Has anyone heard this about slot machines

Was recently talking with my cousin and he said that sometime in the 90's Vegas (or Nevada) passed a gaming regulation that allowed slot machines to count the money you first put into a machine as a "payout" and in turn, affecting the random number generator.

I had never heard that so I wanted to ask fellow lva'rs about this.

Think your cousin is mixing up two distinct and different concepts.

The random number generator is NOT effected in any way by the size of the bet. Be it one coin or 100 the concept is the same. A random number generator constantly is generating random numbers, usually many per second. When the gambler hits the spin function on a slot machine whatever number is "up" at that moment will be used to display the results. The spinning wheels or whatever are merely for show, the outcome has already been determined. There simply is no way for the random number generator to now alter the results based on coin in.

Now as to whether the money one puts in is counted in the result in slots, as in all games of chance, it depends on how the results are stated. For example the payout is 2 TO 1 or 2 FOR 1. In the first case you would win 2 coins PLUS get your original coin back meaning a total of 3 coins. In the second you would win 1 coin PLUS your original bet back meaning a total of 2 coins. So depending on which word is used, TO or FOR depends on how that "2" in the statement is defined!

Your cousin confused me too. lol

It took me a long time to even understand the concept of what he was saying which is at some point in the 90's legislation or gaming regulation made a change so that the machines were set to register that a payout (win) had been hit every time you put money into the machine, therefore affecting the percentage of the payout. If it was set to payout 95% then part of the payout percentage is counted when money is put into a machine thus lowering the actual number of payouts paid.

Anyone ever hear of this?

Once again the amount put in does not effect the random number generator.

When a casino buys or leases a machine from a company they request a certain percentage return. Now gambling laws in most states require a certain minimum. The company places the proper chip which is the random number generator.

If casino X requests a quarter wheel of fortune with a return of 90 percent that is the chip that is installed. The percentage returned, over time, is 90 percent of the money wagered. If a million dollars is put in over a year then the casino can expect 100K in profit. That is the way the machines are set.

The results reported by the Gaming Commision are just that. Percentage of total amount wagered that is returned to the gamblers.

marcr, I understand what you are saying about the rng. That was what I kept saying to my cousin. I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the concept that a machine would recognize money put into it as a payout.

Guess, at this point, lost. Is your cousin saying that when $1 is put into the slot machine the slot machine recognizes that as $1 paid out? It doesnt matter to the machine. Payouts reported are simple. It is a total of all money returned to the gambler. That is a pay out as recognized by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Money put in is not a pay out. If a machine is set for 90 percent it means that over time 90 percent of all money put in will be returned as a payout. Otherwise the payouts would always be well over 100 percent since all money put in would be a payout plus any money returned.

I mean if you put a dollar in and hit a winning symbol for say $3 the machine doesnt say "Well a dollar was put in and that is a pay out so I will return $2 in the tray".

I still think your cousin is confusing the TO and FOR. As I said originally the first returns your coin plus 2 on a 2 TO 1. On a 2 FOR 1 it returns your coin and one more. In that case one could say the machine "recognizes" a $1 was put in and that is part of the pay out but that is very totured logic.

Pretty much makes no sense. If such a think existing, it would be easy for smart people to scam the machine.

Example A) If it was programmed to pay more if you put in a large bill - $100, people would just put in large bills, and win more.

or

Example B) If programmed to pay out with small bills, people would just put in small bills.

Pretty simple stuff.

Bottom line - your cousin might have taken one fact and mixed it into another fact coming up with a fallacy.

Sandy83, the dollar amount of the money put in the machine didn't matter, it was the action of money going in to the machine that made it count "theoretically" as a payout. I had never heard this and it didn't make sense to me either, just wanted to see if anyone here was familiar with it.

Thanks for trying to make sense of it though. Marcr, I'll have to ask him if he was referring to the "to" and "for" payout language. I had only heard those terms for table games never thought about it applying to slots.

To calculate the percentage, it would have to put an amount into the calculation. The machines are set to payout a percentage of MONEY, not percentage of times played. Therefore the dollar amount would make a difference.

A machine could easily be programmed to payout 100% of the time, and still take the player to the cleaners. Meaning, you put in $100 and it pays out $50 and calls it a payout. Luckily it does not work that way.