| Not so off-the-wall is switching from slot machines to slot workstations, on which you can play any game that casino has in its game server, sort of like video on demand. From what I understand, there are some casinos in Europe that are experimented with some aspects of games on demand. Two other problems that may be addressed by future cabinets (and already are in some, I believe) are glare and sound spillage. Glare is a problem that probably has to be addressed more by the casino than the manufacturer because the casino created the glare problem through their choices in overhead lighting and machine placement. Sound spillage, though, has to be addressed in the cabinet. It's a shame to spend so much time and effort (and money) on great sounds for a game only to have the casino turn down the volume so low that even the player can't hear it. Maybe the easiest solution is to add a headphone jack to the machines and let players plug in their own headphones. WMS Gaming's new Bluebird cabinet, which should start appearing in casinos later this year, addresses the problem of the location of the buttons. I'm not sure if the Bose Free Field speaker technology will help with sound spillage. John -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you can get back to me asap. I am doing a project for school about slot machines and have been reading about RNG, which I understand, and the payout percentage. What I don't understand is that if every spin has an equal chance of winning due to RNG, how can the casino ensure it gets 8% or so of every dollar spent? I would also like some information or sites to get information on popular cheating techniques on slots. Not extensive details, but basic info on how they do it. Thanks, Sonya Dear Sonya, Let's say I have 100 index cards. Each card has an amount from 0 to 9 written on it. If you add up the amounts on the cards, the total is 92. We're going to play a game with the cards. You pay me $1 to be able to draw a card at random. I'll pay you the amount written on the card. The cards are in box, so you can't see the amounts on them when you draw. After we settle a drawing, the card is returned to the box and you have the option to play again. Each card is equally likely to be drawn. We can calculate the payback on the game by dividing the total amount of money returned ($92) by the product of the number of outcomes (100) times the cost to play ($1). That gives us a payback of 92% for this game. I don't know which card you're going to pick on any particular play, but because each card is equally likely to be drawn, I know that in the long run the number of times a particular card has been drawn divided by the total number of drawings will get closer and closer to 1/100. And my hold on the game will get closer and closer to 8% of the money you've paid me to play. A slot machine works in the same way, but it has tens of thousands of possible outcomes (the product of the number of virtual stops on each reel) instead of 100. We don't know which outcome will occur next. But because we're drawing an outcome from a population of outcomes that pays back 92%, the actual pay back on the machine will tend to get closer and closer to 92% the more the machine is played. As for cheating slots, if you search for the names Ron Harris and Dennis Nikrasch in conjunction with "slot machine" you'll find enough articles and sites to get you started. |
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