Why You Might want to Play a Multi-Game VP Machine

“Captain Jack” asked this question recently in the “Comments” here:

“My memory wants to recall that some time ago one of your columns contained information relative to a chip or a setting on single game VP machines that were different depending on which machine you were playing – – a different setting if your machine played ONLY Bonus Poker or if your machine played ONLY DDB. You noted that on a multi-game machine the casino could only set one of the chips or settings you referred to and that one setting would apply to which ever VP game you chose to play on that machine. Do you recall the column and can you head me in the correct direction?”

I remembered the subject, knew I hadn’t written about it, but couldn’t remember who had.  Fortunately, when I posed this query on vpFREE, Bob Dancer answered:

This is something that I talk about in my Secrets of a Video Poker class (next held November 19, noon, at the South Point) that is similar to this. Perhaps that’s what inspired the note to Jean.

At many casinos, casinos can set the “theoretical” on games — which is supposed to represent how much a typical player loses while playing the game. Casinos often use this theo to determine how many comps and other goodies you get.

On a standalone machine — such as only 8/5 Bonus — the casino can set the theo precisely. On multi-game machines, sometimes a casino has to use one theoretical setting for the entire group of games. Often they use some sort of average theo for the entire box.  Therefore if you’re playing the loosest game in the house, it’s often a good idea to play on a multi-game machine. You MIGHT get credit for more theoretical than if you played the same game on a stand-alone machine.

Someone who knows about the technicalities of this issue gave me some more of the details:   He says that the casino doesn’t “set the theoretical” like they do the maximum return for the machine.  They  determine the theo using their casino management software.  Most new management software can also track which game in most multigame machines is being played. He says, however, that many casinos are not utilizing this capability.