slot operations claims

A fellow in the Las Vegas sun named SmarterThanYou makes the following claims:

(1) The casino properties the one I work for sets the machine payouts to a single fixed percentage across the board. That means all machines are set to, for example, 94% return-to-player. Its just easier to set all of them to payout at a single fixed percentage. Is this true?

(2) Oh and if everyone was wondering, the machines are tightened up to a very low 83-86% RTP during big events in town such as NASCAR, rodeo, and large conventions. They are loosened back up to 90%+ after the event. All casinos do this, not just us. Is this true?

I was told by a pit boss, that he no longer required that someone from the NGCB be physically present when he changes the EPROM chip for his machines.He just fills out paperwork. The physical work takes a few minutes, but the accounting takes longer. It is unlikely that he would change the entire floor for a big weekend.

Also, since many machines are video poker, or simulation of roulette games, many of them are governed by pay tables. It doesn't seem logical that people would regularly change pay tables of video poker. Am I wrong?

Quote: pacomartin

A fellow in the Las Vegas sun named SmarterThanYou makes the following claims:

(1) The casino properties the one I work for sets the machine payouts to a single fixed percentage across the board. That means all machines are set to, for example, 94% return-to-player. Its just easier to set all of them to payout at a single fixed percentage. Is this true?

It's certainly possible, but I very much doubt its true. We only have a far smaller percentage of machines, but all ours are set to different payouts. I dont see how it is any easier or more difficult to have different percentage payouts.

Quote:

(2) Oh and if everyone was wondering, the machines are tightened up to a very low 83-86% RTP during big events in town such as NASCAR, rodeo, and large conventions. They are loosened back up to 90%+ after the event. All casinos do this, not just us. Is this true?

Again possible but I doubt its true, for the reasons you point out below.

Quote:

I was told by a pit boss, that he no longer required that someone from the NGCB be physically present when he changes the EPROM chip for his machines.He just fills out paperwork. The physical work takes a few minutes, but the accounting takes longer. It is unlikely that he would change the entire floor for a big weekend.

I think this is covered by a link I posted in another thread regarding the Steve Bourie article.

EDIT - It is also answered in this video at around 6:22.

Quote:

Also, since many machines are video poker, or simulation of roulette games, many of them are governed by pay tables. It doesn't seem logical that people would regularly change pay tables of video poker. Am I wrong?

I dont think you are wrong in this one.

Quote: pacomartin

(1) The casino properties the one I work for sets the machine payouts to a single fixed percentage across the board. That means all machines are set to, for example, 94% return-to-player. Its just easier to set all of them to payout at a single fixed percentage. Is this true?

I don't know what every slot manager is doing, but this doesn't sound likely or good business. Sure, it would be easy to tell the slot manager, just set everything to 94%, but you would lucrative high-end play, where players expect looser machines. Also, the slot managers don't have a choice with "participation slots," which are set to about 88%.

Quote: pacomartin

(2) Oh and if everyone was wondering, the machines are tightened up to a very low 83-86% RTP during big events in town such as NASCAR, rodeo, and large conventions. They are loosened back up to 90%+ after the event. All casinos do this, not just us. Is this true?

That would be very time consuming to open up each machine and change the return, not to mention filling out paperwork for the Gaming Control Board for each machine. I highly doubt that is happening.

Quote: pacomartin

I was told by a pit boss, that he no longer required that someone from the NGCB be physically present when he changes the EPROM chip for his machines.He just fills out paperwork. The physical work takes a few minutes, but the accounting takes longer. It is unlikely that he would change the entire floor for a big weekend.

That is true. It is my understanding they just have to fax in a form to Gaming for each machine changed.

Quote: pacomartin

Also, since many machines are video poker, or simulation of roulette games, many of them are governed by pay tables. It doesn't seem logical that people would regularly change pay tables of video poker. Am I wrong?

Good point. You don't see video paytables going up and down like yo-yos, depending on what big event is going on in town.

It is certainly possible to design the machines so that the pay table and/or PARS sheet could be changed remotely with ease. There is no need to design the machine to require that an EPROM swap be required to do this.

If they really wanted to, the machines could be designed so that someone sitting at a PC somewhere could, in a matter of seconds, change the return at this slot bank to x%, that slot bank to x%, this machine to z%, etc.


HOWEVER: Laws and/or Commission regulations may prevent a machine from being designed in that manner, just to prevent a casino from changing the machines on a whim as is suggested.

With server based machines, someone does have that ability now. So in future it could be something that might happen.

Quote: Croupier

With server based machines, someone does have that ability now. So in future it could be something that might happen.

That is true. I hear that some machines at Treasure Island are server based, and all of them at Aria. There are some rules, like the machine must be unplayed for x minutes for the slot manager to change the return. I'm not sure what x is, but I think something like 30. I predict more casinos to go that way in the future.

I didnt think it was as long as 30 minutes. In a LV Sun article it says its only 4 minutes. it also says in the article about the machines at TI.

for anyone interested in the workings of Server based slots I found this presentation on the Gaming Control Board site.

Quote: Croupier

I didnt think it was as long as 30 minutes. In a LV Sun article it says its only 4 minutes.

Not even long enough to get to the bathroom and back.

It may be convenient, but everything that advertises to people that are superstitious about the casinos already somehow rigging the machines at their whim aren't reassured by these kind of improvements to casino workings.

There are plenty of casino customers out there like this. (they're are among the ones touching symbols on the screen and other forms of magic ways to bring them luck)

I would think these are people casinos really like too.

At the Wynn a couple of weeks back they kicked me off the Double Bonus game. When I returned the next morning they had flipped the Double Bonus game (.25) from 5-6-9 to 4-6-9. It was a progressive and the JP for the Royal was up to 1,200. They said it would take 3-4 hours to complete the bank of 8 machines.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

It is certainly possible to design the machines so that the pay table and/or PARS sheet could be changed remotely with ease. There is no need to design the machine to require that an EPROM swap be required to do this.

In general EPROM technology is considered archaic. It exists in slot machines precisely because of regulations. Personally I think that if the casinos are smart they will use server technology as a marketing tool. I envision a day when everyone machine that has been in continuous play for 15 minutes is eligible for a random pick. The lucky machine will run at 100% for the next 15 minutes (with suitable lights to alert the player).

The motivation will increase to stay on a machine for 15 minutes to be eligible for the draw, and then to stay on for another 15 minutes to play at the high return.

I got this idea from Pachinko machines where they set a ringer in the house to pay back at some high return (120%-150%). But with a pre-set people often figure out what machine is the ringer, and fights break out for access to the machine. I figure with a server you could select only from machines that are already being played, and then control the time limit so only that player is eligible.

It would change the public perception of server technology. It would be a way to dispense awards. Right now people are fixated on the fear that it will be used as a technology to punish people.

Of all the ways to re-configure to 100% the easiest would be to raise the jackpot to some huge amount so that the return is at 100%. It would be the most eye-catching move. However, if you only re-configure for 15 minutes, the probability of hitting the jackpot still remains very low.