scholarly journals The maximum rewards at the minimum price: Reinforcement rates and payback percentages in multi-line slot machines

2011 ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Harrigan ◽  
Michael Dixon ◽  
Vance MacLaren ◽  
Karen Collins ◽  
Jonathan Fugelsang
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Reinforcement Rate ◽  
Slot Machine ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Losses Disguised As Wins ◽  
Minimum Price ◽  
Machine Games ◽  
Payback Percentage

Past research has shown that gamblers frequently use the mini-max strategy in multi-line slot machines, whereby the player places the minimum bet on the maximum number of lines. Through a detailed analysis and explanation of the design of multi-line slot machine games, we show that when using the mini-max strategy, the payback percentage remains unchanged, yet the reinforcement rate is significantly increased. This increase in reinforcement rate is mainly due to spins in which the amount won is less than the amount wagered, which we call losses disguised as wins. We have verified these conclusions by playing an actual slot machine game for 10,000 spins and recording the results. We believe that the high reinforcement rate that results from playing multiple lines on games of this type contributes to their potential addictiveness. We provide three theories for why players use the mini-max strategy and suggest further areas of research.

scholarly journals Measuring Gamblers’ Behaviour to Show That Negative Sounds Can Reveal the True Nature of Losses Disguised as Wins in Multiline Slot Machines

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly L. Scarfe ◽  
Madison Stange ◽  
Mike J. Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Slot Machine ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Losses Disguised As Wins ◽  
Sound Condition

Abstract Losses disguised as wins (LDWs) are slot machine outcomes where players gain fewer credits than they wager. Despite being losses, slot machines celebrate LDWs with positive sounds and animations, leading gamblers to respond to them as wins. It is unknown how manipulating the sound following LDWs may influence gamblers’ behaviour. In Experiment 1, participants played two conditions on a realistic slot machine simulator: a (standard) positive sound condition (LDWs paired with positive sound, losses paired with silence), and a negative sound condition (LDWs and losses paired with negative sound). We measured participants’ behavioural responses [post-reinforcement pauses (PRPs)], win estimates, and subjective experience. In the negative sound condition, participants behaviourally responded to LDWs in a more loss-like and less win-like fashion, as measured by PRPs. Win estimates were reduced, and subjective experience was significantly impacted, but only when the negative sound condition was played second. In Experiment 2, we employed a much more subtle manipulation, pairing only LDWs with negative sound, and observed similar effects. Through these two experiments, we show that pairing LDWs with negative sound is an effective way to modify players’ responses to LDWs, causing them to respond to them more like the losses they are, rather than the wins they seem.

scholarly journals Slot Machine Payback Percentages: The Devil is in the Moment

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Robert Scott Farrow ◽  
Jackson Costa
Keyword(s):  
Slot Machine ◽  
Expected Value ◽  
The State ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Payback Percentage

The average payback percentage from slot machines is important to gamblers, casinos and governments.  While apparently simple to define several complications can exist, among them which measure to average and potentially misleading formulas to calculate the average.  Daily slot machine data from the state of Maryland for 19 months are analyzed for the expected value of the average payback ratio per machine and per dollar gambled.  On a per dollar gambled basis, the payback percentage meets legislative requirements that the gaming floor payback be at least 90 percent. On a per machine basis, that requirement is not met which can imply a significant shift of money from gamblers to casino operators and the state. Other payback measures are hypothesized to also be less than the per-dollar gambled measure but data are lacking.

scholarly journals Slot Machine RTP Optimization Using Variable Neighborhood Search

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Pantelis-Arsenios Kamanas ◽  
Angelo Sifaleras ◽  
Nikolaos Samaras
Keyword(s):  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Variable Neighborhood Search ◽  
Slot Machine ◽  
Casino Gambling ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Neighborhood Search ◽  
Gaming Industry ◽  
Software Companies ◽  
Machine Games ◽  
First Time

This work presents a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) approach for solving the Return-To-Player (RTP) optimization problem. A large number of software companies in the gaming industry seek to solve the RTP optimization problem in order to develop modern virtual casino gambling machines. These slot machines have a number of reels (e.g., three or more) that spin once a button is pushed. Each slot machine is required to have an RTP in a particular range according to the legislation of each country. By using a VNS framework that guides two local search operators, we show how to control the distribution of the symbols in the reels in order to achieve the desired RTP. In this study, optimization refers only to base game, the core of slot machine games, and not in bonus games, since a bonus game is triggered once two, three, or more specific symbols occur in the gaming monitor. Although other researchers have tried to solve the RTP problem in the past, this is the first time that a VNS methodology is proposed for this problem in the literature with good computational results.

scholarly journals PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling

2009 ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Harrigan ◽  
Mike Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Problem Gambling ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Slot Machine ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Reinforcement Schedules ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
Privacy Act ◽  
Design Documents ◽  
Machine Games

Through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, we obtained design documents, called PAR Sheets, for slot machine games that are in use in Ontario, Canada. From our analysis of these PAR Sheets and observations from playing and watching others play these games, we report on the design of the structural characteristics of Ontario slots and their implications for problem gambling. We discuss characteristics such as speed of play, stop buttons, bonus modes, hand-pays, nudges, near misses, how some wins are in fact losses, and how two identical looking slot machines can have very different payback percentages. We then discuss how these characteristics can lead to multi-level reinforcement schedules (different reinforcement schedules for frequent and infrequent gamblers playing the same game) and how they may provide an illusion of control and contribute in other ways to irrational thinking, all of which are known risk factors for problem gambling.

scholarly journals Regulatory Measures' Effect on Gambling Participation: Experiences From Norway

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonny Engebø ◽  
Torbjørn Torsheim ◽  
Ståle Pallesen
Keyword(s):  
Slot Machine ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Online Gambling ◽  
Total Consumption ◽  
Interactive Games ◽  
Gambling Participation ◽  
Major Market ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
Large Growth ◽  
Market Changes

The purpose of gambling regulation can be to ensure revenue for the public, to prevent crime and gambling problems. One regulatory measure involves restriction of what games can be offered in a market. In this study, the effects of two regulatory market changes are investigated: First, a restriction of availability when slot machines were banned from the Norwegian market in 2007, and second the introduction of regulated online interactive games to the same market in 2014. Data collected from the general population in the period from 2005 through 2018, comprising 2,000 respondents every year, are used to investigate how participation in gambling changed over time. The respondents were asked if they took part in various games or lotteries. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict the proportion participating in five groups of games and if changes in participation coincided with major market changes. The first change was associated with a reduction in gambling on slot machines as well as a reduction in gambling participation overall. Following the slot machine ban, results show an increase in women participating in games offered in land-based bingo premises. A general increase in gambling on foreign websites was also seen, albeit much smaller than the reduction in slot machine gambling. The increases can partly be explained as substitution of one type of gambling with another. New regulated online interactive games were introduced in 2014. Despite the relatively large growth of such games internationally, Norway included, increased online gambling in general and an increased marketing of foreign gambling websites, the participation on foreign websites seemed stable. However, the overall participation in online interactive games increased. The introduction of the regulated alternative seems to have had a channelizing effect. Overall, the changes in gambling participation coinciding with two major regulatory changes can be explained by transformations of physical and social availability, and in terms of mechanisms outlined by the model of total consumption.

Abstrakt-generelle Duldungen im europäisierten Glücksspielstrafrecht

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karsten Gaede
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Slot Machine ◽  
The State ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Transitional Regime ◽  
European Economic ◽  
Legal Situation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Machine Games

Gaede examines the little-discussed question of whether administrative acquiescence precludes the accusation of unlawful gambling against the background of EU law. He shows that the transitional regime established until the full enforceability of the State Treaty on Gambling in 2021 limits criminal liability. In detail, he explains why a total internet ban on virtual slot machine games is no longer in conformity with EU law. He clarifies that general tolerations can also exclude § 284 StGB if they are in accordance with the legal discretion of the authorities. Gaede discusses the legal situation before and after 1.7.2021. The author is co-editor of the series and professor in particular of German and European economic criminal law.

scholarly journals Dual effects of ‘losses disguised as wins’ and near-misses in a slot machine game

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Sharman ◽  
Michael RF Aitken ◽  
Luke Clark
Keyword(s):  
Slot Machine ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
Losses Disguised As Wins

Losses disguised as wins in modern multi-line video slot machines

Addiction ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 105 (10) ◽  
pp. 1819-1824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike J. Dixon ◽  
Kevin A. Harrigan ◽  
Rajwant Sandhu ◽  
Karen Collins ◽  
Jonathan A. Fugelsang
Keyword(s):  
Slot Machines ◽  
Losses Disguised As Wins
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