“The Caesars Indiana casino lost nearly half a million dollars over two-days last month on one slot machine that had been incorrectly set to give players credit for 10 times the amount of money they put into it.”

Courier Journal Article

Its interesting the error is of a type that could be allowed to occur in the first place.

The slot machines in the venue are TITO - ticket in, ticket out. Paying out in ticket form rather than via cash or attendant certainly has its advantages. Less cash handling and lower numbers of gaming attendants required will lower casino costs overall.

In the days before TITO, most payouts would have occurred with the assistance of a gaming attendant. The unusual payouts at the machine would almost certainly have been detected and dealt with. Half a million dollars coming out of one machine over two days is a huge amount of money.

A “not so smart” award goes to those players who used the malfunction to knowingly reward themselves whilst using their player loyalty cards in the slot machine in question.

The whole incident begs the question - why didn’t the slot management software detect the ridiculous payouts coming from one machine. From the article its clear that it was instead an honest player who reported the faulty machine configuration that led to its detection. Lets hope they rewrite their management software post-haste, to prevent an expensive recurrence.

South Australia is following a similar path - smoking will be completely banned in 2007:

“After 31 October 2007 all South Australian enclosed workplaces, including hotels and clubs, will be smoke-free.”

SA Govt site

Anecdotal evidence suggests Queensland venues are noticing the difference. Turnover and patronage are down. As happened in Victoria when similar bans were introduced, it is likely they will recover.

South Australia has an amusing interim measure in place:

“Your venues is required to designate at least 50% of gaming machines, and one metre around these machines, as non-smoking.”

Its reminiscent of the old smoking/non smoking sections on aircraft - completely pointless. Smoke has a tendency to waft whereever it pleases, and a one metre exclusion zone is of limited value. The number of smokers present is likely to be unchanged, so the amount of smoke present in the venue overall will also be unchanged.

Fnarena review

This comes on the back of its chief being recently voted one of Australias most admired CEO’s. After a turbulent couple of years things have certainly been picking up recently for Aristocrat.

“South Australians lost $751 million on poker machines in the past financial year, despite there being 1,500 fewer machines to play”

ABC News Online

South Australia has a population of around 1.56 million. Losses per citizen equate to approximately $500, though obviously the population actually playing poker machines would be considerably less. Each installed slot machine makes an annual citizen wallet deduction of around $60,000.

Interestingly, we can see from the following document that the number of gaming machines and venues in South Australia is fairly static in the last year or so, after the decline of 1,500 in the previous year:

SA Govt site

The South Australian government also publishes a list of installed poker machines by manufacturer:

SA Govt site

Aristocrat is by far the #1 supplier, though its lead is very slowly being whittled away by IGT (worlds largest slot maker) and by Konami. IGT have introduced a new range of “Blue Chip” machines which are considerably improved graphically over their older machines. Japanese manufacturer Konami are known for innovative features in their games.

“THE State Government will go to next year’s election with … up to $500 million – the up-front fee it is set to receive for the renewal of Star City’s exclusive operating licence.”

Daily Telegraph

Governments can act as they see fit in relation to licencing of gambling products or venues. Ultimately though, as usual its the punters who pay for those licencing fees. The venue must recover the fees somewhere.

“industry sources estimate the average annual revenue from each machine is about $180,000.”

The casino obviously does very well with its pokies. This would equate to around $500 a day in wins per machine. One you take out the usual expenses and taxation, its quite a bit less.

“A SMILING thief walked calmly out of Brisbane’s Treasury Casino moments after he viciously attacked and robbed a woman as she played the pokies.”

News Article full story

The venue is not to blame. The only way they could possibly have prevented the problem was to station a security guard at each machine. Pokies make a lot of money, but not enough to afford that.

Casinos have complex layers of security, including huge numbers of security cameras. The layout of Treasury casino is a bit odd, with numerous small nooks with pokies installed.

There is a lesson to be learned here for players. Always keep your cash stash secreted away. Don’t assume that you won’t be attacked simply because you are in a large well protected venue.

Lets hope this smiling thief won’t be smiling when he is located.

>>>Update. The thief turned himself in and is being processed.

“It wasn’t because she hit the jackpot but because, in a sense, the jackpot hit her.”

STL Today

The description of the injuries is interesting. Who knew slot machines could be so vicious?

Its not just pokies which have the potential to harm. If you’ve ever looked up over the roulette machines in Australian casinos, you’ll often see a roof mounted plasma or LCD television with a live feed of the roulette table action.

They are very securely bolted to their frames, but if something untoward were to occur and they fell, it could mean a large payout for players or dealers in the fallpath. Ouch.

Well its certainly possible. An Australian MP wants information, but an industry representative doesn’t seem too concerned:

“No-pokies MLC Nick Xenophon has called for the Independent Gambling Authority to subpoena all data and research from manufacturers on how pokie machines work and are programmed”

Advertiser Article

So what is it about slot machines that makes them potentially addictive? Is it the lights, the sounds, the games? Its hard to boil it down without manufacturers data, but there is perhaps some evidence that certain game types work - look at how many games you see that have the same core game but with different graphics.

Perhaps also there is a certain amount of Pavlovian conditioning - over time the sights and sounds weave themselves into an irresistible pattern of attraction. The first time you hear or see a gaming machine you are unlikely to run over and be immediately entranced - it takes time - and usually a few nice wins.

The Australian

Herald Sun

Victorians lose around 7 million dollars a day on pokies - a great deal of which ends up in government coffers. Around 20 percent of all Victorian Government revenue is now comprised of gambling revenues.

Of note in the Herald Sun article is the following comment:

“Investigations should be held to see if gaming operators’ computer systems were picking up problem gamblers through loyalty card schemes.”

Well there goes your privacy! The loyalty card schemes are of pretty limited value in most cases anyway, but having venues spy on your activity to try and deduce whether you are spending more than you should be is a little over the top.

A new story has come to light which really drives this point home:

“Golfer John Daly…drove to Las Vegas and says he lost $1.65 million in five hours playing mostly $5,000 slot machines”

Fox Sports Article

Its hard to imagine a $5,000 slot machine. Simply adding cash sufficient to play one game would involve inserting 50 hundred dollar bills. Presumably high roller slot machines such as played by Mr Daly offer alternative methods of inserting vast quantities of cash.

If the machines being played were to offer a very high 97% payout rate, at a bet of $5,000 a time a player might expect to lose $150 a spin over the long term.