Technology and cold hard cash are a scary combination for many people, and they come up with all sorts of ideas that technology is ruining the casino experience. Here’s one of the latest examples:
I do not trust the algo that AI uses to run the machines on its network. Its not just the RTP chips in the slots that control outcomes anymore. I think it has the effect of suppressing bonuses and by reducing house risk. Enough of you guys are starting to show this in your videos as now data sets are becoming easy to see on YT. Try to do 80-100 spins in a row at $5.00. It’s hard to do. Higher bets are easy. That should not happen.
Salvador C.
AI is the latest casino bogeyman, like server-based slots and players card systems, that players think are manipulating slot outcomes to allow the casino to win more. The only problem: This doesn’t exist.
Technology in casino spaces often moves at a snail’s pace. Regulations are hardened and specific, so evolving them to allow even basic new ideas can take awhile (although in Nevada, where a lot of this often originates, leadership is working to strike a better balance). Take Aristocrat and their NFL slots. You can choose which team you wish to play, and the game updates with pay table symbols that match the team’s brand.
One problem: Regulations didn’t allow for this, slowing down their path to launching NFL slots with customizable team moments. The new Monopoly Big Board Bucks slot they released recently benefitted from that hard work to get such an idea approved, and now you can pick a game piece and have various elements of the game reflect that game piece as well.
So when it comes to AI, it will be a slow and gradual process to see its effects in the gaming industry. At a recent event we learned that art is where many immediate benefits are being seen, not in the art that appears on the machines, but prototyping ideas and themes to get a jump start on determining a direction of the game, for instance.
Just like we confirmed with game manufacturers that players’ cards can’t interact with machines to control outcomes or payback percentages, neither can AI. Regulations don’t allow for this sort of manipulation, nor do game machine designs allow any sort of outside influence to reach in and control outcomes.
This is by design – imagine if a nefarious actor figured out how to get in and manipulate that. Imagine if a casino employee was able to design that their best friend or family member was a winner and you were not. The whole point of randomized outcomes within the machine, with no external influence, is to ensure fairness.
We remind players that if you’re reliant on a bogeyman to justify why you’re losing in a building where every single game is designed with the ability for the casino to make money off your play over time, this is probably not the right entertainment venue for you.
Finally, Brian films in a way that everything, from the good, to the bad, to the ugly, are shown on camera. We keep logs of the daily ins and outs of cash as part of our recordkeeping, and for every winning game or video there’s a losing one. Brian doesn’t leave content on the cutting room floor and endeavors to show the ups and the downs.
But selective memory is a thing, and there’s many players who tell us that Brian is always winning and incredibly lucky. (We actually think he’s somewhat unlucky, given his bet size and what his largest casino wins have been over time.) But there’s 10+ years of video all there to review. It is indeed on the record, and it isn’t because Brian’s betting bigger that he gets whatever bonus.
It is important to remember that higher denomination slots are often configured to a higher payback percentage over time, but there’s also a lot more in total being wagered when you’re spinning $25-50 a spin vs., say, $2.50-$5. So that 1-2% is meaningful in the long term, but doesn’t make bigger bettors drastically more likely to win or get a bonus.
Video on YouTube isn’t a reliable data set when not everyone posts all their play. And even with hours of recorded play, that’s still a small sample size when a game’s longer term payback expectation is reached in millions of spins (most players will do a few hundred spins an hour). But ultimately, if you don’t trust it, you probably shouldn’t play it – it’s the easiest way to avoid spending money that will frustrate you.
My favorite YouTube moment came a few weeks ago. An “expert” told of this new technology that enables the machine to read your fingerprint when you push a button. It then reads through databases to see if you’ve ever had a players club card. If you haven’t it assumes that you are a new bettor and lets you win a jackpot so you become hooked on gambling!
That explains why the players club desk now asks for a fingerprint along with my phone number and email…
Crazy