Casino owners/Reps and Affiliates and All Interested Players

[Mavin1]

I think casino owners, reps and affiliates should be lobbying to bring true fair play back to online gaming. Now I don't want to hear the bull about Variances, RNG's or any technical baloney to explain away why the majority of players are dissapointed so many times.
I have noticed a new slight to even drastic trend of decreased prizes on line wins, decreased to never getting bonus rounds and if you do get bonus rounds decreased chances that the round will outshine the regular play.
A few months back I had posted a winning screenshot of $500 playing at 75 cents a spin and hit wilds and pistols on Fandango, a couple months later playing the Pharoah game at the same casino I hit wilds and the Pharoahs for 5 of a kind on a payline, playing 75 cents and was paid $100. The pharoah is equivalent to pistols.
So okay, maybe the $500 was excessive, but to cut it down to $100 is a bit drastic. Now this is just one example.
I believe that wins at any and all casinos has been decreased but maybe not as noticeable as some are.
It is also not fair play when for instance playing RTG's, spending a good amount of money and time and not getting any bonus rounds what so ever, time and time again! A couple times on my last play at an RTG casino I hit the T-Rex bonus rounds 4 times, every time the 3 eggs only gave 2 spins per egg, so each time I only won 6 free spins. Then to add insult to injury not once did the dino's come toghether to make a decent win. One round was a grand total win of $1.65 or so and none were higher than $6.00. On the new x-mas themed games, santa has never won during my many sessions and the other one which I played at least 6 times for extended periods never once gave a bonus round.
The thing that makes these games at any and all of the casino's is the bonus rounds, this is the fun and exciting part of playing, but if they are going to continually being watered down and feel more like a lottery than a slot, then the whole reason why you want us to play is only down to the money and not to give your customers a true and fun experience.
Sure there will always be the die hard gamer out there that will continue to play no matter what, but there is also I'm sure a good portion of small time revenue that will be lost because of these on going changes. These things will effect the pocketbooks of the Owners, Reps and Affiliates one day just as it is affecting players pocketbooks now.

So please, no tech excuses.

[Wildfire7]

So no tech baloney, no expaining it away by high variance or RNGS. Well that leaves one remaining factor you might want to consider, its called luck!

Yes believe it or not all players need an element of this during their play, perhaps you have just had a bad run and are seeking explanations for problems that are not really there.

Sorry I can't be more helpful or give you the answers you perhaps want to hear, but as you seem to have ruled out the obvious explanations then you are not left with an awful lot......apart from luck.

Other than that perhaps look at the way you play, your bet size in proportion to your bankroll, the type of games you play, how long your sessions last.

Mike

[Mavin1]

So no tech baloney, no expaining it away by high variance or RNGS. Well that leaves one remaining factor you might want to consider, its called luck!

Yes believe it or not all players need an element of this during their play, perhaps you have just had a bad run and are seeking explanations for problems that are not really there.

Sorry I can't be more helpful or give you the answers you perhaps want to hear, but as you seem to have ruled out the obvious explanations then you are not left with an awful lot......apart from luck.

Other than that perhaps look at the way you play, your bet size in proportion to your bankroll, the type of games you play, how long your sessions last.

Mike

Well let's rule out the "luck" explaination too. You have not addressed my posted observation, just trying to turn it around to my bad luck or my good luck. This is not what this post is about.

[Simmo!]

I have been waiting 3 years for 5 scatters on Thunderstruck and I've hit two of them in the last week and I'm up overall on my past 3 months play for the first time in God knows how long. I'd like to know why the casinos are suddenly being so generous. It's perplexing. It might have something to do with the fact that I've got a new strategy that involves hitting the cashout button, but let's rule that out.

Ok...Mavin...sorry that was a bit tongue in cheek My point being that i've done well the last few months and you can't rule out things like luck, variance and other factors because, like it or not, they play an important part. It's a bit like asking why Obama got elected but you rule out voting as an answer

Hey look, if your point is that the casino software providers have downgraded all their paytables so their clients can make more money, then maybe you are right, who knows - most of them aren't transparent in that regard and IMO they should be. But I think its unlikely and even if they did, i bet they would still be better than B&M slot payouts.

[dominique]

and even if they did, i bet they would still be better than B&M slot payouts.

You can say that again!

Payouts in Vegas positively SUCK! Yes, it's still good entertainment, but it's getting to where it's barely gambling anymore, it's just paying to see the game play....

[Mavin1]

My reason for ruling out the routine responses for Variances, RNG's, Luck and what have you is because they don't actually come out and say yes, before you would win $1 with 4 symbols alike on a winning payline but now the same scenario will only win you 45 cents.
Or before you could have hundreds hitting free spins/bonus rounds where now we have alotted them to only 45 to hitting these features.
So in other words, what I would win at 40 cents now costs me $1.25 to get.
Just an example of what I am meaning and why the canned response does not answer my post.


As for voting, I won't even go there.

[Wildfire7]

before you would win $1 with 4 symbols alike on a winning payline but now the same scenario will only win you 45 cents.
Or before you could have hundreds hitting free spins/bonus rounds where now we have alotted them to only 45 to hitting these features.
So in other words, what I would win at 40 cents now costs me $1.25 to get.
Just an example of what I am meaning and why the canned response does not answer my post.


As for voting, I won't even go there.

Hi Mavin

Another thing to consider is choice. There are more casinos and more games available than ever. For us consumers this can only be a good thing.
As for paytables changing I can't say I have noticed.

What you would get for 5 scatters at Thunderstruck 5 years ago, you would get exactly the same today. The bonus rounds and free spins are harder to quantify as they vary so greatly on their payouts.

Simmo, in your voting anology I was thinking it was a good job you didn't use Bushs 2000 US presidential elections as the analogy!

[Simmo!]

As for voting, I won't even go there.

Thought you'd like that one

Simmo, in your voting anology I was thinking it was a good job you didn't use Bushs 2000 US presidential elections as the analogy!

LOL yeah...shooting myself in the foot I try to avoid!

but it's getting to where it's barely gambling anymore, it's just paying to see the game play....

[NicolasJohnson]

First I would like to say, I can't answer your question, as you are asking 'why' we did something you have no evidence we did (and especially in our case, you can't have evidence, since we didn't do anything. I should know, I can see the payouts).

If you don't want to hear about variance or luck, and are 100% convinced EVERY online casino is cheating you (which is what you implied in your post), then I suggest you stop playing online casinos. If you TRULY believe that, then there can be no fun in playing, and fun should be the ultimate goal of every casino gambler. If it is not fun, I suggest you don't gamble.

We want to have customers, but only ones that enjoy a healthy hobby. If you want to hear our honest answer, we have the exact payout % we did when we started (and is pretty standard). That is part of variance, even we as operators feel it. The only way you can get a fair result is through randomness, and with that comes variance/luck.

P.S. I'm not saying you shouldn't gamble, just don't gamble if it ONLY leads to you being upset and having the feeling of being cheated.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson
Regal Affiliates Manager

[vinylweatherman]

I play mostly MGS, and I HAVE noticed a trend towards lower overall prizes for line wins in the base game. I think this is down to more being allocated to "spicier" bonus rounds. Thunderstruck pays 10,000 for 5 wilds, but recent video slots have seen lower top payouts, even a mere 500 for one. This is because more is paid out in the bonus rounds, so not only are the paytables lower, the slot will suck your money very quickly if the bonus round fails to come along.

The other trend is for more and more winlines, so the maximum payouts for line wins are much lower as a proportion of TOTAL bet. This also makes a slot appear to "suck" during play. Slots such as Cashapillar, with 100 lines, APPEAR to be low variance, but because of clever reel design are actually HIGH variance. Cashapillar only really pays well if you get stacked wilds in view, and in the right place. Many slots also seem to no longer offer small prizes for 2 of a kind, such as the prizes on Thunderstruck for 2 of "9", "hammer", and "shaft".

RTG, as we know, can operate slots at any RTP between 97.5% and 91%. Operators of RTG casinos can easily change these settings, and all the players will see is a change in the "tightness" of the slot over extended periods of play.