If we were able to crack the code of better paying machines, we’d all be sharing those secrets and playing them, right? If one player can spot it, surely others can, right?
Today’s post incorporates a few of those ideas, and our sharing why it’s likely we notice these things, but can reassure you it’s not a sign of better (or worse, for that matter) paying slots.
It seems when more people are playing a bank of the same game, it hits more often.
Nicole S.
Generally speaking, busier banks will have more bonuses and big wins because there’s more people playing, and that simply means more spins for something to happen.
If a single player is spinning in a bank of four machines, that’s only ¼ of the machines in action, and have the potential for something to occur. So naturally a busier bank will catch our attention because there’s just more going on.
When Dragon Link came out, Aristocrat told people that a bank of four is designed to have a bonus going an average of once a minute. That certainly gives credence to why a full bank will seem more active. Imagine if only one seat was full out of that four – that’d be only once every four minutes, and that’s an average, so the gaps can be wider.
Four games going at the same time reduces the risk of no bonuses occurring for a lengthy period, as if one machine is in a drought, another is potentially the opposite. It’s not impossible to have a long gap between bonuses within a full bank, just less likely.
I read a book years ago about placement of slot machines in casinos. The ones that have a higher chance of jackpots were where people would congregate. Restaurants, cashier cages and restrooms. Is this still the case?
Joshua W.
There was a book by a slot director touting some of these scenarios (which we believe you’re referencing here) that in hindsight overstated one person’s opinion as to what was the norm.
While there’s definitely a more aggressive slot director with hunches and ideas about these things, the corporate owned casinos tend to be pretty steady with their setup of machines and payouts, both within the four walls of an individual casino and between casinos. And increasingly, third party companies measuring slot performance are offering concrete and decisive decisions on how to set up machines to get the best performance.
More often, people will notice the wins where they’re congregated because that’s where they have downtime and are less engaged in the activity of gambling themselves. Seeing a jackpot at the cashier’s cage while you’re waiting in line will catch your attention more readily than when you’re playing and in a bonus yourself, for instance.
Of course, machines near busy areas will often be busy themselves because of the foot traffic, so linking in to the first part of busier banks seemingly being more lucky, the same scenario would be here as well.
Now, machine placement is an important aspect of this, and casinos could decide to use higher traffic areas to put new or more popular titles to ensure they’re seen, played and busy. So that could also put the thumb on the scale when this is an approach taken by that casino.
And remember, machines can be set to a higher payback in one spot than another, but that’s a long term target. An individual player’s bad run or jackpot is all within the realm of possibilities, and the game’s design itself (and things like volatility, bonus frequency, etc.) will have more to do with how often you see a player doing well than things like a 1-2% difference in overall payback.
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