Re: Anyone here know how an one-armed bandit (slot machine) works?

In article <zWT0h.775$LI4.18@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Robert Baer <robertbaer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Guy Fawkes wrote:

I was wondering what kind of electronics are inside a slot machine and how
the circuitry works. As an engineer I would think that it has some MCU
inside with a random number generator and a simple algorithm which has a
fixed percentage (chance) of winning and losing.

The problem is that some gamblers seem to think that their chance of winning
depends on how much money's in the machine (i.e. the weight of the coins).
This makes them think that they can 'beat' the system and win, even though
they can't. OTOH I reasoned that if a machine has a fixed chance of winnings
then it may run into problems when the machine is empty and someone hits the
jackpot, the machine then wouldn't be able to pay out the winnings.

So do the winnings of these machines depend on the weight of the coins
inside of them?

Thanks in advance, Guy



I would think not.
Take the extreme case you mentioned, and the sucker won a jackpot.
The machine would send an alert that would be recognozed by the
casino workers, and the casino would make good on the jackpot.
Probably the machine would be "primed" or filled with the minimum
jackpot amount; large jackpots are never paid by the machine anyway.

I didn't realize the slots went to stepper motors and CPU's until my
brother bought one and I had a view of the inside. I don't know what years
they switched from pure mechanical. Probably when they had some
good CPU's. I alwasy used to pull the handle, and at different speeds.
Now I just push the button. Most of todays slots do not drop coins back out at all.
Its gone to credit type cards or other tokens.
Much of the sounds have vanished. Many machines will not payout until
a certain amount of money has collected. This payout extends to
many of those skill type machines going for prizes like cameras.
It would seem the card game machines also have the same type of
rules. When I go to Vegas, I usually put in my allocated $20, and
thats it.

greg
.

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