Average payouts on mechanical slots?

[humperdingle]

So i've put a good few hundred coins through my Jubilee machine and i've been surprised at how much it returns.

I tried an experiment yesterday of £10 (machine takes 20p coins, so 50 'pulls').

To my surprise, it paid out £9.60! (Or 48 back from the 50) how does that compare to your machines?

Think i'll keep this thread updated below to see how the average pans out over time.

1. 48/50
2. 46/50
3. 52/50 (inc mystery 10 payout on [orange] [melon] [orange] )
4. 20/50 (All cherry wins!)

[gameswat]

Seems like you have a very loose slot Hump. Could be a fluke, but you really need to count the payouts according to the reel discs. Over the years these machines tend to get messed around with so could have been deliberately set as a "loose" machine to garner players - ie, possibly this location made more money from players through drinks etc. From memory I think the factory standard for the older slots that i like in the 30's era was around 78% return. Most of the machines from that era I've worked on though have been altered to pay out less - damn those operators (shakes fist in air like Colonel Klink). I'm sure if you search there will be a thread on here about how to figure out the payouts according to the reel disc holes.

[humperdingle]

Seems like you have a very loose slot Hump. Could be a fluke, but you really need to count the payouts according to the reel discs. Over the years these machines tend to get messed around with so could have been deliberately set as a "loose" machine to garner players - ie, possibly this location made more money from players through drinks etc. From memory I think the factory standard for the older slots that i like in the 30's era was around 78% return. Most of the machines from that era I've worked on though have been altered to pay out less - damn those operators (shakes fist in air like Colonel Klink). I'm sure if you search there will be a thread on here about how to figure out the payouts according to the reel disc holes.

Hi, yeah I did a search but most or all of the results were regarding electro machines.

I reckon 50 coins maybe isn't a solid base, but I'll update the thread over time - maybe 1000 coins will yield a better result.

Tbh I don't really care how loose the old girl is - She's just part of the family now. Her money making days are over

[livinginthepast]

Gameswat is dead right. All the old mechanicals seemed to be set on 78%.This must have been considered to be the optimum payout percentage. You can calculate the actual percentage if you count the number of each symbol on each reel and work out how many times they will occur in 8000 plays--assuming it is a 20 stop mech (20 x 20 x20)

[humperdingle]

Gameswat is dead right. All the old mechanicals seemed to be set on 78%.This must have been considered to be the optimum payout percentage. You can calculate the actual percentage if you count the number of each symbol on each reel and work out how many times they will occur in 8000 plays--assuming it is a 20 stop mech (20 x 20 x20)

Yep, 20 symbols per reel.

[highfield]

Add up payout for all combination of possible payouts.
Add any amount payable from a jackpot or token payout combinations (nb may be more than one way to obtain)
Divide total by 8000
Multiply x 100
This gives percentage payout
Eg
This method assumes that every combination possible in 8000 pulls is achieved.
If you were to play 8000 coins through and each time no combination was repeated, then you would have 7200 coins returned to you in the example below.

Total combination payout = 7000
Jackpot payout = 200
Total payout 7200
(7200/8000) * 100 = 90% payout

[gameswat]

All much clearer than I'd have made it!! But don't forget that it's an old machine,so the reel strips may not perfectly match the payout dics. Has happened to me a handful of times.

[badpenny]

Also there may be some of those little bugs fitted to the star wheels which block off the possibility of certain symbols landing.
Norty!

[humperdingle]

Also there may be some of those little bugs fitted to the star wheels which block off the possibility of certain symbols landing.
Norty!

Sounds intriguing! How do these little bugs work? I'm imagining some kind of filling piece in a cog wheel?

[badpenny]

Also there may be some of those little bugs fitted to the star wheels which block off the possibility of certain symbols landing.
Norty!

Sounds intriguing! How do these little bugs work? I'm imagining some kind of filling piece in a cog wheel?

You're imagining right!
The Star Wheel is a cog wheel, each reel has one and it has as many teeth/gaps as symbols. The lever that drops onto it and stops the reel gets deflected by the bug so it stops on the next following symbol.
Say a bandit has two Jackpot win lines, 3 melons and 3 bars. Then one bug could be put on melon and another on one bar, that way a jackpot line would never appear but the player may well "nearly get one" with one symbol only one away

[humperdingle]

Also there may be some of those little bugs fitted to the star wheels which block off the possibility of certain symbols landing.
Norty!

Sounds intriguing! How do these little bugs work? I'm imagining some kind of filling piece in a cog wheel?

You're imagining right!
The Star Wheel is a cog wheel, each reel has one and it has as many teeth/gaps as symbols. The lever that drops onto it and stops the reel gets deflected by the bug so it stops on the next following symbol.
Say a bandit has two Jackpot win lines, 3 melons and 3 bars. Then one bug could be put on melon and another on one bar, that way a jackpot line would never appear but the player may well "nearly get one" with one symbol only one away

Pretty devious... Must try it

Not really... But I can imagine it was rife at one time.