Ask the Slot Expert: A YouTube slot video recommendation

When I look at videos on YouTube, the watch next pane on the right always has a few slot-related videos suggested for me. Go figure.

It's rare that I find one about slots that I can recommend, but I did find one: How SLOT Machines REALLY Work! from Dave's Garage. Two important facts that Dave stresses in the video are that results on a slot machine are determined at random and that what has happened in the past has no effect on what will happen in the future.

I'd like to add some context to some of the statements in the video.

The first is about how a slot machine does not alter its probabilities based on how much it has paid out in the past. The odds of hitting any combination are the same on every spin and it doesn't matter if the machine has just been on a hot streak or a cold streak.

As in real estate, location is everything. This statement is true for Class III machines in the United States, but not necessarily true for other machines or machines in other countries. (The statements in the video are based on Nevada regulations.)

I once worked with an engineer who had a friend who worked on algorithms that would alter payouts on British fruit machines based on how much they had paid out in the past. If a machine had been paying out too much, the machine could invoke the Scrooge algorithm to go cold for a while. Likewise, if the machine had been paying out too little, the Fezziwig algorithm could be used to make it more generous. (I just watched A Christmas Carol.)

Another statement in the video is that the RNG generates "thousands, if not millions of numbers per second." Although it's possible that the RNG is that ambitious, Nevada regulations require that the RNG generates a minimum of 100 numbers per second on average.

Another section of the video deals with casinos changing the odds on machines. The technology to alter machines from a central server does exist. It's also true that Nevada's regulations require that a machine be idle for 15 minutes before a downloaded configuration change can take effect.

If the casino wants to change the payback percentage on a machine, my understanding is that the machine is a new machine as far as state reporting is concerned. The casino has to close out the books on the old machine before the new one can be put in service. As a result, casinos rarely change the payback percentage on a machine, remotely or otherwise.

I can't offer any context on the last statement I want to look at. Rather, I would like some context for it. It has to do with how machines determine the results of a spin.

Dave says in his video that slots in the 60s got their results from a paper tape. Hmm.

The first programming course I took was in high school in 1975 or 1976. We used TeleType machines to enter our programs on a timeshared computer in New Hampshire. If you wanted to "save" your program to work on it again later, you could turn on the tape punch/reader then LISt your program and have the statements punched onto the tape. When you wanted to work on your program again, you could have the machine read it off the tape and it was just like you had typed it in again.

The problem with paper tape storage is that the tape is easily (the technical term is) screwed up.The tape is easily torn and it doesn't stand up to repeated uses. Perhaps the slot machines used reinforced paper or metal tape to hold the results.

I've read Slot Machines: A Pictorial History of the First 100 Years and Lemons, Cherries & Bell-Fruit-Gum: Illustrated History of Automatic Payout Slot Machines and other books on the history of the slot machine. None of them mention machines that use some sort of tape to determine their results.

The electro-mechanical machines of the 60s and later used a clockwork mechanism like that used by older mechanical machines to unpredictably determine where the reels stopped. Electricity was used to read where the reels stopped and then do something more interesting with the result (like triggering a bonus game) than could be done with a purely mechanical machine.

If there were machines that read the result of a spin from a long tape, I would appreciate knowing what they were.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.