What Does Turning Off Power to Machines Do to Progressives?

With the closure of the casinos, was the power turned off to the slots and video poker machines to save money, and if so, does that reset the video poker progressives back to 4000 credits or will it just pickup where it left off?

We can't say whether or not the power to the gambling machines has been turned off. We assume it has, especially after seeing photos and videos of empty casinos and dark machines. But there are many different circumstances (which casino, which locations in a casino, how the machines are wired, cleaning work being done in the vicinity, etc.), so we're a little reticent to make a blanket statement about it.

However, the machines have an internal memory that archives the progressive amount without needing power.

Michael "Wizard of Odds" Shackleford tells us, "Once I was at Arizona Charlie's when the power went out for about 30 seconds due to a storm. When it came back on, all the machines powered up immediately and were ready to play."

He adds, "Someone on my forum with a casino connection posted that the casinos manually wrote down all the jackpot amounts before they turned off the machines before closing for the shutdown, just as a backup."

This latter statement seems to suggest that the power is turned off, which again makes sense, but would be quite difficult to confirm for all casinos everywhere.

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Dave in Seattle. May-09-2020

Slot Power.

My machine went DARK in Reno. Waited 1/2 hour and it was back to normal!No problem.

Annie May-09-2020

Risk v. reward in the age of the coronavirus

Another interesting question: Assuming the progressives are not set back does the jackpot make the possibility of dying or of permanent incapacity worth the risk? 

For our answer, we turned to Bob Hoofer, the top Sigma Derby handicapper and professional keno player who has written the best book we've seen on how to maximize the quality of one's limited time on Earth:

When the pay-off reaches $431,000 or more and the odds of contracting a fatal case of COVID-19 are .0017% or less, the odds shift in favor of playing the progressive, assuming you have a valid will before beginning play, because the tax consequences of dying intestate will result in a negative EV.

rokgpsman May-09-2020

Slot machine memory

Modern slot and video poker machines have a computer-style circuit board inside and it has a way of storing essential data you don't want to lose. Many of the newer slot and video poker machines have a special memory circuit called NVRAM (non-volatile memory) that stores the essential info such as how many credits a player has, the progressive jackpot amount, etc. This kind of memory does not need a battery to retain its data. The machine detects when power is shutdown and when it comes back on it restores that essential info to the machine. On older machines this important data was kept in a special battery-powered memory. These batteries can last for a few years, but as they age they get weaker, so unless you replace the battery on a regular basis you wouldn't know how old it is in any given machine. During a prolonged shutdown the battery could go bad and the machine could lose that jackpot info. That's why some casinos take the precaution of writing down the jackpot levels.

Question of the Day - 09 May 2020

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