A sixty-four dollar
question
23 June 2003
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
A few questions if I may regarding progressive,
networked slot machines. If player A is playing
in one location, and player B in another, are
the odds of hitting a jackpot the same? Does one
machine know what the other machine is paying?
Now the sixty-four dollar (obviously much more
on a progressive machine) question: What would
happen if two players hit a progressive, network
slot machine before it was reset? Amber D.
Well, Amber, so long as Players A and B are
playing for the same single jackpot, both
machines must have the same chance of coughing
up that jackpot. This applies to machines linked
to other machines on the same bank, inside the
same casino, over a network of machines in
different casinos, and even to machines in
different cities-a clear benefit for
closet-gamblers.
All small jackpots are paid directly at and by
the casino or by the machine itself, while the
progressive jackpot is paid from a "progressive
pot" which is generally set at 5-10 percent of
the value of all coins inserted.
That amount rises until some serendipitous soul
hit the big enchilada. Each machine is
controlled internally by its own EPROM, the
programmed drill sergeant, and is unaware of
what is happening on other machines. Coded into
the machine's internal software (technically,
its "gizzard") are instructions to send a
certain percentage (5-10 percent) of the total
input value into the jackpot.
As to your sixty-four dollar question, yes, the
extraterrestrial possibility exists that when
Player A hits the jackpot, Player B could hit
the same jackpot milliseconds later, before the
jackpot is reset to its starting amount.
These mega-jackpots can go months, if not years
before being hit, so the possibilities of this
happening are I'll-eat-my-hat unfathomable,
about the same as for a needle falling onto a
bottle with a ship model inside and balancing on
its point for seven years.
But, if the astronomically improbable did
happen, the first winner would win the jackpot
and the second, or P-O'd winner, would get the
starting amount of the new reset jackpot.
Incidentally, Amber, did you know the
"sixty-four dollar" question has gambling roots?
It originated from a popular radio quiz show in
the US in the 1940s that offered $64 as the top
prize. The first question carried a prize of $1,
and the prize amount doubled with each
successive question: $2, 4, 8, 16, and 32,
culminating in the $64 question. Later,
corporate suits thought that too measly a win
and upped it to the "sixty-four-thousand dollar"
question you are probably familiar with.
Dear Mark,
From your column and my last few casino visits,
I have just discovered, and now enjoy playing,
Three-card Poker. Just how long has three-card
poker been around? Mike B.
In 1994, Derek Webb developed three Card Poker,
initially for British casinos. But it soon
emigrated across the Pond and can now be found
everywhere in the States. Its ancient lineage
traces to a popular British game called Brag,
one of the many proud ancestors of poker. Edmond
Hoyle had written about Brag as early as 1751.
In 1999, ShuffleMaster acquired Three Card
Poker. Many like yourself enjoy the fast pace,
favorable odds, and high frequency of winning
hands in Three Card Poker. According to
ShuffleMaster, Three Card Poker is now the
country's fastest growing specialty table game,
both in units played and in revenue generated.
Gambling quote of the week: "Taunting the odds
is a little sexy, a little dangerous, and
straddles the line between unimagined success
and nauseating failure." Chad Millman, The Odds
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