One-armed bandits of tomorrow

(continued from previous page)

and added that the system employs encryption methods used by the Defense Department.

"More importantly," he said, "we're going to have bi-weekly gatherings of all the nerds" to ensure a hacker-proof system.

Larry Pacey, senior vice president for product development at WMS Gaming, another large slot machine maker planning on introducing SBGs at G2E, said casino floors will eventually have an amalgamation of different companies' SBG technology. That should come as no surprise, he explained, since most casinos already employ slot machines from a wide variety of manufacturers.

"There will be one network on the casino floor that all gaming devices will plug into," Pacey said, "but they'll have multiple solutions running."

And regardless of whose technology casinos use, Pacey predicts that server-based gaming will be as big a sea-change for the gaming industry as the Internet was for PCs.

"This is really going to be a paradigm shift because it's allowing the technology to come of age the same way your PC has radically changed since it was networked," he said. "Those kinds of revolutions will happen in this kind of environment."

Saffari said the revolution will extend even beyond the casino floor. He described a scenario in which players could cart around wirelessly enabled handheld devices on which they could continue to play their favorite slot machine games even as they lounge by the pool. That would be possible, he said, because SBG systems could broadcast data via secure Wi-Fi networks anywhere on a casino property.

Meanwhile, because server-based slots will, at heart, be no more than gussied-up terminals, they won't have the ubiquitous spinning wheels of today's machines. At least not physically. Instead, explained Saffari, the devices would have digital screens which would mimic the look and feel of current machines down to the requisite dinging sound so familiar to anyone who has ever stepped onto a casino floor.

Thus, it appears, the revolution of networked technology is coming to a casino near you and everything that previously existed physically inside a discrete box will now be reduced to a few lines of code in a rack in some back room.

[C.Schroeder]

Chi-square Test?

So who performs the Chi-square Test on the pseudorandom number generator used by these new games to certify it is sufficiently random and thus (reasonably) fair? Not all pseudorandom number generators can pass the Chi-square Test. How are the pseudorandom number generators for these games seeded?

[volterwd]

Why would they

a chi squared test... i dont even see how its applicable... there are other tests of randomness you know

[BMR777]

Hackers

So, this technology will have all the electronic games running on one central server. What are the possibilities of hacking or tampering, and are casinos willing to risk it happening? Sounds cool, but this idea has the possibility of major backfiring!

[gamindpert]

If hacking was a problem it would have been a big news story over a decade ago. Casinos have long been attached to the net without significant issues. They have the strongest security measures in place as mandated by the feds. Hackers are tracked and turned in to the feds immediately at their first attempts. Gaming is regulated at the fed, state and local level and is a closely monitored industry...

[Fray9]

Not gonna work

I dont think this idea is going to pan out. The casinos that do this are going to see a mass exodus to the casinos still using the old machines.

Theres just something mystical about the relationship sitting in front of a one armed bandit. Its just you and the machine. Its something physically in front of you and while slot machines havent been completely mechanical in a long time, still theres something reassuring about having the laws of physics be the randomizing factor, rather than a number crunching computer.

The gamblers arent going to be happy in the least I dont think. With the old machines they knew that the odds were set manually. Once you sat down unless someone came by and took a screwdriver to the back of your machine, the odds you started with are the odds you end with. Even hint at the idea that management is adjusting the odds on the fly based on your luck and you'll see a riot.

Besides if they wanted to gamble online on a computer they can do that at home.. why go out to a casino if not for the thrill of pitting your luck against the static settings of the machine sitting in front of you?

I just wonder why they cant leave well enough alone. They claim that it is to give more options to the gamblers but thats a crock.. its to reduce cost and increase profits of course (oh how horrible is the plight of the casino owner who must let people win just enough to keep them hopeful but not so much that they on average leave with more than they arrived with) and to micromanage the odds on the fly to ensure no one wins too much.

Just what they need.. for it to be easier for them to figure out the most effective way to get people addicted. With this system they could run experiments and see the results in real time rather than having to manually reconfigure machines.

[George Cole]

reduce cost

http://www.analogstereo.com/suzuki_xl7_owners_manual.htm

[gamindpert]

The old machines are already networked and have been that way for quite some time now. All modern slot machines are attached to a slot accounting system. The sb machines can be configured to 'look and feel' just like the old machines (including the 'one-arm' but excluding the mech. wheels) however, most people prefer the spin button nowdays and video is fast becoming the preferred format.

Number crunching (random number generation) has been built-in to a firmware computer chip which is installed in every slot machine for many years. There is no way to tamper with this as it is true firmware, burried deep in the machine and 'closely' monitored by gaming commissions. Also, odds have been managed by the house since the invention of the 1st slot machine. The house adjusts odds based on market factors & competition. If the casino down the street pays 95% - you set your SAS to pay out 96% or more so your property pays out more and gets the lions share of business. You see this advertised on street signs in Vegas everywhere. No casino will attract guests if the odds are too tight compared to the casino down the street. And no casino general manager will jeapordize their properties existance by stacking the odds against the players. Market based competition is alive and well in gaming.

Everything about gaming is automated these days. SB gaming is just the next step in the evolution of the industry. Today's PC gamers are tomorrows casino gamers. If casino's don't meet this demand with sophisticated computer based video slot machines the players of tomorrow just won't play. SB slots will add flexibility for the player in that they will soon be able choose from many dozens of games on every machine vs. today's multi-game slots that offer just 5 or so games.

Player tracking has been another reality of gaming since marketing was invented. Those player cards don't just give the gamer a place to store points! The vast majority of gamers know what those cards are used for by the house. The gaming industry is just that - an industry. It can only exist if it is legal and profitable - and it is legal but not always profitable. The papers are full of articles about BK casinos these days.

SB slots need to happen for gaming to maintain player interest and for casinos to maintain industry viability. From where I sit the future of gaming looks bright.

[Mendz]

Maximize Estate Profit

With this plan, I see more profits per square inch of the casino floor.

But my guess is that it can not be implemented full blown because nothing beats the classic.

I'll bet it'll just be one of the machines you can choose to play or not to play in the casino.