Ask the Slot Expert: The sound of slot machines

Question: I occasionally watch some YouTube slot channels and often see them turn up the slot machine's sound to the highest level believing it offers a better chance of winning. When I play, I turn the sound down to low as I hate the loud sound.

I don't think of myself as gullible. I think the idea that a loud machine increases "winnability" is bunk.

Any thoughts or proof from manufacturers about this?

Answer: Well, I thought I'd heard everything. But this is new. The loudness of a slot machine affects how much you win.

I just checked on Amazon and you can get a decibel meter for about 30 bucks. Pretty cheap for finding a loose slot, right?

Slot machine sounds have always been an integral part of the slot-playing experience. First it was the sound of the reels locking into place and the sound of the coins dropping into the coin tray.

Then we had sounds or music playing while the reels spun. There was a whale-themed slot that played a whale-song inspired calming melody during a play. I once spent a lot of time playing a Clue-themed slot. The theme played in my head as I drifted off to sleep after settling into my seat on the plane home.

Now sound is as important to a slot as the soundtrack is to a film. Machines play suspenseful sounds when you need just one more symbol to trigger a bonus. Some machines play different sounds based on how much you win on a spin or bonus.

I want the sound on when I play a machine. The sound adds to my fun playing a machine and it helps me play a video poker machine.

I like having the sound notify me that a video poker machine dealt me a paying hand. I know one casino that has the sound off on their few high-paying video poker machines. That wouldn't be so bad, but the casino has also configured the machines to not display the name of a paying hand under the paytable. Players are really on their own to pay attention to the cards they're dealt. I sometimes wonder whether this casino wants to make the players who play the good paytables really work for their money.

Speaking of turned-off sound: Many, many years ago there was a Michael Jackson reel-spinning slot machine. He was still alive at this time. I found one at Caesars Atlantic City. The big attraction of the machine was the MJ hits played during the bonus round. The machine I found had no sound. I hit a bonus and watched as the machine told me which hit it was playing though I couldn't hear it.

I sympathize with your dislike of loud machines. The Palms installed some new machines next to the bank of video poker machines I played. They set the default volume level on one of the machines to "loud enough to be heard in the Gold Coast across the street."

Jean Scott still lived in Las Vegas at the time. She also thought the machine was too loud. I would always turn down the volume when no one was playing the machine. Unfortunately, at some point during its attract mode, the machine reset the volume level to the default. Well, I tried.

I got hooked on two machines that used to be in the front of the Westgate, Lightning Jackpots and Fireball II After Burn. On a return visit, I found that they had been moved from the front of the casino to a wall in the middle.

The sounds add a lot to both of these games. Somehow the sound on Fireball got lost during the move.

I hit the Service Button and asked the attendant who responded whether she could turn on the sound. She checked and discovered that sound was already enabled on the machine. She escalated my request to a slot tech.

Brian, the slot tech, opened the machine and futzed around inside trying to find what came loose when they moved the machine. After still not having found the problem a few minutes later, I said he could just leave it. He told me that he won't going to leave until he fixed the sound. He found the problem and I was back in Fireball heaven playing the machine.

I always said hello to him when I saw him on the slot floor. One time I called out as he was walking by. He said that he almost didn't turn to look. "Nobody knows me," he said. "Why would a customer call out my name? Must be calling out to a different Brian."

My thoughts about your observation are that you are correct. The volume level on a slot machine has absolutely nothing to do with how much you will win from it.

I can't prove loudness has no effect on the Random Number Generator (RNG) because I don't have the source code for the RNG. I can, however, quote from the Nevada Technical Standards document:

The RNG and random selection process must be impervious to influences from outside the device, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic interference, electro-static interference, and radio frequency interference.

That requirement is good enough for me to believe that nothing influences the results on a slot. It doesn't convince others that holidays, day of the week, number of people in the casino, use of a players card, and now volume level don't affect results.

I have transcripts of sworn testimony from slot programmers in which they've said that nothing influences the RNG. Do people believe that they would lie under oath?

For some people, outside influences on the RNG is as real a conspiracy as the faked moon landing.

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.

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