Hi, John,
I am new, reading your column this past
year. I bought your book and pass all that
intriguing information on to my retired Dad, who I take
to the casino every month here in Connecticut. He
loves the Mohegan Sun and I love Foxwoods! We play
the slots.
This week I noticed a brand new penny
video slot titled Shop Til You Drop. I played $20
and after over 30 minutes and a lousy screen play, it
was not worth the effort, and I regained $17 of my $20
and got off. However, I noticed the attraction of
this machine was its large ad to win $50,000 if five
shopping bags showed at once on the screen.
Interestingly, four of these icons showed up on my screen
within my half hour of play four different times! I
assume that is supposed to keep my hopes up while
playing. Anyway, my question: How often does
winning $50,000 for five icons actually occur in your
observation? Is it possible to be programmed that it
may hit once and never again, but the advertising
stays?
My second question is about a Carnival penny machine.
I played this a month ago. Once my kitty was over
$450 (which I think is high for a penny machine, and
I put in only $60), for some odd reason a ticket came out as if I had pushed cash out. It was for $15.
I continued
to play until my pot was down to $350 and got off.
What a surprise that a ticket would come out
automatically after the machine was up to $450?
The next time I played (2 weeks later), it
yielded $0 after about spending $60. But this
weekend I played it again and made $400 and got off.
The ticket did not come out like before, but I'll be
darned that the machine acted the same way it did a
month ago.
My question is why would a ticket come out
after $450? Does the machine have a
maximum pay out or something? I guess I will continue
to play this machine whenever I go and see what
happens, but it was really strange, and fun at the
same time.
I continue to love reading your monthly newsletter and
am glad to pass the information on to my Dad. It
helps a lot to have that knowledge when entering the
casino to play. I am going to Las Vegas with my
husband's company in March and can't wait to read up on
that before I go! Keep up the great information!
Helene
Dear Helene,
Thanks for the kind words about my column.
The only way to know how likely it is to hit five shopping bags is to look at the layout of the virtual reels on the machine. It is not possible for the $50,000 to hit once and then not again and for the amount to remain on the paytable. Jurisdictions usually require that if a combination is listed on the paytable, it must be possible to hit it.
I don't know why that machine spit out a ticket that one time you played it. Hopper-based machines were sometimes set to dump coins if the win would push the credit meter over a certain amount, but I can't imagine why a ticket-based machine would be set that way.
In any case, it sounds like you've found a machine that treats you well most of the time. Take it for everything you can get, but keep your eye on the ticket printer.
Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John
Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.
