada, randomly check slot machines to make sure they contain only approved software.
Historically, many casinos, both online and offline, have been unwilling to release RTP figures for individual games, making it impossible for the player to know if they are playing a “loose” or “tight” game. “. Since the turn of the century, some information regarding these figures has started to fall into the public domain, either through various casinos that publish them, mainly online casinos or through studies carried out by gambling authorities. independent.
The return to the player is not the only interesting statistic. The odds of each payout on the payout table are also critical. For example, consider a hypothetical slot machine with a dozen different values on the paytable. However, the odds of getting all of the payouts are zero except the greatest. If the payout is 4,000 times the entry amount, and this happens every 4,000 times on average, the return to the player is exactly 100%, but the game would be boring to play.
Also, most people wouldn’t win anything, and having entries on the paytable that have a return of zero would be misleading. As these individual odds are well-kept secrets, it is possible that slot machines advertised with a high payout simply increase the odds of these jackpots. The casino could legally place machines of a similar payout style and advertise that some machines have 100% return to the player. The added benefit is that these big jackpots increase the excitement of other players.
The odds table for a specific slot machine is called the odds and accounts ratio or PAR sheet, also PARS commonly known as the payoff table and reel strips. Mathematician Michael Shackleford Revealed PARS for Commercial Slot Machine, Original Red White, and Blue International Gaming Technology slot machine.
This game, in its original form, is obsolete, so these specific probabilities do not apply. He only released the odds after one of his fans sent him some slot information that was displayed on a slot machine in the Netherlands. The psychology of the slot machine’s design is quickly revealed. There are 13 possible payouts ranging from 1: 1 to 2400: 1. The 1: 1 payout comes to every 8 games. The 5: 1 payout comes to every 33 games, while the 2: 1 payout comes every 600 games.
Most players assume that the odds increase in proportion to the payout. The only mid-sized payout that’s designed to give the player a thrill is the 80: 1 payout. It is scheduled to occur on average once every 219 readings. The payment of 80: 1 is high enough to create excitement, but not high enough that the player is likely to take their winnings and quit the game.
It is more than likely that the player started the game with at least 80 times their amount. bet (for example, there are 80 quarters at $ 20). In contrast, the 150: 1 payout only occurs once on average every 6,241 reads. The highest payout of 2,400: 1 occurs only once every 64 on average3 = 262,144 readings since the slot machine has 64 virtual shutdowns.
The player who continues to feed the slot machine is likely to have multiple medium-sized payouts, but they are unlikely to have a large payout. He resigns after being bored or having exhausted his bankroll.
Despite their confidentiality, a PAR sheet is sometimes posted on a website. They are of limited value to the player, as generally, a slot machine will have 8 to 12 different programs possible with varying payouts. In addition, slight variations of each slot machine (for example, with double jackpots or five times the game) are still under development. The casino operator can choose which EPROM chip to install in a particular machine to select the desired payment.
The result is that there isn’t really one type of slot machine with a high ROI, since each slot machine potentially has multiple parameters. From October 2001 to February 2002, columnist Michael Shackleford obtained PAR sheets for five different nickel machines; four IGT Austin Powers, Fortune Cookie, Leopard Spots, and Wheel of Fortune games and one game manufactured by WMS; Roll them up.
Without revealing the proprietary information, he developed a program that would allow him to determine with typically less than a dozen games on each slot machine which EPROM chip was installed. Then he investigated over 400 slot machines at 70 different casinos in Las Vegas.
He averaged the data and assigned an average payback percentage to the slot machines at each casino. The resulting list was circulated widely for marketing purposes (especially by Palms Casino which topped the leaderboard).
One of the reasons that the slot machine is so profitable for a casino is that the player has to play with the house edge and high payouts, as well as the house edge and low payouts. In a more traditional betting game like craps, the player knows that some bets have almost 50/50 chances of winning or losing, but they only pay out a limited multiple of the original bet (usually no more than three times).
Other bets have a higher house edge, but the player is rewarded with a larger payout (up to thirty times in craps). The player can choose the type of bet he wishes to make. A slot machine does not offer such an opportunity. Theoretically, the operator could make these probabilities available, or allow the player to choose which one so that the player is free to make a choice. However, no operator has ever implemented this strategy. Different slot machines have different maximum payouts,
In many markets where central monitoring and control systems are used to link slot machines together for audit and security purposes, typically in wide area networks of multiple sites and thousands of slot machines, player feedback typically needs to be modified from a mainframe rather than on each machine. A range of percentages is defined in the game software and selected remotely.
In 2006, the Nevada Gaming Commission began working with Las Vegas casinos on technology that would allow casino management to modify gambling, odds, and payments remotely. The change cannot be made instantly, but only after the selected slot machine has been inactive for at least four minutes. Once the change is made, the slot machine should be locked out for new players for four minutes and display an on-screen message informing potential players that a change is in progress.
Mechanical slots and their coin accepts were sometimes susceptible to cheat devices and other scams. One historical example involved spinning a part with a short length of plastic wire. The weight and size of the part would be accepted by the machine and credit would be given.
However, the rotation created by the plastic wire would cause the coin to exit through the reject chute into the payout tray. This particular scam has become obsolete due to improvements in newer slot machines.
Another outdated method of defeating slot machines was to use a light source to confuse the optical sensor used to count coins when paying out.
Modern slot machines are controlled by EPROM computer chips, and in large casinos coin acceptors have become obsolete in favor of bill acceptors. These slot machines and their bill acceptors are designed with advanced anti-cheat and anti-counterfeiting measures and are difficult to defraud.
Early computerized slot machines were sometimes defrauded by the use of cheating devices, such as the “cursor”, “monkey’s paw”, “light wand” and “tongue”. Many of these old cheat devices were made by the late Tommy Glenn Carmichael, a slot fraudster who is said to have stolen over $ 5 million. Nowadays, computerized slot machines are fully deterministic and thus the results can sometimes be predicted successfully.
Skill stop buttons predate the Bally electromechanical slot machines of the 1960s and 1970s. They appeared on mechanical slot machines made by Mills Novelty Co. as early as the mid-1920s. These machines had arms of the same size.
Modified spool stops, which allowed them to be released from the timing bar, earlier than in a normal game, simply by pressing the buttons on the front of the machine, located between each spool.
Skill stop buttons were added to some slot machines by Zacharias Anthony in the early 1970s. These allowed the player to stop each reel, allowing a certain degree of “skill” to meet the laws of the game New Jersey on existing games that required players to be able to control the game in one way or another.
The original conversion was applied to approximately 50 late model Bally slots. Because the typical machine would automatically stop the spools in less than 10 seconds, weights were added to the mechanical timers to extend the automatic stopping of the spools.
At the time the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) approved the conversion for use in New Jersey arcades.