I don’t write about slot machines much since I rarely play them, instead sticking to video poker. However, I recently read an excellent article by John Grochowski on the Web site CasinoTimesCity, http://scoblete.casinocitytimes.com/. “Slot Machines Where Skill Counts” gave some interesting information for slot players and here are some excerpts:
“A tiny percentage of slots incorporate elements of skill. In International Game Technology’s Reel Edge games — Centipede, Blood Life Legends, and Tully’s Treasure Hunt — along with GTECH’s Zuma and Bejeweled, a skilled player will receive larger average returns on the bonus events than an unskilled player.”
But then he discusses a group of what I call “fooler slots.”
“Some call them “perceived skill” games, while others say “illusion of skill” or “skill-like games.” The idea is that players feel like their skill makes a difference, and that keeps them engaged with the game. However, their final bonus award is determined by a random number generator.”
He gives the example of SkeeBall. Skill in playing does play a temporary role.
“You could bank the ball off the sides, roll it straight or at an angle, and your velocity mattered. But there’s a twist. The points earn you virtual tickets, just as you’d receive tickets from an arcade game. When the Skee Ball round is over, you go to a ticket redemption counter that shows small, medium and large prizes. You touch the screen to select prizes, and the prizes reveal your bonus credits. The values behind the prizes are determined by a random number generator. Even a small number of points can bring big credit awards, and a large number of points can bring small ones. Your skill level affects the number of points and tickets you accumulate, but not your final credit award.”
Other “perceived skill” games he talks about are MoneyBall and Hot Roll. In both “it all feels like you’re in control…but the skill is just a perception.” Whatever you do “doesn’t determine your result. A random number generator does.”
I have never played any of the above games, but I occasionally have cheated on my beloved video poker for a short time, when we have family or friends in town, and had a short torrid affair with the popular fishing games. John explains why these slots are so alluring:
“Paradise Fishing and Amazon Fishing give players the feeling they’re doing some serious angling with the rod-shaped controller. You can feel the virtual fish strike and tug, and it feels like real skill when you land a big one, or one gets away. But as much as you use the controller to raise and lower your worm to position it in front of the biggest fish, it’s a random number generator that determines which fish you’ll catch, which will tug off the line and which will simply pass you by.”
I know that – and so does my family and friends because I tell them that in advance. But that doesn’t keep us from whooping it up when those fish start swimming by. The competition juices start flowing – and jamming on that controller is an uncontrollable urge. No, we don’t always win any money, but we always have fun. That’s the goal of purely recreational gambling!
Sigh…I wish there was a community video poker game that was this much fun and had even just a small positive expectation.
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Go to John Grochowski’s site, http://casinoanswerman.blogspot.com/, which is just full of good information about slots, video poker, and other gambling topics. You will find answers to many of your questions, and you can trust that the advice is sound and the information is mathematically correct.
There was a couple of machines like this years ago. The first one was a machine that was like a “dog” playing Candy Land in the bonus game. I was playing it one night and got the bonus game just as a change girl was walking by. She said that she loved watching the bonus game on this machine. The only thing was that if you got a regular win at the same time as you received the bonus, you would see the total payout before it flipped to the second screen. I told her that I was only going to win 90 credits on the bonus. It blew her mind that that was the exact win I received.
The second machine was a “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” game. It gave you trivia questions you had to answer and if you got it right, you got paid a bigger bonus. It got to the point that I knew almost all the answers because I liked just watching the game. I remember I was at the casino one night and a lady was stuck on a question. I told her the right answer. Other players heard me and they all started asking me the answers to their questions. The original lady that I helped told me that she had a dream that she was going to win money at the casino and took her rings to the pawn shop to get money to gamble. With my help she walked away that night a thousand dollar winner. She tried to give me some money but I wouldn’t take it.
Thousands of people have hit the lottery. The lottery is still a sucker bet. If you are one person and your dog or husband or babysitter or yourself happens to hit a jackpot, that’s very nice, but it doesn’t prove anything one way or the other. People ALWAYS grossly overemphasize their own experiences when estimating how good or bad a game–or any other experience–is. A person may get lucky and hit a couple of jackpots and then she’ll conclude–wrongly–that that game or casino or her lucky sheep’s bladder that she has tied around her neck at all times is magical and can negate a huge house edge. Obviously, some people win at any game. That doesn’t make the game a winner, or any less foolish to play. I do realize that most people don’t understand math, especially as it applies to gambling. If people understood math, casinos would be empty.
I like the Centipede game but after three attempts, I am done eith that one.
I believe you said there wasn’t a real chance to win the $1000 and you are wrong. Besides my own experience, I watched my son-in-law hit the $1000 at 2 different casinos and both times he only put $20 in the bill receptor. That is LUCK! I also saw my mother hit it on her last trip to Vegas before her death and I will always remember how excited she was. Neither of these people spent a fortune to win.
By the same token I have watched my husband put hundreds in a VP machine and walk away empty handed. I have also seen him hit a royal on the deal. Once again, Luck.
I personally have won thousands on penny slots, but if I only looked at the percentages I wouldn’t even play them !
If you are of the mindset that the casinos are out to rob everybody, then you probably shouldn’t patronize them. I think that they are a business and you won’t be in business long if you do that! Since they are always packed ( at least when I go), they must have everybody but you fooled!
I didn’t say it was impossible to hit the 1,000 slot, only that it was far less likely to hit than the physical characteristics of the wheel suggested. And if you hit the 1,000 slot three times at the dollar denomination, based on a 90% return and the reported frequency of the 1,000 slot (this varies from casino to casino), you would have lost, on average, approximately $6,000 in the process. I already have lightened up, in fact, and I do enjoy life with the money I save not playing 90% return dollar slots. Keep playing, you may hit another $1,000! (Double sheesh!)
Must have been my imagination when the credit meter rang up $1000 on 3 different occasions. Equally odd is that the TITO also said $1000. I guess the cash I got at the cage was a mirage too! Sheesh! Lighten up and enjoy life!!!
This illusory effect is similar in execution to slots such as the very popular, and incredibly annoying, WHEEL!! OF!! FORTUNE!! game. The wheel, with “1000” and “500” occupying the same physical space as “25” and “30,” gives the illusion of being fair. But play the game for a little while (or better–watch someone else playing it), and it becomes apparent that the slots marked “50” and lower together have a greater chance of winning than all the others combined. Despite appearances, you have about as much chance of hitting the “1000” slot as you do of giving birth to a baby elephant. Also, the illusion is fostered by having the wheel cr-eeee-p ever…so…slowly toward the 1000 slot–and then, like a dying Pheidippides stumbling into the royal palace at Athens, drag itself past the 1000 slot and into the 25 slot. You never had any real chance of hitting the 1000 slot, but the machine’s manufacturers do their utmost to convince you otherwise. This is cheating, pure and simple. It’s one thing to assign different weights to different outcomes in an RNG. It’s quite another to put that wheel up there and imply that there is an equal chance of each outcome. Casino fraud and deception are everywhere, and nothing–but nothing–is the way it seems. You had a better chance of not being fleeced if you wandered into a gypsy camp in the 19th century.
And BTW, there is a significant skill component to EVERY slot machine. There always exists the opportunity to exercise one’s gaming skill by walking past the machine.