No wonder machines account for 70 to 80 percent of a typical casino's revenue.īob Dancer, who's cruising the convention and previewing games, had considered all of this before he decided to devote his life to playing video poker machines. With their continually spinning random-number generators, they are designed to pay back as little as 85 percent of the money dumped into them. Still, over time, it's a losing proposition. Maybe if you play perfectly (which hardly anyone does), a poker machine might pay back a bit more than 99 percent of its money. The machines, after all, are meticulously designed: to win. Most of the time, of course, looking for an edge in a gaming machine is foolish at best and, more likely, totally devastating. Among the attendees are casino executives from across the country, food-and-beverage types sampling coffee-flavored smoothies dispensed by models, ultra-successful game designers, and serious players who come to snoop around and preview games that might inadvertently have mathematical chinks ripe for exploitation. At their core, however, all of these machines are nothing more than good old-fashioned one-armed bandits.ĭrawn to the Expo is a veritable who's who of the gaming world. Invariably, they provide worse payouts than the garden variety and gimmick-free slots, which casinos purchase for $8,000 and own forever (fancier, bubble-topped machines are licensed and leased). Others tie into movies or TV shows or celebrities.

the machines, after all, are meticulously designed: to win.įollow the Stars, and Flame of Olympus. Most of the time, of course, looking for an edge in a gaming machine is foolish at best and,

Garish as hookers, some slot machines beckon with alluring names such as Go to the Green, The pickpockets are gambling machines: flashy, tarted-up devices guaranteed to separate suckers from their money.

Officially this event is called the Global Gaming Expo, but it feels more like a pickpockets convention - albeit, one with beautiful women. Bikini-clad women toss T-shirts to attendees and silver-dipped beauties twist as if it were 1960. In the gargantuan room at the Las Vegas Convention Center is wall-to-wall slot machines, poker machines, gimmicky table games, video roulette and novel forms of blackjack.

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