Another Misconception about Slot Machines
Put To Rest
If you’re a regular slot player you will have
noticed it - the delay that occurs every now and then while
you’re playing a machine. It’s almost as though the machine
stops for a few seconds to take a deep breath. When it does
this it won’t allow you to play. The coins don’t register,
the handle doesn’t move and even hitting the play button
won’t help.
What’s happening? Are the machine’s computer chips
re-setting themselves into winning mode? Is the machine’s
computer getting ready deliver a major jackpot? Is there
some sort of secret internal “reset” being performed that’ll
turn the machine from ‘cold’ to ‘hot’ or vice-versa?
The slot machine player stands in front of his
machine with his mind imagining all sorts of possible scenarios
involving mystery, superstition or plain misinformation that
is always present where slot machines are found and which
provide the reasons for players to dream up hidden reasons
for the delay.
I have noticed this phenomenon frequently over
the years but I have never had an opportunity to research
it. Curiosity finally got the best of me when I was in the
company of some slot machine suppliers at a recent trade
fair. I put the question to a leading manufacturer of one
of the most popular slot machine game formats. He immediately
turned to his company’s engineering design department. The
answer was simple. The delay occurs when the machine’s internal
electronic meters are being updated, a process which takes
about two seconds. The meters have no connection whatsoever
with the machine’s random number generator and therefore
have no bearing on the course of play. The bottom line is
this: The delay does not contain any signal, hidden or overt.
“The chief engineer with whom I spoke said that
he was aware that the word ‘reset’ comes up frequently when
the delay is discussed among slot players, but actually nothing
is being reset in the machine,” he explained. “The two second
delay has absolutely no significance for the player, has
no effect on the play and in no way has anything to do with
winning or losing.” So the mystery was solved. The only factor
that governs winning or losing at the slots is luck, no matter
how hard we try to get an edge or whatever scenario we may
imagine.
I took the opportunity to ask another question
about slot games play. This one concerns the popular “Wheel
of Fortune” machines. It seems that many players perceive
the bonus spin they get on the wheel is just that - a lucky
spin for extra cash that isn’t governed by the machine’s
computer chips. How wrong they are!
The random number generator that rules the combination
of symbols that come up on the Wheel of Fortune reels, also
comes into play with the bonus spin. This means that the
random number generator is a part of the computer software
that runs the bonus spin, so the amount that you will win
on the bonus spin is determined the moment you activate the
play.
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