Many gambling enthusiasts in the United States are at least vaguely familiar with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, US law Pub.L. 100–497, 25 U.S.C. § 2701.
Getting full value can have a significant impact on your slot play as well. Many new slot machines allow you to play any number of credits, lines, and credits per line. But it can be confusing, so make sure you read the info screen to ascertain how you reach the bonus screen or top payout. Avoid Slot Machine near Table Games. Avoiding the slot machines near the table games would be another wise choice. It is really rare that casino players will find any good playing machines near the table games. If you are not betting with slot machines, it is very likely that you would be betting at the table games.
Passed in 1988, this federal law established how Indian (Native American) gaming would be managed and regulated. The act included definitions for 3 types or classes of gambling games. They are usually referred to as:
- Class I games
- Class II games
- Class III games
Congress passed the law to help Native American tribes and nations improve their economic status after more than a century of oppression and exclusion in mainstream US society. Many Native American groups wanted to build land-based casinos, which would not only attract tourists but create jobs.
There was considerable resistance to this movement in many states, most of which did not allow gambling of any kind. To help resolve the conflicts and provide some clarity between treaties, state law, and federal law, the US government established a framework that eliminated some barriers to Native American investment in gambling industries. The law also provided some regulatory limits to respect state laws.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act introduced some confusion into the worldwide lexicon of gambling games because the distinctions are only observed within US jurisdictions. Other nations regulate gambling with different definitions.
But as the internet became a worldwide communications network in the 1990s and 2000s, most of the content published about gambling dealt with US law and casinos. Although non-US casinos have to observe their own laws and regulations, players who research gambling law on the internet must be careful to distinguish between USA gambling definitions and other gambling definitions.
What Are the 3 Classes of Gambling Games?
Class I gambling includes all traditional Native American gambling games, most of which are only used for ceremonial purposes or in the contexts of cultural-specific celebrations and ceremonies. These games, which are only available at small stakes, are completely regulated by the Native American tribes and nations.
Class II gambling includes all variations of bingo games, player-vs-player card games like poker (where the house does not play a hand in the game), tip jars, pull-tab games, punch card games, and anything similar. Some people mistakenly include lottery games in this category, but the law clearly excludes state-run lotteries and similar games from Class II.
Class III gambling consists of everything that is not included under Class I gambling or Class II gambling. That means the lottery games you play are Class III gambling games. Slot games, roulette, dice games, and card games like blackjack where the house is also a player all fall under the Class III gambling games category.
So How Can There Be Class II Slot Machine Games?
If you’ve ever visited a Native American casino–like the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma, you’ve almost certainly played some Class II slot machine games. They look much like traditional slot machine games. They have 3 to 5reels with symbols on them, they pay jackpots, and they do everything else you expect of a slot game.
And yet, they are not slot machine games.
A clever company in Franklin, TN, known as Video Gaming Technologies, or VGT, developed electronic bingo games for Native American casinos that use the results of those bingo games to emulate slot game action.
In other words, the slot machine cabinets contain two screens, one that displays the results of the bingo game and one that displays the results of the simulated slot game. This dual visualization of the gambling game takes advantage of the fact that at the core of all gambling games is a simple principle:
You’re making a wager on an unknown outcome. What the Class II slot games do is take the result of the bingo game to determine what happens in the slot game.
What’s cool about this approach is that VGT was able to add bonus games to the bingo games that work like slot machine bonus games. They’ve developed a huge selection of bingo games that play like slot games. VGT is so successful they were acquired by Aristocrat Leisure Limited in 2014, although the former VGT still operates as an independent subsidiary company of Aristocrat.
How Do Class III Slot Machine Games Work?
The key to the hybridization of bingo and slot machine games is the Random Number Generator. Mathematicians have been developing algorithms to calculate unpredictable numbers for hundreds of years. For a detailed look at the concept, read “How Do Random Number Generators Work?” on Jackpots Online. Although the RNG does not produce a truly random number, in typical circumstances the number is random enough. Even so, slot game designers use random numbers in multiple ways.
Before I continue, I should mention that US law requires slot game designers to work by different rules from other countries’ slot games. In the United Kingdom, for example, the outcome of a slot game is determined by a single random number. In the United States, the outcome of the Class III slot game is determined by several random numbers.
To begin with, an electronic slot machine or online slot game uses a software concept called an array to represent each reel. Computer arrays work like rows of boxes, where each box holds one piece of information. The arrays for slot reels may have anywhere from 22 to 256 slots. Each slot in the array holds a symbol marker that tells the slot machine game what to display on the screen.
Slot game designers use special algorithms to decide how often each type of symbol should appear in each slot array. The frequency of the symbol’s use in the array and the size of the array determine how likely or unlikely it is for any single spin of the slot game reels to create one or more winning combinations. The game’s software may award prizes for one or more winning combinations at a time, depending on how many pay lines the game offers.
The random number generator produces a new number every few milliseconds. The number is placed in a temporary memory location called a register. The slot game software grabs the latest random number from the register and uses that to determine what happens next. For example, a 5 reel slot game needs 5 random numbers to pick how many slot positions will be spun on each reel before the reels stop in new locations. If the slot game awards random prizes like progressive jackpots, these are determined by additional random numbers.
How Class II Slot Machine Games Differ from Class III Slot Machine Games
What VGT did was create bingo game software that determines the actual prizes awarded to players.
But to make the bingo games look like slot games, they used the bingo game’s random results as if they are the random numbers that Class III slot games use.
To ensure that the slot game winning combinations match the bingo game prize values the VGT games work more like slot games in the United Kingdom. The game determines what prize was won and then creates a short video simulation of the slots landing on that winning combination.
Conclusion
Slot Machine Secrets Reddit Games
How do class II slot machines work?
Either way, the slot games award prizes on a random basis. You could say that US gaming laws are paranoid in that Class III slot game software is required to closely emulate the physical spinning of slot reels. In fact, physical slot reel games have been displaying results of these virtual, in-memory array games for more than 20 years. So even when you see physical reels spinning, their stop positions have already been determined within microseconds of your pressing SPIN.
The Class II slot gaming experience is a fun gaming experience.
But the bingo game is displayed on a small screen, because VGT’s designers have found that players don’t enjoy looking at bingo patterns as much as they enjoy looking at 3 to 5 reels spinning and stopping on various symbols.
For the player, what matters is that they’re gambling for real money on an unpredictable outcome–and they can enjoy an entertaining evening with friends or loved ones.
Here’s the hard truth: casinos are designed to suck money out of your wallet. You may win some cash occasionally, but the casino always comes out on top. These smart casino businesses have carefully designed “traps” that lure you in and keep you playing for hours. Did you know that the sounds of the slot machine and the bonus games psychologically make you spend more? Ha! Well, it’s about time players wised up to these tricks employed by the casino industry. Only then can you truly make a bucks from playing at mobile casinos.
1. Sound Effects
Now, who would’ve guessed that sound impacts your gaming style? An experiment by the University of Waterloo shows that sound fools your brain into thinking that you have won. Besides providing a more enjoyable experience, sound also makes players overestimate how much they’ve won. If you’re not careful, these sneaky noises may cut into your ability to manage your bankroll. Of course, the clever slot makers exploit this fact; today’s slot games have about 400 sound effects! There’s the “ping” when you hit the spin button, the thematic background music, the build up, celebratory music; all of which add up to a stellar experience.
The software provider NetEnt employs this tactic most professionally. This company tasks an entire team with programming the music that accompanies its slot games. This music is also played dynamically according to the outcome of the game. Get a bigger win, and the sound amplifies. If you are close to a win, the music seems more anxious. You can get a glimpse of the musical magic in the video of Starburst below, which is one of NetEnt's most popular slots.
2. Bonus Rounds and Mini Games
The slots scene is saturated with bonus games. There are so many different iterations too – pick one out of three, go around a board, spin the jackpot wheel, match two symbols. The best games integrate these diversions very well too and write them into the storyline of the game. I love them, along with many other slot players. I would keep playing a slot game with the sole aim of triggering the mini-game. These features are designed to hold our attention and keep us playing.
However, some of these games are more fun than they are profitable. Do check the paytable before playing – some mini games pay out a paltry 1-5x multiplier. A slot designer also revealed on reddit that, in some cases, the result of the bonus game would have been decided before you made your choice. How rude! It is simply how the software provider controls the payout percentages for each slot, and consequently, their profit margins. The lesson here is to never let mini-games shift your focus from the slot itself. You will never win the jackpot or strike it big from these features.
3. Near Misses
You know the frustration that comes about with near misses. You’ll score two out of three “jackpot” symbols needed to win the prize. Annoyingly, the third symbol would land just above or below the payline. Sometimes, these near-misses happen really often. Regular humans like you and me would hit spin again. To me, near-misses indicate that a win is due soon. Of course, my logic is flawed and mobile slots are completely random.
An outcome like this is psychologically arousing – it activates the same areas of the brain related to winning. In fact, it is even more exciting than small wins, as our brain anticipates the possible jackpot win when the first two symbols fall. Researchers at The University of Exeter discovered that these events even encourage slot play. Volunteers who were exposed to a higher frequency of ‘near misses’ would continue to play their mock slot machine. In comparison, volunteers who were exposed to a random likelihood of near-misses were three times less likely to continue playing. Moral of the story: treat near-misses the same as you would treat a loss.
4. Perceived Skill Involved
Take control of your winnings! Nudge the reels or gamble your winnings
Features such as “nudge” and “hold” buttons create the perception of skill and the illusion of control. The player thinks that they are affecting the outcome of the game. You should know better, since slots are based wholly on chance. Like mini-games, these features are designed to divert your attention. If you would actually like to control your winnings, you’d be better off playing actual skill-based games like poker or sports-betting.
The “gamble” feature is even more dangerous – it invites the player to chance his/her winnings on a game of coin toss. Win the toss and you’ll double your winnings, pick wrongly and lose all your winnings. The odds are 50/50, so which do you choose? I always recommend taking home the cash. Of course, a game of coin toss every once in a while is supremely fun!
5. Losses Disguised as Wins
Losses disguised as wins (LDW) is even more arousing than wins!
This is the meanest trick in the book. Some slot games disguise losses as wins. Take this example: you bet on 15 paylines at 10p each, spending a total of £1.50. Two of these paylines result in a winning combination, rewarding you with £0.90. The screens flash excitedly to celebrate your win. There is celebratory music too!
If you do the maths, you have actually lost 60p! Events like this happen even more frequently that you think, especially in games that allow you to wager on multiple lines at once. You should always keep an eye on the amount you’re spending per spin, so that your bank balance doesn’t diminish faster than it should.
6. Frequent Wins but Small Payouts
Only 26p?!
Most slot games have a high win probability and very frequent payout intervals, but very low payout figures. This is because players like instant gratification. Proper big wins only occur once every 20 spins or so. Now, this aspect of the slots software is not random. Software developers actually hire specialist gaming mathematicians to design their slot games; it is perfectly legal to tweak the odds of different types of wins occurring.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this concept 'flow'. It arises when there is a perfect balance between stress and reward. If you aren’t rewarded often, you’ll get frustrated and stop playing. But if you get too many small wins, you’ll get bored. When challenge and success is balanced, the result is emotionally intoxicating. While it seems counter-productive to spend all your time playing small-win games, you won’t blow your bank balance too quickly. You won’t win much either, but this kind of fun is well-suited towards casual players.
I hope that this article has opened your eyes to the design process of slots. At times, it may seem like players are fighting a losing battle against these conniving casino men. From another perspective, you can appreciate how complex the slots industry has become. It has moved away from being purely about money and has evolved into a kind of entertainment. Always keep an eye on your bank balance and most importantly, have fun!