Recession could it affect the gambler?

[vinylweatherman]

I doubt anything can happen to payouts to CURRENT games on platforms such as MGS, but for RTG this is a different matter. I have myself seen that different RTG casinos use different paytables on their table and video poker games, although most assert that they stick to 95% on the slot games.

One thing I have noticed though is a reduction in the value of casino promotions. The prize pools have been reduced, or some clever marketing has been used, having the same prize pool, but running the promotion over a longer period. The casinos STILL offering large bonuses have tightened up the rules, mainly playthrough & game restrictions.

There have been some views expressed that the newer offerings from MGS do not appear to pay as much as the older games. Since no individual payout expectations are published, we have no way of immediately refuting these claims. There will always be variations in payouts between individual slot games, simply down to the complex mathematics behind them, and I am sure software vendors operate to a target range, rather than an exact figure. With MGS for example, Zoozie built a software simulator for many slots, and found that there were variations around 95% for individual games, some a little above, others slightly below. Thunderstruck, for example came out at 95.01% (I believe), whereas Tally Ho was close to 96%, but with higher variance.

If operators are lowering payouts, it will most likely be with slots, since this would go largely unnoticed, or even if noticed, cannot be proven.

[alexbuzz]

Dare i say it - but i have written a paper on this very subject.

throw it up on Scribed or somewhere and post a link to that paper, por favor!

[carjaw]

The paper was published on 8 April 2009 at an EBEN (European Business Ethics Network) conference - I will post a link when one becomes available for all those interested ....

[NicolasJohnson]

Hi Everyone,

For any reputable casino, game payout ratios should never change and should always stick to Vegas standards for land based casinos.

About the recession putting the pressure on online casinos... I couldn't say, we opened our doors in the middle of this economic storm and have fared quite well.

You could call me the eternal optimist, but I see a recession being good for the consumer, as demand drops and supply stays constant or increases, companies will be willing to accept lower profit margins to vie for your dollars. Making their promotions, and therefore payouts, better for the consumer.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson
Regal Affiliates Manager

[vinylweatherman]

Hi Everyone,

For any reputable casino, game payout ratios should never change and should always stick to Vegas standards for land based casinos.

About the recession putting the pressure on online casinos... I couldn't say, we opened our doors in the middle of this economic storm and have fared quite well.

You could call me the eternal optimist, but I see a recession being good for the consumer, as demand drops and supply stays constant or increases, companies will be willing to accept lower profit margins to vie for your dollars. Making their promotions, and therefore payouts, better for the consumer.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson
Regal Affiliates Manager

As far as PROMOTIONS are concerned, the complete OPPOSITE is happening. I have seen a marked drop in the VALUE, if not the FREQUENCY of my regular loyalty promos. There has also been some rejigging of some aspects. To give an example, Palace Group have introduced a new loyalty scheme. On the one hand, there is a SLIGHT increase in the number of loyalty points that can be gained per $ wagered, HOWEVER, value has been DECIMATED by a change to how these points are treated. In the past, they were credited as CASH, and could be IMMEDIATELY withdrawn, but now they are credited as BONUS chips, and MUST BE PLAYED 30x (slots) MINIMUM before they can be withdrawn. On average, this makes these points pretty worthless, since at 30x playthrough, you will, in the long term, lose ALL of them, even though you can win if you catch some positive variance. This kind of sneaky move is being rolled out at quite a few MGS casinos, and on top of this, the value of bonus chips per $ deposited is being reduced through various means.
It is harder to see any real effects in terms of game payouts, but we KNOW that SOME softwares can "tweak" the games to vary either the variance, or average payout, or both. Rival, TopGame, and RTG have gone on record admitting that their software allows this, whereas MGS say that once a game is released, it does not vary.
Many players are becoming increasingly convinced that games "play differently" to how they played before, although they cannot put a value on this difference. Generally, the impression is that this "difference" is to the advantage of the house.

One thing that has bucked the trend is that more new casinos than ever are being launched in this recession. This may not necessarily be a good thing for players, since a recession increases the risk of any one business going bust, and MORE businesses chasing FEWER Dollars (or Pounds) means that there are bound to be failures as well as successes. Failures can see PLAYERS losing money they have on deposit at the business, as can be seen with the long running TUSK saga where several MILLION of PLAYER'S Dollars have disappeared into the ether, with expectations being that only 15c in the Dollar will be recovered.

[NicolasJohnson]

well thank you for setting me straight


You know, this reminds me of something my father taught me. He told me:

Son, remember that if you take the positive side, your the underdog, since negative generally wins over positive

The thing is, I can't get over my optimist vision of the world.