Slot bonus games - payout and frequency hit

I've been an avid player of top dollar, pinball and wheel of fortune for nearly 10 years.

For whatever reason i like the idea of still having a shot of winning something after missing on the first reel.

My hypothesis is that while hitting the bonus game is random, the payout of the bonus game is partially dependent on what the slot has taken in since the bonus game was last activated (could be gross or net intake, no hypothesis here).

Almost to a science it seems that when the bonus games are hitting, they are hitting for next to nothing (take the wheel for example - 20, 25 credits a pop).

However, it seems that when you go an extended period of time before hitting the next bonus game, it tends to payout better.

The reason i am interested is that if this was the case, it would suggest that if you've dumped a decent amount of money into one of these without activating the bonus game, you may be better off staying until you hit it (as opposed to moving to a similar machine), given the likelihood of an increased payout on the bonus game.

Has anyone experienced anything similar and/or care to weigh in on whether or not there may be some merit to this?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Quote: Thenerv25

Has anyone experienced anything similar and/or care to weigh in on whether or not there may be some merit to this?

There's no merit to this.

Quote: Thenerv25

I've been an avid player of top dollar, pinball and wheel of fortune for nearly 10 years.

For whatever reason i like the idea of still having a shot of winning something after missing on the first reel.

My hypothesis is that while hitting the bonus game is random, the payout of the bonus game is partially dependent on what the slot has taken in since the bonus game was last activated (could be gross or net intake, no hypothesis here).

Almost to a science it seems that when the bonus games are hitting, they are hitting for next to nothing (take the wheel for example - 20, 25 credits a pop).

However, it seems that when you go an extended period of time before hitting the next bonus game, it tends to payout better.

The reason i am interested is that if this was the case, it would suggest that if you've dumped a decent amount of money into one of these without activating the bonus game, you may be better off staying until you hit it (as opposed to moving to a similar machine), given the likelihood of an increased payout on the bonus game.

Has anyone experienced anything similar and/or care to weigh in on whether or not there may be some merit to this?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I play those same games, and I have had that strong impression myself. However, I think it's mostly due to my brain's trying to make patterns out of random events, rather than a validation of your hypothesis.

In Nevada and many other states, what you describe is illegal.

In the UK, yes, they're called compensating games. There was a discussion on those games here a while ago.

The only other games I can think of that work that way are the ones with lots of small progressives. There you can see the value of the meter and obviously the longer it goes between hits the more it pays. Otherwise, I'm not familiar with any games in the US changing the payouts in bonus features but not advertising that fact. That'd be something you'd want to publicize, not keep secret. Certainly no game I've ever seen or worked on had a non-progressive but still increasing pay in a bonus round based on how long it'd been since the last trigger.

Thanks for the replies, good info!