The way casinos make money is through the house edge – every game on a casino floor is mathematically constructed to, over time, generate income for the casino. Some players will win, some players will lose, but in the end the house always gets paid.
How important is it to keep a close eye on it?
Since RTP (return to player) in slots is for the life of the machine. Can the casinos monitor the machines on the floor what RTP is? If not, then when they remove the machine from the floor, can they check it then to see what status the RTP is at? Kirk M.
Calculating the percentage a machine has paid back is pretty simple, because the machine tracks its coin-in and coin-out. Casinos are able to get reporting on that anytime.
There’s practical considerations why this is important for them to review – occasionally there’s an issue, such as a machine is configured incorrectly, and it’s having an impact on the slot’s overall payback. On occasion, there’s even a bug that can be discovered that can yield to a machine needing to be taken off the floor temporarily.
So yes, they can review it, and they know how it’s trending. The machine will also share the data in the internal tracking when casinos enter the settings menus. It will both share what the setting is at, and what the machine has done in actuality.
While they can monitor it, and do, most of the time they don’t mess with it. If a machine is ahead of the expected average, that’s generally a short term phenomenon and course corrects over time, barring there’s not a mistake or a bug. Casinos might want to verify everything is as it should be if a machine stays outside an expected range for long enough.
But for the most part, whether above or below, the more spins a machine completes, and the more money that is wagered through a machine, the closer to the setting that was chosen it will reach.
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