One arm bandit machines (Reel Slot Machines)

Introduction

Especially beloved by the casino visitors are the games of the slot machines. The first reel slot machines (from now on simply slot machines), that is the cylinder machines of one arm bandit type, were made in Eastern Coast of the USA However, they weren’t accepted widely, until they were transferred in San Fransisco around the end of the previous century. In the bars of Barbary Coast and the Tenderloin territory the clients won cigars for free or free drink playing a “nickel” coin of 5 cents in the “primitive” slot machines which used as profitable signs deck cards. Very few of the clients were in the position to understand the mathematical logic of which the cylinders of these devices were governed, so the slot machines’ owners made huge profits.

The name “one arm bandit” or “one-handed” which is used even nowadays, came up because of the lever that is placed at the left side of the machine, which has the shape of an arm and is used in order to give movement to the machine.

Plenty of slot machines’ manufacturers existed during that period and each one believed that he had made the most modern slot machine with the rotational cylinders and the direct cash payouts.

The German immigrant engineer Charles Fey however, with the slot machine “Liberty Bell” in 1895 is considered the precursor and the manufacturer of the modern slot machines. The design of the three cylinders was copied by many other manufacturers and in 1905 thousands of slot machines were in all the stores in the USA.

The “Liberty Bell” machines consist of three rotational cylinders. Every cylinder worked independently from every other while the one stopped after the other. Every cylinder had ten different symbols such as spades, hearts, diamonds, or “stops”, as well as a bell. So, the possible different combinations that could be done were 1.000 (10 x 10 x 10 = 1.000). The player in order to win a certain amount of money had to achieve on the straight line one and only combination, the one of the three symbols-”Liberty Bells”. That is the probability for a player to win was only 1 in 1000 while the payment efficiency to the player was 10 nickels. Nevertheless, because the allurement for a direct and on the spot money profit seemed attractive, these machines were a great success in their time.

The San Fransisco earthquake in 1906, ruined almost all the factories that manufactured slot machines. The manufacturers returned more powerful, but in 1909 all the slot machines were considered illegal both in San Fransisco and in California and Nevada. So, The manufacturers prevariated the machines as “gum” machines which, instead of money, gave out packages of gum in the jackpots. For the machines better “camouflage”, the symbols of the decks were replaced by symbols-fruits (lemons, oranges, peaches, cherries etc.) and tags with “gums” which evolved in “bar” in the nowadays machines. From 1918 up to 1934 the machines had once more an anodic course. Up to the 60′s decade though, and with very few exceptions, they met an important fall.

Two important incidents happened in the 60′s and 70′s that formed a different aspect so much for the slot machines players as for the administrative personnel of the casinos which, up to that time, maintained a very small number of slot machines for simple entertainment of some players.

The electric engineered machines were designed and developed by the manufacturing pinball machine company Bally Manufacturing that allowed much higher payment efficiencies than the mechanical machines. The Bally machines had a large hopper that could store almost 2.500 coins. Moreover they could accept more than one coin, which allowed the players to place up to 5 coins in every draw of the handle.

When the casinos were legalized in Atlantic City, the slot machines became the game that most of the players preferred. Audio effects, special lighting, music and more often payments attracted more and more players in the slot machines. The players could select among three-cylinder, four-cylinder and five-cylinder machines.

In 1979 was published the first official article that concerned the slot machines.

In 1980, the same company Bally manufactured a system with which a group of machines could connect to each other so that a player playing in the connected machines and forming an appropriate combination and under the precondition he had thrown the proper number of coins, had the possibility to claim and acquire an important amount of money (jackpot).

Nowadays there are tens of Slot machine manufacturers all over the world (USA, Europe, Australia, Japan etc.), which try all continually to make more and more attractive machines, with great programming possibilities using the last word of technology. So, nowadays, we discern machines of touch screens and multi touch screens where the player simply by touching the screen, chooses the game he wishes and then he handles its functions either right away through the screen, touching the choices that are provided to him, or through keys that are in front of the machine, while more and more new types of machines appear.

So, though till the 60′s the administrative personnel of the casinos simply maintained the machines in order to occupy the wives of the players who bet important amounts on the casino’s tables, nowadays with the computers’ evolution that have become an integral part of our everyday life and with the video games attracting more and more persons, the slot machines are one of the most popular games but also the center of the casino’s profits. Indicatingly we mention that in the USA, more than 2/3 of the casino profits come from the slot machines. Besides, the profits coming from the slot machines are “guaranteed” for the casino, since they appear no risk.

The casino, opposite to the rest of the games it provides, is in the position to estimate the income by the slot machines since the machines are nothing more than programmed devices. The profit can be programmed and defined by the use of an accidental numbers generator which defines how much money that was played will be returned as profit to the players. The same generator which provides to the casino this guaranteed profit, also gives to the players the possibility to acquire and win a very large amount (depending on how every machine is adjusted and programmed) from the money that has been played.

Function way of the one armed bandit machines

A slot machine is presented in the following draft:

Draft 9-1  . Reel Slot Machine

The “one arm” type machines have a screen (video screen),inside which rotate three or more cylinders. Every cylinder has on it various symbols, shapes, images, numbers etc. depending on every machines type. The cylinders are usually mechanical rotating cylinders in most machines, but there are also machines where the cylinders aren’t real but electronic mappings.

The game’s aim is for the player to achieve in the same straight line of the screen certain appropriate combinations. The profitable combinations are written on a drawing that is on the machine. The game starts as follows:

The player exchanges money and is supplied with special coins which every machine is capable to accept. On every machine there is distinctly declared the minimum value of the coins which it accepts. This can also be realized by the color of the lamp that is over every machine.

The minimum value that the various machines that we meet usually have in Greek casinos is 25 Drs. – 50 Drs. – 100 Drs. – 250 Drs. – 1.000 Drs. without this meaning that there are no machines where the minimum value can be less or more than the above. The player, throws in the slot or else coin socket, one or more coins.

Every coin represents or, more correctly, “is credited”, for one game. The player can choose to play one or more games every time, up to the maximum number of games allowed by every machine (max credits). The initiation of the cylinders is done in two ways:

The first way is for the player to draw upwards the handle that is on the left of the machine. This handle, as we mentioned before, reminds an arm shape and because of its existence these machines were called “one-armed” or “one-handed”. The handle is maintained mainly for traditional reasons, in order to remind the past of the machines’ manufacture. However, it is also functional, since when the player pulls it, the rotation of the cylinders begins.

The second way is for the player to push the button ” Spin Reels ” that is on the front side of the machine next to the slot where the coins are placed. After a very short period, the cylinders. The one after the other (from the left to the right) stop, and on the screen appear certain symbols (numbers, shapes, representations etc.).

If these symbols’ combination in a pay line of the screen (or in the pay lines and in the diagonal lines, depending on the type of the machine) is one of the profitable ones, then the player has won an amount counterpart to the combination he established. The hierarchy of the profitable combinations, is written on a special panel (pay table) that is over or below the machine’s screen.

The player who won has two choices. Either by pressing the ” Cashout ” button, to “shoot”, that is to let the coins he won to fall in the “basin” that lies at the bottom of the machine, or to ” Credit ” the profitable coins in in games. The player, any time he wishes so, has the possibility to take the coins or call a qualified clerk to delete for him from the machine the credit games and exploit his counterpart profit in money.

This is, in general lines and in simple words, the operation way of these machines. As it appears by the operation way of the machines that we described, the player, opposite to the video poker that we’ll describe in a following unit, has in effect no choice possibility. From the moment he draws the handle or presses the ” Spin Reels ” button, he simply waits for a combination to appear on the screen which will be either profitable or not, and that is defined by the way every machine is programmed. Exceptions are certain types of “one-armed” machines which provide the possibility to the player to be able to stop the rotation of one or two of the three cylinders pressing instantly the ” Hold ” button. Of course, the player isn’t in the position to define which will be the symbol achieved by the cylinder the moment he stops it.
The usual “one-armed” type machines have three cylinders. The number of symbols that every cylinder has differs, but usually it isn’t less that ten and more than twenty five.

The profit percentages that will be attributed to the players are defined by the program manufacturer of every specific machine, but can also be adjusted. The usual adjustment scale is to be attributed to the player 87-98% of the incomes.

The “one-armed” type machines appear in several versions but their function way in most of them is similar. Their efficiency depends mainly on the value of the coins they accept as well as on the number of games that the player plays every time.

Example of slot machine function

Even though the symbols of the slot machines as we mentioned before, vary (from fruits to playing-cards), however all the slot machines operate in the same way.

In the following example we cite the panel of the payments efficiency of the slot machine with the name “Gold Pirates” as an indicating example of the operation way of the slot machines.

Initially the player chooses his bet (stake) by throwing in the slot the counterpart coins. The amount he shall win in every profitable combination depends on the height of his bet.

The buttons that are used for the game are the followings.

The diagram of the profitable combinations and the payment efficiencies for the specific machine are as follows: