Do Casinos Tighten Slot On Weekends
Contrary to popular myth, the casinos don'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. According to Destination 360, Las Vegas casinos are busiest on the weekend so visit the casino on non-holiday weekdays to avoid large crowds. While disadvantages of visiting casinos during the week include a reduced amount of entertainment options, this strategy allows for a greater choice of slot machines, easier travel and a less hectic day. Contrary to popular myth the casinos don’t tighten the machines on weekends or whenever it is busy. Here in Las Vegas the casinos have to fill out a form every time they change the percentage on each game. Most slot managers I have spoken with have a policy on what coinage is set to what return. Dec 29, 2015 “If somebody is cheating a slot machine, invariably, they’ll sit at it and they don’t really have to look at the machine because they know what they’re going to cause it to do,” says Derk. The payout at night is more than the daytime because there are more players on the casino floor. With the best casinos open all hours of the day, players want to know what is the best time to go to a casino to win. Slot machines are the most popular casino games and provide a chance for players to win a jackpot prize worth millions.
A customer stopped me as I was walking the casino floor the other day and asked me when I tightened up the slot machines her husband usually plays.
This is an easy question to answer, but providing evidence to her that my answer was an honest one proved to be a bit more difficult.
Do Casinos Tighten Slot On Weekends Hold
You see, this guest and her husband are regular customers of our restaurant, and he enjoys playing a particular section of penny slot machines most days they visit. It seemed lately her husband wasn’t even getting any play time before losing his money, and she couldn’t remember him cashing out a winner in weeks.
He was certainly having a cold streak, and it’s entirely possible that this dry spell of his (or any of ours) could be a result of tightened machines. If not the sole reason, tighter machines could certainly extend a cold streak. So questioning me certainly makes sense. If I were her, I’d want to know what was going on too.
Problem is, I hadn’t tightened the machines. In fact, I haven’t tightened a single machine since I started at Stetson’s as the G.M. in early 2009. Like I told my inquisitive guest, I’ve actually loosened just about every machine in the place since my arrival.
Proving to her that I loosened the video poker and keno machines and that I never tightened them back up is easy, because it’s all in the paytables. A quick comparison of a paytable at Stetson’s with an old paytable from before I started or a paytable from a competitor down the street will confirm that we’re set pretty darn loose.
Do Casinos Tighten Slot On Weekends One
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for slots. Well… actually the same can be said. I can say that Stetson’s slots are looser until I’m blue in the face. I just can’t prove it.
This is because tightening or loosening a slot can affect more than just the paytable. It can affect the number of symbols on the reels, the spacing, the awards and multipliers on bonus screens – a whole litany of different things.
And even if, as it is on some slots, only the paytables change between different settings, who among us can memorize the entire paytable of a 5-reel, 40-line video slot with dozens of different symbols and several bonus rounds? I know I can’t.
So there’s no way for me to prove to her that I didn’t tighten her husband’s favorite bank of machines. All I can do is assure her, and my readers, that it’s not as easy to tighten a machine as you might think. It’s actually pretty difficult, and so casinos don’t do it too often at all.
Many of us assume that a casino can set any machine, especially a slot machine, to any setting they want with relative ease. Open the thing, turn a key or flick a switch and voila – the machine is now tighter than a knotted shoelace.
Nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, adjusting the setting of any machine takes keys that can only be gotten with two signatures. Even I, as the General Manager, can’t just waltz down to the casino, pull a few keys out and start hopping around the floor tightening and loosening machines at will. It takes a minimum of two people, and it takes a lot of knowledge and quite a bit of time too.
Even once the keys are in hand, programming chips need to be installed by a trained technician before game choices and settings can be altered. These techs follow what’s called a par sheet, which is basically a list of games, denominations, paybacks and option settings (let-it-ride, double down, etc.) that execs like me choose ahead of time and then hand to the true professionals to program into the machines.
Each game on the device is programmed independently, and settings within a game can vary between denominations. While setting up a single game, single denomination slot is pretty easy, changing the settings on a machine with a dozen different games at various denominations can take an hour or more. Also, casinos like continuity, so tightening one machine usually means tightening several other surrounding machines too.
Point being, tightening machines is serious work. New par sheets must be drawn up, machines must be roped off and shut down for reprogramming, and the actual process of tightening the games will tie up the time of at least two people for several hours.
Casinos can and will tighten machines from time to time, but the decision to do so is not taken lightly, and it’s certainly not done with any type of regularity.
Unfortunately, it is far more common for a gambler to go on an extended cold streak than it is for a casino to tighten a slot machine.
And remember, just like the tightest machine can be a winner, the loosest can be a loser. Sometimes it’s not the payback setting of the machine that’s the cause of our woes. Sometimes it’s just plain bad luck.
At Gaming Today we are dedicated to providing valuable up-to-date information on the casino industry and pari-mutuel race wagering. With news and features, plus expanded coverage in key areas – race and sports analysis, picks, tips, and handicapping.
(Editor’s Note: Brad Fredella is General Manager of Stetson’s Saloon and Casino in Henderson, NV.)
Dispelling Slot Myths
By Henry Tamburin
Here are some popular misconceptions about slot machines and why they are false.
'Casinos can tighten or loosen the payback on a slot machine at will'
Many slot players believe that casinos can get more money from players by decreasing their paybacks on slot machines (tighten them) before a busy holiday weekend when the casino is crowded with players. The fact of the matter is that in most gaming jurisdictions they can't change a machines payback without first notifying the state regulatory agency with a lot of paperwork. In some states the local gaming commission must be present when the change is made. It's literally too much of a pain for casinos to lower the paybacks for a short period of time and then turn around and raise them.
'She stole my jackpot'
You've either read the stories or seen it happen in person. A player is playing a machine then decides to take a break and some other player jumps in, plays, and hits the jackpot. If the first player would have played a little while longer that jackpot would have been hers. Right? Nope. The reason is that the likelihood that the first player would have hit that jackpot if she played longer is slim to none. A Random Number generator that the computer chip uses to determine the results of each spin is constantly running even if the machine is idle. The RGN spits out a sequence of random numbers hundred of times each second (remember each sequence of numbers corresponds to the symbols that you see on the reels). Whatever the RGN number was at the split second that you hit the spin button or pull the handle is used to determine the symbols on each reel. Therefore the likelihood that the first player if she stayed and played would have hit the spin button at the same exact time as the second player did is highly unlikely.
'A Machine that just hit the jackpot won't hit again soon'
The RNG determines the results of your spin. It doesn't know or care what happened in the past. Your chance of hitting the jackpot on the next spin is the same regardless of when the jackpot was hit.
'You'll get a better payback if you alternate pulling the handle and hitting the spin button'
When you do either it tells the computer in the slot machine to get the number that was generated by the RNG, which will determine the symbols you see on each reel after they stoop spinning. The results will be the same regardless of whether you hit the spin button or pull the handle.
'Looser machines are placed near entrance ways to casinos to attract more players '
Back in the old days when slot machines were not as popular as they are today, that may have been the case. But nowadays slot managers order slots machines with nearly the same paybacks as their competitors for each denomination of machine and group slot machines by denomination and types on the casino floor.
'Always ask the slot attendant where the better paying machined are located'
Slot attendants are hard working folks but they don't have any more knowledge then you or I as to which machine will pay off next. They'll offer advice on which machines to play if asked by players because if the player gets lucky and hits a jackpot they know they will receive a tip.