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A sixty-four dollar
question
Dear Mark,
A few questions if I may regarding progressive,
networked slot machines. If player A is playing in one
location, and player B in another, are the odds of
hitting a jackpot the same? Does one machine know what
the other machine is paying?
Now the sixty-four dollar (obviously much more on a
progressive machine) question: What would happen if two
players hit a progressive, network slot machine before
it was reset? Amber D.
Well, Amber, so long as Players A and B are playing for
the same single jackpot, both machines must have the
same chance of coughing up that jackpot. This applies to
machines linked to other machines on the same bank,
inside the same casino, over a network of machines in
different casinos, and even to machines in different
cities‹a clear benefit for closet-gamblers.
All small jackpots are paid directly at and by the
casino or by the machine itself, while the progressive
jackpot is paid from a "progressive pot" which
is generally set at 5-10 percent of the value of all
coins inserted.
That amount rises until some serendipitous soul hit the
big enchilada. Each machine is controlled internally by
its own EPROM, the programmed drill sergeant, and is
unaware of what is happening on other machines. Coded
into the machine¹s internal software (technically, its
"gizzard") are instructions to send a certain
percentage (5-10 percent) of the total input value into
the jackpot.
As to your sixty-four dollar question, yes, the
extraterrestrial possibility exists that when Player A
hits the jackpot, Player B could hit the same jackpot
milliseconds later, before the jackpot is reset to its
starting amount.
These mega-jackpots can go months, if not years before
being hit, so the possibilities of this happening are
I¹ll-eat-my-hat unfathomable, about the same as for a
needle falling onto a bottle with a ship model inside
and balancing on its point for seven years.
But, if the astronomically improbable did happen, the
first winner would win the jackpot and the second, or
P-O¹d winner, would get the starting amount of the new
reset jackpot.
Incidentally, Amber, did you know the "sixty-four
dollar" question has gambling roots? It originated
from a popular radio quiz show in the US in the 1940s
that offered $64 as the top prize. The first question
carried a prize of $1, and the prize amount doubled with
each successive question: $2, 4, 8, 16, and 32,
culminating in the $64 question. Later, corporate suits
thought that too measly a win and upped it to the
"sixty-four-thousand dollar" question you are
probably familiar with.
Dear Mark,
From your column and my last few casino visits, I have
just discovered, and now enjoy playing, Three-card
Poker. Just how long has three-card poker been around?
Mike B.
In 1994, Derek Webb developed three Card Poker,
initially for British casinos. But it soon emigrated
across the Pond and can now be found everywhere in the
States. Its ancient lineage traces to a popular British
game called Brag, one of the many proud ancestors of
poker. Edmond Hoyle had written about Brag as early as
1751.
In 1999, ShuffleMaster acquired Three Card Poker. Many
like yourself enjoy the fast pace, favorable odds, and
high frequency of winning hands in Three Card Poker.
According to ShuffleMaster, Three Card Poker is now the
country¹s fastest growing specialty table game, both in
units played and in revenue generated.
Online Gambling quote of the week: "Taunting the odds is a
little sexy, a little dangerous, and straddles the line
between unimagined success and nauseating failure."
Chad Millman, The Odds
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