Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Can you control Pokies wins?

As mentioned in a previous entry, slot machines generate random number sequences in order to determine what symbols will land on each reel. In most machines the contents of each reel is fixed - there may be 30 or 40 symbols on each reel but usually in the same order. Before each spin the game will select a random number to determine where each reel stops.

To make it more difficult to guess where the reels will stop, the random number generator inside the machine continues to churn out new numbers thousands of times a second - even when the machine is not being played. At the exact instant you hit that “SPIN” button, the game will use the random number it has just selected to choose the outcome - what symbols will be on each reel.

In a sense then, you are in control of payouts (you’ll still lose over time). The exact time you hit the spin button will determine what your win will be, if any.

You might play a machine for an hour and not win any free games. After leaving the machine you notice a new player wins free games on their first press - resist the urge to punish that player - you almost certainly would have produced a different outcome. The random number generator turns over numbers so quickly that the chances you would have had the same game outcome as the new player are almost zero.

An easy way to win on slots

Here is an easy, if somewhat unorthodox method of ‘winning’ on slot machines:

Two cleaning ladies are being investigated for using industrial vacuum cleaners to suck cash out of casino slot machines.

Link to Ananova article

Most players would find it difficult to conceal an industrial sized vacuum cleaner in their clothing, but its certainly possible!

Ever wondered how much profit pokies make?

Slot machines are sleekly engineered devices designed to steadily drain your pockets. You may be better off staying at home to avoid the traffic and simply posting a cheque to the casino or pub/club for your expected losses.

In round terms, each of Crown Casino’s 2500 machines generate profits of about $150,000 a year, and each of the 27,500 machines owned and controlled by Tabcorp and Tattersalls generate just over $60,000 a year in club venues and $110,000 a year in pubs.

Link to The Age article

Looking at that casino figure of $150,000 profit per machine - each pokie in the casino is generating almost $411 a day in profits.

The individual profit each pokie can make is limited only by the amount of time it can be played. Next time you sit down to play, just think of how much you will be adding to that machines profit for the day.

How to lose $330,000 in 392 days on the pokies

To test this proposal, you will need $330,000, a year and a bit of your time, and one or more sturdy button pressing fingers.

In the case of one of the popular games, Black Rhino, the Productivity Commission reports that at the rate of one line per button-push it would take 6.7 million attempts to have just a 50 per cent chance of getting five rhinos. At ordinary rates of play that would take 392 days, 24 hours a day. And it would cost nearly $330,000!

Link to The Age article

We highly recommend you don’t set aside the 392 days required to try this out!

While its true that most folks don’t play slot machines with a stated goal of spinning up 5 Black Rhinos*, it does show just how difficult it is to achieve the highest possible win in a slot machine game.

*Black Rhinos in this game are wildcards. Wildcard symbols will substitute for almost all other symbols in the game and usually are themselves the highest paying symbol in a game.

Pokies payout percentages in the Northern Territory

We’ve had a few questions from readers about where to find detailed information on what the slot machine payouts are in their jurisdictions. We’ll start with the Northern Territory, Australia. On its government web site, you’ll find lists of all approved gaming machines and their payouts:

AGT Gaming Machines
Aristocrat Gaming Machines
Konami Gaming Machines
Pacific Gaming Machines
Star Games Gaming Machines

The most important column in the documents is the %RTP - this stands for % return to player, ie what average proportion of every dollar invested you can expect to win back over a long period of time. For example, if the %RTP is 85.30%, you can expect to lose around 14.7 cents of every dollar you play in the machine - over time.

The higher the %RTP for a machine, the less you can reasonably expect to lose playing that game. Note though, that this number is a long term number - you won’t notice that exact percentage payout yourself.

The difficult part is identifying which gaming machines are set to which RTP levels - the same game can have four or five different RTP settings for a venue to choose from. If in doubt - ask!

Interestingly, those documents mention that bank note acceptors are not permitted to be used on gaming machines in Northern Territory clubs or hotels.

Note: all figures are estimates for informational purposes only and should not be used to formulate a playing strategy or otherwise relied on in a financial sense.

Slots are for losers?

“Slots are for losers” … uttered by an unidentified IGT artist.

Link to Reno Gazette Journal article

The Reno Gazette article gives an interesting perspective on the world of a slot machine manufacturer - the worlds largest.

“Most of the people I met inside IGT told me they never played slot machines on their own time,” Rivlin wrote, as part of the article’s conclusion.

If the people that make the slots don’t play them, what do they know that you don’t?

Are pokies venues loyalty programs worthwhile?

Most casinos and a good proportion of the larger venues operate player loyalty programs. You are issued a magnetic striped card which you insert into the pokies when you play.

The idea is to award ‘bonus points’ based on the amount of money you put into each machine. Simply insert the card, and play the machine as normal. Every now and then the machine will beep to let you know your points are accumulating nicely.

You’ll often find cards left in machines by players who have forgotten to remove them. You’ll also see people who attach the cards to themselves via a long chain or piece of string. A good way not to forget to remove the card!

Once you have amassed sufficient points, you can usually redeem them for something of (limited?) value such as venue parking credit or trinkets like bath robes, toasters, kettles etc. It can take a long time to amass points sufficient to redeem something useful.

A tip: most pokies will show on their player loyalty card readout the current number of points you have accrued. If you watch carefully, you will be able to determine the rate at which points are being issued - how many points you are getting per dollar of spending. Then, have a look at the rewards centre and see how many points it takes to get something of value. You can then work out how much spending it takes to redeem something. That toaster you can buy in a shop for $30 might well cost hundreds or thousands of slot machine spending to redeem.

So are these programs worthwhile? Well, you are certainly no worse off for using them. You’re still going to lose the same amount of money playing the pokies - at least this way you might have something to show for it.

Are there secret tips for winning on pokies?

You will often see people touching screens, rubbing buttons or talking strangely to pokie machines. This will have absolutely no effect.

It also makes no difference what time of day or night you play. Whether a particular machine has recently had a large win or loss is entirely irrelevant. They operate over a very long term average return to players.

Link to NSW Govt brochure

It does not make a difference whether:
>you play a machine straight after someone else has had a big payout from it
>you play a machine that has not had a big payout over a long period of time
>you play at certain times of the day or night
>you play on certain days of the week, or
>you press the buttons a certain way.

The New South Wales government sums it up nicely in their brochure - nothing you do to the machine will make a difference to its payouts.

Can you win more by playing slots at a casino?

As mentioned in a previous post, most venues can set and change the payout levels on their machines.

In Australia, Pubs tend to have the lowest payouts - as low as around 85%. Pubs operate for profit, so why wouldn’t they maximise their returns.

Clubs work a little differently, profits are normally returned to members by way of venue improvements. Thats part of the reason why most clubs look as good as they do, especially if they have many pokies. Club slot machines tend to pay out higher than Pub slots.

Casinos are different again. Their goal is entirely profit driven, but as they typically have such huge numbers of slots they can afford to let them pay out more and they do.

There is no set formula to tell you whether you’ll win more at any particular venue. Most jurisdictions have legislation dictating minimum payouts for each type of venue. The Australian state of New South Wales, for example, dictates a minimum payout of 85% on its gaming machines. In practice they may pay more, especially in areas with a lot of machines where venue operators are trying to attract players.

So, can you win more by playing slots at a casino? It depends on the level of payout the machines are set to give - if in doubt, ask an attendant what the payout levels are. In some areas casinos will actually advertise what their payouts are.

Pokie regrets in Victoria, Australia?

The government which introduced poker machines (slots) into the southern state of Victoria, Australia did so for financial reasons apparently:

Link to Herald Sun article

Fifteen years and 30,000 poker machines later, many of the former Cabinet ministers are saddened by what they helped create.

There may be a potential solution which doesn’t involve removing a single slot machine. It would protect the jobs of the workers in pubs/clubs/casinos and also protect the jobs of those who produce gaming machines.

More info to follow in the next update.