Casino Enterprise Management

Several months ago our fictitious manufacturing company released a fictitious slot machine. The 5-reel video slot featured a bonus game that was initiated by three symbols appearing on the first three reels. Testing showed a promising future for this game. Once regulatory approvals were received and the game shipped to a number of fictitious casinos, however, something went seriously awry...

 It was almost 10:30 when Larry walked into my office, a stack of papers and a binder in one hand, a coffee in the other. “I have some information on the Little Bit o’ Winnings game,” he said glumly, sitting down in the chair across from my desk.

“Yeah, that’s been quite a disappointment in play, hasn’t it? It had such a promising start,” I replied. “Have you figured out what’s wrong?”

“I think I may have,” Larry said. “And it may not be as bad as we think. If my evaluation is correct, we can modify the math model and turn it from a sleeper to a scorcher. Let me show you.”

Larry arranged several papers on my desk, opening up his binder to several illustrations of the game’s player screens. Satisfied that he had all of his information together, he began. “Well, first of all, the game is performing significantly below our expectations,” he said. “The handle is roughly one-quarter of comparable machines on the floor.”

“But when first placed on a test, it outperformed anything we’d had before,” I said.

“That was part of the dilemma I faced,” Larry replied. “But in studying the game, I think that very fact is a clear indication of the problem.”

“All right,” I answered. “Show me what you’ve found.”

 “Initially, the games were well received,” Larry said. “They had heavy play with minimal vacant times. By all measures, they were a resounding success.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Time.”

“Time?”

“Time,” he repeated. “The players began to have more time on the machine and became accustomed to the overall feel of the game. And during this time something they saw didn’t sit well with them. The handle of the machine dropped significantly and vacant time skyrocketed. In one week the games lost almost 50 percent of their play level. I went to the casino and observed the game. I even managed to talk to some of the players. It seems the problem is the bonus game.”

“The bonus game?” I asked. “I thought we had a pretty good game. It has a high hit frequency—every 40 games on average—with a pretty high average payout. What don’t they like?”

“What they don’t like is when the bonus game doesn’t occur.”

“I’m not following you.”

“Take a look at Figure 1,” Larry said, pointing to the first illustration. “Here we see a game where the bonus game was awarded. The player had three or more bonus symbols on an active payline, starting from the leftmost reel. In this figure there are three matching bonus symbols on the payline, initiating the bonus game.”

“Correct,” I said.

“Now, if we look at Figure 2, we see a case where the bonus game was not awarded,” he said. “There were two bonus game symbols on the first two reels, but no matching symbol on a payline on the third reel. As a result, there were no paylines that awarded the bonus game.”

“Are the players disappointed when they see the two symbols appear, but then realize that they didn’t get the third symbol?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s it exactly,” Larry said. “Since we have such a high hit frequency where the bonus game is awarded, we have a significant occurrence of two symbols appearing without the matching third symbol. The players see this and don’t like it. When I investigated further, though, I found the problem to be even more specific. There are frequently times when all three symbols do appear in this window, but they don’t line up on a particular payline. When this happens—and it happens frequently—the players get very upset.”

I suddenly realized how the players felt. They thought this game was a tease, frequently “almost” winning the bonus game. When this happens periodically, it can generate excitement for the player. However, if it happens too often, it becomes an irritant, making players walk away from the game.

“We can reduce the hit frequency of the symbols,” Larry said, “but this drops the frequency that the bonus game is awarded. We remove the ‘almost won’ aspect of the game, but then the times when they do get the bonus game are significantly reduced.”

“We’re into a situation where there’s too much of a good thing, then? Too many bonus game symbols are drawing the players’ attention?” I asked. “How do we fix this?”

“I think the answer lies in how we award the bonus games,” he answered. “Right now it’s on a payline basis. If we add more paylines, that’s one solution. This means there are fewer combinations where symbols fall outside of a payline. On the first three reels there are 27 possible combinations. If we have nine paylines, then there are 18 combinations that won’t fall on a payline. When three symbols are displayed in the window, two-thirds of the time they won’t align on a payline.”

“If we increase it to 25 paylines, then there would only be two combinations that weren’t on a payline,” I said proudly.

“Not necessarily,” Larry said, bringing my spirits down.

“Why not?”

“Some combinations are repeated,” he responded. “Take a look at Figure 1 once more. In this example, payline 5 and payline 7 cover the same symbols on the first three reels. Remember that the bonus symbols are only found on the first three reels, but we are using a 5-reel machine. There are actually more than 1,000 payline combinations possible when we take into account all five reels.”

“Even with 25 paylines, some combinations are duplicated for the first three reels, so we may only have perhaps 15 of the 27 possible combinations used?” I asked.

“Correct,” Larry said. “There will still be situations where three symbols are visible but they’re not on a payline, so it doesn’t count.”

“Then what is our solution? It sounds like we’re in a bit of a pinch.”

“Scatter pay!” Larry exclaimed. “We turn this into a scatter pay. In this case, the player would get the bonus game more frequently. There would still be times when the player doesn’t get the bonus game, such as when two symbols appear, but if three symbols show up they will always get the bonus game.”

“That’s a good thing. This would solve our problem?” I asked.

“Partially,” he said. “It would solve our current problem, but create a new one. We would have a higher hit frequency because there will not be any time when the bonus game isn’t awarded when all three symbols appear. As a result, our average bonus game payout would have to decrease if we were to keep the total payout percentage of the game constant. The players are getting the bonus game more frequently, so they have to be paid a little less each time in order to even things out.”

“But how do the various payouts work? I’m not sure I’ve ever really understood that.”

“All right, let’s go over how these work,” Larry said. “First of all, look at line pays, which is what we have now. For a line pay, the three symbols must land one after the other, as I already explained. If they don’t fall onto a pre-determined payline, they don’t count.”

“When we’re awarding a line pay, remember that it’s activated on a single line. The line awards the bonus so the payout is based upon the line,” he continued. “As a result, if you wagered two credits per line, then the payout is doubled. Whatever wager you made on that particular matching line is used for the payout. But also remember that some lines overlap. In this case there may be two or three lines that activate the bonus game. Here we pay for each line that awarded the bonus game.”

“If you have the bonus symbols falling on two paylines, such as you showed me in Figure 1, then you have been awarded the bonus game twice,” I said. “And if we’ve wagered two credits for each of those three lines, then we double that amount. In this case, we would take the bonus game amount and multiply it by four to get our payout—two paylines at two credits each.” (Figure 3.)

 
“Exactly,” Larry said. “And in this case, had you only bet five credits, then payline 7 would not be active, and the bonus game would only be initiated on a single payline. Now, a scatter pay is awarded based upon the game, not a line. If you wager a single credit, then you get the bonus game. It does not matter where the symbols end up, as long as they are all showing. In this way, every credit you wager is a chance toward getting the bonus game. If you wager 20 credits, then you have wagered 20 times the minimum amount required, and you win 20 times the payout. Scatter pays, therefore, are multiplied by the total number of credits wagered.”

“Then a scatter pay is generally a lower award than a line pay,” I said.

“Yes, if you have one payout and it’s going to be a scatter pay, then it’s generally going to be a smaller payout,” he responded. “But we factor in the number of credits that activate it, and in the end it’s going to come out the same. Suppose we’re going to pay 2,000 credits. If we have two lines initiating the bonus game with two credits wagered per line, then we’d award 500 for the base payout and quadruple it. For the scatter, with 80 credits wagered for the game, we’re multiplying the base bonus award by 80. In this case we’d award 25 credits and multiply it by 80 to pay the same amount. In the end, the player gets the same amount. How they get there is the difference.” (Figure 4.)

“Why would we ever use line pays for a bonus game?” I asked. “It seems that scatter pays are the only way to go.”

“There are always tradeoffs—pros and cons to every situation,” he said. “In this specific instance the hit frequency of the line pay was high, which meant that the hit frequency of the ‘almost won’ was also very high. It was frustrating to the players. In many cases, there’s just enough tease to keep the players interested, but not so much that it becomes troublesome. Although we can average out the amounts so that the line trigger and scatter triggers award the same, it doesn’t have to be that way. The line pay trigger can be used for an infrequent award that pays a significantly large amount. Perhaps it’s for a bonus game that awards jackpot amounts. If that same award were converted to a scatter pay, then the payout would have to be significantly reduced, changing the entire philosophy of the game.”

In the end, our fictitious game would be modified and players would enjoy the bonus game once more. The study of scatter pays versus line pays is important in that it illustrates how the awards are generated and, therefore, how the underlying math is created. The PAR sheet always shows the overall payout of the game and how these payouts are derived. By studying the PAR sheet you are able to see the hit frequency of the payout (in this example a bonus game), the average payout per occurrence, and how much of the total game payout is comprised of this payout. Such analysis can help you, the operator, determine if a game will suit your target players and give you an indication whether it’s a good fit for your facility.

John Wilson is the Owner of ICS Gaming, providing slot consulting services and game design. He has designed several slot games in both Class II and Class III markets.  He can be reached at jwilson@icsgaming.com.