Multi-line Bonus Slot Machines
The casinos are always looking for the most popular slot machines that will keep people playing for long periods of time. Obviously the longer they play the more money the casinos will make. The number one goal of slot machine makers is to design games that people will enjoy and to come up with unique ways to keep them playing. Over the past few years this has been accomplished by the introduction of "Bonus Slots Machines." These games have a secondary bonus round that is triggered by getting a certain combination of symbols, collecting the correct number of these specialty symbols.
Australia's Aristocrat Leisure Industries company first introduced the bonus games to this country in 1996. The slots in Australia are called "pokies" and differed from the American three-reel machines by offering multiple paylines, various betting options and multiple winning combinations. These winning combinations appear across the screen and were dubbed scatter pay machines. They also have a bonus screen that gives the player the opportunity for a bigger additional jackpot when triggered. The games were first placed in certain Indian casinos and gained popularity. The "pokies" came to Atlantic City in the summer of 1996. I had the opportunity to participate in a focus group where we played the machines and offered our feedback on the games. They were different and fun to play and I found them entertaining. So did the majority of people who played them.
The American slot makers took notice and started to design multi-line bonus games of their own. It was discovered that players would play longer in hopes of reaching the bonus screen. The majority of the new machines offer some sort of bonus round. Some of these new machines have up to ten pay lines and you can bet multiple coins on each line. Playing maximum coins could cost you $12.50 per spin on a quarter machine. Because of this the more and more nickel machines are appearing on the casino floors. By offering these machines with a nickel denomination, the casinos are employing a subtle psychological ploy. It can cost you $2.50 per spin playing maximum coins on a multi-line nickel machine, compared to 75 cents on a three-reel standard machine. But since the player is using nickels it doesn't seem to them that they are actually risking more money. This translates into a significant increase in casino revenue.
Video Poker machines were not left out of this multi-line multi-coin movement. International Game Technology (IGT) introduced Triple Play, a video poker game that deals three hands, with only one appearing face up. Choose the cards you wish to hold from the exposed hand, and those cards are held for all three hands. Hit the "Draw" button and the game concludes by finishing all three hands, each hand drawing from its own 52-card deck. Silicon Gaming followed suit with their multi-line Multi-Draw Game, that allows players to play four hands at a time. They also introduced a bonus screen in some their Odyssey Phantom Belle video poker games. This is a banked bonus feature that has become popular lately.
The slot makers wanted to give players a little more incentive to keep them playing, so they introduced the banked bonus machines. These machines "bank" coins and add them to the jackpot that can be collected when the player reaches the bonus screen. To entice you to play longer the machines shows you either how much money is in the jackpot or how many more symbols are needed to activate the bonus round. When a player knows the value of the bonus its possible to determine when the machine offers a positive expectation for playing it. I will discuss these banked bonus machines next week.
Until next time, remember:
"Luck comes and goes...Knowledge stays forever."