Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Queenslands pokie population grows

The State of Queensland, Australia is famous primarily for its temperate climate and impressive hedges. It is rapidly becoming renowned for an entirely new reason - huge growth in slot machine numbers.

“MORE than 100 poker machines a month are being added to pubs and clubs across Queensland…New figures show the number of pokies in the state has topped 40,000, “

Courier Mail Article

Queensland has a population of a little over four million - meaning there is approximately 1 slot machine per 100 citizens (and this does not include slots in the four casinos). If you factor out those under the age of 18, the density of pokies per adult is higher than almost anywhere else on the planet.

If you’re wondering why there are so many pokies in the State, the following statistic from the article tells it like it is:

“The Government expects to collect $527 million in gaming machine tax next financial year, rising to $657 million in 2008-09.”

Albury enjoys a flutter

The city of Albury in Victoria, Australia has a remarkable turnover of citizen funds through its pokies:

“GAMBLERS pumped almost $450 million through Albury pokies last financial year.
The astonishing figures show that $447,119,409 was turned over in the city’s 1354 machines at 27 pubs or clubs in 2004-2005.That’s about $1.25 million a day and $330,000 for each machine during the year.”

These numbers are not atypical for Australian regional cities. The turnover, and player losses clearly demonstrate that the penetration of pokies has reached the point of no return.

There are mutterings by various political aspirants that they intend to try and win office with the intent of reducing pokies numbers - this has already happened in South Australia, where a “No pokies’ MP was recently returned to office with an increased majority.

Slot machines Japanese style - pachinko

Slot machines as such are illegal in Japan. At least slot machines as most people understand them. Instead the Japanese play a different style of pseudo gambling game - pachinko.

Players frequent what are sometimes huge venues, absolutely stuffed with pachinko machines. Once there, they purchase small metal balls and insert them into the machines. At the end of play the idea is to have more of the balls out of the machine than were put in. As with other gambling games, more often than not this won’t be the case.

Its against the law in Japan to award a cash payout, so instead of cash prizes, players are given tokens or trinkets of specific value. Some of these prizes awarded can be exchanged or ’sold’ for cash at adjacent or nearby centres. The cash cannot be given at the venue itself, though in practice these centres are not far from the pachinko venues.

The net effect is that players can end up with more cash than they started with - just as you might playing real slot machines. The process is just a little more complicated. The turnover on pachinko machines is quite incredible:

“pachinko … takes in 30 trillion yen a year — more than Japan’s automobile manufacturers”

Japan Times Article

There used to be extensive involvement by organised criminal elements in the pachinko process. This has been cleaned up in recent years, but changing the system to a more conventional slot machines/casino style operation is being met with resistance:

“The people who oppose legalized gaming in Japan say that it will stimulate underworld criminal activity and lead to the deterioration of public morals”

The public morals argument is a little farfetched, as even in pachinko parlours an entry age limit of 18 applies. The secondary argument about the likely involvement of organised crime in casinos is also quite specious - most first world countries are able to control the probity of casino operations.

Playing pokies a hazard?

A Victoria, Australia group which comments on problem gambling has made the following observation:

“The Council of Gamblers’ Help Services executive officer Eddie Chapman said gamblers could not be expected to make informed decisions about their spending because the rapid and continuous nature of machines interfered with normal decision making.”

Star News Group

Once again the gaming machines themselves are being blamed for players losses. Instead, the regulation of the machines should be looked at. Its quite possible to have the same number of gaming machines as already exist - in such a way as not to cause the huge player losses currently experienced.

A partial solution - remove the high taxation on gaming machine turnover. Venues must set their percentage payouts according to law, but at the same time the various governments which set the laws have a large hand in the payout pie.

In theory pokies payouts could be adjusted to a level which would make playing them little more expensive than playing other forms of arcade video games.

Remember from our previous posts that you are effectively paying a fee, a percentage of every single dollar you play in a slot machine, to play that game. Commonly the machines will keep 10% or more of every dollar invested - if this were reduced to a 1 or 2 percent level and maximum bets were reduced, players could simply lose much less over time.

Changing the payout regime is unlikely - most governments are in the awkward position of needing the revenue to balance their budgets.

IGT reports handsome profit

Making slot machines can be a lucrative business, as witnessed by IGT’s impressive profit performance.

“For the quarter ended March 31, the company earned $124 million, or 35 cents a share, up 32 percent from $93.9 million, or 26 cents a share, during the same period a year ago”

Yahoo Business Article

IGT is the worlds largest slot maker, with hundreds of games available. It noted in the report that its home market - the USA - is currently limited in opportunities for expansion - so its working harder overseas to increase revenues.

Here in Australia IGT machines comprise a relatively small percentage of installed gaming product. Recent advances, in particular the Blue Chip range of gaming machines, have seen IGT’s market share in Australia increase.

Press two buttons for a pokies payout

A laypersons guide to why not to cheat on slot machines, even if you know how. Not only do you run the risk of being prosecuted, there’s also the possibility of a civil lawsuit against you:

“… poker machine tester Anatoli Michkoroudny used inside information to win close to $48,000 from Sydney clubs, he has been ordered to repay the winnings with interest.
… he drastically increased his odds of winning using a glitch in the Egyptian Princess game which awarded payouts when two buttons were pressed simultaneously. “

News Article

It was probably not overly clever of the alleged infringer to ply his trade at four different gaming venues over a short period.

A demonstration slot machine was apparently brought into court to show how the cheating was achieved. Theres no word in the article about whether the win from that play was allowed to be kept.

Seriously though, its interesting not only that the bug existed, but also that apparently the machines continued to be used in gaming venues despite the existence of the fault being known. Slot machine software is almost airtight - its very rarely they crash. If you’ve seen a slot machine fail in operation - let us know.

Slot machines say no to cash

Picky slot machines in some Atlantic City (New Jersey, USA) casinos are rejecting the new design US ten dollar notes. Introduced recently with added anti-counterfeiting technology, the bills are just different enough to cause problems for some slot machines.

“The problem is extensive,” Virginia McDowell, a spokeswoman for Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., told The Press of Atlantic City. “

North Jersey Article

In the future this issue will be mitigated by two factors - remote download of new software to each slot machine to instantly upgrade its note acceptance capabilities - and the eventual introduction of completely cashless slot machines via smart card or similar technology.

In any case, the reluctance of the slots to accept what they perceive to be “invalid” cash is a good thing, it means they’re doing their job.

Czechs check out the pokies

Slot machines are a worldwide phenomenon, but sometimes the places and quantities you find there are surprising. The Czech Republic has a significant quantity of gaming machines present:

“Prague, April 11 (CTK) - People spent a record CZK 50 billion on gambling machines last year, a growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year, and the number of the machines increased by 2,438 to a record 52,185, Finance Ministry spokeswoman Petra Krainova informed CTK in a press release today.”

Prague Monitor Article

The Czech Republic has a population of around 10.2 million - meaning they have roughly one slot machine per 195 people. This indicates a higher per capita presence of slots than the USA, although its not even close to Australia’s gambling machine level per capita.

The Prague Monitor article is unclear on the nature of the devices, they’re described simply as “Gambling Machines”. We’ll attempt to find out exactly what kind of gambling machines they are.

Casino wins cosmetics appeal

A female bar attendant at a Nevada casino lost her job in the year 2000 as a result of failing to comply with company policy regarding makeup. Her employer had set standards for employees to meet and she allegedly failed to meet them.

“Harrah’s policy requires women to apply face powder, blush, mascara and lipstick”

Las Vegas Sun Article

The gist of the appellants argument seemed to be that enforcing the rules on only one gender of employees was discriminatory. Male employees had grooming rules of their own - one of which forbade the wearing of makeup.

The court ruled against her:

“…requirement that women bartenders wear makeup at its casinos does not amount to sex discrimination, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled… “This is not a case where the dress or appearance requirement is intended to be sexually provocative and tending to stereotype women as sex objects,” Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder wrote in the majority opinion”

It was a 7-4 decision - not even close to unanimous. Other cases along similar lines may end up in court over time in an effort to provide clearer legal guideliness employers may use in future when determining what their staff grooming policies will be.

Aristocrat keeps eye on US slot machine market

Australian slot manufacturer Aristocrat Technologies is doing well in the USA, and has plans to do even better.

Yahoo News

The Australian pokies market is saturated. The main opportunities for growth are in the areas of machine replacement and even they are limited. Many Australian venues, especially pubs and clubs, are yet to implement ticket only payout machines and this presents possibly the area of largest upgrade potential.

When your home market is dominated and saturated, you head for overseas markets:

“The 53-year-old company, which has been taking U.S. market share from industry leader International Game Technology (IGT)…Industry projections suggest North America’s 750,000 slot machine market will grow to one million by 2010″

The Aussie slots player tends to seek sophistication in gaming products. Video style slots are, according to the article, 100% of the installed base of slots in that country. Looking around casinos here in Australia, this would tend to be a slight overestimation, but not by much. In comparison, the USA market has a reported base of only 40% video slots - the remainder being the old style mechanical reel devices.

As the US market and players mature, they’ll come to expect what Aussies now take for granted - top class video slot machines. This may lead to a large scale replacement program in the US, and provide more fodder for the expansion of Aristocrat, Australias largest gaming icon.