For those of you new to the channel welcome! Keep in mind this video was the FIRST video and is old at this point. Before you comment, check out the library! Because majority of all the common questions have already been answered in other videos 🤠
Out of curiosity and maybe this has allready been answered somewhere. If I wanted to see what the state or reservation regulations were respectivly per machine are; what casino would be the most winning in terms of the customer in the US? I am making the assumption that this information has to be made available to the public. I'm sure machine learning could be a measurable factor + or - truth?!
Confused. If it only counts the cash that goes in the machine, how does it determine free play, or players card. If both transactions have to go in the same box 'that isn't connected to the machine', it can't. Don't use players card, your transaction isn't counted in the big calculator. I can't find a comment on this, do you delete them?
Question; When a slot says it pays back 99%, is that over 1 year,? or 1 month? week? and how do you know what % it pays back if not posted? is it controlled by law or statute or casino controlled. How strictly is it monitored? Thank you.
I was a blackjack dealer and similarly, people would always ask if I controlled or had any influence over the game, and the answer was absolutely not. People still believed I did though, and my table was always full because I cheered and high-fived people when they won. Sometimes players would even express concern that I’d be fired for “helping them win”, but I assured them it was all random and I was allowed to root for them :)
Like the stock market: Tell 50 people to buy a certain stock that is going to hit it. Also tell 50 people that stock is going in the toilet. You now have 50 people that think your a wizzard.
As a former IGT trainer who taught slot techs and gaming agents most of what you said is correct. The RNG controls the outcome. The machine does not try to balance itself out for high/low win percentages or free play. The are physical positions on the reels. Typically 22. The PAR sheet will set up about 10 different payback percentages. Anywhere from 103 to 82% usually. The payback percentage is determined by the virtual stops assigned to each physical position on a reel strip. I'll try and make this short becausethis would be a half day class. Let's say a red 7 has one virtual stop out of 60 assigned to that reel. When we give the red 7 and additional virtual stop (2) now the pay back percentage is higher because the chances of hitting a red 7 on that reel has doubled. The RNG would spit out a number 1-60 for reel 1 which determines where the reel stops. The RNG does not care if it is real money or free play. Yes accounting software does but that is not connected to the RNG. That would be rigged and illegal.
Lol 😂 When he said "the machine doesn't know & it doesn't care". Its funny because people do rituals & have different routines but tend to forget this.
My mom's hubby worked as a slot tech for YEARS. They both still work at a casino. Everything you said is what he told me. lol I love my player's cards. I get so many comps. Even have a casino from another state offering me $800 a month in free play and 5-nights a week free hotel room. Not to mention they call me and invite me to dinners and parties. ALWAYS use you card!
As an electronic engineer, I understand and believe that your comments are 100% correct. I think on very early slots (ones that predate modern electronics), they were largely mechanical and possibly COULD have been rigged. But these machines disappeared decades ago from Casinos. I have a 1970's 5 cent bally slot in my home and even that has microprocessors and PROM's in it. I found the "personality" chip. The sticky label on the chip states the payback is 86%. I believe that to be correct after playing it for endless hours LOL. I have played modern slots at pour local Casino and on occasion you can win, but in the long run, the Casino always gets its money back, and more! So beware slot players, these Casinos were built for a reason, play within your budget!! Nicely made video, subscribed!
microprocessors and PROM's lol! This brings back memories back when a 386DX-33 Motherboard that had the 387 with the math co-processor. My first machine I built myself.
Everybody seems to understand what is meant by "rigged" except me. Based on the dictionary definition of "rigged" all these slots are not only rigged, but rigged in the worst possible way. If they were rigged to always make you lose, people would quickly catch on and stop playing. No fun playing when you never win. By rigging the machine to give back slightly less money than you put in, you are being manipulated in the worst possible way. Furthermore, an honest machine will go strictly by probability. If you are supposed to get 97% back based on chance, you might still get very lucky and get more back over time. But as these slot technicians concede, the machine keeps track of the payback percentage and then makes sure you don't get lucky and win more than you lose. It makes sure that you lose a certain percentage of your money. If that's not a rigged machine, then what is?
@@purelogic3595 First time walking into a casino I think I spent .50 cents on a .25 cent slot and won over $200. Been back twice since and maybe down $40. So I still made out very good. Maybe just dumb luck. The roulette wheel is kinda predictable too and have won back money on that. We usually bring $20-$50 and when we win keep the ticket and not spend it. Only what we brought with us.
I spent a couple of years in Vegas writing slot software for Bally Gaming. I can confirm that what Cowboy says here is EXACTLY correct. Prior to working there, I worked in "grey market" machines. (Think the Cherry Master slots you used to see in truck stops, and convenience stores). THOSE grey market machines CHEAT. Plain and simple. When I got hired in Vegas the FIRST thing I did was go look at the places where the cheating code would have been. And there's not any. The math is sound on Vegas slots, they don't need to cheat.
@@CowboySlots Since this got pinned, I'll fill in some blanks for you. Questions I got asked a lot. * Can they tell the machine when to hit? NO. It's all RNG (Random Number Generator) based. It hits when it hits. * Can they tell the machine NOT to hit? NO. It's all RNG based. It can hit 2 jackpots back to back and the casino (usually) wouldn't flinch. They know, based on the math, by the time it gets to 1 million spins played, it'll be back in the black. * As Cowboy says, the RNG runs ALL THE TIME. The RNGs are tested extensively at the gaming labs. They know ALL about them. (They know how often it repeats, and all the good details). The slots report everything that happens to the accounting systems in the backend. It's MOSTLY a 1-way conversation. About the ONLY thing that the accounting system can tell the machine to do is "Go offline". Which will cause it to become unplayable, and it'll tell you as much. * The games that I worked on had (on average) 35 stops per reel. (5 reel video slots). There were several "7's" on the first reel, a few less on the 2nd, fewer still on the 3rd, 2 on the 4th, and 1 on the 5th reel. The odds of hitting the jackpot on one that I calculated out was 1:20,500,000.
Hey Cowboy, These are the most concise explanations to the workings of a slot machine I have ever seen. Great job, keep it up! You have a new subscriber and thumbs up from me.
As a tech at my casino, the observation I have is during no mechanical reel machines and pickable bonus stages. It really doesn't matter what you pick, it's all predetermined. Don't look sad that you didn't pick the top left instead of that bottom right...It never mattered. Also, when a machine crashes, it happens, be patient, the credits that you have remaining are recorded elsewhere, you'll get them back. You may not get your spin that you were on back, or credits associated with that outcome. Some crashes are bad, and there's simply no way to recover what might have been. Most errors though are easily resolved so that your spin will take place. Techs aren't there to screw you over, we want the machines up and running just as much as you do, because that means less overall work for us to do. As a tid bit, some manufacturers show suggested RTP's, 'Return to Player', that's the number that shows what the player will get back in percentage...in the long run of play. Other sites will try and calculate those and present them to would be players. They may not be accurate, as different casinos, and different gaming commissions tightly guard those numbers, but even if you have a hint of which machines might be better, it might make your play more profitable. THAT'S NOT A GARAUNTEE THOUGH! 😁 Thanks, Cowboy Slots, for making this! P.S. - If you are a player, please...PRETTY PLEASE...Don't pound the buttons or the monitors! Not only will the casino recoup the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for some of these slot monitors, it makes the tech's job more difficult to keep those machines you like to play up and running. Those buttons have a tiny microswitch, it's not designed to be beaten like you're fighting some dungeon level boss.
If the reels are spun randomly, how can a percentage be guaranteed to be paid back to the players? In theory, if the reels are spun randomly, the machine might never pay out.
For bonus stages I understand it as either of the two following scenarios. Example: play is on a pirate slot game. There is a bonus stage of "pick the pirate chest". The game sets up 9 treasure chest icons on the touch screen and if the player has used MAX BET the player will get to choose 2 chests otherwise just 1 chest is picked by the player. Now which of these two scenarios is "correct" to this example. Game setups an array of 9 objects with random credit values already determined for each one of the indexes and than simply shows the values for indexes 0 or indexes 0 and 1 based on whether the player used the max bet or not; on the pick locations the player chose; than the game displays the remaining "not" picked indexes with the remaining pick locations on the screen or does the game create the 9 object array with the random credit values, than assigns each one of them to one of the pick spots on the touch screen and the player than picks 1 or 2 locations for the reveal, than the machine displays the other pick locations and what was assigned to them? This is very important to know/understand for casual/experienced slot players.
@@varrjames186 yeah good point. It is like saying that the machines are not rigged, but can be programmed to give a certain percentage of payout depending on which casino you are in.
maybe they should have a built in thingo if you “pound” the bottom o much,it ejects you from the game. Like with a pinball machine, you beat it up too much, shake, rattle and roll, the ole “tilt” button kicked in,..👍🏻👍🏻🤠🇺🇸🦅✌🏻
what is interesting, is the fact that if you repair these units and you are working for a casino, you are not aloud to play them, if you do, you can be terminated!!!!( I did component level board repair)
@@doob- apply at your local casino. no experience needed, most likely. You will start out on the overnight shift doing a lot of grunt work but you can learn a fair amount about the machines and hone your troubleshooting skills
Great discussion, as a slot player, you provided some really good insights. Please continue this series, this is very helpful to slot players. Thank you.
@@carmac1652 Slot machines? I got my Game King machine on Offer Up. Seen then on Craig's List and there are retail stores in most big US cities that sell used refurbished Slot Machines too.
I like to use my free play in larger betting amounts than I do normally. MY reasoning is that it is a gift, in a sense, so I try to get a large payout if it happens to hit for me. On a few occasions it turned out to be a good idea. I sat down, on a machine I typically would start with a minimum .30 wager, bumped it up to .90 and gave it a spin. It was a game that gave you 8 bonus spins for every 3 flags you were able to get in sequence starting with needing those 3 on at least one of the first three reels. I filled 5 of the 6 reels with flags, giving me an initial bonus spin count of around 00 spins. It ended up over 400 bonus spins to the tune of a little over 900.00 and that made my whole trip worthwhile. I finished out the freeplay on buffalo and when the freeplay was done? So was I, you can't leave a winner if you don't leave once you are ahead. That is all you really have to keep in mind... leaving a winner takes will power to say no, which is a power of it's own. LEAVE when you reach a predetermined amount that, once reached or exceeded, you will not, you can not, go under if you want to be a winner more often. Stop putting it back in. Go get a meal, relax, feel how nice that money makes you feel as the wad sits there, in your pocket, and once the meal is done, stand up and walk happily to the door... and go home a winner. Buy some flowers for your woman, or man, whatever the case may be. They will love you for the pleasant surprise.
It’s harder then you say bud . I live in Reno and my best friend has a Gamblers Mentality . It’s an Addiction just like cocaine . Any kind of money he gets in his hand , he has to go to the Casino . He needs help . I am trying to find him help but it is very difficult
I was playing at the RIvers in Pittsburgh and hit my limit on a $25 Wheel Fortune machine. Getting ready to go, I get comped on everything, so points are not needed, and I had $100. So loaded the machine. Hit a Spin, $3,000. While waiting to be paid, I loaded the remaining $50, hit back-to-back Spins, and hit $4,000. From this video, I should sell "handshakes". My biggest win, Borgata A/C, was $162,000 on a $25 machine. I hit $100,000 on a $500 single coin the same night.
Why would a casino rig the machine? - They're already programed to pay out less than they take in, so in a way they're already rigged against the player.
its a known fact some Casino pay out percentages are worse than other Casino payouts year after year. obviously there is a reason the Gaming Commission keeps track of this.
ThAnk you for the tip! So far,you are the most knowledgeable when it comes to this. I love old machines so I enjoy your tips about the 3 reel machines. To expand your viewers to include those who love the newer ones, can you also discuss something about it? Thank you!
@@mrbeastslots Yes. The fact that it has to maintain a certain level of payout percentages is proof that it is not truly random. He also says as much when talking about free plays. If it were random, it wouldn’t matter whether you played cash or free play.
I herd a guy, who was playing a slot machine. He said if you keep the volume up, you have a 8% better chance of hitting. I had a hard time believing that.
I used to work for a Tribal Gaming Commission and what this man said is accurate. As a Compliance Officer, we would work with the slot techs to verify, seal and test play all machines before going live. We would check the slot department's PAR sheets against to what the individual machine's increment rates are and denominations. These machines are heavily regulated, especially the class 3 machines.
@Sgt Will those class 3 machines are the ones we play in other states outside of Vegas, right? And asking also, when one particular machine becomes known by many to hit very often. Is it true its removed because of more payouts it's giving away? I always wondered why the hottest machines I frequent at a certain casino gets replaced pretty quickly
Interesting video. I'm intrigued that so many people think that slots are "Rigged". The casino doesn't need to rig a game they can guarantee to win over time. If a slot machine's payout is 90%, they know that over a long enough period of time, they'll earn $10 from every $100 played. I guess some people might find the payout percentage to be a "rigging" in its own right. The biggest thing for the casinos is getting people in the chairs and gambling. They more they can do that, the more they'll make. It's one of the few variables they can control. Also to note, the players cards are used to track the guests' habits, use that data for marketing/promotion, etc. It's why everywhere you shop they want to know if you have their Kroger Plus loyalty card, or are signed up via email for special offers - there is a tremendous value in this data for businesses.
Its called the RTP percentage, but i think the rigged misconception comes from the older first gen slotmachines that did used to only payout after it swallowed a fixed amount of money but ya this changed long ago
Indeed i have been playing for years on some onlinesites and my effective RTP comes down to 95%, which is EXACTLY (give or take 2%)how much it is in average on the RTP stated by various games. So years of playing and 10.000s of dollars and I'm at 95% RTP in total on my main site. In the long run the odds will deliver the numbers stated.
Great video! I normally never have luck on my freeplay. But my last trip to my local casino I had $25 freeplay and hit a crazy line hit on Buffalo Gold and won close to 5x my freeplay amount.
Statistically, the best thing to do with freeplay is to run it through once and cash out. But it's more fun to keep playing and hope to hit a big payout.
Love it! Question: when a machine pays out in a voucher and you go to the next machine is the voucher recognized as cash and therefore the accounting aspect applies? Is it better to always cash out the vouchers and keep putting cash into the machine?
In my experience, the vouchers they print works exactly the same as inserting cash, and it also allows you to insert / use an amount that the machine won't accept (i.e. under a $1 amount)
Quick question: Would it make a difference if you put enough cash into the machine to cover the bet you are making and letting the machine replenish that amount from free play? For example, if I am playing a 5 dollar denom machine with 2 coin max bet, If I put in $10 dollars in cash and then activate my free play, it usually uses the cash I put in and then makes a chiming noise to replenish that $10 I just spent from the cash. I always thought because it did it that way, it always used your cash so to speak and is technically not using actual “free play” but rather replenishing the cash. So, if you were to win something, the win would be based on actual amount of cash you bet. Just a thought.
From what I noticed in Missouri it uses all your free play/promo cash first and then your winnings. The only way I could see it using cash then free play is if you put money in, bet, and then put your free play on.
Other casinos may differ, but at ours, the moment that free play is loaded onto the machine, it will use it first, instead of the cash credit. Some machines will show the credit in red to indicate the amount of free play left, however, when the credits are mixed, you can't tell how much free play vs cash credit you have unless an attendant or tech informs you. The machine knows whether or not you're playing free play vs cash.
Thanks for the clarification about the slots. I was told by a couple of people that when u play friday-sunday the machines are tight on what you'll get as a return vs what u pay when playing. I ended up playing 100$ my first time to a casino name won't be mentioned,. And it seemed to last me almost all day but when I put 10 or 20$ in the digital slot games it's like the return to player pay out was lower with a smaller $amount put into the machine .but also its also y its called gambling 🎰 lol its a win lose situation gotta take a chance to have a chance like the video keep it up
WOW!! What a slot channel. The best there is. Now I know why the machine goes dead when I change denoms. It becomes a completely new machine. The best channel, best slot info out there. thank you!
working an online casino customer service and has to deal with these customer with myth like cheating slot or rigged slot is annoying and ur video really help
I've heard that bonus games are all pre-determined once you activate the feature. For example, if you are picking on quick hit, the number of free games are already determined despite what you are "picking."
U are correct. All that we are seeing are lights n sounds to intensify our senses. The machine wants to keep you there, hypnotize you into a trance until you hit your last nickel. So in bonus spin, pick whatever n stop taking your time as it does not matter. Beginning of this year, I was in the high roller room, accidentally hit max bet $25 n hit a bonus 10 free spins. Payout was $0. I kid you not.
Thanks for the advice…but what I think you may have failed to mention is that higher denomination machines tend to pay more often then say a penny machine. I’ve tested this theory over and over through a number of years and casinos and it is absolutely true! This is where the overall pay percentage comes into play, and is totally legal. The Casino isn’t rigging games, it’s just “playing by the rules”.
In all my years, I have never seen an IGT S2000 in such pristine shape. That aside, I now have a concise way of answering these questions without doing so myself and getting in trouble. Thank you!
Have watched a lot of your video's and see that this was your first. Great job. You started strong and are just getting better. Have a feeling you will grow pretty fast.
When playing video poker, how do you know if the machine is dealing from one deck or multiple. How do you know if the machine is one that has a card dealt from the dealer that sits behind the one you want to replace or randomly generates? Thank you.
It’s Crazy because I used to play a lot of slots using the Players card ,, now I get lots of free play weekly and I always win with free play , making about 5k a month only using free play and not my money at all .. I recommend it just win and leave don’t stay and loose it take it as a part time job
This was great! Years ago when I started playing slots I went looking for this information and was surprised that it couldn’t really be found easily. I remember doing a lot of reading. Pleased to see the conclusions I came to were correct. I hope you read the comments, my brains already flying through all the questions I have 🤔🤯
An acquaintance was a manager at a nearby casino. He said that the casino has cards that are changed to change the payout percentage, and are changed quite regularly. He has no reason to lie to me. I see the change almost every time I visit the casino. Watch the kiosks, when there’s a line the card has been changed to a more player favorable card. Don’t play, just watch, you’ll see.
The reason that cards are changed randomly and frequently, isn't to prevent players from winning. The shufflers do that with plenty of randomization. It's to prevent marking of cards, so that players cannot cheat. The cards can become chaffed naturally, or a slight crease, and if a player is paying attention, will know what that card value is.
Soooo interesting! CONGRATULATIONS on your channel! New sub here! Just curious if class 2 casinos are much different than class 3. Thanks for your time! Have the best day! Blessings from WI 🤗😇🙏💙
My experience with free play is you can't loose it's free.the way to not loose is to cash out any wins as you play because it will cash out the wins but not the free play. After the free play is used up cash in your tickets and listen to the band have a drink and run to the exit.keep playing and goodbye your winnings and probably more money
What advice did she use to win $15k? Unless your mom was using free play from the casino on slots and switched to cash, I didn’t hear any advice on how to win. There was no advice on that. It is and always will be, simply luck. Maybe she changed up her speed if spinning? He simply told us how the machines work and how they’re not rigged.
Great information and I love how based on your training and experience that you aren't able to deep bunk the insane folktales that people tell about slot machines
Thanks! It’s good to have expert advice. I’ve been away from the casino for 2 years now and am itching to get back in there. I needed the reminders and advice.
I appreciate your knowledge and honesty. I hope this is a success for you. Does each denomination have a different RTP or is it all one (same) percentage?
@@greghayes5750 The payback percentages are published by the gaming commission. Some areas like Atlantic City publish by casino. Other areas like Las Vegas publish by region. That is to say you can look to see how much the dollar slots pay back or the penny slots. The penny slots payback is less. The payback normally increases as the denom is raised. $5 slots pay back more than $1 slots etc. "Simply Slots" and "Casino Player" magazines used to publish the payback for every area in this country every month. When I subscribed, back in the early 2000's, the Native American casinos did not have to submit their payback information.
I used to love doing a reel payout test when they get a jam or something. They'd always think I was rigging the machine. Sometimes I'd reach back behind the hopper with big ass screwdriver and tell them I was tighting it up a little. 🤣
I've worked in Purchasing in casinos here in Nevada and know your info on slot payouts is accurate. The few people to whom I've tried to explain the RNG or the different payouts for different denominations on the same machine do not want to believe it and now I just nod to be kind about whatever crazy theory they have and silently thank them for funding my retirement. A popular myth here is casino management sitting around laughing and having drinks in a fictitious "computer room" with surveillance cameras, picking which slot players they want to win and pressing buttons to make those slots pay out. There are cocktail servers who swear they have delivered drinks to "meetings" like this. I encourage these 'witnesses' to call the Gaming Control Board to report these so-called meetings because I'm sure the Board members enjoy a good laugh now and then too.
If the casino employees could watch the floor and pick out winners like that, there would be dishonest ones who would give their friends big jackpots. That’s one reason why it would never be allowed to work that way :)
I'm not gonna lie. A very long time ago I used to think the same thing 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Big group of goons in suits pointing at the monitors directing some underlings saying, "Him.... not him.... Her? Bump it up... Him... thats fine.... Her.... Her too..... Not him"
To expand on what player's cards are used for, it is also used to track what specific players (high rollers) like to play and try to place similar machines nearby where they typically play or just in general what the average player likes to play and use that to determine what type of machines they should add more of or take out. Such as, "Oh this type of player that plays in this section of the casino loves physical reel games" or "This grouping of players likes video slots where the regular games are garbage, but the bonuses are great". "Our majority of players seem to be hillbillies, let's bring in Kenny Chesney for a concert." It's ludicrous what they can determine from player's card usage.
I had no idea about the random number generator. That's really interesting and great to know. I've always assumed, probably like most people, that there's an order to things. That every spin of the dials is destined to land on what it landed on, and what the next spin lands on, does so because that was mechanically destined to be the next combination in line. So, knowing this information, that brings up another question. Considering that the random number generator is in fact random, and switches every millisecond, are payouts required to hit every so often, every so many spins, every so many dollars bet, or how does that work? And if that too is truly entirely random, then how do they ensure that the machines are paying out at the required percentage required by the gaming rules or laws? Does that question make sense?
It does make sense and a damn good question. As I understand it fixed odds (which is what these are I believe) means that the odds of winning are exactly the same every spin. So you could hit a jackpot one after the other. The machines are programmed to statistically pay out, over a period of time, the required percentage of money put into them. So as this is just maths, in the long run, it will pay out that percentage. Question remains, how long does it have before it gets flagged up there is something amiss?? There are other types that are still random but if they are not paying out enough, or too much I guess, the odds are moved one way or another so that the machine self compensates.
It's a random generator, but that doesn't mean all outcomes are equally likely. Consider a simple model, where a random generator has only two different outcomes, of which A occurs with a 60% probability and B with a 40% probability. Your bet is one dollar, in outcome A you lose and in outcome B the return is $2. The return percentage of such a machine would be 80% in the long run. (In a short run you could be lucky and win more often than lose, but that doesn't matter: the odds are in the machine's favor on every spin). These slot machines work with the same logic, but of course there are a lot more variations.
It's a random number generator (RNG) inside a program. An Excel spreadsheet has a RNG. You can generate numbers from 1 to 100 for example. You could program Excel to have one cell have a value of 1 if that RNG number is 1-48 (48 values) and 0 if it's 49 - 100 (52 values). So that cell's average value would be -.04 - like losing 4 cents on average if it was a slot machine , or you could use slot terminology and say it's returning 96%. If you wanted the slot machine to pay more, you could open the slot machine and change the program so 1-49 pays off, and 50 - 100 loses - now it's returning 98%.
One thing: the machine doesnt think about whether it’s paying out too much or not, it doesn’t try to equalize the payout percentage. The percentage is already set, so if you had an infinite amount of spins it would only pay back say 90% or so. Every time you hit the button you have the same percentage chance of winning or hitting the jackpot. You could hit a jackpot theoretically 5 times in a row and the machine will not purposely try to pay you out less since its hit all those jackpots. Its the same chance every millisecond that the machine is running.
Hey Brandon, Only somewhat correct on that. The machine averages out over the course of its programmed lifetime, however there is a legal responsibility and range that the machine must stay within. Without that, it is illegal. It is required in the program that it stay within that 90% or whatever percentage its set for and not excessively drop below that. As you put it "equalize the payout" that is over the course of its programmed life, not in a single sitting, day, or time frame. At any given time, the gaming commissions can calculate what the machine is currently sitting out payout wise and if the machine is not keeping within that range then there is cause for correction or suspicion for them to look into. I have programmed these chip sets before. Also as stated on my other videos, back to back jackpots are always possible. Again people don't realize that the machine takes in millions of spins in its lifetime, so a single sitting of a player is nothing to it.
I agree as well that the machines do not try to equalize the payout percentage. That would go totally against the whole point of the machines using a random number generator in the first place The return to player percentage is set over the lifetime of the machine which can be years and years and years meaning it may not even pay a jackpot for a couple of years and then through nothing but luck a year or two later hit 5 big jackpots in one year, or one month, or two years or one day.. THe machines do not equalize themselves to fall within the regulated parameters.
@@pkguy3 the way I see it is that if the machine is set to pay out 1% of the time and 99% of the time its set to lose, then yea it’s possible you can hit that lucky 1% chance multiple times in a row but when youre dealing with infinites, it for sure wont happen over the long run. It doesn’t need to adjust itself because the algorithm itself is set to pay out only 1% of the time. 1% could technically be every single spin for the whole day, but every other day of the year it wont pay out anything. If theres an infinite amount of spins it will eventually reach its payout percentage without having to equalize itself, though I guess saying it “equalizes itself” helps people understand the concept better. Its the same thing with video poker. Its just a 52 card deck that shows the payout percentage on the pay table. It doesnt need to fix itself
Question on the free play . If you say the machine can't see the free play as it would actual money. I think you explained it like "the machine would basically freeze. Are you saying from the accounting log aspect since the machine isn't having to increase the amount of funds it's taking in on the accounting log, and it hasn't gotten any closer to the percentage it has to stay within before it has to "leave out" or pay out to stay within the legal limits ? would it make a difference if you put cash in then put free play on top of it or vice versa would it one way or the other free play then cash, or cash then FreePlay keep the machine from as you said " freezing up" or sitting in limbo until the free play spin's are used up ? And if it would do you think you could get the most out of your free play by doing whatever combination (cash than FreePlay or FreePlay then cash) and than say between every spin you add a physical dollar do you think your FreePlay odds would increase? And one more thought could you use the "FreePlay freeze up" to your advantage ? For example say a machine you regularly play seems to be hitting better than usual do you think you could then you put your card in to start your FreePlay and the machine would freeze and continue with more winning spin's and less frequent loosing spin's between wins . As it was before you started your FreePlay? And on your watch for patterns tip For example if you are at a machine say you've doubled your original bankroll and in your head ever time you set an amount to stop playing and cash out, and when you get within 50$ of that stopping amount you hit for 100$. And say that happens three time in a row. But you regularly play this machine and it seems paying a lot more frequently with less loosing spin's between then usual . Would that be a pattern that would catch your eye personally as the machine is getting ready to "level out" or pay out ? In the same way you said in another video that you watch for patterns of reoccurring symbols on the pay line as a good inkling of a big hit coming ?
If each machine has to pay a certain percentage, then there must be a way to "time" that percentage. How often does the machine "account" for the percentage it must pay out? What is your advice on timing the play of a machine "due" to hit given the required payout percentage protocol?
This was my question as well.. if it has to stay in a certain percentage then that would mean there is some sort of unfairless or rigging of the game. Im a programmer as well and random numbers makes sense but if it has to stay in a percantage thst random number must have to be changed at some point. And what does the random number do.. determine where the wheel stops and is there separate random numbers for each wheel. Interesting he never repmied to your comment. Lets see if he does now.
@@InteractiveRealm My understanding is that there are two parts to the machines - the actual 'game', and a 'show'. The RNG is the game. You push the button, the RNG stops, and you win (or not) based on the number (eg, numbers in range x-y win 2x bet, range a-b wins 100x bet, etc). The percentage can be adjusted by varying those ranges (if the percentage is getting too low, widen the range a little). It is still completely random whether you win or not, but the odds are slightly different. Once the outcome is determined, it is the job of the 'show' to present the outcome to the player, by positioning the reels, etc. There is nothing really random about this part. This is where they can play psychological games by making it appear you 'almost' won, etc. If the 'show' winds up displaying something other than the determined outcome, the play is voided ('malfunction voids play').
Great video - thank you. One question, does the machine differentiate between hard cash or a slot voucher? I'm assuming no, but would like to see your answer. Looking forward to your next video.
Great information sir..Awesome videos...I haven't been to Vegas in awhile but I've seemed to do better at locals casinos and downtown..but I kn ow the RNGs were just showing me some Love on those trips..lol...Take Care..Good Luck...
All modern slot machines work on the premise of a random number generator. When you press the button the machine grabs a number that has a corresponding payout. The machine will then display a pattern of symbols on the screen to represent this. It does not care if you are using real money or your freeplay. You have the same chance of winning either way. It's all about pressing the button at the lucky moment. That's it. The random number generator does not know that you are using a freeplay and does not care. The computer may not include the freeplay in record keeping for accounting purposes for the casino but it does not change the gameplay in any way. The machine will pay according to whatever random number is chosen at any given time. This does not change. So use your freeplay people... just make sure you place max bets. Why wouldn't you? 😎
Agreed. Heck on my slot channel Timmytot Slots. I dropped 20 bucks with 20 bucks of free play on Prowling Panther. Did 5 dollar bets and my buddy was watching because I told him I was going to do it. Well nothing on the first 6 spins my finger slipped and hit 2.50. I bet 5 again and got a bonus. Last two spins gave me 490 dollars. I recorded it lol. So I do have wins on my casino cash lol.
Ok I have gone to this casino in Hartford Michigan twice this week - first time I left $600 ahead the second lost $180- but I saw the same Guy win a jackpot on this double 7 gold slot both times I was there.. it's Maddening 😄 - I don't get it - I haven't won a jackpot there in five years
I programmed a slot machine last year. I've been a fan of them for many years so decided to make one. I never graded the RTP but I weighted the array of symbols in order to make higher pays rarer. What I have always wanted to know is the infrastructure behind online slots. No company I have ever asked will let me study the backend.
They are probably much less fair than brick and mortar casinos, but I have won large amounts many times in online slots so I can attest to the fact that they aren't rigged.
@@getsufuma2597 It's the other way around in fact. Online casinos have a higher RTP on average over land-based casinos due to running costs. Generally the average RTP online is between 94-96.5% (sometimes higher like Book of 99 which is 99%) but the average landbased is anywhere between 88-92%. Now that doesn't mean you can't get a winning streak and win more in landbased. It's all relative to when you play and the payout since the last RTP audit.
@@mm3nrx The only way a slot is riggeed is that it's programmed to output an RTP percentage. So if the slot has a 96.5% RTP and its audit is due to match up the RTP and it's paid out 96.4%, the likelihood is it won't pay out. But if it's in catchup mode, you could win a good chunk towards the max payout, or even hit the max if it's some slot like a Pragmatic which pays out max wins fairly often.
Hey! It depends on the state you live in if they allow private ownership of them. Several states have laws in place that the machine has to be a specific age to own privately.
I play video poker is there anything that you can tell me about video poker that might work better as far as pushing the buttons or doing Max play for selecting it on screen and then hitting the play button
I was under the impression that different denomination machines had different payout percentages. I assumed this, in part, because most casinos have signage advertising specific sections/sets/rows of machines as having a preselected payout rate and because most states require the average payout rate of certain denominations to be published on the states gaming commission website (available to the public in most states) with the exception of tribal casinos. For example,in my experience, most $1 machines have a preset payback percentage of ~93% whereas most $0.01 machines are set to ~87%. So, theoretically, if a player chooses a multi-denomination machine with options of $1, $5, $10 and $20 and they choose the $1 option, the average payout rate is set to 93%. If this same player then chooses to set the machine to $20 the payback rate would change to ~95%. Is this incorrect?
That is what I have read. The more you bet, the more you will potentially win. I'm not sure which machines are the most profitable for the casinos, but from what I gather, it would be the 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢ machines bc there are way more of those than the $1, $5, and so on. That and the RTP on those machines is less. All of this is "allegedly"
They usually do but it is not mandatory. Multi-denom machines can have varying payback percentages per denom. It's all strictly regulated. The CPU board has a separate lock inside the machine which is usually controlled by a gaming agency.
James is correct. Depending on the State the casino can choose the payback for that's state licensing guidelines. Some are hard coded (older units) and others you can type in a percentage that has to be valid in that jurisdiction.
Great explanation. This covers machines in the U.S. and U.S. gambling laws only though. Bally did sell a product that allowed you to control the machine payout directly from back of house, but it's illegal to use in the U.S. (Bally Total Commander or something like that.)
Depends. Macau is tightly regulated. Probably even more so than Nevada. The Philippines is another popular market that is regulated. But then you do have some like Cambodia and some South American countries with no Gaming Comission or technical standards on the books and you could get away with putting a couple rigged machines on a casino floor.
Also, the odds of overall payout, how loose or tight a machine is, is different between states in the US. Each state that has a gambling commission (Which is most of them now) are responsible for setting their own standards. So, machines in Vegas might be looser or tighter than machines in Atlantic City or Detroit. How loose or tight a machine might be can be adjusted by each casino, within limits set by the state’s gambling commission. They only set a ‘maximum tightness’ and casinos are free to have machines set to be looser but not any tighter. I don’t recall seeing them the last times I was in Vegas but I remember times in the 1990s where a bank of machines might have a big sign advertising “Up to 98% (sometimes even 99%) payback.” It’s a great attractor. But what isn’t said is that maybe only a single machine in that bank is set to those rates; the others are probably still at the usual limits. I wasn’t aware of the accounting aspects he talked about but I’ve known for a while that loose and tight also changed with denomination played. Again, this is part of the standards set by the state’s gambling commission. Higher denominations are looser than lower. Lastly, though this is changing with the technology. Each machine’s random number generator is independent of all other machines. Many are going to server-based that have a central tracking, but each machine has it’s own RNG. What changes with server-based vs fully independent is the ease that payout rates can be adjusted. I’m pretty sure that still requires a certified technician and approval by the commission though it still comes down to changing the software of the game; maybe swapping am EPROM chip in the older style electronic machines.
Loved your vid. Thanks for answering all my questions. After wondering all these years, I've been playing slots for over 40 yrs, it's nice to finally know. Good luck.
Love your new channel, and wish you great success. My question is this, I understand completely how the r n g works, any outcome at any time , but how can you have a built in percentage payback at the same time? If the machine tries to balance itself to achieve a programmed percentage, the rng has to change? It just seems to me that you can't have both, a true r n g and a built in percentage payback. Since the percentage payback Is regulated by the state or tribe you can't have a true rng. I have been playing for many years, and have seen many changes in casinos, none of which has been to the players advantage. Thanks
Here's my understanding of how it works - as the machine has to adapt to the required payout percentages, it changes which numbers from the RNG will trigger payment. The RNG doesn't change - what the RNG triggers does change. So let's say you have a slot machine with a 90% minimum payout requirement, and it has an RNG that chooses between 100 numbers (obviously in real life it would be much more, but just for argument's sake). 70 of those numbers yield a total loss of the bet. 10 of those numbers provide the player with a cherry. 10 of those numbers provide a triple bar line hit 5 are double bar 4 are triple bar 1 is jackpot A bunch of people play the machine, and due to the random number generator and their timing, they're "Unlucky", and they are paid out at a rate that is getting closer and closer to 90% total for the machine. The machine's computer realizes "We need more people winning more money so that we stay above the 90% payout requirement!", and it effectively changes the balance of the 100 numbers that could possibly be chosen. So then it becomes (out of 100 numbers): 60 of those numbers yield a total loss of the bet. 13 of those numbers provide the player with a cherry. 13 of those numbers provide a triple bar line hit 7 are double bar 6 are triple bar 1 is jackpot Now the player has a greater chance at the various winning combinations, and thus the machine is more likely to pay out more and get back to that required percentage. The machine can adjust this as much as needed to ensure that the payout requirement is met. So the RNG doesn't change - your odds of hitting any number between 1 and 100 are the same as they have always been - but now, more potential results will yield winnings.
@@jeffreyarvik5936 I could definately believe that! Then my next question would be, at what point does the machine 'decide' its now time to review and modify the reels? Does it 'review' every X mins, or is the review period set at random? 🤔
Great video to help folks understand a bit. Always a battle to try and explain these when folks lose at the machines. BUT, I do have one MAJOR correction for you. FREEPLAY absolutely still is handled within the games accounting parameters and the machine still MUST hold the same amount for every spin, just like cash. I would love to know where you hear that this is not true, but I can tell you that it is a false one. Aside from players still winning and doing well with their FP, we happen to have particular folks that strictly play with only their freeplay, as they come daily from bus runs, and coincidentally always play very specific games because of the great paybacks from them. These games run on about 75% freeplay and very little cash or vouchers, and hold exactly as they are programmed too. Modern machines just keep the money and freeplay input as separate lists, but they use BOTH to control the games percentage of hold.
Yea, his last point I don't really agree with. Unless he misspoke or I misheard, but if what he says is true then when someone hits a jackpot on a machine then you would NOT want to sit down and play afterwards as it would need to 'even itself out'. From all I have heard all my life, that's just not how these machines operate. Every spin is completely independent and it's all the same probability on all spins, regardless of what happened before.
You are absolutely right. Great video, but this last bit was incorrect. Using FP over any time period does not affect any spin; when the button is pushed, the outcome would be the same from spin to spin as if using cash money.
Most of what you said I already knew, but its great to hear someone like you fill in some of the details of slot play. What I don't know is the odds each casino uses on their slot play. I believe in vegas there is a range they have to stay in..like 85 percent and up, or something like that. Indian casinos I don't think have the same limitations and could pay very little if they wanted. There used to be a magazine that published these numbers for various casinos around the country. I suppose now with so many Indian casinos, it would be possible to find out.
Professor Slots has the documents regarding each state’s gambling rules. Most Indian casinos are around 80% while Vegas odds can be as high as 98% depending on the denomination played.
FINALLY..all the answers I needed. Now no more getting up from a machine … just gona change my timing here and there.. I know it’s all luck either way. But this made my day as far as getting up from a machine that’s “ not hitting “
Can you do a video for the folks that sit there and waive their hands over the machine thinking they are causing it to hit on something? That behavior is annoying AF and they look silly doing it
Oh brother i feel your pain. The worst ones are the ones that bang on the screen and keep slapping it when the bonus hits. And then people wonder why so many machines dont work. 🤦♂️
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Valuable information! Thank you for the tips! What about stopping the reels ie “rapid fire.” Does that change the outcome of your spin, or is the same once it is set into motion? Again, I really enjoyed your video, please continue to make and make available on TH-cam.
Stopping the reels early does not change the outcome. When you press the button to start the game the machine picks the results and shows it to you. Stopping the reels just speeds up the displaying of the results. This feature was added to get people playing more games per minute.
The only time I got free play, I ended up with a few free spins which made me stay at that machine for a couple hours and came home with more then I spent in Vegas. Wasn’t a bad haul but it gave me the chance to play for a bit
@@Teebone211 I made it passed the 4 digit number just right under the legal limit where I had to pay taxes. It made my day when that happened and why I have a saying. Anything can happen.
So when it comes to player cards there is a bigger reason they don't rig it. Imagine an auditor who decided to go above their duty and realized payouts are different between card members and regular patrons( not saying this would ever happen but possible). The casino is in trouble. All play must be "fair".
@@budc.8172 Really? I always heard any money left in the machine belongs to the house. In the Phoenix area, we always have shady people who constantly stroll the banks looking for credits left behind. They insert a voucher and immediately cash out. Gain 10 cents here, 35 cents there, and do this all the time. If caught they get banned from what I have heard. I just shake my head, no money? Go home.
@@pj1234p Small change will be clected by the house but any large amounts we will try our best to track you down. This depends on how busy we are. On slow days we will try to find you if you left as little as three bucks on machine. On busy days where we have little time we might only search of it's over 10 bucks. We always search if it's over 15. Our job is to make sure you are enjoying your stay and no one likes to accidently loose money because you forgot to pull it off the machine. The highest I've found was $350 and the look on their face when you hand them the ticket is priceless.
I love watching you and hearing all the info u hv to share. You are obviously full of knowledge and I truly hope u continue to talk about the machines. I'm going to the Seminole Hard Rock May 18th for e nights (flying from Boston) for my birthday and just absorbing everything you are talking abt with regard to machines. Keep yr segments coming! Regards Janet
If you are going to the one in Hollywood Fl,be careful.I live down here and most people I know never win much of anything there.Indian gaming is different then state ran casinos down here in SFLA.There have been numerous scandals with the Seminole Hard Rock down here over the years with their gaming.On the other hand the hotel is very nice.
Another complicating factor is where machines are connected to progressive jackpots; this adds a second layer of payout requirements and all of the machines participating in the progressive decrease the potential for any one machine to be successful in the highest progressive winning. However, the progressive increases the likelihood of winning the smaller progressives as lots of machines are supporting the collective income/payout.
You can calculate the expected hourly loss of everything on the casino floor. Slots let you control the pace if you want to stretch your bankroll. Picking the right machine and not doing the max bet allows you reduce the expected hourly loss. Choose the machine that doesn't penalize you for betting one credit. Pause between each spin and look around. Never hurry the process and tip the beverage server well.
I could have sworn, that one of the casino groups in my state(MN) got in trouble a ways back for having their slots programmed to pay out less than the agreed upon range the tribes had with the state gaming commision during an audit of their machines. If so then, i'd say it does and can happen.
I believe so...Also heard that a few people won & the casino did not pay out, said machine was broken @ time of jackpot. Also it can be rigged by casino or player. DONT B A SUCKER. SOME THINGS HE SAYS ARE TRUE.
Minnesota casinos suck. No craps tables and really lame slot machine selection. There are no slots with the mechanical reels. Mystic Lake is the worst casino I've been to. It's worth the trip to drive to Iowa.
Exactly I heard this in other States as well I don't know what people are talking about they're not rigged I read newspapers saying it's cheaper to pay the fines versus the payout.
The test lab more than likely got fined for that also, because they are the ones that are supposed to verify each game meets a jurisdictions minimum payback percentage. They then send a certification report to the regulatory body.
Why do the graphics or reels on the machine slow down when I use my players card? I also feel like the second I remove my card I start to get bonuses and see an immediate improvement.
For those of you new to the channel welcome! Keep in mind this video was the FIRST video and is old at this point. Before you comment, check out the library! Because majority of all the common questions have already been answered in other videos 🤠
Out of curiosity and maybe this has allready been answered somewhere. If I wanted to see what the state or reservation regulations were respectivly per machine are; what casino would be the most winning in terms of the customer in the US? I am making the assumption that this information has to be made available to the public. I'm sure machine learning could be a measurable factor + or - truth?!
Hello, I'm pretty sure the answer to this is "yes", but I was wondering if you've been in the military, and if so which branch? If you dont mind?
Confused. If it only counts the cash that goes in the machine, how does it determine free play, or players card. If both transactions have to go in the same box 'that isn't connected to the machine', it can't. Don't use players card, your transaction isn't counted in the big calculator. I can't find a comment on this, do you delete them?
Question; When a slot says it pays back 99%, is that over 1 year,? or 1 month? week? and how do you know what % it pays back if not posted? is it controlled by law or statute or casino controlled. How strictly is it monitored? Thank you.
@@jaybee369ohm8 freedom of information act
I was a blackjack dealer and similarly, people would always ask if I controlled or had any influence over the game, and the answer was absolutely not. People still believed I did though, and my table was always full because I cheered and high-fived people when they won. Sometimes players would even express concern that I’d be fired for “helping them win”, but I assured them it was all random and I was allowed to root for them :)
ppl are dumb. blackjack is purely math from the dealer.
Like the stock market: Tell 50 people to buy a certain stock that is going to hit it. Also tell 50 people that stock is going in the toilet. You now have 50 people that think your a wizzard.
As a former IGT trainer who taught slot techs and gaming agents most of what you said is correct. The RNG controls the outcome. The machine does not try to balance itself out for high/low win percentages or free play. The are physical positions on the reels. Typically 22. The PAR sheet will set up about 10 different payback percentages. Anywhere from 103 to 82% usually. The payback percentage is determined by the virtual stops assigned to each physical position on a reel strip. I'll try and make this short becausethis would be a half day class. Let's say a red 7 has one virtual stop out of 60 assigned to that reel. When we give the red 7 and additional virtual stop (2) now the pay back percentage is higher because the chances of hitting a red 7 on that reel has doubled. The RNG would spit out a number 1-60 for reel 1 which determines where the reel stops. The RNG does not care if it is real money or free play. Yes accounting software does but that is not connected to the RNG. That would be rigged and illegal.
Reach out to my email at cowboyslots@yahoo.com I’d love chat and invite you to the show!
Exactly
Lol 😂 When he said "the machine doesn't know & it doesn't care". Its funny because people do rituals & have different routines but tend to forget this.
If you ain't summoning Cthulhu you ain't gambling correctly
Lolz hey rituals can be soothing to some(most) people. Same reason I cant quit smoking. 🚬😉
My mom's hubby worked as a slot tech for YEARS. They both still work at a casino. Everything you said is what he told me. lol
I love my player's cards. I get so many comps. Even have a casino from another state offering me $800 a month in free play and 5-nights a week free hotel room. Not to mention they call me and invite me to dinners and parties. ALWAYS use you card!
As an electronic engineer, I understand and believe that your comments are 100% correct. I think on very early slots (ones that predate modern electronics), they were largely mechanical and possibly COULD have been rigged. But these machines disappeared decades ago from Casinos. I have a 1970's 5 cent bally slot in my home and even that has microprocessors and PROM's in it. I found the "personality" chip. The sticky label on the chip states the payback is 86%. I believe that to be correct after playing it for endless hours LOL. I have played modern slots at pour local Casino and on occasion you can win, but in the long run, the Casino always gets its money back, and more! So beware slot players, these Casinos were built for a reason, play within your budget!! Nicely made video, subscribed!
microprocessors and PROM's lol! This brings back memories back when a 386DX-33 Motherboard that had the 387 with the math co-processor. My first machine I built myself.
86% lol. thats horrible....
Here in europe payback percentage could be up to 97% at some Online slots
Everybody seems to understand what is meant by "rigged" except me. Based on the dictionary definition of "rigged" all these slots are not only rigged, but rigged in the worst possible way. If they were rigged to always make you lose, people would quickly catch on and stop playing. No fun playing when you never win. By rigging the machine to give back slightly less money than you put in, you are being manipulated in the worst possible way.
Furthermore, an honest machine will go strictly by probability. If you are supposed to get 97% back based on chance, you might still get very lucky and get more back over time. But as these slot technicians concede, the machine keeps track of the payback percentage and then makes sure you don't get lucky and win more than you lose. It makes sure that you lose a certain percentage of your money. If that's not a rigged machine, then what is?
@@purelogic3595 First time walking into a casino I think I spent .50 cents on a .25 cent slot and won over $200. Been back twice since and maybe down $40. So I still made out very good. Maybe just dumb luck. The roulette wheel is kinda predictable too and have won back money on that. We usually bring $20-$50 and when we win keep the ticket and not spend it. Only what we brought with us.
I spent a couple of years in Vegas writing slot software for Bally Gaming. I can confirm that what Cowboy says here is EXACTLY correct. Prior to working there, I worked in "grey market" machines. (Think the Cherry Master slots you used to see in truck stops, and convenience stores). THOSE grey market machines CHEAT. Plain and simple. When I got hired in Vegas the FIRST thing I did was go look at the places where the cheating code would have been. And there's not any. The math is sound on Vegas slots, they don't need to cheat.
Thank you!
@@CowboySlots
Since this got pinned, I'll fill in some blanks for you. Questions I got asked a lot.
* Can they tell the machine when to hit? NO. It's all RNG (Random Number Generator) based. It hits when it hits.
* Can they tell the machine NOT to hit? NO. It's all RNG based. It can hit 2 jackpots back to back and the casino (usually) wouldn't flinch. They know, based on the math, by the time it gets to 1 million spins played, it'll be back in the black.
* As Cowboy says, the RNG runs ALL THE TIME. The RNGs are tested extensively at the gaming labs. They know ALL about them. (They know how often it repeats, and all the good details).
The slots report everything that happens to the accounting systems in the backend. It's MOSTLY a 1-way conversation. About the ONLY thing that the accounting system can tell the machine to do is "Go offline". Which will cause it to become unplayable, and it'll tell you as much.
* The games that I worked on had (on average) 35 stops per reel. (5 reel video slots). There were several "7's" on the first reel, a few less on the 2nd, fewer still on the 3rd, 2 on the 4th, and 1 on the 5th reel.
The odds of hitting the jackpot on one that I calculated out was 1:20,500,000.
Can either of you address look up tables?
If they can cheat they do everybody the gaming commission doesn't do s***
So what about newer games that are not quarter machines? Like Buffalo, or the guick hit games. Or even dancing drums
Hey Cowboy,
These are the most concise explanations to the workings of a slot machine I have ever seen. Great job, keep it up! You have a new subscriber and thumbs up from me.
DITTO, what he said.
@@keithmcmahan5649 Whatever John and Keith said I agree.
Whatever John Keith and Jeff said I Agree
Whatever John, Keith, Jeff and Paul said I agree.
As a tech at my casino, the observation I have is during no mechanical reel machines and pickable bonus stages. It really doesn't matter what you pick, it's all predetermined. Don't look sad that you didn't pick the top left instead of that bottom right...It never mattered.
Also, when a machine crashes, it happens, be patient, the credits that you have remaining are recorded elsewhere, you'll get them back. You may not get your spin that you were on back, or credits associated with that outcome. Some crashes are bad, and there's simply no way to recover what might have been. Most errors though are easily resolved so that your spin will take place.
Techs aren't there to screw you over, we want the machines up and running just as much as you do, because that means less overall work for us to do.
As a tid bit, some manufacturers show suggested RTP's, 'Return to Player', that's the number that shows what the player will get back in percentage...in the long run of play. Other sites will try and calculate those and present them to would be players. They may not be accurate, as different casinos, and different gaming commissions tightly guard those numbers, but even if you have a hint of which machines might be better, it might make your play more profitable. THAT'S NOT A GARAUNTEE THOUGH! 😁
Thanks, Cowboy Slots, for making this!
P.S. - If you are a player, please...PRETTY PLEASE...Don't pound the buttons or the monitors! Not only will the casino recoup the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for some of these slot monitors, it makes the tech's job more difficult to keep those machines you like to play up and running. Those buttons have a tiny microswitch, it's not designed to be beaten like you're fighting some dungeon level boss.
Ohhh, I thought spamming the buttons might help ............. Sorrryyyyy
If the reels are spun randomly, how can a percentage be guaranteed to be paid back to the players? In theory, if the reels are spun randomly, the machine might never pay out.
For bonus stages I understand it as either of the two following scenarios. Example: play is on a pirate slot game. There is a bonus stage of "pick the pirate chest". The game sets up 9 treasure chest icons on the touch screen and if the player has used MAX BET the player will get to choose 2 chests otherwise just 1 chest is picked by the player. Now which of these two scenarios is "correct" to this example.
Game setups an array of 9 objects with random credit values already determined for each one of the indexes and than simply shows the values for indexes 0 or indexes 0 and 1 based on whether the player used the max bet or not; on the pick locations the player chose; than the game displays the remaining "not" picked indexes with the remaining pick locations on the screen or does the game create the 9 object array with the random credit values, than assigns each one of them to one of the pick spots on the touch screen and the player than picks 1 or 2 locations for the reveal, than the machine displays the other pick locations and what was assigned to them?
This is very important to know/understand for casual/experienced slot players.
@@varrjames186 yeah good point.
It is like saying that the machines are not rigged, but can be programmed to give a certain percentage of payout depending on which casino you are in.
maybe they should have a built in thingo if you “pound” the bottom o much,it ejects you from the game. Like with a pinball machine, you beat it up too much, shake, rattle and roll, the ole “tilt” button kicked in,..👍🏻👍🏻🤠🇺🇸🦅✌🏻
As a slot tech for over 20 years, everything he said is accurate.
Exactly something a slot tech would say😂😂
How do I become a slot tech?
what is interesting, is the fact that if you repair these units and you are working for a casino, you are not aloud to play them, if you do, you can be terminated!!!!( I did component level board repair)
@@doob- apply at your local casino. no experience needed, most likely. You will start out on the overnight shift doing a lot of grunt work but you can learn a fair amount about the machines and hone your troubleshooting skills
go to vegs take all your cash with you
Great discussion, as a slot player, you provided some really good insights. Please continue this series, this is very helpful to slot players. Thank you.
Where can I buy them .? I'm in Ontario Canada thanks 👍🇨🇦
@@carmac1652 buy what?
@@carmac1652 Slot machines? I got my Game King machine on Offer Up. Seen then on Craig's List and there are retail stores in most big US cities that sell used refurbished Slot Machines too.
Honestly they're not tips he's just helping people accept what they already knew ,the house always wins and they hit when they're ready.
@@pj1234p Chapman
VERY insightful! Honest answers from someone that’s “not out to get me” 🤣
YES! More please!
He just told you he owned machines of course he is going to say that
FINALLY!!! Someone actually explained what I suspected for years!
I like to use my free play in larger betting amounts than I do normally. MY reasoning is that it is a gift, in a sense, so I try to get a large payout if it happens to hit for me. On a few occasions it turned out to be a good idea. I sat down, on a machine I typically would start with a minimum .30 wager, bumped it up to .90 and gave it a spin. It was a game that gave you 8 bonus spins for every 3 flags you were able to get in sequence starting with needing those 3 on at least one of the first three reels. I filled 5 of the 6 reels with flags, giving me an initial bonus spin count of around 00 spins. It ended up over 400 bonus spins to the tune of a little over 900.00 and that made my whole trip worthwhile. I finished out the freeplay on buffalo and when the freeplay was done? So was I, you can't leave a winner if you don't leave once you are ahead. That is all you really have to keep in mind... leaving a winner takes will power to say no, which is a power of it's own. LEAVE when you reach a predetermined amount that, once reached or exceeded, you will not, you can not, go under if you want to be a winner more often. Stop putting it back in. Go get a meal, relax, feel how nice that money makes you feel as the wad sits there, in your pocket, and once the meal is done, stand up and walk happily to the door... and go home a winner. Buy some flowers for your woman, or man, whatever the case may be. They will love you for the pleasant surprise.
It’s harder then you say bud . I live in Reno and my best friend has a Gamblers Mentality . It’s an Addiction just like cocaine . Any kind of money he gets in his hand , he has to go to the Casino . He needs help . I am trying to find him help but it is very difficult
I think he's lying 🤣
I was playing at the RIvers in Pittsburgh and hit my limit on a $25 Wheel Fortune machine. Getting ready to go, I get comped on everything, so points are not needed, and I had $100. So loaded the machine. Hit a Spin, $3,000. While waiting to be paid, I loaded the remaining $50, hit back-to-back Spins, and hit $4,000. From this video, I should sell "handshakes". My biggest win, Borgata A/C, was $162,000 on a $25 machine. I hit $100,000 on a $500 single coin the same night.
Why would a casino rig the machine? - They're already programed to pay out less than they take in, so in a way they're already rigged against the player.
its a known fact some Casino pay out percentages are worse than other Casino payouts year after year. obviously there is a reason the Gaming Commission keeps track of this.
@@Piggy-Oink-Oink, it's public info, you can google the payouts for every state.
@@kevino4846 Only exception is tribal casinos. They're not federally required to publicly state their payout percentages.
@@desenagrator, you're correct, sir.
ThAnk you for the tip! So far,you are the most knowledgeable when it comes to this.
I love old machines so I enjoy your tips about the 3 reel machines.
To expand your viewers to include those who love the newer ones, can you also discuss something about it? Thank you!
Well put! I think generally people have a hard time accepting something being random. Thanks for helping us all gamble smarter. 🙏
There is no such thing as random with a computer.. it has to be programmed.
@@mrbeastslots Yes. The fact that it has to maintain a certain level of payout percentages is proof that it is not truly random.
He also says as much when talking about free plays. If it were random, it wouldn’t matter whether you played cash or free play.
I herd a guy, who was playing a slot machine. He said if you keep the volume up, you have a 8% better chance of hitting. I had a hard time believing that.
I used to work for a Tribal Gaming Commission and what this man said is accurate. As a Compliance Officer, we would work with the slot techs to verify, seal and test play all machines before going live. We would check the slot department's PAR sheets against to what the individual machine's increment rates are and denominations. These machines are heavily regulated, especially the class 3 machines.
The keywords about par sheets is "over time"...you may hit hot for a while but it always evens out, we rarely had a serious variance from par.
So basically what your saying is if hit big they have to pay me out nowadays cause they can't blame it on a malfunction.
How is it i keep winning with my card? Even my gf used my card and automatically won 500? I took it to another machine and one 50-300.
@Sgt Will those class 3 machines are the ones we play in other states outside of Vegas, right? And asking also, when one particular machine becomes known by many to hit very often. Is it true its removed because of more payouts it's giving away? I always wondered why the hottest machines I frequent at a certain casino gets replaced pretty quickly
Interesting video. I'm intrigued that so many people think that slots are "Rigged". The casino doesn't need to rig a game they can guarantee to win over time. If a slot machine's payout is 90%, they know that over a long enough period of time, they'll earn $10 from every $100 played. I guess some people might find the payout percentage to be a "rigging" in its own right.
The biggest thing for the casinos is getting people in the chairs and gambling. They more they can do that, the more they'll make. It's one of the few variables they can control.
Also to note, the players cards are used to track the guests' habits, use that data for marketing/promotion, etc. It's why everywhere you shop they want to know if you have their Kroger Plus loyalty card, or are signed up via email for special offers - there is a tremendous value in this data for businesses.
Its called the RTP percentage, but i think the rigged misconception comes from the older first gen slotmachines that did used to only payout after it swallowed a fixed amount of money but ya this changed long ago
Right, that is rigged , it's basically programed to make money,
Indeed i have been playing for years on some onlinesites and my effective RTP comes down to 95%, which is EXACTLY (give or take 2%)how much it is in average on the RTP stated by various games. So years of playing and 10.000s of dollars and I'm at 95% RTP in total on my main site. In the long run the odds will deliver the numbers stated.
Great video! I normally never have luck on my freeplay. But my last trip to my local casino I had $25 freeplay and hit a crazy line hit on Buffalo Gold and won close to 5x my freeplay amount.
Statistically, the best thing to do with freeplay is to run it through once and cash out. But it's more fun to keep playing and hope to hit a big payout.
Love it! Question: when a machine pays out in a voucher and you go to the next machine is the voucher recognized as cash and therefore the accounting aspect applies? Is it better to always cash out the vouchers and keep putting cash into the machine?
In my experience, the vouchers they print works exactly the same as inserting cash, and it also allows you to insert / use an amount that the machine won't accept (i.e. under a $1 amount)
@@Turtl3B0iii I think he was asking it it counts towards the accounting aspect or is it not recognized like free plays
Thanks for the info. New subscriber showing support
Thanks for the sub!
Very informative and interesting
Subbed 👍🏼
Quick question: Would it make a difference if you put enough cash into the machine to cover the bet you are making and letting the machine replenish that amount from free play? For example, if I am playing a 5 dollar denom machine with 2 coin max bet, If I put in $10 dollars in cash and then activate my free play, it usually uses the cash I put in and then makes a chiming noise to replenish that $10 I just spent from the cash. I always thought because it did it that way, it always used your cash so to speak and is technically not using actual “free play” but rather replenishing the cash. So, if you were to win something, the win would be based on actual amount of cash you bet. Just a thought.
From what I noticed in Missouri it uses all your free play/promo cash first and then your winnings. The only way I could see it using cash then free play is if you put money in, bet, and then put your free play on.
Other casinos may differ, but at ours, the moment that free play is loaded onto the machine, it will use it first, instead of the cash credit. Some machines will show the credit in red to indicate the amount of free play left, however, when the credits are mixed, you can't tell how much free play vs cash credit you have unless an attendant or tech informs you.
The machine knows whether or not you're playing free play vs cash.
*Thank you for being so generous in sharing your knowledge*
Thanks for the clarification about the slots. I was told by a couple of people that when u play friday-sunday the machines are tight on what you'll get as a return vs what u pay when playing. I ended up playing 100$ my first time to a casino name won't be mentioned,. And it seemed to last me almost all day but when I put 10 or 20$ in the digital slot games it's like the return to player pay out was lower with a smaller $amount put into the machine .but also its also y its called gambling 🎰 lol its a win lose situation gotta take a chance to have a chance like the video keep it up
WOW!! What a slot channel. The best there is. Now I know why the machine goes dead when I change denoms. It becomes a completely new machine. The best channel, best slot info out there. thank you!
working an online casino customer service and has to deal with these customer with myth like cheating slot or rigged slot is annoying and ur video really help
I've heard that bonus games are all pre-determined once you activate the feature. For example, if you are picking on quick hit, the number of free games are already determined despite what you are "picking."
I wonder that as well, I mean I get the three bonus symbols, and it seems I get those "Five free spins" more often then the twenty free spins...lol
Yes its predetermined
U are correct. All that we are seeing are lights n sounds to intensify our senses. The machine wants to keep you there, hypnotize you into a trance until you hit your last nickel. So in bonus spin, pick whatever n stop taking your time as it does not matter. Beginning of this year, I was in the high roller room, accidentally hit max bet $25 n hit a bonus 10 free spins. Payout was $0. I kid you not.
Thanks for the advice…but what I think you may have failed to mention is that higher denomination machines tend to pay more often then say a penny machine. I’ve tested this theory over and over through a number of years and casinos and it is absolutely true! This is where the overall pay percentage comes into play, and is totally legal. The Casino isn’t rigging games, it’s just “playing by the rules”.
In all my years, I have never seen an IGT S2000 in such pristine shape. That aside, I now have a concise way of answering these questions without doing so myself and getting in trouble. Thank you!
I believe what you're telling us. Great Video, very well put together. Yes Yes Yes more videos. Does it matter if I use money vs a ticket voucher?
Have watched a lot of your video's and see that this was your first. Great job. You started strong and are just getting better. Have a feeling you will grow pretty fast.
Dude you just backed up everything I was telling my friends! I mean all of it ! Badass video. I subbed just bc it was so on point and full of info !
When playing video poker, how do you know if the machine is dealing from one deck or multiple. How do you know if the machine is one that has a card dealt from the dealer that sits behind the one you want to replace or randomly generates? Thank you.
What an amazing video with great knowledge of the workings of slot machines. I’m subscribed and can’t wait for more videos.
Very educational,I look forward to more of your videos and advice. Keep up the good work ☺️😃
It’s Crazy because I used to play a lot of slots using the Players card ,, now I get lots of free play weekly and I always win with free play , making about 5k a month only using free play and not my money at all .. I recommend it just win and leave don’t stay and loose it take it as a part time job
This was great! Years ago when I started playing slots I went looking for this information and was surprised that it couldn’t really be found easily. I remember doing a lot of reading. Pleased to see the conclusions I came to were correct.
I hope you read the comments, my brains already flying through all the questions I have 🤔🤯
An acquaintance was a manager at a nearby casino. He said that the casino has cards that are changed to change the payout percentage, and are changed quite regularly. He has no reason to lie to me. I see the change almost every time I visit the casino. Watch the kiosks, when there’s a line the card has been changed to a more player favorable card. Don’t play, just watch, you’ll see.
This is also why my local has radio ads promising higher percentages on certain holidays
U mean the kiosk to cash out?
He probably meant the playing cards on the tables, not the player account cards lol.
The reason that cards are changed randomly and frequently, isn't to prevent players from winning. The shufflers do that with plenty of randomization. It's to prevent marking of cards, so that players cannot cheat.
The cards can become chaffed naturally, or a slight crease, and if a player is paying attention, will know what that card value is.
Soooo interesting! CONGRATULATIONS on your channel! New sub here! Just curious if class 2 casinos are much different than class 3. Thanks for your time! Have the best day! Blessings from WI 🤗😇🙏💙
Thank you so much! I will be posting a video shortly about tribal gaming!
My experience with free play is you can't loose it's free.the way to not loose is to cash out any wins as you play because it will cash out the wins but not the free play. After the free play is used up cash in your tickets and listen to the band have a drink and run to the exit.keep playing and goodbye your winnings and probably more money
is there any difference from a reel machine and a video game machine? which is best to play?
I can not thank you enough for these tips and information. My mom hit a $15k jackpot the other night using your advice.
What advice did she use to win $15k? Unless your mom was using free play from the casino on slots and switched to cash, I didn’t hear any advice on how to win. There was no advice on that. It is and always will be, simply luck. Maybe she changed up her speed if spinning? He simply told us how the machines work and how they’re not rigged.
Good information, especially about the free play.
Great information and I love how based on your training and experience that you aren't able to deep bunk the insane folktales that people tell about slot machines
Debunk. Not deep bunk.
@@jbfrog180 😂
Great video, thank you for the tips. Keep them coming!!!
Thanks! It’s good to have expert advice. I’ve been away from the casino for 2 years now and am itching to get back in there. I needed the reminders and advice.
I appreciate your knowledge and honesty. I hope this is a success for you. Does each denomination have a different RTP or is it all one (same) percentage?
I'd like to know also if each different denominational multidenomination slots has a different payback percentage
same percentage wether you play 1 coin or 3 coins
@@hjcg08 asking about denomination not number of coins. 1 cent versus 5 or 10 cent.
@@greghayes5750 The payback percentages are published by the gaming commission. Some areas like Atlantic City publish by casino. Other areas like Las Vegas publish by region. That is to say you can look to see how much the dollar slots pay back or the penny slots. The penny slots payback is less. The payback normally increases as the denom is raised. $5 slots pay back more than $1 slots etc. "Simply Slots" and "Casino Player" magazines used to publish the payback for every area in this country every month. When I subscribed, back in the early 2000's, the Native American casinos did not have to submit their payback information.
Greatly appreciated information, as a slot player this answered a lot of my questions.....Good Luck Everyone👍👍
You debunked some lifelong myths for me lol thank you.
Loved the info, thanks for posting. Keep it comin. Good luck with the channel 😇🙏🏻🎰🎰🎰🎰
Thank you!
Great vid! Very informative
Glad it was helpful!
I used to love doing a reel payout test when they get a jam or something. They'd always think I was rigging the machine. Sometimes I'd reach back behind the hopper with big ass screwdriver and tell them I was tighting it up a little. 🤣
Good info here, thanks for confirming most of what I thought about slot machines!
I agree! What are the chances of us both watching the same video?! :)
I've worked in Purchasing in casinos here in Nevada and know your info on slot payouts is accurate. The few people to whom I've tried to explain the RNG or the different payouts for different denominations on the same machine do not want to believe it and now I just nod to be kind about whatever crazy theory they have and silently thank them for funding my retirement. A popular myth here is casino management sitting around laughing and having drinks in a fictitious "computer room" with surveillance cameras, picking which slot players they want to win and pressing buttons to make those slots pay out. There are cocktail servers who swear they have delivered drinks to "meetings" like this. I encourage these 'witnesses' to call the Gaming Control Board to report these so-called meetings because I'm sure the Board members enjoy a good laugh now and then too.
If the casino employees could watch the floor and pick out winners like that, there would be dishonest ones who would give their friends big jackpots. That’s one reason why it would never be allowed to work that way :)
I'm not gonna lie. A very long time ago I used to think the same thing 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Big group of goons in suits pointing at the monitors directing some underlings saying, "Him.... not him.... Her? Bump it up... Him... thats fine.... Her.... Her too..... Not him"
Badass Video I'm From Vegas and Always Wondered about some of these things thanks chief
Good video my man
Thank u
Im going to vegas im july
I needed these tips
To expand on what player's cards are used for, it is also used to track what specific players (high rollers) like to play and try to place similar machines nearby where they typically play or just in general what the average player likes to play and use that to determine what type of machines they should add more of or take out. Such as, "Oh this type of player that plays in this section of the casino loves physical reel games" or "This grouping of players likes video slots where the regular games are garbage, but the bonuses are great". "Our majority of players seem to be hillbillies, let's bring in Kenny Chesney for a concert." It's ludicrous what they can determine from player's card usage.
Well put LOL
I had no idea about the random number generator. That's really interesting and great to know. I've always assumed, probably like most people, that there's an order to things. That every spin of the dials is destined to land on what it landed on, and what the next spin lands on, does so because that was mechanically destined to be the next combination in line.
So, knowing this information, that brings up another question. Considering that the random number generator is in fact random, and switches every millisecond, are payouts required to hit every so often, every so many spins, every so many dollars bet, or how does that work? And if that too is truly entirely random, then how do they ensure that the machines are paying out at the required percentage required by the gaming rules or laws? Does that question make sense?
It does make sense and a damn good question. As I understand it fixed odds (which is what these are I believe) means that the odds of winning are exactly the same every spin. So you could hit a jackpot one after the other. The machines are programmed to statistically pay out, over a period of time, the required percentage of money put into them. So as this is just maths, in the long run, it will pay out that percentage. Question remains, how long does it have before it gets flagged up there is something amiss??
There are other types that are still random but if they are not paying out enough, or too much I guess, the odds are moved one way or another so that the machine self compensates.
It's a random generator, but that doesn't mean all outcomes are equally likely.
Consider a simple model, where a random generator has only two different outcomes, of which A occurs with a 60% probability and B with a 40% probability.
Your bet is one dollar, in outcome A you lose and in outcome B the return is $2.
The return percentage of such a machine would be 80% in the long run. (In a short run you could be lucky and win more often than lose, but that doesn't matter: the odds are in the machine's favor on every spin).
These slot machines work with the same logic, but of course there are a lot more variations.
It's a random number generator (RNG) inside a program. An Excel spreadsheet has a RNG. You can generate numbers from 1 to 100 for example. You could program Excel to have one cell have a value of 1 if that RNG number is 1-48 (48 values) and 0 if it's 49 - 100 (52 values). So that cell's average value would be -.04 - like losing 4 cents on average if it was a slot machine , or you could use slot terminology and say it's returning 96%. If you wanted the slot machine to pay more, you could open the slot machine and change the program so 1-49 pays off, and 50 - 100 loses - now it's returning 98%.
@@samore11So that means the casino and their techs can reprogram the machine and change the win/loss ratio?
One thing: the machine doesnt think about whether it’s paying out too much or not, it doesn’t try to equalize the payout percentage. The percentage is already set, so if you had an infinite amount of spins it would only pay back say 90% or so. Every time you hit the button you have the same percentage chance of winning or hitting the jackpot. You could hit a jackpot theoretically 5 times in a row and the machine will not purposely try to pay you out less since its hit all those jackpots. Its the same chance every millisecond that the machine is running.
Hey Brandon, Only somewhat correct on that. The machine averages out over the course of its programmed lifetime, however there is a legal responsibility and range that the machine must stay within. Without that, it is illegal. It is required in the program that it stay within that 90% or whatever percentage its set for and not excessively drop below that. As you put it "equalize the payout" that is over the course of its programmed life, not in a single sitting, day, or time frame. At any given time, the gaming commissions can calculate what the machine is currently sitting out payout wise and if the machine is not keeping within that range then there is cause for correction or suspicion for them to look into. I have programmed these chip sets before. Also as stated on my other videos, back to back jackpots are always possible. Again people don't realize that the machine takes in millions of spins in its lifetime, so a single sitting of a player is nothing to it.
I agree as well that the machines do not try to equalize the payout percentage. That would go totally against the whole point of the machines using a random number generator in the first place The return to player percentage is set over the lifetime of the machine which can be years and years and years meaning it may not even pay a jackpot for a couple of years and then through nothing but luck a year or two later hit 5 big jackpots in one year, or one month, or two years or one day.. THe machines do not equalize themselves to fall within the regulated parameters.
@@pkguy3 the way I see it is that if the machine is set to pay out 1% of the time and 99% of the time its set to lose, then yea it’s possible you can hit that lucky 1% chance multiple times in a row but when youre dealing with infinites, it for sure wont happen over the long run. It doesn’t need to adjust itself because the algorithm itself is set to pay out only 1% of the time. 1% could technically be every single spin for the whole day, but every other day of the year it wont pay out anything. If theres an infinite amount of spins it will eventually reach its payout percentage without having to equalize itself, though I guess saying it “equalizes itself” helps people understand the concept better. Its the same thing with video poker. Its just a 52 card deck that shows the payout percentage on the pay table. It doesnt need to fix itself
@@pkguy3 New video posted explaining all this
Incredibly informative. Thanks
Question on the free play . If you say the machine can't see the free play as it would actual money. I think you explained it like "the machine would basically freeze. Are you saying from the accounting log aspect since the machine isn't having to increase the amount of funds it's taking in on the accounting log, and it hasn't gotten any closer to the percentage it has to stay within before it has to "leave out" or pay out to stay within the legal limits ? would it make a difference if you put cash in then put free play on top of it or vice versa would it one way or the other free play then cash, or cash then FreePlay keep the machine from as you said " freezing up" or sitting in limbo until the free play spin's are used up ? And if it would do you think you could get the most out of your free play by doing whatever combination (cash than FreePlay or FreePlay then cash) and than say between every spin you add a physical dollar do you think your FreePlay odds would increase? And one more thought could you use the "FreePlay freeze up" to your advantage ? For example say a machine you regularly play seems to be hitting better than usual do you think you could then you put your card in to start your FreePlay and the machine would freeze and continue with more winning spin's and less frequent loosing spin's between wins . As it was before you started your FreePlay?
And on your watch for patterns tip For example if you are at a machine say you've doubled your original bankroll and in your head ever time you set an amount to stop playing and cash out, and when you get within 50$ of that stopping amount you hit for 100$. And say that happens three time in a row. But you regularly play this machine and it seems paying a lot more frequently with less loosing spin's between then usual . Would that be a pattern that would catch your eye personally as the machine is getting ready to "level out" or pay out ? In the same way you said in another video that you watch for patterns of reoccurring symbols on the pay line as a good inkling of a big hit coming ?
As a long time slot player you have answered many questions I've thought over the years. Thank you! New subscriber!
If each machine has to pay a certain percentage, then there must be a way to "time" that percentage. How often does the machine "account" for the percentage it must pay out? What is your advice on timing the play of a machine "due" to hit given the required payout percentage protocol?
This was my question as well.. if it has to stay in a certain percentage then that would mean there is some sort of unfairless or rigging of the game. Im a programmer as well and random numbers makes sense but if it has to stay in a percantage thst random number must have to be changed at some point. And what does the random number do.. determine where the wheel stops and is there separate random numbers for each wheel. Interesting he never repmied to your comment. Lets see if he does now.
@@InteractiveRealm My understanding is that there are two parts to the machines - the actual 'game', and a 'show'. The RNG is the game. You push the button, the RNG stops, and you win (or not) based on the number (eg, numbers in range x-y win 2x bet, range a-b wins 100x bet, etc). The percentage can be adjusted by varying those ranges (if the percentage is getting too low, widen the range a little). It is still completely random whether you win or not, but the odds are slightly different.
Once the outcome is determined, it is the job of the 'show' to present the outcome to the player, by positioning the reels, etc. There is nothing really random about this part. This is where they can play psychological games by making it appear you 'almost' won, etc. If the 'show' winds up displaying something other than the determined outcome, the play is voided ('malfunction voids play').
Great video - thank you. One question, does the machine differentiate between hard cash or a slot voucher? I'm assuming no, but would like to see your answer. Looking forward to your next video.
No it treats both the same
Great information sir..Awesome videos...I haven't been to Vegas in awhile but I've seemed to do better at locals casinos and downtown..but I kn ow the RNGs were just showing me some Love on those trips..lol...Take Care..Good Luck...
Very informative. Thanks. 👍
All modern slot machines work on the premise of a random number generator. When you press the button the machine grabs a number that has a corresponding payout. The machine will then display a pattern of symbols on the screen to represent this. It does not care if you are using real money or your freeplay. You have the same chance of winning either way. It's all about pressing the button at the lucky moment. That's it. The random number generator does not know that you are using a freeplay and does not care. The computer may not include the freeplay in record keeping for accounting purposes for the casino but it does not change the gameplay in any way. The machine will pay according to whatever random number is chosen at any given time. This does not change. So use your freeplay people... just make sure you place max bets. Why wouldn't you? 😎
yeah that was weird thing to say, there is no feedback loop from the accounting record to the RNG, i kind of lost respect for this guy.
Agreed. Heck on my slot channel Timmytot Slots. I dropped 20 bucks with 20 bucks of free play on Prowling Panther. Did 5 dollar bets and my buddy was watching because I told him I was going to do it. Well nothing on the first 6 spins my finger slipped and hit 2.50. I bet 5 again and got a bonus. Last two spins gave me 490 dollars. I recorded it lol. So I do have wins on my casino cash lol.
Ok I have gone to this casino in Hartford Michigan twice this week - first time I left $600 ahead the second lost $180- but I saw the same Guy win a jackpot on this double 7 gold slot both times I was there.. it's Maddening 😄 - I don't get it - I haven't won a jackpot there in five years
I programmed a slot machine last year. I've been a fan of them for many years so decided to make one. I never graded the RTP but I weighted the array of symbols in order to make higher pays rarer. What I have always wanted to know is the infrastructure behind online slots. No company I have ever asked will let me study the backend.
They are probably much less fair than brick and mortar casinos, but I have won large amounts many times in online slots so I can attest to the fact that they aren't rigged.
Variable odds maybe area factor online, but they are not rigged either, £900 in and £24k out in 8 years...
@@getsufuma2597 It's the other way around in fact. Online casinos have a higher RTP on average over land-based casinos due to running costs. Generally the average RTP online is between 94-96.5% (sometimes higher like Book of 99 which is 99%) but the average landbased is anywhere between 88-92%. Now that doesn't mean you can't get a winning streak and win more in landbased. It's all relative to when you play and the payout since the last RTP audit.
@@mm3nrx The only way a slot is riggeed is that it's programmed to output an RTP percentage. So if the slot has a 96.5% RTP and its audit is due to match up the RTP and it's paid out 96.4%, the likelihood is it won't pay out. But if it's in catchup mode, you could win a good chunk towards the max payout, or even hit the max if it's some slot like a Pragmatic which pays out max wins fairly often.
You do know what random means right?
Love the info thank you. I’m a avid player. My old school 3 reals are disappearing. How can I buy one, and how much do they run?
Hey! It depends on the state you live in if they allow private ownership of them. Several states have laws in place that the machine has to be a specific age to own privately.
Love it. Lights need work. Sounds good. Presentation good. Info awesome.
I play video poker is there anything that you can tell me about video poker that might work better as far as pushing the buttons or doing Max play for selecting it on screen and then hitting the play button
I was under the impression that different denomination machines had different payout percentages. I assumed this, in part, because most casinos have signage advertising specific sections/sets/rows of machines as having a preselected payout rate and because most states require the average payout rate of certain denominations to be published on the states gaming commission website (available to the public in most states) with the exception of tribal casinos. For example,in my experience, most $1 machines have a preset payback percentage of ~93% whereas most $0.01 machines are set to ~87%. So, theoretically, if a player chooses a multi-denomination machine with options of $1, $5, $10 and $20 and they choose the $1 option, the average payout rate is set to 93%. If this same player then chooses to set the machine to $20 the payback rate would change to ~95%.
Is this incorrect?
That is what I have read. The more you bet, the more you will potentially win. I'm not sure which machines are the most profitable for the casinos, but from what I gather, it would be the 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢ machines bc there are way more of those than the $1, $5, and so on. That and the RTP on those machines is less. All of this is "allegedly"
They usually do but it is not mandatory. Multi-denom machines can have varying payback percentages per denom. It's all strictly regulated. The CPU board has a separate lock inside the machine which is usually controlled by a gaming agency.
This varies when playing a machine with more multipliers and is considered a more Volatile machine!
Depends on the operator, location, etc... you can set all the denominations to the same payout percentage or all have different percentages
James is correct. Depending on the State the casino can choose the payback for that's state licensing guidelines. Some are hard coded (older units) and others you can type in a percentage that has to be valid in that jurisdiction.
I'm a poker player that hates casino edge but this was pretty interesting to learn about. 👍
Same
Great explanation. This covers machines in the U.S. and U.S. gambling laws only though. Bally did sell a product that allowed you to control the machine payout directly from back of house, but it's illegal to use in the U.S. (Bally Total Commander or something like that.)
Depends. Macau is tightly regulated. Probably even more so than Nevada. The Philippines is another popular market that is regulated. But then you do have some like Cambodia and some South American countries with no Gaming Comission or technical standards on the books and you could get away with putting a couple rigged machines on a casino floor.
Also, the odds of overall payout, how loose or tight a machine is, is different between states in the US. Each state that has a gambling commission (Which is most of them now) are responsible for setting their own standards. So, machines in Vegas might be looser or tighter than machines in Atlantic City or Detroit. How loose or tight a machine might be can be adjusted by each casino, within limits set by the state’s gambling commission. They only set a ‘maximum tightness’ and casinos are free to have machines set to be looser but not any tighter. I don’t recall seeing them the last times I was in Vegas but I remember times in the 1990s where a bank of machines might have a big sign advertising “Up to 98% (sometimes even 99%) payback.” It’s a great attractor. But what isn’t said is that maybe only a single machine in that bank is set to those rates; the others are probably still at the usual limits.
I wasn’t aware of the accounting aspects he talked about but I’ve known for a while that loose and tight also changed with denomination played. Again, this is part of the standards set by the state’s gambling commission. Higher denominations are looser than lower.
Lastly, though this is changing with the technology. Each machine’s random number generator is independent of all other machines. Many are going to server-based that have a central tracking, but each machine has it’s own RNG. What changes with server-based vs fully independent is the ease that payout rates can be adjusted. I’m pretty sure that still requires a certified technician and approval by the commission though it still comes down to changing the software of the game; maybe swapping am EPROM chip in the older style electronic machines.
Great video.....lots of great info. Keep 'em coming!
Loved your vid. Thanks for answering all my questions. After wondering all these years, I've been playing slots for over 40 yrs, it's nice to finally know. Good luck.
Love your new channel, and wish you great success.
My question is this, I understand completely how the r n g works, any outcome at any time , but how can you have a built in percentage payback at the same time? If the machine tries to balance itself to achieve a programmed percentage, the rng has to change? It just seems to me that you can't have both, a true r n g and a built in percentage payback. Since the percentage payback Is regulated by the state or tribe you can't have a true rng. I have been playing for many years, and have seen many changes in casinos, none of which has been to the players advantage. Thanks
Yes, this is exactly my question! You can't have a machine which deliberately balances itself out, and yet be completely random per each spin.
New video just posted explaining :-)
Here's my understanding of how it works - as the machine has to adapt to the required payout percentages, it changes which numbers from the RNG will trigger payment.
The RNG doesn't change - what the RNG triggers does change.
So let's say you have a slot machine with a 90% minimum payout requirement, and it has an RNG that chooses between 100 numbers (obviously in real life it would be much more, but just for argument's sake).
70 of those numbers yield a total loss of the bet.
10 of those numbers provide the player with a cherry.
10 of those numbers provide a triple bar line hit
5 are double bar
4 are triple bar
1 is jackpot
A bunch of people play the machine, and due to the random number generator and their timing, they're "Unlucky", and they are paid out at a rate that is getting closer and closer to 90% total for the machine. The machine's computer realizes "We need more people winning more money so that we stay above the 90% payout requirement!", and it effectively changes the balance of the 100 numbers that could possibly be chosen. So then it becomes (out of 100 numbers):
60 of those numbers yield a total loss of the bet.
13 of those numbers provide the player with a cherry.
13 of those numbers provide a triple bar line hit
7 are double bar
6 are triple bar
1 is jackpot
Now the player has a greater chance at the various winning combinations, and thus the machine is more likely to pay out more and get back to that required percentage. The machine can adjust this as much as needed to ensure that the payout requirement is met.
So the RNG doesn't change - your odds of hitting any number between 1 and 100 are the same as they have always been - but now, more potential results will yield winnings.
@@jeffreyarvik5936 I could definately believe that!
Then my next question would be, at what point does the machine 'decide' its now time to review and modify the reels?
Does it 'review' every X mins, or is the review period set at random? 🤔
Great video to help folks understand a bit. Always a battle to try and explain these when folks lose at the machines. BUT, I do have one MAJOR correction for you. FREEPLAY absolutely still is handled within the games accounting parameters and the machine still MUST hold the same amount for every spin, just like cash. I would love to know where you hear that this is not true, but I can tell you that it is a false one. Aside from players still winning and doing well with their FP, we happen to have particular folks that strictly play with only their freeplay, as they come daily from bus runs, and coincidentally always play very specific games because of the great paybacks from them. These games run on about 75% freeplay and very little cash or vouchers, and hold exactly as they are programmed too. Modern machines just keep the money and freeplay input as separate lists, but they use BOTH to control the games percentage of hold.
Yea, his last point I don't really agree with. Unless he misspoke or I misheard, but if what he says is true then when someone hits a jackpot on a machine then you would NOT want to sit down and play afterwards as it would need to 'even itself out'. From all I have heard all my life, that's just not how these machines operate. Every spin is completely independent and it's all the same probability on all spins, regardless of what happened before.
You are absolutely right. Great video, but this last bit was incorrect. Using FP over any time period does not affect any spin; when the button is pushed, the outcome would be the same from spin to spin as if using cash money.
Most of what you said I already knew, but its great to hear someone like you fill in some of the details of slot play. What I don't know is the odds each casino uses on their slot play. I believe in vegas there is a range they have to stay in..like 85 percent and up, or something like that. Indian casinos I don't think have the same limitations and could pay very little if they wanted. There used to be a magazine that published these numbers for various casinos around the country. I suppose now with so many Indian casinos, it would be possible to find out.
Professor Slots has the documents regarding each state’s gambling rules. Most Indian casinos are around 80% while Vegas odds can be as high as 98% depending on the denomination played.
Very informative. Lots of interesting things I never knew or even thought about.
Very informative, thanks for uploading!
FINALLY..all the answers I needed. Now no more getting up from a machine … just gona change my timing here and there.. I know it’s all luck either way. But this made my day as far as getting up from a machine that’s “ not hitting “
The explanation about different denoms was most useful to me. Had never heard that before.
Can you do a video for the folks that sit there and waive their hands over the machine thinking they are causing it to hit on something? That behavior is annoying AF and they look silly doing it
Sounds like you could take your own video :)
Oh brother i feel your pain. The worst ones are the ones that bang on the screen and keep slapping it when the bonus hits. And then people wonder why so many machines dont work. 🤦♂️
You mean washing the screen before a spin? Yup, superstitious much
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A friend of mine does that and ot annoys af
Valuable information! Thank you for the tips! What about stopping the reels ie “rapid fire.” Does that change the outcome of your spin, or is the same once it is set into motion? Again, I really enjoyed your video, please continue to make and make available on TH-cam.
Stopping the reels early does not change the outcome. When you press the button to start the game the machine picks the results and shows it to you. Stopping the reels just speeds up the displaying of the results. This feature was added to get people playing more games per minute.
Thanks Cawboy Slots very nice and trutfull exsplanation,would like to know about video poker🤔
These are great tips, thanks for keeping it real and helping out the players!
The only time I got free play, I ended up with a few free spins which made me stay at that machine for a couple hours and came home with more then I spent in Vegas. Wasn’t a bad haul but it gave me the chance to play for a bit
I won a $3,000 jackpot on a Quick Hits slot on Freeplay, third spin and "BAM"..my only hand pay to this date at the casino...
@@Teebone211 I made it passed the 4 digit number just right under the legal limit where I had to pay taxes. It made my day when that happened and why I have a saying.
Anything can happen.
So when it comes to player cards there is a bigger reason they don't rig it. Imagine an auditor who decided to go above their duty and realized payouts are different between card members and regular patrons( not saying this would ever happen but possible). The casino is in trouble. All play must be "fair".
It also helps us track down players who forgot money on machines. With uncarded play we don't know who forgot the money. This happens ALL the time.
@@budc.8172 Really? I always heard any money left in the machine belongs to the house. In the Phoenix area, we always have shady people who constantly stroll the banks looking for credits left behind. They insert a voucher and immediately cash out. Gain 10 cents here, 35 cents there, and do this all the time. If caught they get banned from what I have heard. I just shake my head, no money? Go home.
@@pj1234p Small change will be clected by the house but any large amounts we will try our best to track you down. This depends on how busy we are. On slow days we will try to find you if you left as little as three bucks on machine. On busy days where we have little time we might only search of it's over 10 bucks. We always search if it's over 15. Our job is to make sure you are enjoying your stay and no one likes to accidently loose money because you forgot to pull it off the machine. The highest I've found was $350 and the look on their face when you hand them the ticket is priceless.
I love watching you and hearing all the info u hv to share. You are obviously full of knowledge and I truly hope u continue to talk about the machines. I'm going to the Seminole Hard Rock May 18th for e nights (flying from Boston) for my birthday and just absorbing everything you are talking abt with regard to machines.
Keep yr segments coming!
Regards Janet
If you are going to the one in Hollywood Fl,be careful.I live down here and most people I know never win much of anything there.Indian gaming is different then state ran casinos down here in SFLA.There have been numerous scandals with the Seminole Hard Rock down here over the years with their gaming.On the other hand the hotel is very nice.
Thanks for the great tips........will be checking this out! 😜
Another complicating factor is where machines are connected to progressive jackpots; this adds a second layer of payout requirements and all of the machines participating in the progressive decrease the potential for any one machine to be successful in the highest progressive winning. However, the progressive increases the likelihood of winning the smaller progressives as lots of machines are supporting the collective income/payout.
You can calculate the expected hourly loss of everything on the casino floor. Slots let you control the pace if you want to stretch your bankroll. Picking the right machine and not doing the max bet allows you reduce the expected hourly loss. Choose the machine that doesn't penalize you for betting one credit. Pause between each spin and look around. Never hurry the process and tip the beverage server well.
I could have sworn, that one of the casino groups in my state(MN) got in trouble a ways back for having their slots programmed to pay out less than the agreed upon range the tribes had with the state gaming commision during an audit of their machines. If so then, i'd say it does and can happen.
I believe so...Also heard that a few people won & the casino did not pay out, said machine was broken @ time of jackpot. Also it can be rigged by casino or player. DONT B A SUCKER. SOME THINGS HE SAYS ARE TRUE.
@@davidnichols1943 Amen.
Minnesota casinos suck. No craps tables and really lame slot machine selection. There are no slots with the mechanical reels. Mystic Lake is the worst casino I've been to. It's worth the trip to drive to Iowa.
Exactly I heard this in other States as well I don't know what people are talking about they're not rigged I read newspapers saying it's cheaper to pay the fines versus the payout.
The test lab more than likely got fined for that also, because they are the ones that are supposed to verify each game meets a jurisdictions minimum payback percentage. They then send a certification report to the regulatory body.
That's Spot On, please keep posting more tips and myths 🇺🇲
Great video 🤓🤓🤓 thanks 👍👍
Why do the graphics or reels on the machine slow down when I use my players card? I also feel like the second I remove my card I start to get bonuses and see an immediate improvement.
That’s just in your head lol