Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Basic slot machine math

It’s time to clear up a basic mis-understanding about playing slot machine games. People often hear about the percentage payout rates of particular slot games and don’t really understand how they work.

A fundamental aspect of slot machine games is that there is a precisely defined house ‘edge’. The games are designed to provide a guaranteed winning margin to the venue over time. The amount of the margin depends on the game, the venue and whether the machine is linked to a progressive or other jackpot system.

The game margin is expressed as a percentage. If a game has a payout rate of 90.50% for example, it means that 9.5 cents of every dollar per spin you play, on average, will be lost.

The payout rates vary quite substantially. In Australia casinos generally have the highest payout rates - 90% or more. Pubs and clubs may have the lowest - as low as 85% in some areas. Bear in mind that the game may look identical in either venue, but you’ll lose as much as 50% more quickly playing in a pub than a casino. Unfortunately there is no way of telling what payout rate a machine has been set at.

Progressive jackpot games will often pay out less than other games. A percentage of every bet - say 4 cents in every dollar you invest - is being put towards the jackpot amounts. Unless you win a jackpot your overall payout rate on a progressive machine is going to be less than any other machine you might play. In other words, you might lose more quickly playing a linked jackpot machine.

None of the above considers the impact of doubling up. In many jurisdictions doubling a win using the standard red/black doubleup has no house edge - it’s perfectly even odds. If you’re a lucky person you can actually win quite large amounts using double up - as we’ve personally experienced.

A final aspect of payout rates to consider is their cumulative impact. A common misconception is that the percentage payback applies per session. For example - that if you take $100 to a casino for a night of fun on the pokies, that you’ll have $90 left by the end of the night if you play a machine with a 90% payout rate. The payout rate actually applies per spin over time.

Lets show some examples:

Times may be rounded up to nearest minute. Assumes 4 seconds per spin. All
figures are highly theoretical and are not to be considered mathematically
perfect.

The best advice remains to budget your gaming - take a pre-set amount and be prepared to lose it! Increasing your bets will generally only make your wallet empty more quickly (though it may also increase your likelihood of winning a progressive jackpot).

Smoking bans hit pokies turnover in New South Wales

New South Wales (NSW) is Australias largest state by population. It also has more slot machines (over 100,000) than almost any state on the planet.

In July 2007 smoking bans came into force in enclosed areas and we’re now able to see the results on gaming turnover.

“Figures from the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing show that since the smoking ban was fully implemented in July last year, overall poker machine turnover in hotels has fallen 11 per cent, and 7 per cent in clubs.” - ABC news online.

Clubs in NSW exist to support community organisations - sports clubs and the like. They’re commercial entities designed to raise funds and support the particular organisation they represent. Pubs are highly commercialised venues - profit oriented and with no mandate for such a community focus.

We’ll look more closely at the drop in gaming turnover in clubs. 17.7% of people over the age of 16 in NSW smoke. Taking the figures at face value you’d expect that around 62% of smokers have abandoned their gambling habits. That is extremely unlikely though, its more likely that smokers in general simply represent a higher proportion of gaming machine players.

Another aspect is that smokers are also often paired with non-smoking partners. If one stops playing the pokies it’s more than likely their partner will as well.

The recent slowing of the world economy may also be having some impact. You would expect this to have the same percentage impact on pubs as well though.

Such a precipitous drop in turnover in club revenue compared to pub revenue is interesting. It’s possible that clubs attract more smokers, and therefore have more to lose. Demographics don’t support this though. It’s more logical to assume that pubs have just done a better job in preparing for the smoking bans through introduction of outdoor smoking areas or the like.

Evidence from Queensland, Australia shows that revenue does recover eventually. It may not ever reach the turnover per capita it reached before the bans were introduced - but turnover will increase to near normal levels.

Sydney 2007 gaming conference summary

This years Australasian Gaming Conference in Sydney, Australia was a success! Held over three days at the Sydney Exhibition Centre in central Sydney (see it in Google Maps) the conference was a sight and sound spectacular - and even better than last years.

The above picture shows one small part of one hall - and shows a typical slot machine layout at the convention.

At ten o’clock on the dot we entered the convention centre. Everything went smoothly. Once again registration was a breeze - the staff were helpful, the queues fast moving. After being barcoded it was time to enter the arena.

The hundreds of exhibitors, large and small, must have spent days or weeks preparing their display areas. It was an immediate treat to the senses and we didn’t come up for air for a couple of hours.

The Sydney 2007 conference summary:

City : Sydney Australia. Very wet this year, some of the wettest days of 2007 and this may have affected attendance.

Venue : Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre. External picture of the venue below - the gaming conference took up 3 of these giant halls:

Exhibitors : around 300. Including mobile representatives this year. And an odd little artificial life form riding a bicycle. It was being controlled remotely and was making amusing remarks to passers-by.

Attendees : many thousands by our count. Possibly less than 2006 due to the inclement weather.

Slot machines present : several hundred.

Slot machine variety : excellent. Quite similar to last year. Not a whole lot of new games.

Refreshments : delicious and complementary. Particularly at the Aruze gaming area. Top notch attendants.

Sales made at venue : possibly not as strong as 2006, there seemed to be a lot of discussion, but the sales desks appeared quieter.

Overall rating :
4.5 / 5 stars. Once again organisation was excellent. It goes to show just how well organised events can be if a bit of money is spent on them.

Next years conference is at the end of August 2008. We’re going to miss the Vegas convention this year, but hope to have them all on the agenda in 2008 - here’s hoping!

Until next year…

(all trademarks are copyright of their respective owners.)

2007 Gaming Expo Exhibitor - Aristocrat Technology

Aristocrat are the worlds second largest slot machine maker and the quality of their games is first rate.

Exhibitor summary.
Overall rating :
(4.5 / 5 stars)

Display area : quite possibly the largest.
Gaming machine selection : very large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : good. Support staff in particular were great.

Aristocrat are known for more than great games. They also have great technology - and a willingess to invest the big bucks in both games and development. No exhibitor had a wider range of linked jackpots and impressive LCD displays than Aristocrat. The overhead plasma/LCD displays for the progressive linked jackpots show 3D computer rendered animations of incredible quality. They really add to the atmosphere of the games.

Most games were repeats of what was on show at the prior years convention, but there are a few new games of note:

“Miss Kitty” - a variation of the fairly new “Pelican Pete” game concept. It awards 10 free games with wildcards locking in place during the free games. The graphics are simple but attractive and the colour scheme perfectly suits the target demographic. The cute sound effects further enhance the game.

“Super Bucks V” - a $1 game and a remake of the earlier Aristocrat games. Not the most attractive slot machine in the world but its still popular wherever they place it. A very simple game to play.

“Outback Jack” - available already in some jurisdictions. Many different sub-features make for interesting gameplay.

Some ultra high denomination pokies were on display. We witnessed the following win on a “Dolphin Treasure” game:

The above game image is of a $1 game where the maximum bet is $500. Per spin. Assuming pay rates are the same for high denomination games, you could expect to lose about $40 per spin on average over the long term. A nice win on screen there though - almost one hundred thousand dollars was won from one set of free games. Its likely the dollars are Hong Kong dollars in this case.

A second high denomination machine had a maximum bet of $25,000 per spin. This was easily the highest value machine at the show:

You’ll notice the nearly million dollar win… it took about $500,000 of gameplay to trigger the feature, but it was a nice outcome.

Aristocrat also had many more 5×4 reel pokies than previously. This game segment must really be taking off in gaming venues. From Pokie Magic’s experience, we can say that the 6×4 reel games are easily the most popular with players.

Overall an impressive display by this major exhibitor. Staff were much more possessive of the product brochures, but they were quite happy to give out chocolate bars instead.

*All trademarks are copyright of their respective owners. All payout figures are estimates only and should not be relied on for any purpose.

2007 Gaming Expo Exhibitor - Konami

Konami are a Japanese slot manufacturer - with a track record of game innovation.

Exhibitor summary.
Overall rating :
(4.5 / 5 stars)

Display area : large.
Gaming machine selection : large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : good.

Konami had a wide range of slot machines on display. Unfortunately quite a few were on autoplay - which means we couldn’t interact with them. There were more new games than in the range offered at the convention in 2006.

The games offered by Konami often have unusual free games. Where some manufacturers emphasise nice graphics and simple gameplay, Konami takes it a step further and offers nice graphics and interesting gameplay. They don’t play it safe and aim for the basic end of the market.

Over the course of the expo we were told several times by reps from different companies that players in some markets have difficulty understanding even the 5 reel game concept - let alone understanding complex free games arrangements. The games from this vendor were multi-levelled and would be fun to play for the experienced pokies player.

Konami haven’t completely avoided the basic market though. They had about half a dozen 3 reel games on display - familiar in particular to USA based players. These games had an LCD display added to the side of the game reels, which was used to show animations and win amounts - a neat concept which brings the games into the 21st century.

These machines also had the classic pull handle on the right side - for those who are nostalgic for the old style 3 reel games.

Overall Konami has done very well again. This year the carpet didn’t generate tiny electric shocks either - a big improvement over last year!

2007 Gaming Expo Exhibitor - IGT

IGT (International Gaming Technology) are the worlds largest slot machine maker and they do a great job of displaying their wares.

Exhibitor summary.
Overall rating :
(4.5 / 5 stars)

Display area : very large.
Gaming machine selection : very large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : good-excellent.

IGT had a large number of the blue chip range of slot machines on display this year. Some old favourites like “Blue Moon” have been updated with the latest technology, whilst others like last years “Money Chimes” jackpot range of machines also made an appearance.

We managed to accidentally break a couple of the machines, but this is likely due to the temporary installation setup. IGT reps arrived quickly to fix the machines.

There didn’t appear to be a huge variety of new games on display. There is a new Wolf themed game called “Wolf Run” on the way which will no doubt be popular:

Wolf Run also shows a trend towards 5×4 reel games - usually slot games are 5×3 reels. As slot players are maturing they are looking for more interactive and interesting gameplay - more reel images and paylines can add more excitement to gameplay.

A custom roulette system was also on display. Many Australian casinos have roulette tables and associated game terminals where a player can electronically wager on the outcome of the roulette wheel spins. This allows many more users to play a single table than can physically fit and play on the table itself.

The twist with these next generation roulette systems is that no dealer is required. The system is completely automated and draws are held about every 60 seconds. There are several advantages. The gambling venue does not have to pay a dealer is possibly the most attractive. There are also no delays - the system spins the wheel every minute of the gambling day and no table clearing is required. It was unclear how the machines pay out, but its likely to be a ticket based system.

Player trust is likely to be the only downside to automated roulette. Once punters acclimate though, autoroulette will take off.

IGT’s stand and staff are highly commended. If they can produce this quality at the Australasian level, we can only imagine what they can do at the annual Vegas convention.

2007 Gaming Expo Exhibitor - AGT (Ainsworth Gaming)

AGT is a relatively new Australian gaming technology designer and manufacturer - with some of the most impressive design credentials in the business.

Exhibitor summary.
Overall rating :
(4.0 / 5 stars).

Display area : large and spacious - lots of mingling room. AGT have put up their own gallery of images from the convention: click here for galleries.
Gaming machine selection : large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : good.

AGT had a high number of machines on display, including a few new games. The flagship Ambassador gaming cabinet with its huge sideways mounted definitely stands out from the crowd. It does seem odd that the majority of the visual display area on these machines is devoted to the paytable, and a smaller part to the game reels.

The quality of AGT games is good. There is not a huge variety in the games - most appeared to be standard 5×3 reels. The game music is catchy though - really gets you hopping.

Overall, this vendor display was interesting and showed evidence of ongoing development in game and cabinet technology.

2007 Gaming Expo Exhibitor - Aruze Gaming

Aruze Gaming are a Japanese slot machine and pachinko/pachislo concern.

Exhibitor summary.
Overall rating :
(4.0 / 5 stars).

Display area : large.
Gaming machine selection : large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : excellent.

Aruze gaming have been around for almost 40 years. With almost 1,000 employees, they are able to leverage their size into making good games and invest in new technology.

As with some other vendors, most games were repeats of what was on show at the prior years convention. Some newer games had very flashy 3D graphical animations on the LCD screens above the normal game screens.

Aruze had their new automated roulette game on display. Twelve roulette stations sit around a single roulette wheel which is computer controlled. A draw is held roughly every minute:

Roulette is a very popular game in casinos. Making it electronic brings a huge speed advantage to the game which can help offset the lower returns roulette tables bring over conventional slot machines.

The house edge on slot games is usually around 10 percent, but on a roulette table with a single zero, the house edge is less than 3 percent.

The Aruze autoroulette stations offered a maximum bet of $100 per wheel spin - much much less than is offered in most casinos. They were graphically excellent, with crystal clear sound.

The slot games on offer do look different to those of other vendors. They generally have a more cartoonish graphic style. The sounds and music are very vibrant, and the gameplay fairly standard.

To their credit, Aruze offer a greater breadth of game themes than some others - including games like “Warrior Queen” and “Electra II” which are worlds apart from the Egyptian themed games typically offered as standard fare.

Congratulations to this vendor for making their floor space stand out. Great layout, very attractive attendants (dressed as tigers no less, complete with tails!) and highly approachable staff made for a very successful presentation.

New Zealand flicks the monitoring switch

New Zealand gaming machine control has entered the same era of government oversight as most Australian jurisdictions - finally.

“The Department of Internal Affairs has hooked-up over 20,000 gaming machines to an electronic monitoring system ahead of schedule.”

Computerworld article

Until now overall control has been quite lax in comparison to Australia and the USA. The change benefits the government as it is able to instantly tell from a central location what funds are due to it. It also benefits players - its very much more difficult for nefarious venues to modify slot machines in their favour when the gaming software is centrally monitored.

Also of interest in the article is the following quote:

“connecting 20,289 gaming machines”

New Zealand has a population of 4,181,836 - which indicates there is a slot machine for every 206 residents. This is roughly half the per capita slot machine installation in Australia:

(Taken from http://www.pokiemagic.com/blog/2006/03/29/gaming-expansion-in-usa/)

Section 87(2) of the NZ Gambling Act 2003 guarantees public access to the statistics gathered by the new monitoring system - we’ll report them as we find them.

How slot machines actually pay - payout myths put to rest

An aura of mystery surrounds slot machine payouts. Players wonder just how the slots decide what to pay - and when. The secret formula is really quite simple, though the underlying mathematics certainly are not. The key lies in the random number generator (RNG) which is at the heart of every electronic slot machine.

Each of the ‘reels’ on a slot machine - there are five in the sample game below - consists of a number of images stacked on top of each other. Each number corresponds to a symbol on that reel in the game. The order of the images on each reel typically stays the same throughout the life of the machine. At the end of each reelset, it loops back to the beginning. There are typically dozens but may be hundreds of virtual positions on each reel.

It is because there are so many symbols on each reel that so many different payout combinations are possible. If a game has 40 symbols per reel, there are 40×40x40×40x40 (102,400,000) different pay window combinations - assuming no patterns are repeated on each reel.

The RNG comes up with thousands of random numbers per second. The microsecond that you hit the Spin button on the game, a final random number is selected. This determines which image will stop on each reel. In the example below, images 14, 15 and 16 are the selected images for reel 1.

The number of reels varies on different games. Some games may have only three or up to seven. Any more than six or seven and the games become too hard for the player to understand.

If you watch a game long enough you might be able to work out the order of images on each reel. There is no real benefit to this though, as you still won’t be able to predict where each reel will stop.

The real sophistication in game design isn’t created by the RNG, it is actually in the order and quantity of each symbol on each reel. The end result of the incredible mathematics is that over a very long time (perhaps millions of spins), the game will return a quite precise amount to players and a tidy amount to the venue. Manufacturers typically specify a RTP (return to player) percentage with accuracy to 1/100th of a percent.

You can now see that the slot machines are not actually calculating a payout before each time you hit that Spin button. They are simply selecting a series of random numbers to stop each reel. Any payouts are really almost incidental. This realisation also busts other myths:

Myth 1: machines run hot or cold. The use of the RNG absolutely refutes this. There is absolutely no pattern of winning or losing on slots. Its all completely random - every single spin. This relates to free games as well. You might get 1 free game every 100 spins, or you might get five in a row. There is simply no way to predict it. There are less free game trigger symbols on each reel than other images though - they are less likely to appear than low paying symbols.

There are some websites and books which offer so-called player strategies for slot machines. Consider these in the light of the RNG in slots and you’ll soon realise there is no long term strategy for winning playing slots (using doubleup does change things a little - we’ll cover that later).

Myth 2: somebody stole my free games. Sometimes you’ll get up from your gaming machine and move to another. Perhaps you had played for a long time without getting any free games. Then another player sits down and in their first couple of spins they win the free games. Rather than breaking a ceramic ashtray over their heads, consider instead that its simply the luck of the draw - the precise moment they hit the Spin button is in fact what triggered the free games - the correct images on each reel.

Myth 3: talking to my slot machine helps.We’ve covered some of the player types before (Slot machine players). Simply put, neither cajoling nor threatening will make the slightest difference to a poker machine.

The best thing to do when playing slots is simply to set a budget beforehand, and sit back and relax when playing.