Atlassino Academy · Slots · Lesson 1
Reels, lines and what a spin costs
The big number on a slot machine counts credits, and a credit is not an amount of money. Here is where the panel says what one credit is worth, and how to work out what your next press takes.
The glass on the slot machine says your bet is 200 credits. How much money is that?
The short answer
Nobody can tell you that from the number of credits on its own. Two hundred credits is 2.00 units at one machine and 200.00 units at the machine four seats along it, and the glass says two hundred credits at both of them. What a press takes is three numbers multiplied by one another, and the count of credits on the glass leaves one of those three numbers out.
Credits on a line, times the lines switched on, times what one credit is worth, makes what the press takes.
What one credit is worth is the number people walk past.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
I worked a floor where a whole wall of machines looked alike, and one press on them ran anywhere from a hundredth of a unit to a couple of units. None of that was hidden from anybody. All three numbers — how many credits sit on a line, how many lines are switched on, and what one credit is worth — stood on the glass the whole time, and anyone could read them.
Two of those three numbers are yours to set, and a machine will let you set them both without your noticing that you have. That is why I ask people to read one bet panel slowly, line by line, before the first press of the evening. Read one panel properly and you can read every panel on the floor, because all of them carry the same three numbers.
The three numbers
A line is a run of symbols that pays if it comes up. How many lines are switched on is yours to choose, and every line you switch on is charged for separately, so switching on more lines raises what the press takes.
BET PANEL
The press takes 0.50 units
On every line that is switched on you put credits, on most machines from one to five. The panel multiplies the credits on a line by the lines switched on and shows the bet in credits: 2 credits on each of 25 lines is why the bet reads 50 credits.
The third number is what one credit is worth in money, and it is printed on the panel as well — usually in the smallest type there. At a machine you have not sat at before, look for what one credit is worth before you look at anything else, because until you have that figure the bet in credits tells you nothing about the money.
| One credit | 1 line1 credit on each | 9 lines5 credits on each | 25 lines5 credits on each |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.01 units a credit | 0.01 units | 0.45 units | 1.25 units |
| 0.05 units a credit | 0.05 units | 2.25 units | 6.25 units |
| 0.25 units a credit | 0.25 units | 11.25 units | 31.25 units |
| 1.00 units a credit | 1.00 units | 45.00 units | 125.00 units |
The same reels at twelve prices: each row is what one credit is worth, fixed in the cabinet; each column is the lines and credits on each line you set. Amounts are in betting units, not pesos: a unit can stand for any amount, and the arithmetic is the same at any scale.
The big number is a count, not money
A credit is neither a coin nor a press. A credit is the unit the machine counts in, and every machine decides for itself what one of its credits is worth in money. The machine counts your bet in credits; your pocket pays for it in money.
The machine by the door
BET200CREDITS
One credit here is worth 0.01 units
So the press takes 2.00 units
The machine four seats along
BET200CREDITS
One credit here is worth 1.00 units
So the press takes 200.00 units
A machine is described by what one credit is worth on it, never by what a press on it takes. The regulator’s own guide to slot machines puts it as a warning: a machine asks for a minimum bet, and that minimum can be equal to what one coin on it is worth or higher.
The max bet button raises both of your numbers
Max bet raises both of the numbers you control — how many credits sit on each line, and how many lines are switched on — as far as that machine allows, in one tap. One tap multiplies what the press takes twice over.
THE LOWEST SETTING THIS MACHINE OFFERS
The press takes 0.01 units
AFTER THE MAX BET TAP
The press takes 1.25 units
What you can read before you pay
Everything that decides what your press does can be read before you bet.
- The paytablewhat every symbol pays, line by line
- The rules of the gamehow the game works, in full
- What each feature doeswhat the extra rounds advertised on the glass actually do
On a slot machine they are in the instructions on the machine itself, and those instructions have to be in Spanish.
- A bigger bet does not buy a better share coming back. A machine has to clear its payout floor at every setting it offers, the lowest bet included. More lines buy more of the same share, not a better one.
An hour of pressing
A machine with mechanical reels runs at about 10 presses a minute, the pace the study behind this figure measured; a video machine can go faster. Here is what that means for one hour of unbroken pressing.
- One press2.00 unitsforty lines switched on, five credits on each line, at 0.01 units for one credit
- One minute of pressing20 units10 presses
- One unbroken hour of pressing1,200 units600 presses
That last figure is the money passing through the machine, not the price of the hour to you: some of it comes back as credits and gets pressed again, and what stays with the room is a share, which is the next lesson.
Take 120 units as the money you brought for the evening. Divided by what one press takes, it gives the number of presses that money pays for.
This is a division, not a forecast. How far money actually carries at a machine is not something this page works out.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Decide how much money the evening gets while you are still at home, and then let that amount choose the machine and the setting for you. Do it the other way round — sit down, set the machine, and then watch what the evening does to the money — and the machine has chosen the amount for you.
What a press takes is the one part of this you hold in your own hand. It decides how much money leaves you on every press, and it decides nothing at all about how much comes back.
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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Practice: read the panel
First a bet panel stands in front of you and you say how much money the next press takes. Then the money you brought for the evening decides how high you are allowed to set a machine. Then two machines stand side by side, and one of the two takes more money a press than it looks as though it does.
Nothing spins here. There are no reels in the practice run, no outcome and no money coming back, because a machine has no decision left in it once the button is down. Every decision you get to make happens before the button goes down, and those are the decisions worth practising.
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Level 1 · Read the panel
BET PANEL
What will the next press take?
- 0.25 units 1 credit on each of 25 lines makes 25 credits, and one credit on this machine is worth 0.01 units.
- 25.00 units That is the count of credits on the glass read as an amount of money. A credit is worth whatever this cabinet was set to, and the panel prints that figure — usually in its smallest line.
- 0.01 units That is what one credit is worth on this machine. The press is buying 25 credits, not one credit.
Three numbers multiplied together: how many credits sit on one line, how many lines are switched on, and what one credit is worth in money. The credits on a line and the lines switched on are the two you set yourself. What one credit is worth was set into the cabinet before you sat down at it.
Tenga presente que las máquinas exigen una apuesta mínima, que puede ser mayor o igual al valor de la moneda.Free translation: Please note that the machines require a minimum bet, which may be greater than or equal to the value of the coin.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · readLevel 2 · The bet you meant to make
BET PANEL
You have decided that one press should take no more than 0.50 units. What is the most you can put on each line, in credits, and still stay inside that?
- 1 credit on each line — 0.25 units a press A press at this setting is inside the amount you decided on, and so is a higher setting on the same machine. The question asks for the highest one that still fits.
- 2 credits on each line — 0.50 units a press This is the highest setting the panel offers that still keeps one press inside the amount you decided on.
- 3 credits on each line — 0.75 units a press A press at this setting takes 0.75 units, which is more than the amount you decided on.
- 5 credits on each line — 1.25 units a press A press at this setting takes 1.25 units, which is more than the amount you decided on.
- None of them — every setting on this machine takes more than I decided on The smallest setting on this machine takes 0.25 units a press, so the machine does fit inside the amount you decided on. The question is how high you can set it and still fit.
The amount you decided on at home is what chooses the setting on the machine. Do it the other way round — set the machine first, and then see what the evening does to the money — and the machine has chosen the amount for you.
Level 3 · Two machines
FIRST MACHINE
SECOND MACHINE
You want each press to take less money. Which of these two machines do you sit at?
- The machine where one credit is worth 0.01 units A press on that machine takes 2.00 units: 5 credits on each of 40 lines, at 0.01 units for one credit.
- The machine where one credit is worth 1.00 units A press on that machine takes 1.00 units: 1 credit on each of 1 line, at 1.00 units for one credit.
- Neither of them — a press on the two machines takes the same A press on the two machines does not take the same: 2.00 units on the first machine against 1.00 units on the second.
A machine that takes less money a press is not the same thing as a machine that costs less to sit at all evening, and nothing on either panel tells you which of the two gives more back.
Every press in the practice run is worked out the same way, from the three numbers standing on the panel in front of you: how many credits sit on one line, how many lines are switched on, and what one credit is worth. Nothing spins here and nothing comes back, because a machine has no decision left in it once the button is down. The practice stops where your decisions stop.
How the practice run works
Where the presses come from. Every panel in the practice run is three numbers — what one credit is worth, how many lines are switched on, and how many credits sit on each line — and what the press takes is those three numbers multiplied together, worked out when the page is built rather than written down anywhere by hand. The wrong answers are worked out from the same three numbers, and each wrong answer is one named mistake: the lines left out of the multiplication, the credits on a line left out of it, the count of credits on the glass read as an amount of money, or what one credit is worth mistaken for what the whole press takes.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one press 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, with no button in between. Practising a press you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
Level 2 uses your own money. The amount is the one the plan lesson uses, and the right answer is the largest setting that still keeps a press inside that amount — not the smallest setting the machine offers. A machine whose smallest setting is already past the amount you decided on is a machine to walk away from, and walking away is one of the answers on offer.
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Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. Two hundred credits is a count of two hundred credits and nothing more than that, until you have found on the panel what one credit is worth at the machine you are sitting at.
Where the machines are, 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 for slot machines: the 85% minimum return, the random number generator and the ban on faking a near miss.
- Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · Superintendencia de Casinos de JuegoThe regulator’s plain-language page on slot machines: instructions in Spanish, minimum bets and independent results.
- Preguntas frecuentes · Superintendencia de Casinos de JuegoThe regulator’s answer on slot odds: a minimum 85% return over about 100 million plays, and why it is not the chance of a prize.
- Catálogo de Juegos · Superintendencia de Casinos de JuegoThe national catalogue of casino games: the kinds of slot machine it names, among them multi-position machines such as electronic roulette and video versions of live games.
- PAR sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play · Kevin Harrigan and Mike Dixon, Journal of Gambling Issues (2009)What a manufacturer’s PAR sheet says about a machine: how often it pays, how much the payback swings, and the several versions of one game.
- Key terms relating to live return to player performance monitoring of games of chance · UK Gambling CommissionA regulator’s definition of volatility: the standard deviation of the game, and what “very large but rare” and “small and often” prizes mean.
How it's worked out
Numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every machine on this page is a cabinet standing in a room you can walk into. A screen at home multiplies the same three numbers, but it is asked for different things by a different book of rules, and it belongs to a track of its own.
Numbers. Every figure on this page is those three numbers on a panel multiplied together, or that product divided into the money you brought, and every one of them is worked out when the page is built. The hour uses the one pace this page names and no other pace, and it multiplies rather than predicts: an hour of unbroken pressing is the shape of an upper limit, not a description of how anybody actually sits at a machine.
What is deliberately absent. There is no rate of return on this page, no hit frequency, and no figure for how long money lasts at a machine. Each of those three needs something this page does not have, and the rate of return is the next lesson in this track. What the money you brought buys here is a division — the number of presses it pays for — and never a forecast of an evening.
Sources. Every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, 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. A slot machine is played against the house. Reading the panel tells you what a press takes before you pay it; nothing on this page makes that figure smaller, and nothing here says how an evening at a machine would end.
A bigger bet and the rate that comes back
El requisito del porcentaje mínimo de 85% debe cumplirse en todo momento.Free translation: The requirement of the minimum percentage of 85% must be met at all times.
El requisito del porcentaje mínimo deberá cumplirse cuando se juegue en el extremo más bajo de una tabla de pago no lineal (es decir, si una partida se juega continuamente al nivel de la apuesta mínima durante el ciclo total de vida del juego, y el porcentaje teórico de retorno es menor que el porcentaje mínimo, entonces la tabla de pago será inaceptable).Free translation: The minimum percentage requirement must be met when playing at the lowest end of a non-linear pay table (that is, if a game is played continuously at the minimum bet level over the total life cycle of the game, and the theoretical return percentage is lower than the minimum percentage, then the pay table will be unacceptable).
Section 3.2.34–3.2.35 (retorno y premio máximo); 3.7.3 (contadores de la pantalla de juego); 3.8.17 (tablas de pagos); 3.8.24 (Doble o nada); 3.13 (RNG); 3.14 (funcionalidad de los progresivos); 4.2.5 (instrucciones de la tabla de pagos); 4.3.11 (características y bonificaciones)
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
What a credit is, and what a spin is
Tenga presente que las máquinas exigen una apuesta mínima, que puede ser mayor o igual al valor de la moneda.Free translation: Please note that the machines require a minimum bet, which may be greater than or equal to the value of the coin.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
What a credit is, and what a spin is
Tenga presente que las máquinas exigen una apuesta mínima, que puede ser mayor o igual al valor de la moneda.Free translation: Please note that the machines require a minimum bet, which may be greater than or equal to the value of the coin.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
How fast a machine goes
traditional mechanical reel slot machine games, the player can play approximately every 6 s, which is approximately 10 spins per minute, or 600 spins per hour.
What a credit is, and what a spin is
Tenga presente que las máquinas exigen una apuesta mínima, que puede ser mayor o igual al valor de la moneda.Free translation: Please note that the machines require a minimum bet, which may be greater than or equal to the value of the coin.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
A bigger bet and the rate that comes back
El requisito del porcentaje mínimo de 85% debe cumplirse en todo momento.Free translation: The requirement of the minimum percentage of 85% must be met at all times.
El requisito del porcentaje mínimo deberá cumplirse cuando se juegue en el extremo más bajo de una tabla de pago no lineal (es decir, si una partida se juega continuamente al nivel de la apuesta mínima durante el ciclo total de vida del juego, y el porcentaje teórico de retorno es menor que el porcentaje mínimo, entonces la tabla de pago será inaceptable).Free translation: The minimum percentage requirement must be met when playing at the lowest end of a non-linear pay table (that is, if a game is played continuously at the minimum bet level over the total life cycle of the game, and the theoretical return percentage is lower than the minimum percentage, then the pay table will be unacceptable).
Section 3.2.34–3.2.35 (retorno y premio máximo); 3.7.3 (contadores de la pantalla de juego); 3.8.17 (tablas de pagos); 3.8.24 (Doble o nada); 3.13 (RNG); 3.14 (funcionalidad de los progresivos); 4.2.5 (instrucciones de la tabla de pagos); 4.3.11 (características y bonificaciones)
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
What a credit is, and what a spin is
Tenga presente que las máquinas exigen una apuesta mínima, que puede ser mayor o igual al valor de la moneda.Free translation: Please note that the machines require a minimum bet, which may be greater than or equal to the value of the coin.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
What has to be there before a bet
Los jugadores pueden aprender a jugar y conocer los premios que se pueden obtener con las jugadas a través de las instrucciones disponibles en la misma máquina de juego. Estas instrucciones deben estar siempre en idioma castellano.Free translation: Players can learn how to play and find out the prizes that can be obtained from the plays through the instructions available on the gaming machine itself. These instructions must always be in Spanish.
Tenga presente que las máquinas exigen una apuesta mínima, que puede ser mayor o igual al valor de la moneda.Free translation: Please note that the machines require a minimum bet, which may be greater than or equal to the value of the coin.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
Todas las combinaciones ganadoras y las reglas que se aplican al juego de una máquina de azar deberán estar disponibles en todo momento, aún cuando ésta se encuentre en descanso;Free translation: All winning combinations and the rules that apply to the play of a slot machine must be available at all times, even when it is idle;
Las ilustraciones artísticas deberán explicar al jugador las reglas correspondientes a la característica o bonificación, inclusive el premio grande y las alternativas de selección disponible.Free translation: The artwork must explain to the player the rules corresponding to the feature or bonus, including the top prize and the selection alternatives available.
Section 3.2.34–3.2.35 (retorno y premio máximo); 3.7.3 (contadores de la pantalla de juego); 3.8.17 (tablas de pagos); 3.8.24 (Doble o nada); 3.13 (RNG); 3.14 (funcionalidad de los progresivos); 4.2.5 (instrucciones de la tabla de pagos); 4.3.11 (características y bonificaciones)
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Estándares para Máquinas de Azar (edición julio 2019) · read
Where the odds are written
Los jugadores pueden aprender a jugar y conocer los premios que se pueden obtener con las jugadas a través de las instrucciones disponibles en la misma máquina de juego. Estas instrucciones deben estar siempre en idioma castellano.Free translation: Players can learn how to play and find out the prizes that can be obtained from the plays through the instructions available on the gaming machine itself. These instructions must always be in Spanish.
Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) · Funcionamiento de los juegos: Máquinas de azar · read
How fast a machine goes
traditional mechanical reel slot machine games, the player can play approximately every 6 s, which is approximately 10 spins per minute, or 600 spins per hour.