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Gaming Guru
How do casinos set machines for slot tournaments?20 September 2008
Dear Mary, Thanks for the kind words about my columns. It's not true that casinos can't change the long-term payback (payout) on a slot machine. A machine's long-term payback is determined by a chip that contains the virtual reel layout. Depending upon the rules in its jurisdiction, the casino can either change the chip itself, change the chip while the jurisdiction's gaming commission witnesses the change, or request that the jurisdiction's gaming commission change the chip. Machines used in slot tournaments differ from regular slot machines in two ways. First, the virtual reel layouts used in tournament machines have many more ways to hit winning combinations than regular machines. The other difference is that tournament machines run a tournament program and not a regular game program. Some of the differences of the tournament program as compared with the regular game program are: free play, a time limit on play, and maybe awarding credits for winning combinations all at once instead of one-by-one. I've seen casinos set up tournament machines in many ways. Sometimes casinos hire a company that brings its own machines to run the tournament. Sometimes machines have both the tournament and the regular game programs on their logic boards and the casino changes from one program to the other by inserting a key into a lock on the machine and turning the lock from one position to another. The last way I know of that a casino can set up a machine for a tournament is to change the chips in the machine from the chips that contain the regular game program to the chips that contain the tournament program. 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. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question. 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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