Once considered as a harmless form of entertainment, hi-tech video slot machines are now the money minting machines for online casinos. They are the ones that bring in the most revenue for most establishments, and those who play these games become hooked to them three times faster than the other players. Today, we write how slots have become the most harmful form of entertainment – both at the land-based casinos and online.
What harm can free slot machines bring? This is the question that the gambling industry possesses to its critics. And we are here to provide you with the full answers, in details.
Until the late 1970s, most of the European countries hadn’t legalized casino gambling. Fast forward to today, casino gambling is allowed in more than 10 countries, with more being in the process of legalizing it. Most of these legalized casinos aren’t Las Vegas-style grand hotels. In fact, the majority of them have players visiting from nearby. They don’t dine and wine in a fine restaurant. They won’t stay overnight. And most surprisingly, they actually don’t play cards.
Modern casino gaming revolves around computer gambling. The modern casino gambler will sit at the computer screen, enter his/her credit card information and before long, sink into a digital environment that’s been carefully constructed to ensure that they play until enough cash has been extracted from them.
Slots Are the Most Problematic Casino Games
While most of the focus surrounding problematic gambling revolves around individual gamblers, it’s crucial to also look at how slots have been the contributing factor to the gambling problems. The high speeds of play, as well as features which promote false beliefs, are primarily known as the main reasons for problematic elements linked with the fruit machines. You might find it very helpful to be fully aware of these features that make fruit machine play the most problematic.
The Odds of Winning
The odds of winning as you play the slot machine games isn’t the best. Casinos have been making a lot of money from these machines because they retain most of the money that you wager. And the small percentage of cash, which isn’t held onto is eventually paid out to the few players – over the long term. The payout rates of the slot machines are normally based on hundreds of thousands of spins that you make. They, therefore, don’t quite reflect what happens on the slot machine at that particular instance.
The Speed of Play
Fruit machines are normally played at a faster rate than most of the other games. They’ve been designed this way so that you can lose more money faster than in the other casino games. Slot play constitutes of a continuous form of gambling, which can enable you to complete as many as 500 – 1,300 spins in one hour. And with features such as the Autoplay and Bet Max buttons, it’s very possible to go up to 1,500 spins in an hour.
Weighted Reels
The majority of the players don’t have a clue that the reels on fruit machines are weighted such a way that the low paying symbols show up more than the high paying and jackpot symbols. It’s not possible for a casino to use a stacked deck of cards or weighted dice. However, weighted reels are very common in slot machines, and the majority of the players are not aware of this.
Unbalanced Reels
Usually, unbalanced reels come up whenever one reel has fewer jackpot symbols that the other reels. The result is players are most likely going to see two jackpot symbols with a very low probability of seeing three. It, therefore, creates a near miss. Every time the unbalanced reels spin, it appears as if all the symbols have a high probability of coming up, which is never really the case.
Near Misses
This usually occurs every time you get to see a jackpot symbol appearing directly below or above the payline. This creates a false impression that the symbol was only one spot away from creating a win. The majority of the players will not accept the fact that they lost – and a loss is a loss in any casino game regardless of whether you lost with a single symbol or many symbols.
Research indicates that the near misses usually motivate players to continue spinning the reels since they feel that they were ‘close to winning’. In fact, in countries such as the United States, and more specifically the state of Ontario, it’s legal for casinos to have the fruit machines programmed with near misses below or above the payline to occur up to a maximum of 12 times.
Credits vs. Currency
Most of the fruities have been designed to automatically convert all the cash that you put into the machine into credits. Focusing on credits instead of real money means that you are less aware of the amount that you’ll be spending. The result is you might end up overspending.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s important to play video slot games online, knowing that they are designed to advantage the casino – at least for those who can’t match the casino’s bankroll. Also, it’s important to know that the game’s results are totally random and there is no way that you can alter them to advantage you.
