Slot Machine odds

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o hai guyz

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Jan 15, 2010
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I'm helping a friend set up a slot machine plugin for a Minecraft server, basically people donate real money to get in-game money and then gamble it away in the slots. It's been really popular so far but I'm wondering if I set up the payouts correctly. Here's how it works:

- There are 3 slots.
- 4 possible letters (A, B, C, D).
- If you get 3 of the same letter (ex. AAA, BBB, CCC) you win.
- If you get 3 D's (ex. DDD), you win jackpot.
- Anything else loses and gets nothing (ex. ABC, ABA, etc).

It costs $1 to play. There is no way to configure the odds of a letter appearing, only the payout/jackpot amounts. What do you set the payout and jackpot at?

So for the regular payouts, I did: (1/3*1/3*1/3)*3 = about a 10% chance of winning. So payout should be anything under $10, so it's set to $9.
For jackpot I did (1/4*1/4*1/4) = about a 1.6% chance of jackpot. So jackpot should be anything under $63, so it's set to $60.

Just like a real slot machine, the house/server is supposed to make more money than it pays out, so people keep donating to get the in-game money. Did I calculate the odds and set up the payouts/jackpots correctly?
 


I'm not the best at maths but this site should help you out...

Slot Machines explained - Wizard of Odds

Thought this was interesting...

Slot machines are just about the only game in the casino where the odds are not quantifiable. In other words, the player doesn't know how the game was designed, so it is difficult to look at an actual game to use as an example. So, to help explain how they work, I created the Atkins Diet slot machine (link). It is a simple, five-reel game with a free spin bonus round, much like IGT's Cleopatra game.
Click to expand...
 
Man :) , you need to hire PM team and Analytics. This is real science.
your calculation is a hundred years behind current needs.
On what platform will you host it? (WEB, SOCIAL, Apple, Google Play)
Real gambling or Social? (user can get money out of the game? or user can play it for free?)
why should user pay you? :) do you have cool graphics and quests or real money win?
How many reels?
 
Assuming three reels, four letters, each letter has a 25% chance to appear on each reel, one payline, and you want wins on AAA, BBB, CCC, and DDD, and the cost to play is $1.

The chance of getting AAA is (1/4)³ = 1/64 = 0.015625 or 1.5625 percent, and the chance of BBB, CCC or DDD will be the same. The total chance of winning at all is 6.25%.

Let a, b, c and d be the prizes for AAA, BBB, CCC and DDD, respectively. Then the EV of playing will be a/64 + b/64 + c/64 + d/64. You want this EV to be less than $1 since that would make the game profitable for you.

1 > a/64 + b/64 + c/64 + d/64
64 > a + b + c + d

In short, make the total payouts for a, b, c and d less than 64 and you'll have a profitable game. You could make a = 5, b = 5, c = 10 and d = 40 (total of 60) if you wanted a relatively flat game with a "jackpot" for DDD.
 
o hai guyz said:
I'm helping a friend set up a slot machine plugin for a Minecraft server, basically people donate real money to get in-game money and then gamble it away in the slots. It's been really popular so far but I'm wondering if I set up the payouts correctly. Here's how it works:

- There are 3 slots.
- 4 possible letters (A, B, C, D).
- If you get 3 of the same letter (ex. AAA, BBB, CCC) you win.
- If you get 3 D's (ex. DDD), you win jackpot.
- Anything else loses and gets nothing (ex. ABC, ABA, etc).

It costs $1 to play. There is no way to configure the odds of a letter appearing, only the payout/jackpot amounts. What do you set the payout and jackpot at?

So for the regular payouts, I did: (1/3*1/3*1/3)*3 = about a 10% chance of winning. So payout should be anything under $10, so it's set to $9.
For jackpot I did (1/4*1/4*1/4) = about a 1.6% chance of jackpot. So jackpot should be anything under $63, so it's set to $60.

Just like a real slot machine, the house/server is supposed to make more money than it pays out, so people keep donating to get the in-game money. Did I calculate the odds and set up the payouts/jackpots correctly?
Click to expand...

Your 3-of's calculation is incorrect, you need a copy of Epstein's ToG.
 
Suckers game aside, some slots in Vegas payout up to 98%.

I have no experience with Minecraft. I can't figure out if I'd want to go for looser payouts to attract more players or drop it down to the 70% range because people wouldn't know any better.

So, you're saying there's a video game where I can start a pay to play casino? Legally?
 
Why would you use 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 to calculate the regular payout probabilities and then 1/4 for the jackpot? Isn't the user as likely to land DDD as they are AAA, BBB, or CCC?

potentialeight described roughly what you should do. Set the payback in line with the volume of money going through the machines, but not too low as to be noticeably stacked against the user.
 
Lol perhaps you shouldn't run a casino if you can't handle the math behind it
 
Looks like that and from what i see the catch is that they must convert to the ingame currency :)

I doubt that makes it legal, but on the interwebz anything is possible..

scottspfd82 said:
Suckers game aside, some slots in Vegas payout up to 98%.

I have no experience with Minecraft. I can't figure out if I'd want to go for looser payouts to attract more players or drop it down to the 70% range because people wouldn't know any better.

So, you're saying there's a video game where I can start a pay to play casino? Legally?
Click to expand...
 
Odds of jackpot = 1/64
Odds of regular pay = 3/64
Odds of any payout = 1/16

AAA ABA ACA ADA AAB ABB ACB ADB AAC ABC ACC ADC AAD ABC ACD ADD



BAA BBA BCA BDA BAB BBB BCB BDB BAC BBC BCC BDC BAD BBD BCD BDD



CAA CBA CCA CDA CAB CBB CCB CDB CAC CBC CCC CDC CAD CBD CCD CDD



DAA DBA DCA DDA DAB DBB DCB DDB DAC DBC DCC DDC DAD DBD DCD DDD

So for payouts
$64 gets taken in
AAA,BBB,CCC,DDD each occur once out of 64
$35 for DDD
$8 for AAA,BBB,CCC
$35 + $24 = $59 paid out = 92% payback.
 
scottspfd82 said:
Suckers game aside, some slots in Vegas payout up to 98%.

I have no experience with Minecraft. I can't figure out if I'd want to go for looser payouts to attract more players or drop it down to the 70% range because people wouldn't know any better.

So, you're saying there's a video game where I can start a pay to play casino? Legally?
Click to expand...
Thinking about it, what I'd actually do is start off with something ridiculously high, like 98%. Then, each week drop it by 1%. They're unlikely to notice. OP, do you have to list the odds on minecraft?
 
Hope you guys aren't in the States, because this is definitely illegal. Not that you're going to get any attention pushing a few grand a month, but just a heads up :).
 
@potentialeight thanks, I didn't think to look at it like that but I see what you're saying. However you can only set 2 variables, $payout and $jackpot so it's a little simpler than that.

BradleyT2p2 said:
Odds of jackpot = 1/64
Odds of regular pay = 3/64
Odds of any payout = 1/16

So for payouts
$64 gets taken in
AAA,BBB,CCC,DDD each occur once out of 64
$35 for DDD
$8 for AAA,BBB,CCC
$35 + $24 = $59 paid out = 92% payback.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

scottspfd82 said:
I have no experience with Minecraft. I can't figure out if I'd want to go for looser payouts to attract more players or drop it down to the 70% range because people wouldn't know any better.

So, you're saying there's a video game where I can start a pay to play casino? Legally?
Click to expand...

I tried to keep the payouts as high as possible so people would continue playing. If they lose too much they'd just give up and stop.

It's legal because you can't exchange the in-game currency for real currency. You're basically buying an expansion for the game in the form of money that you can spend on new weapons, tools, etc. If you're a videogame junkie you'll like it, but if you're hoping to convert your in-game winnings into real money you can't do it.
 
o hai guyz said:
@potentialeight thanks, I didn't think to look at it like that but I see what you're saying. However you can only set 2 variables, $payout and $jackpot so it's a little simpler than that.



Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.



I tried to keep the payouts as high as possible so people would continue playing. If they lose too much they'd just give up and stop.

It's legal because you can't exchange the in-game currency for real currency. You're basically buying an expansion for the game in the form of money that you can spend on new weapons, tools, etc. If you're a videogame junkie you'll like it, but if you're hoping to convert your in-game winnings into real money you can't do it.
Click to expand...

You can't "officially" exchange in-game currency for real currency in most games. But look at how much money is made selling WoW gold. As long as currency and product can be traded between players, then it can be exchanged for real currency through a secondary market.

Back around 2006, There were "casinos" in WoW. They got cracked down on hard, and i'm almost certain it was due to legality issues.

Once again, I don't think you're going to run into any issues. When I was 14 I made a few hundred dollars selling product I made from running a casino in a virtual game. You're not popping on anyone's radar until you start making real money. Have fun with it!
 
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