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).

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.

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.)

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.

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!