Was there ever reality in this slot machine myth?

There was once a time when machines where due to hit. If the machines where holding too much the machine would adjust itself to meet the required hold. I was told this from a slot manager in South Carolina. The machines in question where from the early 90s and are not found in any legit casino these days.

Quote: FleaStiff

They may be the lowest paying machines in town but that does not mean that lightning will not strike there.

I told ya my wife won $1200 at the airport
slots a couple years ago. Took her about an
hour to lose it when we got to the hotel.

The old mechanical machines had "jackpot" bins and the expectation would depend on how full the bin was. If someone had just hit a jackpot the machine would be relatively unattractive unless the owner refilled it. Later models had two jackpot bins so that at least one would be full most of the time. A machine would not be "due" on the basis of past plays but only on the basis of how many coins were in the jackpot bin.

I just gotta add my two cents, not to beat a dead horse or anything of the like...

But... The law of large numbers is the only thing that half way guarantees a jackpot is due... I mean...

1 in 40,000 hands is the odd on a royal roughly if you play properly. That being said... A machine could STILL go years without hitting a royal. I don't disute that.


However... Look at a progressive video poker machine... The nickel ones I played would increment 1 cent per 5 hands. I would figure out how many hands since last royal. See... The more hands that go by without it hitting, the worse the odds are that it can go much longer. I would simply sit and play the high progressives til I got the royals... Longest I spent was 18 hours for a $800 progressive. The shortest I spent was 3 hours for a $520 progressive. But I had never seen any of the jackpot meters hit $1,000, which with a reset at $205, that would have been what... Half a million hands to not hit a royal to get that high?

So, the longer you play, the more hands played, the more likely you are to hit it. It is a kind of paraodox I think... The RNG doesn't have any memory of last or future hands in regard to outcome, but if you look at the coin toss... If you flip a coin enough times, eventually you will have exactly 50% heads and 50% tails. The coin has no memory, but odds and probabilities have a way of balancing themselves out.

Quote: Goldbaron357

However... Look at a progressive video poker machine... The nickel ones I played would increment 1 cent per 5 hands. I would figure out how many hands since last royal. See... The more hands that go by without it hitting, the worse the odds are that it can go much longer. I would simply sit and play the high progressives til I got the royals... Longest I spent was 18 hours for a $800 progressive. The shortest I spent was 3 hours for a $520 progressive. But I had never seen any of the jackpot meters hit $1,000, which with a reset at $205, that would have been what... Half a million hands to not hit a royal to get that high?

No. The odds of hitting the royal are the same whether the jackpot is at $250 or $1000.

Quote:

So, the longer you play, the more hands played, the more likely you are to hit it. It is a kind of paraodox I think... The RNG doesn't have any memory of last or future hands in regard to outcome, but if you look at the coin toss... If you flip a coin enough times, eventually you will have exactly 50% heads and 50% tails. The coin has no memory, but odds and probabilities have a way of balancing themselves out.

Also, no. The odds are the same for the person who first sits down and the person who has been playing for 18 hours. The law of large numbers says the distributions will converge on 50/50, but it will never be exactly 50/50.

On one progressive at my casino a lot of the dealers insist it hits when it reaches the 8,000 range. It is a nickel machine but you have to play max coin ($2.25) to be eligable for the jackpot. The machines are dead when the progressive is low but when it is up high you can't find a seat. Don't know.

Quote: statman

The old mechanical machines had "jackpot" bins and the expectation would depend on how full the bin was. If someone had just hit a jackpot the machine would be relatively unattractive unless the owner refilled it. Later models had two jackpot bins so that at least one would be full most of the time. A machine would not be "due" on the basis of past plays but only on the basis of how many coins were in the jackpot bin.

That sounds like an urban legend.

Quote: winmonkeyspit3

On one progressive at my casino a lot of the dealers insist it hits when it reaches the 8,000 range. It is a nickel machine but you have to play max coin ($2.25) to be eligable for the jackpot. The machines are dead when the progressive is low but when it is up high you can't find a seat. Don't know.

So the machines hit a royal more often when more people play them? That's what it sounds like to me. It makes perfect sense, too.

I used to have a collection of old, mechanical, what are considered to be "antique" slot machines that worked with wheels and pullies. I often had to repair them myself.

There was no mechanism to trigger a scheduled win.

If the jackpot bin or holder got too full, there was an overflow bin at the bottom of the machine that would be emptied by the slot attendants (me, in my living room).

there were particular rows of quarters for payoffs for cherries or bells, etc. When the wheels chose the jackpot symbols the jackpot door would open and the jackpot would vary with the amount of play since the previous jackpot. If not jackpot hit in a long time, the quarters dropped into the overflow.

Well, thats how it was in these mechanical machines including my golden nuggets with the two nude gold ladies mounted on either side of the machine.

By the way, when the neighborhood kids came over with my step-son to play, I had to open the machine and push the wheels around to get a payoff to return their money. But they never told me when they "hit" and took my money. I think my living room was the first slot house that had a losing record for the house.