If you’ve read any of my blog posts on slot machines before this, you already have an idea of how slot games work. A computer program called a random number generator (RNG) keeps looping through the numbers and stops when you press the spin button on the machine. Since there is no way of knowing which number it will land on, the result is random. Each number on the RNG corresponds to a combination of reel symbols. And each reel symbol combination comes with a payout. Most of the money you put into a jili slot machine is returned as payouts, but X for Y. A relatively small percentage of money not returned as payouts can add up to huge losses for players and huge wins for casinos in the long run. Let’s take an example of an extremely generous slot machine that pays back 97% of the investment. How much money does that machine make?
Assuming an average bet of $3 per spin and an average game rate of 600 spins per hour. This means you will be putting in $1800 per hour. The machines returned an average of 97%, or $1746, which means you lost $54 in that hour of play. Of course, this is a statistical average. Sometimes you win some money, sometimes you lose more money. But that’s how slot machines work.
What happens to the slot machine when you add the bonus round?
The most important thing for casinos is to get people to spend a lot of time playing on slot machines. They do this by making sure the win-to-loss ratio is optimal to keep you motivated. They also want to make sure that the graphics and sound associated with the game are exciting enough for you to play. The game features a bonus round where you can spin the wheel as if you were on the show. This bonus round was so popular that I’ve read stories of players who won the jackpot and were disappointed they didn’t turn the wheel. Other games with popular licensing bonus rounds followed soon after. Some are based on game shows, while others are based on board games like Monopoly.
The illusion of bonus
In most slot games, the bonus round feature doesn’t really give you anything extra. It’s just the illusion of a bonus. Sure, it’s fun to watch the wheel spin, but you pay out the bonus round in the form of a reduced payout percentage from the game itself (this also applies to jackpots, but that’s a topic for another article).
Ask yourself – where does the money paid out in the bonus round come from?
It has to come from the base game or the slot machine as a whole cannot remain profitable. I know I used 97% as an example of a return earlier, but a more realistic return might be 92%. This 92% includes payouts from the bonus round. This means you pay less money during regular gameplay on the machine. If 20% of your regular game payouts are “transferred” to the bonus round, you’ll see lower payouts in regular games most of the time.
Multiple payline games with bonuses
If you’ve never played a slot machine game, you might think that you can just put your bet amount and hit spin. You then check to see if you get three winning symbols in a row in the middle of the machine. That’s not how modern slot machines work, though. First, most modern slot machines allow you to choose how many coins to bet per spin. You can bet up to 100 coins or more. These limits are determined by the programming of the slot game. Best of all, there are more ways to form a winning combination than just a horizontal line through the middle.
On most slot machines, you can see a row of symbols above and below the main payline. Paylines are like patterns on a bingo card. The thing is, to activate these extra paylines, you have to bet on each line. Some modern slot machines may have as many as 40 paylines. The same game with multiple paylines is usually a game with a bonus round. Casinos and slot machine makers are a bit hypocritical and make you think these bonus rounds are getting you nowhere. At the end of the day, however, these little perks just end up costing you more.
In conclusion
Slots with bonus rounds are pretty much everywhere these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re the best slot games in casinos. Do you play bonus slot machines? What was your experience with them like?