Friday, September 22, 2006
Game Technology and the Future of Slot Systems
It might not be news to gamblers who play online slots, but there are radical changes coming for the way casino slot machines work.
I play a lot of online slots. So I'm pretty used to the idea that an online casino operator somewhere in the world can modify the program in his "slot machines" and even change the payback odds on the game I'm playing.
Let's face it; regulation is a lot harder online than in land-based casinos.
But slots players better get used to the same concept at their local gambling halls. Very soon, casinos will have the technology to reprogram their odds on all their machines from the control room in the back.
There was a time when such modifications took hours, if not days. That isn't the case any more.
With the computerization of slot machines, the ability to reprogram them in a matter of seconds is not just possible, but realistic.
Before you think casinos are going to change the rules in the middle of the game, here are four laws which should reassure you. These are standard in Vegas, but the Nevada laws are the model for lawmakers across the states.
1. Casino operators cannot change the odds on a slot machine while it is being played.
2. They cannot change the odds for four minutes after someone stops playing the machine.
3. That same machine much be offline for four minutes after the odds have been changed.
4. While the odds are being changed, the machine must display to customers that its odds are being modified.
Now, that probably won't assure the more paranoid customers out there.
If it takes half a minute to change the odds on a machine, what is to keep an unscrupulous casino manager from changing the odds?
Well, enlightened self-interest is the best answer I can give. If it were learned that a casino was "changing the dice" in the middle of the game, then that casino would face crippling fines and its operators would face criminal charges.
Perhaps worse, that casino would become infamous in the gaming public, red-flagged by the insiders who give casinos the bulk of their profits.
Of course, conspiracy theorists might wonder if more subtle forms of gambling discrimination will take place.
Some gamers fear that regulars will get preferential treatment, to assure the regulars keep returning. Others are concerned that high rollers will get the red carpet treatment, assuring where they will spend their gaming dollars.
But I figure this is just the technological evolution of the slot machine industry. Basically, casinos are wanting to become more efficient, and they want to provide better services for gamers.
If you want to play a certain type of game, then you can request it and have it programmed into the system in a matter of minutes. And if you are a whale, then your requests will probably get you first in line.
Preferential treatment, maybe, but I imagine it's hardly anything insidious.
The answer, of course, is to win a huge progressive jackpot and retire to a tropical island. Then you won't have to worry about such nonsense.
I play a lot of online slots. So I'm pretty used to the idea that an online casino operator somewhere in the world can modify the program in his "slot machines" and even change the payback odds on the game I'm playing.
Let's face it; regulation is a lot harder online than in land-based casinos.
But slots players better get used to the same concept at their local gambling halls. Very soon, casinos will have the technology to reprogram their odds on all their machines from the control room in the back.
There was a time when such modifications took hours, if not days. That isn't the case any more.
With the computerization of slot machines, the ability to reprogram them in a matter of seconds is not just possible, but realistic.
Before you think casinos are going to change the rules in the middle of the game, here are four laws which should reassure you. These are standard in Vegas, but the Nevada laws are the model for lawmakers across the states.
1. Casino operators cannot change the odds on a slot machine while it is being played.
2. They cannot change the odds for four minutes after someone stops playing the machine.
3. That same machine much be offline for four minutes after the odds have been changed.
4. While the odds are being changed, the machine must display to customers that its odds are being modified.
Now, that probably won't assure the more paranoid customers out there.
If it takes half a minute to change the odds on a machine, what is to keep an unscrupulous casino manager from changing the odds?
Well, enlightened self-interest is the best answer I can give. If it were learned that a casino was "changing the dice" in the middle of the game, then that casino would face crippling fines and its operators would face criminal charges.
Perhaps worse, that casino would become infamous in the gaming public, red-flagged by the insiders who give casinos the bulk of their profits.
Of course, conspiracy theorists might wonder if more subtle forms of gambling discrimination will take place.
Some gamers fear that regulars will get preferential treatment, to assure the regulars keep returning. Others are concerned that high rollers will get the red carpet treatment, assuring where they will spend their gaming dollars.
But I figure this is just the technological evolution of the slot machine industry. Basically, casinos are wanting to become more efficient, and they want to provide better services for gamers.
If you want to play a certain type of game, then you can request it and have it programmed into the system in a matter of minutes. And if you are a whale, then your requests will probably get you first in line.
Preferential treatment, maybe, but I imagine it's hardly anything insidious.
The answer, of course, is to win a huge progressive jackpot and retire to a tropical island. Then you won't have to worry about such nonsense.
