Deconstructing Jackpot Party

As far as I know, until now there has never been a published example of an actual video slot machine. Before this point I tried to explain the concepts behind video slots with my analysis of my own slot machine Atkins Diet. However, I've always preferred to have an actual machine to use as an example that is out there on the casino floors.

What has always help me back is that the slot makers don't show you the entire reel strips. You can only see three frames at a time. However, it occurred to me that if I played enough I could piece together the entire reel strips, enabling me to do an exact analysis. So that is what I did.

Please be the first to preview my new page Deconstructing Jackpot Party. As always, I welcome comments, questions, and corrections before I announce this on my Odds site.

What if the visual depiction of the wheels doesn't represent the actual orientation?

The Wynn let you sit there and record all that
video? Isn't it against their rules?

I guess you verified it in your analysis...Sorry, I didn't read that far ahead.

Also, it's just semantics, but now days, most slot machines use EEPROM or Flash, but in the end, it's all read only memory. :)

Cool article!

Quote: Wizard

As far as I know, until now there has never been a published example of an actual video slot machine.

Actually, Kevin A. Harrigan at U. of Waterloo has published several studies on par sheets from the standpoint of the psychology of addiction. For example, PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling.

Quote:

What has always help me back is that the slot makers don't show you the entire reel strips. You can only see three frames at a time. However, it occurred to me that if I played enough I could piece together the entire reel strips, enabling me to do an exact analysis. So that is what I did.

That methodology is not necessarily correct. A slot machine reel containing [A, B, C, A, C, B, C, B] contains the following three-symbol strings:
ABC
BCA
CAC
ACB
CBC
BCB
CBA
BAB
Each string occurs once. However, a reel containing [A, B, C, A, C, B, C, B, C, B] contains the same three-symbol strings, but CBC and BCB occur twice each. Unless you've done a frequency analysis, you won't know enough to be able to assume that each three-symbol combination is equally likely.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Cool article!

Agreed! Looks like it was a lot of work.

Quote: EvenBob

The Wynn let you sit there and record all that video? Isn't it against their rules?

They never said I couldn't. I've never seen any rule posted addressing that.

Quote: MathExtremist

Unless you've done a frequency analysis, you won't know enough to be able to assume that each three-symbol combination is equally likely.

That is betting rather nit picky. With 10 different symbols there would be 1,000 ways to arrange three of them. It doesn't seem likely that they would have the same closed loop more than once. Furthermore, the way I did it, the bottom lines is consistent with Strip norms for penny slots. However, to help alleviate your concern, here is how often each 3-symbol pattern occurred, based on the hypothetical order on my Odds site.

Position	Reel 1	Reel 2	Reel 3	Reel 4	Reel 5
1	10	13	9	5	8
2	8	5	6	7	7
3	4	7	10	5	8
4	5	4	6	10	9
5	4	8	9	5	7
6	5	12	9	10	10
7	7	15	6	10	6
8	9	6	6	12	10
9	11	3	5	3	4
10	13	6	7	12	6
11	11	7	7	3	12
12	8	8	10	5	16
13	14	6	10	7	9
14	7	12	8	7	3
15	5	6	13	7	8
16	10	6	7	9	10
17	10	14	12	9	7
18	10	6	11	5	12
19	5	6	12	8	5
20	9	8	10	10	5
21	9	3	12	5	13
22	8	10	6	6	11
23	9	7	6	5	5
24	5	2	5	7	5
25	9	8	7	9	9
26	7	7	3	8	7
27		7		6
28		15		5
29	0	10		12
Total	212	227	212	212	212

Finally, there are the p value of a chi-squared test for each reel, assuming a uniform distribution.

Reel p-value
1 63.57%
2 1.11%
3 69.16%
4 58.70%
5 28.00%

Quote: EvenBob

The Wynn let you sit there and record all that
video? Isn't it against their rules?

The Wiz didn't ask a pit boss, so couldn't read them of his lips...

Quote: Wizard

With 10 different symbols there would be 1,000 ways to arrange three of them. It doesn't seem likely that they would have the same closed loop more than once. Furthermore, the way I did it, the bottom lines is consistent with Strip norms for penny slots. I could post the results of my 212 recorded spins, which I think would be within statistical norms of how I laid out the reel strips.

Many of the games I do have the same three symbols more than once. If there is a wide disparity between the frequency of top and bottom symbols, it's almost inevitable.

Of your 212 spins, did you see each of the 26 combinations of 3 symbols on the first reel roughly an equal number of times? Or was one or more roughly twice as frequent as another?