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Was I ripped off on a progressive?4 September 2006
Consider these two 95% payback machines. Both machines have 100 possible outcomes. It takes $1 to play. On one machine, there are 95 ways to win $1 and the other five spins are losers. On the other machine, there's one way to win $95 and everything else is a bust. Both machines pay back 95%, but they have widely different variances. Using the method to calculate variance in Casino Operations Management by Kilby and Fox, I get 0.875 for the variance of the first machine and 90.1575 for the variance of the second. Now, these aren't "similar" machines. I don't think it's possible to have "two similar 95% machines of the same type machine with two different variances" because the machines would no longer be similar. Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
Chuck, Many years ago (in the 1950s and 1960s), slot players did have to be careful about playing off a jackpot. Some machines had a jackpot that was higher than the machine could pay itself, so players had to call over a "Jackpot Girl" to pay the jackpot. If you played off the jackpot before getting paid, you didn't get paid. Some of the machines may have locked up, but this is way before my time and my impression is that most of them did not. You don't have to worry about playing off a jackpot today. Every machine will lock up when you win $1,200 or more (so the casino can get your tax info), when lesser jackpots require a hand pay, or when you're cashing out an amount that the casino would prefer to hand pay. If a machine has a ticket printer, it needs to lock up only when it hits a jackpot of $1200 or more. You can be sure that the Wheel of Fortune machine would have locked up had you won the progressive. Bells would have rung and lights would have flashed. The machine would stay locked up until IGT's jackpot team arrived to verify the jackpot and then take your picture with the big cardboard check. I think what happened to you is something that has happened to just about every slot player at one time. I think you were dropping in coins and the third coin didn't register. The missing coin is usually rejected and lands in the coin tray, but I have played a few machines that would occasionally eat coins and not give credit. When I found one machine that did this consistently, I alerted the slot personnel and they took the machine out of service. Alternatively, you may have been hitting the Bet 1 button and the last press didn't take. You didn't realize it and hit the Spin button. Every machine shows you the amount the will be wagered on the next spin when you place your bet coin by coin instead of pressing the Max Bet button. After the spin, every machine will show the amount bet and the amount won on the spin. If the machine did say that you had bet three coins and paid you only $400, double-check the pay table. The most likely explanation is that you misread the pay table. If you're sure that you were underpaid, then don't touch the machine and immediately call over a slot floorperson. Even if you play the machine for a spin or two, don't despair. All is not lost. Most jurisdictions require machines to store for recall the last five or so spins played on it. There are a few different pay tables for Double Diamond Wheel of Fortune, so I'm not sure what your pay table was. I'm pretty sure, though, that the pay table you had was what I call a hybrid - part Buy-a-Pay and part Multiplier. The second coin bought you the $400 payout on three Double Diamonds. The only thing the third coin bought you was qualifying for the progressive should three MegaBucks symbols land on the payline. The third coin did not affect the payouts on any of the other winning combinations. 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 send a reply to every question. Also be advised that it may take several months for your question to appear in my column. 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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