Deal or No Deal Slingo

Draft Kings has a game called Deal or No Deal Slingo. You can find it under their list of variety games. The base game is like Deal or No Deal, but there are a lot of extra rules. Here is a summary of the rules:

1. The game consists of 26 prizes and 26 cases.
2. Cases on the board are numbered 1 to 75.
3. Cases are arranged in a 5x5 grid, like a bingo card
4. First, the player makes a bet.
5. Next, play begins by the player choosing one of 26 cases, to determine his prize.
6. Each column on the board will have 5 numbers from a range of 15, as in bingo. For example, the possible cases in column 1 from the left are 1 to 15, in column 2 the range is 16 to 30, etc.
7. Next, the player gets 10 spins.
8. For each spin, five reels will spin, one for each column on the board of cases.
9. Usually, the spins will result in a possible number from the range of that column. However, there are other special symbols I won't get into at this time.
10. After the 10 free spins, plus any additional free spins won, the player will have the following choices: Open his case or pay for an additional spin.
11. From this point on, the player may open his case at any time or keep paying for each additional spin.
12. The help file says the cost to spin is 95% of the expected increased value of that spin.
13. As cases are opened, a count is kept of the lines of cases fully opened, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.
14. Once the player gets to five lines, all prizes are multiplied by an indicated multiplier.
15. Once the player gets to four lines, the player will get a banker offer to surrender his case. This offer is close to 95% of the average value of the cases.

I noticed that in playing the first 10 free spins, the most lines I ever covered was 4. So the multiplier rule never kicked in by this point.

Here is the interesting thing: The average prize is 3.17 times the bet amount! (shut up Wiz!).

I thought maybe the game is gaffed to open the higher prizes, leaving the lower ones. However, based on a sampling of 15 games, this wasn't the case. Here is a count of the cases left open, based on a $1 bet, at the first opportunity that player had to open my case.

Prize	Count
$0.01	5
$0.02	5
$0.03	4
$0.04	3
$0.05	7
$0.10	4
$0.15	5
$0.20	5
$0.25	6
$0.30	8
$0.35	6
$0.40	8
$0.45	3
$0.50	8
$0.60	6
$0.70	5
$0.80	3
$0.90	6
$1.00	4
$1.50	7
$2.00	6
$3.00	10
$4.00	8
$5.00	8
$10.00	6
$50.00	6
Total	152

The average prize left open was $3.43, based on betting $1. Recall, the average of all possible prizes in a $1 game is $3.17, so my sampling exceeded expectations. With that huge $50 case, the variance is rather high. Also, my actual case held an average of $2.91.

So, if the player can average winning $3.17 for a $1 bet, that is a 217% player advantage!

A couple other points. If you notice the "balance" field of the game, it sometimes goes up and down for strange reasons, but generally seems to correct itself later. Also, twice, the game seemed to crash at the point it should have let me open my case with just a quick flash of a frame that said "game over."

That's enough for this post. The question for the poll is would you play Deal or No Deal Slingo (multiple answers allowed)?

Quote: Wizard

Draft Kings has a game called Deal or No Deal Slingo. You can find it under their list of variety games. The base game is like Deal or No Deal, but there are a lot of extra rules. Here is a summary of the rules:

1. The game consists of 26 prizes and 26 cases.
2. Cases on the board are numbered 1 to 75.
3. Cases are arranged in a 5x5 grid, like a bingo card
4. First, the player makes a bet.
5. Next, play begins by the player choosing one of 26 cases, to determine his prize.
6. Each column on the board will have 5 numbers from a range of 15, as in bingo. For example, the possible cases in column 1 from the left are 1 to 15, in column 2 the range is 16 to 30, etc.
7. Next, the player gets 10 spins.
8. For each spin, five reels will spin, one for each column on the board of cases.
9. Usually, the spins will result in a possible number from the range of that column. However, there are other special symbols I won't get into at this time.
10. After the 10 free spins, plus any additional free spins won, the player will have the following choices: Open his case or pay for an additional spin.
11. From this point on, the player may open his case at any time or keep paying for each additional spin.
12. The help file says the cost to spin is 95% of the expected increased value of that spin.
13. As cases are opened, a count is kept of the lines of cases fully opened, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.
14. Once the player gets to five lines, all prizes are multiplied by an indicated multiplier.
15. Once the player gets to four lines, the player will get a banker offer to surrender his case. This offer is close to 95% of the average value of the cases.

I noticed that in playing the first 10 free spins, the most lines I ever covered was 4. So the multiplier rule never kicked in by this point.

Here is the interesting thing: The average prize is 3.17 times the bet amount! (shut up Wiz!).

I thought maybe the game is gaffed to open the higher prizes, leaving the lower ones. However, based on a sampling of 15 games, this wasn't the case. Here is a count of the cases left open, based on a $1 bet, at the first opportunity that player had to open my case.

Prize	Count
$0.01	5
$0.02	5
$0.03	4
$0.04	3
$0.05	7
$0.10	4
$0.15	5
$0.20	5
$0.25	6
$0.30	8
$0.35	6
$0.40	8
$0.45	3
$0.50	8
$0.60	6
$0.70	5
$0.80	3
$0.90	6
$1.00	4
$1.50	7
$2.00	6
$3.00	10
$4.00	8
$5.00	8
$10.00	6
$50.00	6
Total	152

The average prize left open was $3.43, based on betting $1. Recall, the average of all possible prizes in a $1 game is $3.17, so my sampling exceeded expectations. With that huge $50 case, the variance is rather high. Also, my actual case held an average of $2.91.

So, if the player can average winning $3.17 for a $1 bet, that is a 217% player advantage!

A couple other points. If you notice the "balance" field of the game, it sometimes goes up and down for strange reasons, but generally seems to correct itself later. Also, twice, the game seemed to crash at the point it should have let me open my case with just a quick flash of a frame that said "game over."

That's enough for this post. The question for the poll is would you play Deal or No Deal Slingo (multiple answers allowed)?
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Have you played this for real money? If so, what are your results?

Quote: SOOPOO

Have you played this for real money? If so, what are your results?
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No. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to play at Draft Kings in Nevada.

Quote: Wizard

Quote: SOOPOO

Have you played this for real money? If so, what are your results?
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No. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to play at Draft Kings in Nevada.
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Unless something changed recently Nevadans can not bet on Draftkings for real money.

That game does not appear to be available on DraftKings PA.

There is a simplified version of this game at Draft Kings called Slingo Ante Up. It doesn't have random prizes in the suitcases and pays only based on the number of lines covered. It seems to have the same bug with the balance jumping up and down.

Quote: Mission146

That game does not appear to be available on DraftKings PA.
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I can't find it in DraftKings CT either.

Contrary to what I assumed, the player doesn't get to keep what is in his case unless it gets to a Banker offer. So, just because you open a case doesn't mean you get to keep what is in it.

Please enjoy my video on Slingo Deal or No Deal.


Direct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzR-g8ZWJ28

It looks fun, but I have to wonder how much action such a game would get. It certainly ignores the "explainable in 30 seconds" rule for gambling games. The TV tie in probably helps but it's a lot of work to learn what is essentially a glorified slot machine. Still, math punters will no doubt enjoy calculating the best moves.

Here is my new page on Slingo Deal or No Deal. I welcome all comments.

Quote: Wizard

Contrary to what I assumed, the player doesn't get to keep what is in his case unless it gets to a Banker offer. So, just because you open a case doesn't mean you get to keep what is in it.
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Yes, like any of the very many Slingo games, you get nothing unless you get a qualifying number of slingos (two to four slingos depending on the game and payoffs).

The game rules specifically say "In the main game based on best strategy the RTP is 95%." So, if you make any mistake in making the deal or placing the jokers, your return will be less. There are many versions of slingo available. The graphics on this version make it very hard to see the slingos. This makes it even easier to make big mistakes. I played the 'deal or no deal' game twice, and I never want to play it again. In a version like Slingo XXXtreme, it is very easy to see the slingos. These graphics suck.

Just to be clear about the bottom line. When you do qualify, the weighted value of the payoff is very high. With only 10 balls, you are very unlikely to qualify on any given game. If you are correct that the "The average prize is 3.17 times the bet amount!", then the weighted probability of qualifying is 0.95/3.17. Since the multipliers/weights go up to 20, the probability of qualifying must be about 1 in 3.5 games.

I have played Slingo deal or no deal for money in MI. It was fun!

Your video was good. You did make a strategy mistake toward the end by not opening the case in the top right corner.

Also, you said you spent $214.89 (or close to that) but the game didn’t count the last spin for $70+, so you lost more than you thought you had lost.

Overall, I thought the video was great.

played it a few dozen times on the demo. It appeared that the # of times you have to put in some extra money to even get a banker offer was very high. Also the spin feature can get quite expensive with bad variance (look at the case with 1 number remaining on the board). I don't think this is a broken game.