LVA Poll Results

The LVA poll results are up for a recent question:

';In light of the current economic climate, have you noticed any change in Las Vegas slot machine payouts on recent visits?';

Can casinos ';loosen'; ot ';tighten'; machines to their liking or is this regulated by the NGC?

60% of respondents thought that the slots were tighter. Interesting I think.

LVA Poll Results

Anyone know?

LVA Poll Results

Intersting because a casino can%26#39;t just change the payout at a whim, it%26#39;s costly to do so. So no, the casinos aren%26#39;t making things tighter, its people aren%26#39;t playing as much. Every machine needs so many hits or spinning of the reels x number of times before it pays out a jackpot. If people aren%26#39;t playing as much, it can take longer for the machine to give a good payout. What could happen though is the casino can retire machines and replace with newer ones with a change in payouts. Still though, they are very closely regulated, can%26#39;t just tighten machines willy nilly.

casinos can change the weighting of the RNG quite easily - they do have to fill out some paperwork, it%26#39;s not a big deal and easy to do.

If you%26#39;ve ever walked through a casino and seen machines marked out for service - this could be happening, not necessarily is but does happen.

Although not slot machines recent examples of this are the three machines at The V and few more at The P that used to be 9/6 JOB - .a few months ago they were changed to 8/5 - and then changed back to 9/6 for just a short time a few hours one day - and then back to 8/5. Players on LVA report playing the machines, taking a break, coming back to them being out of service and when back in service a few minutes later the paytable changed.

It%26#39;s easy for the casino management to do, they fill out the paperwork and it takes the tecnicians a few minutes.

Now, are the casinos doing this on a daily basis or more often now? probably not as much as it ';feels'; to the slot players - as you saw on the LVA QOD page.

Can they do it easily? Yes

Are they doing it? Doubtful it is widespread

I think www.wizardofodds.com might address this topic if you want more info may be worth checking.

yep. he did answer some Q%26#39;s. these were a few years ago, process the same, the discussion of ';are they'; may be slightly different now, although most experts think not

How often does a casino change the percentage on a slot machine?

Not often. Contrary to popular myth, the casinos don%26#39;t tighten the machines on weekends or whenever it is busy. Here, in Las Vegas, the casinos have to fill out a form on each game every time they change the percentage. Most slot managers I have spoken with have a policy on what coinage is set to what return. I tend to think the most likely reason to change the percentage would be a change in ownership and/or management, neither of which happens often.

Do casinos have the ability to change the slot payout percent (or really take percentage) at any time after receiving the machine? I always thought that was set at the manufacturer and that the RNG was not changeable. - Jarin Satterlee from San Diego, CA

Physically all you have to do to change the return of the slot machine is change the EPROM chip inside. Assuming the casino manager had all the EPROM chips, which I think they sometimes do, they could make the change themselves. However, in a major jurisdiction the change would have to be reported to the gaming authorities, not to mention internal paperwork. The random number generator is constant, it is what the program does with the random numbers that determines the return.

there is so much accurate info on this available on the web a quick search will serve you well.

In 2006, the Nevada Gaming Commission began working with Las Vegas casinos on technology that would allow the casino%26#39;s slot manager to change the game, the odds, and the payouts remotely. The change cannot be done instantaneously, but only after the selected machine has been idle for at least four minutes. After the change is made, the machine must be locked to new players for four minutes and display an on-screen message informing potential players that a change is being made

bump. People should realize Bridge knows her stuff.

where do you get this info from? Can you back up this with any evidence? You seem to have an opinion on everything Vegas, but that%26#39;s all it is - opinions. Can I suggest that you don%26#39;t bother commenting on something that your%26#39;e clueless about. And to the OP, machines are not ';tightened';. Ever.

BTW, my rant is aimed to gabbybambler %26amp; bridgefan - the president and vice president of all things vegas

It appears BridgeFan is copy-pasting from that web site, it looks like a Q %26amp; A session?