Atlassino Academy · Slots · Lesson 12
No near miss: the draw decides, the screen shows
A jackpot symbol sits one row above the pay-line, and it feels like the machine almost paid. Here is what the technical rule says about the draw, the screen and the near miss.
The jackpot symbol stops one row above the pay-line, and it does it again on the next game. Is the machine doing that on purpose?
The short answer
Under the technical standard for slot machines of the national regulator, the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego, the machine may not, and the standard names the near miss outright. Once the machine has selected the outcome of a game, it may not make a second, variable decision that changes what the player sees, and it may not swap the selected loss for another kind of loss to stage a “near miss”. The rule forbids the staging, not the sight: a jackpot symbol can still land just off the pay-line when the draw itself selected that losing combination, and then it is a loss like any other.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
When a machine shows you the big symbol one row off the line, it feels like a message. The rule is written for exactly that feeling: it says the machine has no message to send, because it makes its choice first and only then shows it.
The order of a game: the draw, then the screen
A game on an electronic slot machine has 2 steps and nothing between them. First the random number generator selects the symbols or the result of the game; then the screen shows it. The generator has to be statistically independent and unpredictable: even someone who knows its algorithm and its last results cannot predict the next one, and each play has a result independent of the play before and the play after.
The generator selects
One outcome, out of every combination the game has, drawn independently of the games before it.
Nothing in between
No second decision that changes what the player is about to see.
The screen shows
The outcome that was selected, as it is.
The middle step is the one the rule is about: it has to stay empty.
At the start of every game, each possible combination or permutation of the symbols or values the game uses, whether it pays or loses, has to be available for the random selection, unless the rules of the game say otherwise.
What the rule forbids
The standard calls what it rules out by name: a “falla cercana”, in English a “near miss”. After the result of the game is selected, the machine will not make a variable secondary decision that affects the result shown to the player. The game will not substitute a particular kind of loss to show the player. That, the standard says, rules out simulating a near-miss scenario in which the odds of the big-prize symbol appearing on the pay-line are limited, but it frequently appears above or below the pay-line.
| The machine may not | The rule does not forbid |
|---|---|
| Make a second, variable decision after the outcome is selected, one that changes the result shown. | A jackpot symbol landing just off the pay-line when the draw itself selected that losing combination. |
| Swap the selected loss for another kind of loss in order to show a near miss. | A loss that looks close: it is shown as it is. |
| Leave combinations out of the draw, unless the rules of the game say otherwise. | A game whose own rules say what its draw includes. |
Left column: what the machine may not do between the draw and the screen. Right column: what stays allowed, because it is not the machine doing anything.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
A near miss feels like progress, and it is a loss. It costs what any loss costs, and it does not make the next game pay. If a near miss makes you want one more game, that is the moment to look at the limit you set at home.
If the pull to get it back keeps coming, read the box below: it says where self-exclusion and the regulator are reached.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being fun, the SCJ self-exclusion applies in every casino in the country. Minimum entry age: 18 (age of majority under Law 19.221; Law 19.995 bars minors from gaming rooms). The casino may ask for an official ID. More on responsible gaming.
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What the rule does not say
The rule does not say a jackpot symbol can never land just off the pay-line. It says the machine may not arrange that sight by swapping a loss for another. When the draw itself selects such a losing combination, the screen shows it, and that is allowed.
For reel games, spinning or on video, the mathematical probability of a symbol appearing in a position has to be constant for any game outcome, unless the pay glass says otherwise. So a symbol is no more likely to stop in one place than another because of what happened on the last game.
The rule says nothing about what a near miss does to a player, and neither does this page: it is a rule about what a machine may do, not about how it feels.
Why no game is owed anything
Between games, the generator keeps cycling in the background. Its initial seed has to be set by an event that is not controlled from outside, and it may not have the same starting point, so that games cannot be synchronised. Nor does the size of the bet change the draw: the algorithm of the generator may not depend on the amount of money bet or on the player’s strategy.
On a card game, as cards are taken from a deck they are used at once, under the rules of the game; the machine does not discard them because it is adapting to the player. Together these are why a streak of losses is not a debt: the machine owes nothing to the games before.
Practice: allowed or not
Level 1 describes something a machine does between the draw and the screen and asks whether the rule allows it. Level 2 gives a claim about a near miss and asks whether the rule supports it.
Nothing is bet here, and nothing is random. Each question is a set situation, and the answer comes from the rule quoted on this page.
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The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one question from it, with the answer.
- The machine The generator selects a game that loses. The machine then swaps it for another losing combination that puts the jackpot symbol one row above the pay-line.
Is the machine allowed to do this under the rule?
- Allowed It is not allowed. The rule says the game will not substitute a particular kind of loss to show the player. That is how a near-loss scenario would be staged.
- Not allowed The rule says the game will not substitute a particular kind of loss to show the player. That is how a near-loss scenario would be staged.
- Allowed, because the player cannot tell the difference How hard something is to notice does not change the rule.
Between the selection of the outcome and the screen, the machine may do nothing that changes what the player sees. A losing combination that the draw selected is shown as it is; a loss swapped in to stage a near miss is not allowed.
- The claim A jackpot symbol just above the pay-line means the machine is close to paying.
Does the rule support this claim?
- Yes, the rule supports it The rule does not support it. A near miss is a loss that was selected like any other. The draws are independent, so nothing about the last game says anything about the next one.
- No, the rule does not support it A near miss is a loss that was selected like any other. The draws are independent, so nothing about the last game says anything about the next one.
- It feels true, and that is enough A feeling is not what the rule says, and the machine is built so that a feeling does not predict a game.
A near miss is a loss. The rule makes every game an independent draw and forbids staging, and that is all it says: it does not make a loss close to a payout, and it does not say a payout is near.
Every question in the practice run is worked out the same way: what the machine does, or what is claimed, is put through the rule quoted on this page, and the answer comes out of that, not out of anybody’s feeling.
How the practice run works
Where the questions come from. Every answer is worked out from the rule as it is written in point 3.13 of the standard and its point on card games. The wrong answers are named mistakes: calling a staged loss allowed because it is still a loss, calling a sight forbidden because it looks staged, a feeling taken for a reason, and a hidden change taken for an allowed one.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one question of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to; when the squares of one level are full, the next level begins by itself. Practising a question you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Three quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. No: the machine may not stage it. If the symbol stopped there, the draw selected a losing game that looks close, and the next game is another independent draw.
Where to go next, and further reading
18+ across Chile · Play responsibly · self-exclusion and the regulator are further up this page
Further reading
- Estándares para Máquinas de Azar · Superintendencia de Casinos de JuegoThe regulator’s technical standard: the machine may not swap one losing result for another to fake a “near miss”, and every outcome must stay open to the draw.
- Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · Superintendencia de Casinos de JuegoThe regulator’s plain-language page on slot machines: a certified generator and a result that does not depend on the play before or after.
How it’s worked out
Rules, sources and hosts
Where the rule comes from. Everything on this page follows the Estándares para Máquinas de Azar, the technical standard for slot machines of the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego, in its July 2019 edition: point 3.13, on the random number generator and the selection of symbols, and point 3.8.46, on card games. The plain-language page of the same regulator on how slot machines work adds that every play has a result independent of the one before and the one after. Nothing here says more than these two texts print.
What is deliberately absent. The rule says nothing about how a near miss feels, or about whether it makes a player play longer, so this page does not either. The points quoted here set no ceiling on how often a symbol may stop beside the pay-line, and so no such number is given here. What a machine pays back is lesson 2.2, how often it pays is lesson 2.3, and chasing a loss is lesson 10.3.
Our readings. We read “secondary decision” as any choice made after the generator has selected the outcome, whatever its trigger, and “substituting a kind of loss” as replacing the selected loss with another losing combination. The words in the questions, such as “swaps” or “keeps back”, are ours.
Sources. Every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, in the regulator’s own Spanish, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.
Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. Knowing the rule does not change which numbers come up. It lets you read a near miss for what it is, a loss; nothing on this page says how a game or an evening would end.
No second decision
Después de seleccionar el resultado del juego, la máquina de azar no hará una decisión secundaria variable, la misma que afecte el resultado mostrado al jugador.Free translation: After the result of the game has been selected, the gaming machine shall not make a variable secondary decision that affects the result shown to the player.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
Independent draws
Las máquinas disponen de un sistema certificado de generación de resultados al azar, que asegura que cada jugada tenga un resultado independiente de la jugada anterior y también de la siguiente.Free translation: The machines have a certified system for generating random results, which ensures that each play has a result independent of the previous play and also of the next.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
Estadísticamente independiente, en la manera en que el RNG genere cada número aleatorio, éste poseerá la misma probabilidad estadística para ser generado,Free translation: Statistically independent: in the way the RNG generates each random number, it will have the same statistical probability of being generated,
Ser impredecible, para que no sea factible predecir el resultado futuro del RNG, aún si se conoce el algoritmo y la última secuencia de resultado,Free translation: Be unpredictable, so that it is not feasible to predict the future result of the RNG, even if the algorithm and the last sequence of results are known,
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The generator keeps running
Se deberán efectuar ciclos del RNG entre juegos, en segundo plano.Free translation: RNG cycles shall be run in the background between games.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The bet does not change the draw
El algoritmo utilizado para el RNG no deberá depender de un parámetro externo, la cantidad de dinero apostada, o la estrategia del jugador, excepto por aquel parámetro que se necesite naturalmente, tal como el resultado de un juego anterior.Free translation: The algorithm used for the RNG must not depend on an external parameter, the amount of money wagered, or the player's strategy, except for any parameter that is naturally needed, such as the result of a previous game.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
Independent and unpredictable draws
Las máquinas disponen de un sistema certificado de generación de resultados al azar, que asegura que cada jugada tenga un resultado independiente de la jugada anterior y también de la siguiente.Free translation: The machines have a certified system for generating random results, which ensures that each play has a result independent of the previous play and also of the next.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
Estadísticamente independiente, en la manera en que el RNG genere cada número aleatorio, éste poseerá la misma probabilidad estadística para ser generado,Free translation: Statistically independent: in the way the RNG generates each random number, it will have the same statistical probability of being generated,
Ser impredecible, para que no sea factible predecir el resultado futuro del RNG, aún si se conoce el algoritmo y la última secuencia de resultado,Free translation: Be unpredictable, so that it is not feasible to predict the future result of the RNG, even if the algorithm and the last sequence of results are known,
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
Every outcome is open to the draw
El RNG deberá poseer los mecanismos necesarios para asegurar que cada combinación o permutación posible de los símbolos o valores utilizados en el juego que produzcan resultados ganadores o perdedores, se haga disponible para su selección aleatoria al comienzo de cada juego, a no ser que se indique de otra manera en las reglas del mismo.Free translation: The RNG must have the mechanisms necessary to ensure that every possible combination or permutation of the symbols or values used in the game that produce winning or losing outcomes is made available for random selection at the start of each game, unless otherwise indicated in the rules of the game.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
No second decision
Después de seleccionar el resultado del juego, la máquina de azar no hará una decisión secundaria variable, la misma que afecte el resultado mostrado al jugador.Free translation: After the result of the game has been selected, the gaming machine shall not make a variable secondary decision that affects the result shown to the player.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
No swapped loss
El juego no sustituirá un tipo en particular de pérdida para mostrársela al jugador.Free translation: The game shall not substitute a particular type of loss in order to show it to the player.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The near miss, by name
Esto eliminaría la posibilidad de simular un escenario de “falla cercana” (Near Miss) donde las probabilidades del símbolo correspondiente al premio grande de aparecer en la línea de pago estén limitadas pero frecuentemente aparecen arriba o debajo de la línea de pago.Free translation: This would eliminate the possibility of simulating a "near miss" scenario in which the chances of the symbol corresponding to the top prize appearing on the payline are limited but it frequently appears above or below the payline.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The same chance at every position
Para tipos de juego (tales como juegos de rodillos giratorios o juegos de rodillos virtuales de video), a menos que se indique lo contrario en el vidrio de pago,Free translation: For game types (such as spinning-reel games or virtual video reel games), unless otherwise indicated on the pay glass,
la probabilidad matemática que un símbolo aparezca en una posición para resultado de cualquier juego, deberá ser constante.Free translation: the mathematical probability of a symbol appearing in a position for the result of any game shall be constant.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The generator keeps running
Se deberán efectuar ciclos del RNG entre juegos, en segundo plano.Free translation: RNG cycles shall be run in the background between games.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The seed comes from an uncontrolled event
Se deberá determinar la semilla inicial del RNG mediante un evento no controlado externamente.Free translation: The initial seed of the RNG shall be determined by an event not controlled externally.
El RNG no deberá poseer el mismo punto inicial, para asegurar que no sea posible una sincronización entre juegos.Free translation: The RNG must not have the same starting point, to ensure that synchronization between games is not possible.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
The bet does not change the draw
El algoritmo utilizado para el RNG no deberá depender de un parámetro externo, la cantidad de dinero apostada, o la estrategia del jugador, excepto por aquel parámetro que se necesite naturalmente, tal como el resultado de un juego anterior.Free translation: The algorithm used for the RNG must not depend on an external parameter, the amount of money wagered, or the player's strategy, except for any parameter that is naturally needed, such as the result of a previous game.
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
Cards are not withheld
A medida que se va removiendo las cartas de un mazo, éstas deberán ser utilizadas inmediatamente, tal como lo indican las reglas del juego (por ejemplo, no se deberán descartar debido a un comportamiento adaptativo de la máquina de azar).Free translation: As cards are removed from a deck, they must be used immediately, as indicated by the rules of the game (for example, they must not be discarded because of adaptive behavior of the gaming machine).
Section 3.13 Generador de números aleatorios (RNG) y selección de símbolo; 3.8.46 Juegos de cartas
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read