A slot’s payouts are defined by its rules. But could the rules be changed?
Can they or could slots change how the pay line works? As an example, Huff ‘N Puff, can they change the 6 hats on a bonus change to 2 spins and not one?
Sharon
The design of a slot machine is complex – all of the rules (which are publicly declared on the pay table) are important because they each deliver a step towards achieving the overall payback of the slot machine. So a change would require a look at everything else as well.
This is why the pay tables are sacrosanct on machines, regardless of what payback setting – it ensures when a player sits down that the game’s rules are dependable. If they want to change the rules, it becomes a different game or a different version of a game – the addition of a wheel means Huff N’ More Puff vs. Huff N’ Puff, for instance.
As such, casinos don’t have any way of changing the rules, and even slot makers can’t do it without creating another version of the game that has to be tested and approved to appear on casino floors throughout the country – and this is why they’re very deliberate when making new versions of games or trying new directions for popular ones.
So if you see a game you know on the floor, the rules will also be what you know. This ensures players encounter a game they recognize and it works how they recognize. Slot makers are very careful with this, even when reintroducing old games with new graphics – ultimately they still play as you would expect.
So if you’re hoping they might change it to make some aspect better, like more spins on a retrigger, they’d have to change something else to balance it out, and that would effectively be a new game. That’s what you see on Huff N’ Even More Puff, where they’ve added another wheel and raised the bet to account for the new array of possible wins.
