If you haven’t been following us on Facebook or Instagram, you may have missed that we’re publishing multiple short form videos each week, sharing tips about casinos, slots and more.
One of our recent shorts was on whether casinos in Las Vegas can make changes while players are actively playing. Naturally this drove additional questions. Here are a few follow-ups!
So You Are Saying that They DO CHANGE your ODDS!!!
Terry R.
Nope. Just because regulations allow for it, we encourage players to use common sense.
How often do you see machines randomly go offline for up to a half hour, which is realistically how long it takes for a slot to be idle for that four minutes, reboot with new settings (which means going through a new set of security requirements and checks), and then sit idle for another four minutes?
To do this at all would require server side controls, a technology that never got off the ground. Most of those we have talked with on the topic indicate it’s still very unusual to find in casinos, and the casinos that have had it haven’t found it all that helpful.
So casinos tend to open up machines individually and change them, and they rarely will do that. Back to that common sense question: How long would it take a casino to open each slot one by one to change all the slots? That means they’re not changing it on weekends, for holidays, etc.
And we know thanks to IGT confirming they can’t change it based on players cards either. So rest assured, it’s not something to be worried about.
I thought the odds of winning were pre-discussed with the casino before the machine was put in. So you’re saying they can tighten and loosen a machine?
Sharon W.
In a previous era, the chip installed into a slot with the game would be with a preset payback percentage, and it would take ordering and installing a different chip to get a different payback percentage. Nowadays, most games have a half dozen or so options that can be selected from a menu, among other settings that modern computers allow casinos to configure on the floor,
So, they could change it if they wanted. In practice, they often don’t, but on occasion, they might, for reasons such as optimizing performance (finding that perfect balance between payback and coin-in). Fun fact: Sometimes casinos make more money by setting a slot to be at a better payback, because over time players will give it more play. Tightening slots isn’t always the path to the biggest profits!
As a slot tech, no one can remotely change odds on any machine 😂 🤣 😅 You have to call out the gaming commission to open the logic door and manually change the odds , the min setting is 87 % return to player ( RTP) up to 95 % (RTP) then lock the logic door and seal the door.
Joe B.
Remember that gaming regulations differ by market. We have certainly heard of these requirements in some states, but it’s not universal. Slots can absolutely go below 87 percent when designed to do so (although 85 percent is the most frequent floor nowadays). Nevada regulations allow slots to pay as little as 75 percent, and New Jersey 83 percent, for example.
So, if I see an employee go over to a machine, open it and/or put their card in and punch in some codes, does that mean changing the odds on the machine? If not, what are they doing? …assuming they aren’t just checking to be sure there’s enough paper in it to print tickets.
Teresa M.
Slot techs will open machines for a variety of reasons, most often because the machine gave it some sort of alert that they need to take a look at something. Changing the odds means going into the configuration of the machine and making changes.
Making payback changes is often not done without supervision, whether by the gaming commission (in markets like Joe works, above) or a supervisor, or often both – it is generally considered a pretty big deal and something that isn’t done randomly or lightly.
Any sort of malfunction, like a moment where the machine thought a door was open to issues like jammed paper or no paper, will tell the slot techs that something’s up, either via the candle lights on the top of the machine or increasingly via alerts that show up on their phones or iPads.
Like any modern computer equipment, keeping them up and running is important, amplified by the need for a secure setup in the case of slots that assure all that they’re operating as designed. So some alerts are set up to create assurance more so than anything specifically needing to be done.
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