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John Robison Gaming GuruAsk the Slot Expert: There is no magic in a slot machine6 November 2024
By John Robison When I was about 10 or 11, my best friend and I were very interested in magic. There was a store that sold magic tricks a few towns away from where we lived.It wasn't quite as impressive as Iong's magic shop in Now You See Me 2, but it was definitely much closer than Macau. We got all of our tricks there. Most of the tricks it sold -- at least the ones we could afford -- were kind of cheap and cheesy and trite, like Linking Rings and Cups and Balls. Some of the tricks were not exactly stage or even kid-party quality, but that was okay. We didn't have any dreams of being professional magicians. Nevertheless, there were two performances. One was a joint appearance in the living room of one of my father's co-workers whose daughter was recovering from a car accident. The other was my solo performance doing some of my tricks for the nephew of my sister's first husband, who is Chinese. There's no tougher crowd than a dozen kindergarteners with limited English. We didn't have many options to learn about magic. There was no internet. We never thought to see if the town library had any books on how magic tricks work and, of course, there was no Amazon. The only way we could learn the secrets behind the tricks was to purchase them from the magic shop. They say you should never meet your idols. You'll be disappointed because you might learn that they are just flawed people too. Let me digress and say that I have been fortunate that this hasn't been the case for me. Other gaming writers like John Grochowski, Jean Scott, Henry Tamburin, and especially Frank Scoblete could not have been nicer. In the late 1990s, after some sort of gaming convention in Texas (Austin? San Antonio?) I ran into Fred Norris from the Howard Stern Show in the airport when we were both waiting for the flight back to Newark. He happily gave autographs to the few people who recognized him. I've been to meet-and-greets with David Gerrold, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, and Rick Wakeman and they all seemed genuinely happy to spend a few minutes with their fans. End digression and name dropping. You should never meet your idols. And you should never find out how a magic trick works. You will be disappointed. What seems to be the result of wizardry or sorcery is really just a result of misdirection, illusion, contortion, clever handwork, and sometimes some physics. On the other hand, even though they will also be disappointed, slot players should know how slot machines work. There's no magic in how the machine determines which symbols will land on the screen. The machine doesn't take into account how much the machine has paid out, how much you've won or lost, whether you're using a players card, whether it's a holiday, whether the casino is crowded, whether you have your lucky charms, whether you tap on or caress the screen, whether you're wearing your lucky underwear or socks -- or any of the other factors players sometimes say affects a machine. The symbols that land on the payline and the cards you are dealt are determined by numbers from the Random Number Generator, a mathematical algorithm that generates a stream of numbers that appear to be random even though they really aren't. The numbers are the result of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and maybe some functions you thought were useless when you learned about them in math class. It's all pretty mundane stuff, just like the mechanics behind a trick. There's no magic in how a slot machine works. The reality is much less interesting than players' fantasies. If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org. Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com.
Ask the Slot Expert: Ranking video poker gimmicks30 October 2024
Nevada has a contentious ballot question this election. I can't escape the ads for and against the measure on TV. Each week I get a couple of mailers on either side in the mail.
The measure has two aspects. One is an open primary. The argument for the measure is that Independents cannot vote in a closed primary. ... (read more)
Ask the Slot Expert: More reasons slot players may play rapidly23 October 2024
Question:
This is concerning your column on October 2nd about distracted play.
The only things I have seen similar to what was described by your questioner (banging the machine rapidly) was either one of two things.
When a jackpot was reaching a high level in a linked bank of machines, ... (read more)
Ask the Slot Expert: Which video poker machine should I play to earn a free cruise?16 October 2024
Question: A friend texted me with a question about pay tables on two different cruise ships. As he and I both know, the pay tables on ships are unplayable but he wants to accumulate points toward getting a free cruise (his choice is to play JoB VP over anything else or any other game in the casino). ... (read more)
Hit Frequency, Reno, Atlantic City, Double UpHi there, Has there ever been any research done into what number of times a slot machine will pay "anything" during one hundred spins on the average? I have counted many times and find the average slot machine will pay roughly 16 times out of 100 spins. That includes winning a lowly cherry return to a bigger win. ... (read more)Slot Machine Pay OffDear John, In reference to the reader's question about slot machines where you play for gold or silver tokens: In Las Vegas, many of the casinos have 25-cent slots that pay off a $10 jackpot with a $10 silver souvenir token. ... (read more)Declare Your Independence from the SlotsOn this Independence Day as we celebrate 226 years of independence from the tyranny of the British, consider making your own Declaration of Independence from the tyranny of the slot machines. You don't have to stop playing machines altogether. Just switch to playing video ... (read more)Guide to Winning at Slots: The Best Number of Coins to PlayEvery casino guide to gaming recommends playing maximum coins on all slot machines. And almost everyone who's written a book about slots also recommends playing maximum coins when playing a slot machine. I analyzed over 1,000 slot machine programs and I discovered that ... (read more)John Robison |
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