Gaming Machines: Facts and Myths

pokies are all pretty much alike they're big boxes with lights video screens and buttons and inside there's not much to see just some computer chips that have been programmed to spit out random numbers and whiz-bang graphics and sounds so did you expect to see some reals inside sorry the reals aren't real they're just computer graphics like on a videogame there's no pattern or skill the gaming machines or pokies it all comes down to chance a bit like the lottery draw happening over and over again what makes it this way is the random number generator that's continually spitting out numbers think of it as a waterfall of numbers that never stops you press the play button and five numbers are instantaneously plucked from the waterfall nobody not the manufacturer the venue or you can predict what they'll be the spinning reels are just decoration they're just there to make it seem fun so imagine if the machines simply showed you the numbers instead of the spinning reels sometimes it looks like you've almost pulled off a jackpot but there's no such thing as a near-miss a miss is a miss it's these so-called near misses and all the little wins that keep you playing remember the moment you press that button the game's over you just don't know the result yet lots of people play the pokies without a problem but if you're going to play then it's good to know how pokies work before anything think of the pokies as just another type of entertainment and the money you put in that's what you pay for it's good to decide what you're going to spend before you start and then stick to it but let's not stop here let's keep exploring the pokies and some of the myths that surround them the longer you stay at these machines are more chance you are of having a big win because every goal is random every time you play you have the same chance of winning the jackpot or any other prize your chances of winning the jackpot on the pokey are generally worse than one in a million it says so on a machine that's every time you play and it doesn't matter if you played once or a thousand times it's a bit like being in a race where you keep getting dragged back to the starting line after every play your chances of winning a prize any prize are really not great here's a table showing the odds for a typical pokey your chance of winning more than 500 credits is less than 1 in 10,000 your odds of winning the smaller prizes are much better even then you only have a 1 in 10 chance put it another way your chances of missing out on even a small prize are about 9 in 10 and remember the odds of winning don't change no matter how long you play just keep repeating to yourself every time I play my odds of winning are the same believe me over time you cannot win you can only lose and some people lose more than just a few dollars the more you play the worse your chances of coming out ahead here's a tip if you have a short session on the pokies and then walk away well that's one way to come out a winner that's for 20 let's go some machines are luckier than the others pokies are just another kind of machine like a computer computer technology controls every part of them from accepting your money to registering your bet to randomly spitting out the numbers that determine the result mylord pokies have to return at least 85% this doesn't mean that you get back 85 cents at every dollar you play the player return isn't calculated for a single game or session of play or week of playing it's the amount won by players as a share of the amount left over an infinite number of games or what they call the lifetime of the scene you won't find a machine anywhere with a player return of more than 100 percent if you're playing long enough of any machine you will eventually lose all your money it's like a cake where each time you play you expect to lose 15% if you keep at it long enough or you'll be left with is the crumbs some people think some machines are luckier than others because they look and sound different the symbols and designs are there to make the machines appeal to different players they might tap into your desires your hobbies or your superstitions you might think that a poky with all these great images is going to behave like a friend truth is they're all just machines and they all operate on chance I always probably the machine that hasn't paid out for a while it's jus this front has been jackpot it for ages ah ah pokies don't loosen up if they haven't had a big payout and they don't tighten up if they've just paid a jackpot the computer doesn't care how much money's been put in like any other game of chance every single play is random they're the same odds of being a winner or a loser as the play before or the play after for example when you toss a coin there's a 50-50 chance we'll come up heads at a 50/50 chance and tails right for each coin toss the chance of getting heads or tails is the same no matter what happened before or what will happen next now toss a coin 100 times and write down the results then find the times when you had three heads in a row does the next toss bring up a tail not necessarily the next toss has the same chance of bringing up the head or retail as any other toss the laws of probability say the more times you flip a coin the closer you come to getting half heads and half tails but each toss has exactly the same chance of coming up either and remember just like you can't expect to get heads every second coin toss you can't expect to get that 85% return every session you play you can beat the pokies if you know how nothing you do can increase your chances of winning on the pokies not touching the machine in a special way not changing the level of your bet not playing faster or slower again it's all about chance it's a machine it doesn't care absolutely nothing you can do it can change the odds of the machine paying out okay case closed the only thing you can do is decide how much to bet the number of lines to play and the time you take people do enjoy the pokies that's fine but why not bet small amounts and make the fun last longer or if you're up why not pocket the money and walk away knowing you've won this time a lot of people say playing the pokies is really soothing it really relaxes you playing the pokies can actually raise your heart rate and your blood pressure some people say it's hard to get back to normal after a session on the pokies and they find it difficult getting to sleep there are the colors sound effects and features the risk-taking and the possibility of winning money you may feel relaxed because you've escaped the boredom of everyday and you're in the zone but your body is not I'm at this big money to be made on the face this sure is but not by the players these machines were designed as a fun way to pass the time not to make money they're an entertainment in the long term it is nearly impossible to come out ahead let's go back to the average player return by law the player return must be at least 85% but mostly it's around 90 percent 90 cents back for every dollar you put in that sounds okay doesn't it doesn't it not really even if it was 99 cents you're still not getting your investment back anything under a hundred percent and you're losing remember small wins account for most people pay a return the odds of getting say two of a kind are higher than five over time the sad thing is jackpots make up less than 1% of payers the pokies are only machines at best they're meant to be fun to think you can make money off them or control them well that's like picking horses at the races based on colors it's just not right if playing the pokies isn't fun for you anymore and you can't stop get in contact with gambling help on 1-800 eight five eight eight five eight they provide phone face-to-face and online help best thing is they're free and they work or you might prefer to talk to your doctor or someone from your church your family or a good friend but do talk to someone you

Channel: Gambling Help NSW

Views: 218,554

Rating: 4.4519572 out of 5

Keywords: pokies, Slot Machine (Video Game Subject), gaming machines, pressing, problem gambling, gambling help, gambling counselling

Id: 6NZuyfpQTms

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2013