Heya,
In Oz there's no display of RTP...there'd likely be a revolt if there was, since the typical pub will use 85% and most clubs 87%.
Makes it tough for the Government to defend their "player protection" role when they allow RTP percentages that are pure murder...but hey, they're addicted to the tax revenue from the industry.
Re the RTG games, operators have the ability to infrequently change which variant they use, but there have been no changes to the maths in use.
Many of the RTP variants across the suite do use reel strip length adjustments between variants (typically we're talking here only about 1 or 2 symbols on 1 reel, such as Cleo reel 2).
We haven't noticed any prolonged spin periods in test over here (beyond the intended anticipation length). Will have to check it out.
Woooof
I am not disagreeing with most of that and I know it is a practice that other software developers employ but on the slots I tested the games were very different to any other RTG I had ever played.
Cleopatras Gold, Achilles and Ronin to be precise.
This fact along with the Cleo scatter chime bug being fixed and the new stake system suggests strongly to me that this is a new and different version of the RTG software than is being run at other Casinos or at least since I last played them (maybe 2 Months).
Obviously we strongly disagree about whether it is ok for software to be manipulated/changed to alter the expected return to player.
Especially since the vendor does not have to stipulate what that return is or even that it is lower.
One very obvious concern with this or any other method of weighting that is used to change expected player returns is that the technology exists to employ this on a real time basis (no pun intended) so that the weighting can be used dynamically - or in simple terms for the uninitiated the dreaded lose switch that can be thrown at any time is a theoretical reality.
In fact any amount of control can be built into such a system and as you will know many of my arguments on here maintain that it already is.
Of course you would disagree with those observations but the fact is I have played Million+ spins in a real money environment, not to mention the Millions of spins on all other software - not to mention my own flash AS3 remake of certain slots for testing purposes and those are my unbias conclusions.
RTG are not the worse offenders and some of their new RTG Casinos are a big improvement (Buzzluck, Cherry Red to name but Two) but unfortunately the untrustworthy RTG casinos are still very much in operation apparently with RTG's blessing.
This is a shame as they drag the whole operation down.
Still these are issues we will never agree on and too broad to discuss here but I would like to ask a couple of purely technical questions if I may.
When you say;
Re the RTG games, operators have the ability to infrequently change which variant they use, but there have been no changes to the maths in use.
Since it is possible to change returns using weighting of existing symbols rather than using the more conspicuous method of adding or removing symbols to the reels, why did RTG choose this more complicated route?
When you say infrequently - you suggest that RTG tells its customers (Casinos) when it can and can not make changes to the expected player return (payout).
Does this not conflict with the idea that RTG want to give its customers (Casinos) control over the expected player return by having several different versions of the software available?
Or translated into a statement from RTG it would be;
"Please buy our software as we offer you unprecedented control over your expected payout BUT only when we say so."
I doubt that would be a big selling point so it makes much more sense to me that these elements of control are part of One software package rather than individual packages that can be clumsily changed now and then on RTG's say so.
That is why I fully believe that Casino Titan software is the only true alternative RTG suite and that all RTG will be "upgrading" to this version soon.
When you state, "no changes to the Maths in use" could you explain what you mean, are you refering to the game algorithms or something else?
Assuming there are a few different RTG suites all independent from One another offering different RTP is this return based on all Casino games?
Or put another way if I switch from a 95% to 91% suite which games are affected by lower returns?