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Gaming Guru
Cycles in Slot Machines3 August 2003
Dear John, The number of people playing in a casino has no effect on whether or not a machine pays off. It will seem like the machines hit more frequently when the casino is crowded, but that's just because there are more people playing. There's no mathematical reason to leave a machine after six losing spins. The odds of hitting any winning combination are the same on every spin--even the spin after six losing spins. If you feel better emotionally leaving a machine after six losing spins, then do so. If you'd prefer to stick with the machine a little longer, then do so. Again, what has happened in the past has no bearing on the results of future spins. West Virginia may release slot payback figures for its casinos. If so, you may be able to find them on the state's website or in Casino Player and Strictly Slots magazines. The American Casino Guide site (www.americancasinoguide.com) had this to say about West Virginia's slot paybacks: "West Virginia law requires that VLT's return a minimum of 80% to a maximum of 95% over time. For the 2000 fiscal year from July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2000 the average return on VLT's was: 91.95% at Tri-State Park, 91.66% at Mountaineer Park, 91.45% at Wheeling Downs and 91.53% at Charles Town Races."
Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
Dear Phil, I've never been to Reno, but Star Brooks, our resident Reno expert, says that the crowds are thinner, the weather cooler, and the paybacks better in Reno as compared with Las Vegas. Check out her weekly article on the Casino City site and her website www.renogamingguide.com for Reno info. There's no way to determine the long-term payback of a slot machine just by looking at it. You need to know how many times the symbols appear on the virtual reels. You can, however, tell the long-term payback of a video poker machine when played with perfect strategy by looking at the paytable.
Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
Dear Nancy, The pauses that a slot machine sometimes makes occur while the machine is updating some accounting information. They have no effect on whether or not the machine is going to pay out in the future. There are no cycles programmed into the machine. The computer program running the machine does not decide to go into hot or cold cycles. The program just chooses results at random. Streaks do occur, of course, just like streaks occur when flipping a coin. The streaks are just a consequence of randomness.
Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
Dear Kathryn, The machines seem to pay more frequently when there is a big crowd because there are more people playing. The only way for a casino to change the payback on a machine is to change one or more chips in the machine. This is not a trivial procedure. Payback chipsets are also fairly expensive--maybe as much as $1,000--so it would be very costly for a casino to have two sets of payback chipsets for their machines. The bottom line is that casinos do not change the paybacks on their machine for special events.
Best of luck in and out of the casinos, Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Recent Articles
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