Jackpot Inferno video slot features a classic themed slot machine. On the reels you will find the typical symbols such as the 7s, hearts, colourful fruits, and the added fiery jackpot inferno logo. The background is a simple black colour, so that the colourful symbols show up bright and attractive. Casinos have a natural advantage thanks to their process. They survive by offering games of chance that are ever so slightly tilted in their favor. They’ve built their business on a process that will win out over thousands of spins of the roulette wheel, rolls of the dice, or pulls of the slot machine. Time is a key ingredient to their process. $ More money ball slot games: Wild Riches: Tiger eyes of fortune brings similar exciting of the Chinese New Year one, but if you love Tiger and wild animals, this is an unique option for you! Chang’E: Autumn Moon Festival is another important celebration in Eastern countries like China, the Chinese beauty will give you really surprising.

Moneyball Slot Machine

• Appendices
• Slots Analysis
• Miscellaneous

Introduction

When it comes to gambling, the easier a game is to understand the worse the odds usually are. This is certainly the case with slot machines. Playing them is as easy as pressing a button. However, between the high house edge and fast rate of play, there is no quicker way to lose your money in a casino.

Before going further, let me make clear that this page addresses the way slot machines work in most parts of the United States and the world. However, some parts of this page do not apply everywhere. For example, I state that slot machines have a memory-less property, where the odds of every spin are the same. In some places, like the UK, some machines in bars, called 'fruit machines,' have a mechanism that guarantees a certain profit over the short run, which causes the game to go through loose and tight cycles. These games do not have the usual independence property of the major slot makers.

How They Work

Whether you're playing a 3-reel single-line game or a 5-reel 25-line game, the outcome of every bet is ultimately determined by random numbers. The game will choose one random number for each reel, map that number onto a position on the reel, stop the reel in the appointed place, and score whatever the outcome is. In other words, the outcome is predestined the moment you press the button; the rest is just for show. There are no hot and cold cycles; your odds are the same for every spin on a given machine.

Slot machines are just about the only game in the casino where the odds are not quantifiable. In other words, the player doesn't know how the game was designed, so it is difficult to look at an actual game to use as an example. So, to help explain how they work, I created the Atkins Diet slot machine (link). It is a simple, five-reel game with a free spin bonus round, much like IGT's Cleopatra game.

For information on how it works and all the odds, please visit my Atkins Diet par sheet.

For a more complicated example, featuring sticky wilds in the bonus, please try my Vamos a Las Vegas slot machine.

For information on how it works and all the odds, please visit my Vamos a Las Vegas par sheet (PDF).

Odds

The following table shows the casino win for Clark County Nevada (where Las Vegas is) for all slots for calendar year 2012. They define 'slot' as any electronic game, including video poker and video keno. I've found video keno to be about equally as tight as reeled slots, but video poker has a much higher return. So, the return for reeled slots should be higher than these figures.

Clark County Slot Win 2012

Source: Nevada Gaming Control Board, Gaming Revenue Report for December 2012 (PDF, see page 6).

Most players play penny video slots. Based on past research, I find the house edge on those to usually be set from 6% to 15%. In general, the nicer the casino, the tighter the slots.

Advice

While there is no skill to playing slots, there is some skill in selecting which machine to play and ways you can maximize your return. What follows is my advice, if you must play slots at all.

• Always use a player card. Slots may be a lousy bet, but the casinos treat slot players very well. A $1 slot player will probably get comped better than a $100 blackjack player. Of course, don't play for the reason of getting comps. You'll give them a lot more than they'll give you.
• The simpler the game, the better the odds. The fancy games with big signs and video screens tend to not pay as well as the simple games. However, slot players always tell me the fancy games are more fun.
• The higher the denomination, the better the odds. For that reason, it is better to play one coin per line on a 5-cent game than five coins per line on a 1-cent game.
• Don't forget to cash out and take your ticket when you leave. It is easy to forget after hitting a jackpot.
• Try to play slowly and as little as possible to get your fix.
• In some games there is a skill feature, like Top Dollar. In such games, advice is usually offered, which you should take.

Myths and Facts

Just about everything that players believe about slots is untrue. Here are the most common myths and facts. As a reminder, this page is based on slot machines commonly found in the United States. Some machines, like 'fruit machines' found in the United Kingdom work differently.

• Myth: Slot machines are programmed to go through a cycle of payoffs. Although the cycle can span thousands of spins, once it reaches the end the outcomes will repeat themselves in exactly the same order as the last cycle.

  Fact: This is not true at all. Every spin is random and independent of all past spins.

• Myth: Slot machines are programmed to pay off a particular percentage of money bet. Thus, after a jackpot is hit the machine will tighten up to get back in balance. On the other hand, when a jackpot has not been hit for a long time it is overdue and more likely to hit.

  Fact: As just mentioned, each spin is independent of all past spins. That means that for a given machine game, the odds are always the same. It makes no difference when the last jackpot was hit or how much the game paid out in the last hour, day, week, or any period of time.

• Myth: Machines pay more if a player card is not used.

  Fact: The mechanism that determines the outcome of each play does not consider whether a card is used or not. The odds are the same with or without one.

• Myth: Using a player card enables the casino to report my winnings to the IRS.

  Fact: That makes no difference. If you win $1,200 or more they will report it either way. If you have a net losing year, which you probably will, at least the casino will have evidence of it. Such annual win/loss statements may be used as evidence to declare offsetting loses to jackpot wins.

• Myth: The slot department can tighten my game with the press of a button remotely. Thus, you better be nice to the staff and tip them well, or they will use a remote control to have the machine take you down in a hurry.

  Fact: There is now some truth to the myth that the odds of a machine can be changed remotely. Such 'server-based slots' are still experimental and in a minority. Even with server-based slots, there are regulations in place to protect the player from the perceived abuses that could accompany them. For example, in Nevada a machine can not be altered remotely unless it has been idle for at least four minutes. Even then, the game will display a notice that it is being serviced during such changes. (source) Meanwhile, for the vast majority of slots, somebody would physically need to open the machine and change a computer chip, known as an EPROM chip, to make any changes.

• Myth: The machines by the doors and heavy traffic flow areas tend to be loose while those hidden in quiet corners tend to be tight.

  Fact: I've studied the relationship between slot placement and return and found no correlation. Every slot director I've asked about this laughs it off as just another player myth.

• Myth: Slots tend to be looser during slow hours on slow days of the week. However, when the casino is busy they tighten them up.

  Fact: Nobody would take the trouble to do this, even if he could. The fact of the matter is the casinos are trying to find a good balance between winning some money while letting the player leave happy. That is best achieved by slots loose enough to give the player a sufficiently long 'time on device,' as they call it in the industry, with a reasonable chance of winning so he will return to the same casino next time. If the slots are too tight, the players will sense it and be unlikely to return.

  The kind of place you're likely to find tight slots are those with a captive audience, like the Las Vegas airport. So, if the slot manager feels that 92% is the right return for a penny game, for example, he is likely to set every penny game all that way, and keep them that way for years.

Play

Reviews

• Dazzle Me (NetEnt)
• Mr. Vegas (Betsoft)
• Sparks (NetEnt)

Internal Links

• Appendix 1 shows the details and analysis of almost 4000 actual spins on a Reno slot machine.
• Appendix 2 shows an example of the virtual reels behind a hypothetical slot machine and how the average return is calculated.
• Appendix 3A: 2003 Las Vegas slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3B: 2002 Jean/Primm slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3C: 2002 Tunica slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3D: 2002 Henderson/Lake Mead slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3E: 2002 Quarter and dollar returns for Las Vegas slots
• Appendix 4 shows how the return is calculated for my Wizard's Fruit Slot Machine.
• Appendix 5 analysis of the 21 Bell Slot Machine.
• Appendix 6 Analysis of Red, White, & Blue Slot Machine.
• Lock and Roll analysis of the skill-based slot machine found in North Carolina.
• Deconstructing Jackpot Party analysis of the video slot machine.
• Deconstructing Lion's Share analysis of the classic MGM progressive game.
• Deconstructing Cleopatra analysis of the popular IGT game.
• Deconstructing Lionfish analysis of the slot game found on many Game Maker machines.
• Deconstructing Megabucks.
• Deconstructing the Atkins Diet slot machine.
• Deconstructing Lucky Larry's Lobstermania.
• Deconstructing Hexbreaker.
• Deconstructing Blazing Sevens.
• Deconstructing Hot Roll.
• Mystery progressives on Ainsworth slots.
• Mystery progressives on WMS slots.
• Baltimore Sun article, in which I am quoted.
• 100% Rebate on Slot Losses Promotions: When to quit playing when all losses are refunded.

External Links

• For a simplified explanation of slots, please see my companion site Wizard of Vegas
• German translation of this page is available at richtigspielen.com
• Another decent overview of how slots work and some practical advice for playing them is How Slot Machines Work at VegasClick.com.
• PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling by Kevin A. Harrigan and Mike Dixon, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This is an outstanding academic paper that details how some popular slot machines were designed.
• PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling - Academic paper based on the par sheets for some modern slot machines

Multimedia Games’ “Moneyball” puts the pinball theme into a world of its own

Everi Games

by Frank Legato

There are a lot of slot machines coming out these days which at least purport to let players use skill to some degree—not necessarily to gain an advantage on a game, but to increase their chances of doing well.

In the vast majority of games like these, the appeal is for a game to simulate the experience of a home or arcade video game: a joystick to shoot space ships, animated characters facing off on a video screen. For a whole lot of players, though—particularly those who count themselves part of the massive Baby Boomer generation—the thought of a “skill game” goes back much farther in time than the video arcades. It goes to pinball.

The problem with pinball for a casino, though, is not only that any Baby Boomer worth his salt will be able to beat it, but that pinball is a mechanical game with a lot of parts that can wear out or break. A few years ago, game designers at Multimedia Games got the idea to simulate the fun aspects of pinball within an animated video slot.

It would be called “Moneyball.”
The original concept for Moneyball was a community-style game in which players on a bank would each get one shot of a simulated pinball, with prizes resulting from the ball bouncing around on each screen going to the entire bank. However, as Multimedia Vice President and Executive Producer Clint Owen says, that was before Highrise.

Highrise is the Multimedia game style that features an upright cabinet equipped with the tallest top box in the business—a 37-inch vertical video monitor. The tall display makes for an imposing bonus board.

“Moneyball was a perfect fit for the Highrise cabinet,” says Owen. “We got more excited about the concept as a Highrise game than we were about it as a community game. That’s how it evolved—I had been looking at casual games and online versions of pachinko (the Japanese pegboard pinball game), and really wanted to figure out how to make our own game with a skill element that had little or no effect on the pay percentage.”

The solution was a game that would employ a real element of skill—the player can actually aim the virtual pinball—but not enough so as to gain an advantage on the game that was not available to those less skilled at pinball. Moneyball is a perfect “quasi-skill” game, done with a masterful touch. (A patent is pending.)

But the fact Multimedia had a clever pinball-style bonus in which the player controls the direction the ball is launched was only the beginning. Owen says his team at Multimedia wanted more than a one-trick pony. The idea was to create a game around the pinball feature that would contain enough variety so the player would never become bored.

“We wanted it to fit with any number of different base games,” Owen says, “with a bonus at least as frequent as the free-spin bonus in most games. Then, there are four unique layouts of pegs and bumpers on the top box.”

Money Ball Inferno Slot Videos

“The variety we’ve added into it is one of the big benefits of this product over anything else in the market,” says Brad Johnson, Multimedia’s vice president of product management and marketing. “There are four different game boards, and within those game boards, there are additional types of bonus features, where you can get a ball lock and go into another secondary screen, where you get to spin a wheel or spin multiple reels.

“The player is never going to get the same experience twice, just because there are so many little things within each game board and between game boards that are different enough so players are going to want to come back and see all the different aspects of the game.”

Games in Games

The first versions of Moneyball provide variety in their formats alone. There is one version with a new base game created specifically for the series, but other versions use Multimedia games that are already popular in their own right, like the great “Invasion From Outer Space.”

In that version, the hilarious “Alien Attack!” bonus remains with the base game. Each base game also has its own free-spin bonus.

However, unlike other games with various base games and a themed bonus event, the common top-box Moneyball bonus itself takes on many different forms, and different outcomes. When the bonus is triggered, the animated top-box pinball game takes on one of four different scenes—a tree with the pegs and bumpers as fruit, a desert scene with UFOs, a hotel, or a classic pinball layout.

In each game, the player manipulates a button to “aim” the pinball’s direction as it is fired to the top of the bonus board. “Every peg gives you a small award,” explains Owen, “and every bumper gives you a bigger award. Then, when the ball hits the bottom of the board, it lands in a prize slot or bucket, and that gives you an even bigger award.”

One very cool feature: Any pinball player knows the danger of a ball falling through the board and not hitting anything—it used to be called going down the “drain,” with no points registered. That doesn’t happen here. You will at the very least get the bonus award for the bucket into which the ball falls. “Even if you don’t hit the multipliers or ball features or ball lock, you’re still guaranteed a prize on every shot,” Owen says.

Moneyball Inferno Slot Machine

Ah, but there’s more. As the virtual ball rolls down the big video screen, it can hit classic pinball features for completely new games. A “ball lock”—the video equivalent of the physical pinball hitting a spot and staying there—triggers one of two secondary events. In one, a prize wheel appears, which the player spins for an extra bonus prize. In another, a set of three bonus reels appears, and the player gets three spins for bonus awards. In either case, after the mini-game, the feature reverts to the regular pinball bonus.

Another possible extra feature on the Moneyball board is a “ball split.” In another nod to classic pinball, the ball will split into three balls, and all will bounce down the board simultaneously, registering a cavalcade of bonuses. Yet another possibility on the big board is a “Fireball” feature. This multiplies all awards—every peg hit, every bumper hit, any ball-lock prize—by three.

At press time, the Moneyball series had been launched in Louisiana and points in the Midwest. By the time you read this, it will be spreading throughout the U.S.

Moneyball Free

And that’s just the beginning. Owen says Moneyball is definitely going to be a long-term series. “Now that we’ve got the basics under our belt,” he says, “we can go back and add all kinds of additional interesting features to the Moneyball board—different progressives, different kinds of ball locks… any number of things. This series will definitely go on for a while.”

Adds Johnson, “The most exciting part is that we’ve created an experience with enough variety that the player is getting a unique experience every time he goes into the bonus. The value of that is that we can put it on lots of different games without players getting bored with what they see.

“We can come out with a lot of different base games with this bonus on top, and it’s not going to get old for the player. We designed it to have a lot of legs.”

That should keep pinball players occupied for a long time to come. •

Moneyball Slot Machines