Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Gaming expo exhibitor - pokies manufacturer Aristocrat

Aristocrat was easily one of the largest vendors displaying its wares at the convention - and right inside one of the two entrances.

Exhibitor in a nutshell:
Display area : large.
Gaming machine selection : very large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : good-excellent.

We found the quality of the Aristocrat display to be every bit as good as that of the poker machines they create. From the wide range of machines to the obviously high number of staff present, there was no problem in having questions answered.

Linked Jackpot machines were set up so that they would be triggered every few spins on the demo machines, and there were some impressive new jackpot designs on display.

Artwork on the new games is fairly standard Aristocrat stuff - nice, clean, uncluttered matching graphics. Interestingly, though the game graphics were fairly basic, the company has gone all out in creating a 3d visual feast in the overhead plasma/LCD displays. Fully rendered 3D ‘movies’ provide immersive depictions of the jackpot storylines, from the Pharaohs sarcophagus in the “Pharaohs Fortune” linked jackpots to the soccer themed display of the “Golden Goals” jackpots.

It was not clear at the exhibition whether the latter jackpots will be available in Australia.

This particular exhibitor catered for several markets - Queensland, New South Wales, New Zealand and Macau amongst others. Different brochures were provided for each region.

New Zealand customers were able to see their new multigame Aristocrat products with full popup displays. The multigame units allow the player to select one of four games to play - simply by activating the touchscreen. This is a precursor to the new download technology, where players or venues will eventually be able to choose to play any game on any machine. The popup displays reveal player win/loss data as is now required by New Zealand legislation.

There were a few new games on display. Most were variations on existing games - new graphical themes with a free games feature borrowed from an earlier release. There is a lot of sense in this, the quality of the features in these games tends to be good.

Its also likely to be much easier to gain regulatory approval if you are just changing the theme rather than the structure of a game.

There were also some remade games - such as Peacock Magic. They provide updated graphics and sounds, but little else is new.

One innovative twist is the introduction of 5×5 reel pokies (5 images wide, 5 images high). These extra horizontal reels seem to be activated when you bet more. Its a new capability, but the images become quite small and the paylines hard to follow.

Aristocrat also demonstrated some ticket in ticket out (TITO) machines. These games accept cash and pay out in the form of barcoded tickets which can in turn be accepted by other machines or cashed in at the players discretion. TITO machines are rare to non-existent in some Australian States, but are extremely common in the US market.

Overall rating: 4.5 / 5 stars. Easy to recommend the pokies games for any venue.

Gaming expo exhibitor - pokies manufacturer Ainsworth

Another large exhibitor. Recently rebranded from A-G-T.

Exhibitor in a nutshell:
Display area : large.
Gaming machine selection : large.
Staff knowledge/approachability : good-excellent.

An impressive effort from this pokies exhibitor. To this day the excellent payout music on their new range of machines reverberates throughout our minds.

The vendor had a large number of machines on display, from the old style Ambassador machines with their sideways mounted 29″ (68cm) CRT screens, to the all new range of Ambassador machines with superb 26″ sideways mounted LCD screens. The only downside to the new screens appears to be that there is a lot more chrome on display around the sides of the screen - a bit visually distracting.

A-G-T machines were one of the pioneers of the dynamic paytable. The display screens are sufficiently high to allow simultaneous display of the game reels and a dynamic paytable. The top of the screen is also usable during the feature free games as a second screen area.

Redesign of the gaming machine cabinet appears to remove a problem with the old design - players could rest drinks adjacent to the buttons, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Games on display varied from fairly old to brand new. The new games have a vastly improved scrolling mechanism, superb music and very nice graphics.

It can be slightly distracting when moving from game to game, as the aspect ratio of the game reels on different machines appears to vary - but the distraction is only momentary.

According to the reps, one of the new games is outperforming a lot of other new games on the market - and its easy to see why.

Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 stars. Would have been higher if the mix of old/new machines was more highly geared to the new ones. Some new titles in the brochures didn’t appear to be on the floor.

Gaming expo exhibitor - pokies manufacturer Konami

An international presence.

Exhibitor in a nutshell:
Display area: medium.
Gaming machine selection: medium.
Staff knowledge/approachability: good-excellent.

Konami had a nice display, encompassing numerous pokies, a jackpot link and a bar area. One unfortunate aspect of their setup was that some of the pokies were set up on a thickly carpeted area. Touching the buttons to play the games for the first time often involved receiving a minor static shock - annoying and unexpected. It was moderately amusing to watch others experience it for the first time though.

This exhibitor was showing off its range of hex slots. Instead of the standard 5 x 3 reel pokies, the layout is 3-4-3-4-3 symbols on reels one to five respectively. This creates all new payout possibilities. The only real difficulty is trying to work out what is paying where at any given time. The volume controls on these units were set to higher levels than were necessary.

In addition to the hex slots, there were remakes of older games, with updated graphics and sound. As is the case with many slot machine distributors now, some units come with two screens as standard - one for normal play and one above it to display additional graphics or paytables/linked jackpot details.

Games by this vendor tend to have innovative features - not just 10 free spins - 10 free spins with a twist. Extra attention to graphical detail during features is also a hallmark of these games.

Games on display were cheerful to look at and fun to play.

Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 stars. 4.5 stars if not for the minor static shocks.

Gaming expo exhibitor - pokies manufacturer Aruze Gaming

A medium sized exhibit with some interesting twists.

Exhibitor in a nutshell:
Display area: medium.
Gaming machine selection: medium.
Staff knowledge/approachability: good-excellent.

The staff at the Aruze display were informative and extra friendly. The themed American Indian girls were most well received as well. The range of games was large and the quality of the gameplay impressive.

There was only one real letdown with the games from this vendor - the odd scrolling used. The reels bounce back quite hard before they stop, which is different enough to most of the other pokies vendors that it really stands out.

This was the only exhibitor we found to have a shortcut combination to trigger a feature. Simply pressing three particular buttons at once would yield a feature on the next spin - every time. An excellent idea hopefully others will follow (IGT had a similar trigger for their linked jackpot - but it required a key).

There were more than just slot machines here - roulette simulations included automated mechanical wheels - no dealer required.

Also present were blackjack simulations, which were pretty standard, but included several different variations of a 3d dealer ‘personality’ - projected onto a large screen facing the players. The graphics were seriously well done and included animated backgrounds of casino activity.

Overall rating; 4.5 / 5 stars. Innovative products. Extra friendly staff. Half a star was for the feature trigger on command.

Gaming expo exhibitor - pokies manufacturer Stargames

A medium sized exhibit from this subsidiary of Shufflemaster.

Exhibitor in a nutshell:
Display area: medium.
Gaming machine selection: medium.
Staff knowledge/approachability: good-excellent.

Stargames range of pokies product was well represented. There were some interesting themes - games with Cuban and Russian themes for example. Graphics were generally in a cartoon style - but were very well drawn.

There was also a giant screen showing a slot machine display - but with many players able to participate in the same game at the same time via terminals facing the screen.

This exhibitor also offers a lot of Asian language products and non slot games. Included were Bacarat and Sic Bo. These two games, with the addition of roulette were all available with dealer simulations. A ‘3D’ virtual dealer is depicted in realistic graphics on a central plasma display and players all play with the same dealer.

Different dealer personalities were available, from an austere looking virtual lady to a cheerful young chap.

In keeping up with other manufacturers, touch screen displays were very widespread.

Overall rating: 4.5 / 5 stars. Some innovative products.

General Gaming Exhibitors Sydney 2006

There were a vast array of general exhibitors at the exhibition. Some of the more popular categories included:

-> ATM providers.
-> Coin counter makers.
-> Vending machine makers.
-> Back end specialists - those companies able to monitor gaming machine activity and provide reporting.
-> Venue designers.
-> Aroma specialists - injecting scents into gaming rooms is a popular antidote for cigarette smoke and research indicates it may also make players more comfortable (and therefore more likely to open their wallets).
-> Pokies venue furniture providers. From chairs to carpet.
-> Sellers of plasma/LCD displays.
-> Restaurant paging services - devices customers carry which alert them when their meal is ready.
-> Signage professionals.

None of the exhibitors were pushy. Most seemed content for patrons to wander into their displays rather than launch marketing attacks as people walked by. The market niches most of the small vendors occupied were sufficiently small that they knew their products and jobs backwards. No messing around - straight to the point.

Notable amongst the general exhibitors were those providing roulette/horse racing/black jack simulations. These were all entirely automated simulations of the real events.

The horse racing for example was displayed on a huge screen in stunning virtual 3d. Player stations were situated facing the screen, with punters able to bet on the various horse winning combinations similarly to how they might at a real track. Once bets were closed (this was automated based on time) the horses would race, complete with a photo finish at the end of each race.

There is no rating for this group, but suffice it to say that the overall quality of displays was excellent.

Big Brother switched on to monitor New Zealand pokies

Pokies in New Zealand are finally being monitored from a central control point.

(Pick the politician in the photo.)

The new oversight will ensure venues are fully complying with New Zealands regulations for slot machine management. Centralised electronic reporting will be easily possible for the first time.

Its a great idea in terms of ensuring greater transparency in the operation of the machines. As we’ve pointed out before though, it also makes controlling the taxation aspect of the machines a whole lot easier, and may be a precursor to higher tax rates being introduced.

A higher percentage of turnover from pokies is given to charitable or club type operations than is the case in Australia.

Slot machine error yields fortunes

A misconfigured slot machine in a US casino has paid out a huge cash surplus to punters:

“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.

Poker machine popups keep punters informed

Its been almost a year since New Zealand introduced regulations requiring new pokies to display popup play statistics messages to players:

“gaming machines in casinos, pubs and clubs must display mandatory, on-screen messages to gamblers about how long they have been gambling and how much they have won or lost…gaming machines will interrupt play for at least 15 seconds to display the messages.

The messages will be displayed for 30 seconds if the gambler has not chosen either to continue or end that session of gambling.”

New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs

The ideology behind the popup message is simply to break any player trance and force them to realise exactly how much has been won or lost. The inability to banish the popup message for a minimum of 15 seconds forces players to return to reality for at least that length of time.

Its likely venues would set the popup interval to the longest time possible - they’re running a business after all.

There aren’t usually too many players who will sit on a machine for 30 minutes at a time - there is a lot of machine hopping that goes on as players try to find a win.

Some players will also regularly go back to zero credits or cash out and re-enter the funds into the same machine. In these cases its unclear whether the poker machine will then reset the popup timer to zero. If so, these players will almost never see the automatic popup messages.

The legislation does cater for these players though:

“At a gambler’s choice, display information about the games on that machine and about the gambler’s session of play”

New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs

Presumably this means the player can activate the popup any time they would like an update on their playstats.

From July 1, 2009 all gaming machines in New Zealand will be required to meet this information standard. As older machines lack the capability, there is a new revenue stream for slot machine manufacturers to either upgrade or replace the older units.

There has been little or no talk about introducing similar reporting requirements on Australian pokies.

Pokies stunt backfires

A recent Pokies Blog article mentioned the intentions of the Victorian Liberal party to excommunicate 5,500 poker machines from that state if elected to power in the 2006 state elections.

In a public appearance the Opposition Leader chose to wield a pokie as a prop:

“Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu is being investigated by the state’s gaming authority after he campaigned to remove pokies, armed with a pokie machine “

Sydney Morning Herald

The pokie being used may have been an empty shell, either way the investigation will be interesting to watch.

Legislation in Victoria provides for a significant penalty for possession of a gaming machine:

“(1) A person must not manufacture, sell, supply, obtain or be in possession of a gaming machine or a restricted component except in accordance with this Act. Penalty: 1000 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years or both.

(b) the person controls access, either solely or jointly with other persons, to the machine.

A penalty unit is $100. There is a handy exclusion to the above section:

(4) A person may manufacture, sell, supply, obtain or be in possession of a gaming machine or restricted component if-

(b) the person has the written authority of the Commission.”

Lets hope for the Opposition Leader that he sought the written permission.

There is a nice warning here for ordinary folk - don’t possess a gaming machine for private use in Victoria. From time to time they come up for sale on Ebay - always check before purchasing that you are allowed to own such goods in your state.