Newer slots will require you to know a bit about computer circuitry, but the classics just need a screwdriver, wrench and a magic touch. (OK, you probably need more tools than that.) Watch the videos below to understand how the slot machines work and what’s required for common repairs. How do slot machines work? Return vs payback. There is no such thing as a ‘loose’ or ‘tight’ slot machine. In modern casinos, slot machines are programmed to deliver a precise return percentage, somewhere around 95 per cent. That means 95 per cent of the money that goes into a slot machine is paid back out to the players and the casino.
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Slot machines are an extremely popular form of gambling. The premise is simple: you insert a coin, pull a lever, and reap in cash rewards if the symbols on the reels align in a certain way. Slot machines test your luck and intuition, and, despite the simple rules, they are not boring in the slightest.
Slot machines use catchy music, fun graphics, and interesting symbols to hold the player’s attention. But how slot machines work? What are they made of and how do they determine when to pay out and when to disappoint the not-so-lucky players?
This article uses advanced terminology. If you are new to slots, you may want to check out our complete glossary of slot game features.
The Anatomy of a Slot Machine
So how do slots work? In order to find that out, you’ll need to go through video slot parts. When playing a land-based slot machine, you will see the following components:
Coin Slot/Bill Slot
This is where you put your money into the machine. You can also insert a cashed-out ticket into a slot machine and spend your winnings on additional spins.
Reels
Slot machines usually feature three or five reels, but you can occasionally come across machines with as many as ten reels! Reels are the spinning mechanisms that make the vertical positions on a slot grid rotate. Each reel has a certain number of “steps” where it could stop, and each step either contains a symbol or is blank. A typical slot machine contains about 20 stops on each reel, but this can vary.
Lever
In older slot machines, the lever would actually set the reels in motion. In modern slot machines, however, the lever just triggers the casino game’s software, which, in turn, makes the reels spin.
Play buttons
Slot machines may feature several different buttons. The most common include “Spin Reels”, “Play One Credit”, “Play Two Credits”, “Bet Max Credits”, “Cash Out”, and “Request Change.”
Coin Tray
In the past, once you would hit the “Cash Out” button, your coins would cascade out of the machine and pool in the coin tray. Now, however, it is now more common for the machine to print you a cashout voucher. These are redeemable at a redemption machine or at the cashier’s cage. Alternatively, you can insert it into another slot machine (usually through the bill slot) and go for some more spins.
Payline
The payline is the horizontal line that you can see in the center of a slot machine’s screen. In order to land a winning combination, the symbols must align on an active payline. The number of paylines available can vary from game to game, but you can only win payouts on the paylines that you place a bet on.
If there are ten paylines available, and you only bet on two of them, you can only reap those two payline’s rewards. Some machines require users to pay one credit for each payline that they would like to activate. Other machines may require multiple coins to activate a single payline.
Some slot games allow players to adjust the payline’s direction, while others are fixed. Paylines can run left-to-right or take on a zig-zag shape.
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If you’re also interested in how all of these parts come together, make sure to watch this How It’s Made feature on casino slot machines:
Pay Table
A slot machine’s pay table will display all of the game’s winning combos and corresponding payouts. It will also display any special bonus, wild, or scatter symbols. Furthermore, the pay table will show the game’s current jackpot and indicate whether or not the machine is progressive. You should always check out a slot game’s pay table to educate yourself on all possible wins, payline configurations, payout odds, and information for bonus events.
Displays
Every slot machine will clearly display the basic information relevant to its users. Some common displays include:
- Credits played. This display shows the exact number of credits that the player is betting on each spin.
- Credits. This will show the player how many remaining credits they have. When the display reaches 0, the player must deposit additional coins through the coin slot in order to keep playing. Keep in mind. each credit will align with the denomination the game requires. If a player is using a 25-cent machine and inserts a $10 bill, the display will show that the player has 40 credits available.
- Insert Coin. This display shows that the slot machine is not currently activated. Anybody simply has to insert bills or coins into the machine to begin playing.
- Winner Paid. This will show how many credits were won on the previous spin, which would be added to the player’s total on the Credits display.
- Error Code. This display will only activate if a slot machine is malfunctioning. It will show a code that assists a staff member in identifying the problem.
Feel free to also watch a video guide on how a casino slot machine works below:
Types of Slot Machines
There are many different kinds of slot machines, some of which can be difficult to find. Here are some types of slots that you might come across and a short guide on how they operate.
Single-Coin Machines
These used to be very popular but are now much harder to find since most slots now accept dollar bills or require multiple coins per spin. Because these machines only accept one coin per spin, the house does not rake in as much revenue during a period of time as it would when using a multi-coin machine.
However, some old-fashioned casinos still use these types of machines. If you want a more classic gaming experience, and you want your credits to last for more spins, try out a single-coin machine.
Multipliers
Not to be confused with Multiplier symbols, a multiplier machine takes multiple coins and has a payout ratio that corresponds with the number of coins that a player uses on a spin. This type of machine was introduced in 1987 and is now the most popular type of slot machine found in modern casinos.
Multiplier machines still allow players to partake in single-coin play, but often players will choose to make the maximum bet.
Buy-Your-Pay Machines
Buy-Your-Pay machines allow players to bet between 1-5 coins on each spin. The number of coins inserted is what determines the game’s number of activated winning combos. For instance, if a player inserts only one coin, 3 “bars” would be a winning combo, but not 3 cherries. On the other hand, if they insert more coins, then both combos would be considered winning ones.
You can identify this type of machine by taking a look at the pay table. If it shows that more coins unlock extra winning combos, then you know it is a Buy-Your-Pay machine.
This kind of machine is not as common as multiplier machines. Many players avoid using them because it can be frustrating when they are just one coin shy of cashing out a great combo.
Multiple Payline Machines
Most slot machines only have one payline, which is in the middle of the game’s screen. On the other hand, a multiple payline machine has more than one active payline, as its name implies. This gives players a more exciting experience and offers more win potential.
However, players will typically need to pay an additional credit to activate each payline. When a payline is activated, it will light up.
Land-based casinos’ multiple payline machines typically offer 2-5 paylines, but sometimes more. On the other hand, online machines could have 50+ paylines!
Progressive Machines
Progressive machines are linked together by one jackpot, which can grow to gigantic proportions since it grows anytime a player inserts a coin into one of the network’s machines. When a player finally hits the jackpot symbol combination, the pool will reset. Some US gambling venues have linked together slot machines across entire states! Over the years, this type of slot machine has become very popular, since everybody wants to try their hand at winning a jackpot that would make them a millionaire.
Progressive jackpot slots have become especially popular in online casinos, and slots across various websites can be linked, as long as they use the same software platform.
Big Berthas
A Big Bertha slot machine simply refers to a machine that is gigantic and features 3+ reels. Some even feature as many as 8 reels, and each reel has 20 symbols! These machines are typically located near the entrance of a casino, to draw in attention. However, they don’t offer a great payout percentage.
Multi-Game Machines
A multi-game slot machine allows the player to switch between various games without having to sit at a different machine. For example, one multi-game machine might offer slots, blackjack, and video poker. In addition to this, multi-game machines will usually support many different currency denominations.
Other Useful Terms to Know
Hit Frequency
Hit frequency refers to how often a winning combination will land on the reels. If a machine has a high hit frequency, this means that winning combos will land more often. Machines that hit often don’t have a great payback percentage. Conversely, slot machines that have a low hit frequency will usually have a pretty significant payout rate.
Payback Rate
The payback rate, also known as payback percentage, refers to the amount of money that gamblers win, compared to how much they wager. Slot machines’ payback rates typically fall between 82% to 98%.
RNG
Each slot machine has a built-in Random Number Generator (RNG), which is an algorithm that ensures that each landing symbol is totally random and is not dependent on a player’s previous spin.
Now that you know all the details about slot machines, come try out some virtual ones at CasinoChan!
The gaming industry is big business in the U.S., contributing an estimated US$240 billion to the economy each year, while generating $38 billion in tax revenues and supporting 17 million jobs.
What people may not realize is that slot machines, video poker machines and other electronic gaming devices make up the bulk of all that economic activity. At casinos in Iowa and South Dakota, for example, such devices have contributed up to 89 percent of annual gaming revenue.
Spinning-reel slots in particular are profit juggernauts for most casinos, outperforming table games like blackjack, video poker machines and other forms of gambling.
What about slot machines makes them such reliable money makers? In part, it has something to do with casinos’ ability to hide their true price from even the savviest of gamblers.
The price of a slot
An important economic theory holds that when the price of something goes up, demand for it tends to fall.
But that depends on price transparency, which exists for most of the day-to-day purchases we make. That is, other than visits to the doctor’s office and possibly the auto mechanic, we know the price of most products and services before we decide to pay for them.
Slots may be even worse than the doctor’s office, in that most of us will never know the true price of our wagers. Which means the law of supply and demand breaks down.
Casino operators usually think of price in terms of what is known as the average or expected house advantage on each bet placed by players. Basically, it’s the long-term edge that is built into the game. For an individual player, his or her limited interaction with the game will result in a “price” that looks a lot different.
For example, consider a game with a 10 percent house advantage – which is fairly typical. This means that over the long run, the game will return 10 percent of all wagers it accepts to the casino that owns it. So if it accepts $1 million in wagers over 2 million spins, it would be expected to pay out $900,000, resulting in a casino gain of $100,000. Thus from the management’s perspective, the “price” it charges is the 10 percent it expects to collect from gamblers over time.
Individual players, however, will likely define price as the cost of the spin. For example, if a player bets $1, spins the reels and receives no payout, that’ll be the price – not 10 cents.
So who is correct? Both, in a way. While the game has certainly collected $1 from the player, management knows that eventually 90 cents of that will be dispensed to other players.
A player could never know this, however, given he will only be playing for an hour or two, during which he may hope a large payout will make up for his many losses and then some. And at this rate of play it could take years of playing a single slot machine for the casino’s long-term advantage to become evident.
Short-term vs. long-term
This difference in price perspective is rooted in the gap between the short-term view of the players and the long-term view of management. This is one of the lessons I’ve learned in my more than three decades in the gambling industry analyzing the performance of casino games and as a researcher studying them.
Let’s consider George, who just got his paycheck and heads to the casino with $80 to spend over an hour on a Tuesday night. There are basically three outcomes: He loses everything, hits a considerable jackpot and wins big, or makes or loses a little but manages to walk away before the odds turn decidedly against him.
Of course, the first outcome is far more common than the other two – it has to be for the casino to maintain its house advantage. The funds to pay big jackpots come from frequent losers (who get wiped out). Without all these losers, there can be no big winners – which is why so many people play in the first place.
Specifically, the sum of all the individual losses is used to fund the big jackpots. Therefore, to provide enticing jackpots, many players must lose all of their Tuesday night bankroll.
What is less obvious to many is that the long-term experience rarely occurs at the player level. That is, players rarely lose their $80 in a uniform manner (that is, a rate of 10 percent per spin). If this were the typical slot experience, it would be predictably disappointing. But it would make it very easy for a player to identify the price he’s paying.
Raising the price
Ultimately, the casino is selling excitement, which is comprised of hope and variance. Even though a slot may have a modest house advantage from management’s perspective, such as 4 percent, it can and often does win all of George’s Tuesday night bankroll in short order.
This is primarily due to the variance in the slot machine’s pay table – which lists all the winning symbol combinations and the number of credits awarded for each one. While the pay table is visible to the player, the probability of producing each winning symbol combination remains hidden. Of course, these probabilities are a critical determinant of the house advantage – that is, the long-term price of the wager.
This rare ability to hide the price of a good or service offers an opportunity for casino management to raise the price without notifying the players – if they can get away with it.
Casino managers are under tremendous pressure to maximize their all-important slot revenue, but they do not want to kill the golden goose by raising the “price” too much. If players are able to detect these concealed price increases simply by playing the games, then they may choose to play at another casino.
This terrifies casino operators, as it is difficult and expensive to recover from perceptions of a high-priced slot product.
Getting away with it
Consequently, many operators resist increasing the house advantages of their slot machines, believing that players can detect these price shocks.
Our new research, however, has found that increases in the casino advantage have produced significant gains in revenue with no signs of detection even by savvy players. In multiple comparisons of two otherwise identical reel games, the high-priced games produced significantly greater revenue for the casino. These findings were confirmed in a second study.
Further analysis revealed no evidence of play migration from the high-priced games, despite the fact their low-priced counterparts were located a mere 3 feet away.
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Importantly, these results occurred in spite of the egregious economic disincentive to play the high-priced games. That is, the visible pay tables were identical on both the high- and low-priced games, within each of the two-game pairings. The only difference was the concealed probabilities of each payout.
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Armed with this knowledge, management may be more willing to increase prices. And for price-sensitive gamblers, reel slot machines may become something to avoid.