Dear Mark,
Who sets the payout percentages for large progressives
like
Megabucks?
Do they change those percentages on the weekends when
it is busier?
Douglas D.
To eat up your latter question first, "do casinos
take a screwdriver to
their slots on the weekends to tighten them up?",
the answer is no.
It is not cost-effective for the casino to continually
alter the payouts
on their machines. To alter the percentage return in
their favor, the
casino must, by law, make a hardware change.
They
do this by swapping out an internal component, the
ROM portion of the microprocessor chip. ROM, or read
only memory, is a chip the slot manufacturer provides
the casino that tells the slot machine to pay back
so many coins every time BAR BAR BAR appears. Some
state gaming commissions won't even allow casinos
to switch chips in-house. Besides exchanging chips,
Doug, they would also have to physically change the
glass payout schedule for each machine.
As
to who sets the payout percentages for Megabucks,
since the
progressive jackpot is paid out by IGT, those payout
percentages are
set at the factory. Don't ask, Doug. It's a trade
secret what those
exact percentages are. You won't get any hush-hush
tittle-tattle from
IGT.
Casinos
also have their own proprietary progressive machines,
typically
with their name and logo on the facing. On their
own machines, the
casino sets the percentage they want returned to
them when placing an
order with a slot manufacturer. Once they decide
on the payout
percentage needed based on the payout range received
from the buyer,
the makers of the machine program each slot based
upon the leasing
and/or purchasing agreement. When a casino wants
to make a change to
those percentages, they usually have to notify the
gaming commission
and the manufacturer to have those changes made.
