Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Gaming machine standards in Australia and New Zealand

February 7, 2006 on 3:01 pm | In Slot machine overviews |

If you enjoy reading delectably dry documents, we have found 115 pages of rivetting material just for you. Its the overview of gaming machine standards for Australia and New Zealand, and can be found here:

Tasmanian Govt Website

There are some interesting facts buried in the document, such as:

Page 45: 3.9.16b “The probability for attaining each winning pattern of symbols (offered in the Base game) must not be less than 1/7,000,000.”

We take this to mean that the worst possible outcome is that the best possible outcome can be expected to come up at least every 7 million spins. The best possible outcome in most pokies games is to have five wildcard symbols (which normally substitute for other symbols) come up on one payline. As noted in a previous article about the “Black Rhino” game, its going to cost you a lot of time and money to test this hypothesis.

Page 46: 3.9.17e “Gamble features (e.g. Double-up) are to be excluded;”(from the Nominal Standard Deviation of a game).

A doubleup is an optional method of increasing your total win for a spin, usually by selecting “Red” or “Black” and winning or losing based on the computer selection. We take this clause to mean that double-ups are in fact won or lost completely randomly. It would make more sense if doubleups were fully controlled by the gaming machine, but if random chance is determining the outcome, this may be one of the best ways to achieve a better payout on pokies games.

Page 47: 3.9.22 “Autoplay is prohibited.”

This one is a no-brainer. I have seen one machine with autoplay enabled. As soon as it was brought to the attention of the venue, the machine was taken offline. A lot of players can be seen getting around the autoplay prohibition. They wedge items such as a folded coaster, cigarette packet or their cat into the spin button in order to achieve autoplay.

Page 49: 3.9.49b “The residual credit removal play must return at least [MINRTP]% and not more than 100% to the player.”

When you’re playing a slot game and you are down to your last few credits, you often have the option to gamble your residual credit (those last few cents, and always less than the minimum token value accepted by the game, say $1). Its a natural assumption that you would have even odds of winning a residual credit gamble. This clause appears to say otherwise - that your chances of winning the residual gamble may be the same odds as the main game is set to play. What a cheek!

Page 49: 3.9.57 “The display of the result of a game outcome must not be misleading or deceptive to the player (e.g. must not improperly indicate a near miss).”

This one benefits players. It prevents the machines from deliberately generating rolls of the reels which generate continuous ‘almost’ wins. One slot machine manufacturer was heavily censured a few years back for programming almost wins (not one of the current crowd of manufacturers).

Pages 113-115 appear to list the minimum RTP (return to player%) for each State/Territory. There is quite a variance between the different jurisdictions.

Overall, these standards are a great idea. They cover the basics of ensuring that you are losing your money in a reasonably fair fashion. The alternative would be cloak and dagger slot machine odds, which benefit no-one.

Note: all assessments above are opinions only, and should be treated as such. This blog makes no guarantee that opinions are factually correct.