Q&A Ask Me Anything about Slots (AMA) 2020 with Trancemonkey

[Harry_BKK]

Hope you get better questions with the second thread.

Here's one. Do you see the RTP trend going generally towards 94%? It sure looks to me like there is currently a race towards the bottom, testing out how much players will "accept" without moaning too much!

I just reviewed the other day Marching Legions from Relax Gaming. It has an RTP of 98.12%.

No doubt, casinos won't like it but being an aggregator, they will push it into the market. The release is planned for 2nd July. And it is a really humourous take on the Roman legions with a good bonus game and max win at 10,000x bet.

 

[Jono777]

I'd like to think that sooner, rather than later, they'll remember that the customers spinning their reels are what creates the business for providers, casinos, affiliates etc etc and bear this in mind when it comes to minimum RTP allowances.

This being said, as a 'long in the tooth' gambler and what I've seen over the years, I feel the (and no offence to anyone) "addict" type gamblers around the world would play at virtually any RTP, just to get their fix, this in addition to the novices and naive players could see the experienced suffering lower and lower RTP's

Happily proven wrong and hopefully Trance will disagree totally with this post!

 

[dunover]

Sadly I'm not part of the online team, so I can't give info on these games simply because I dont know anything about them

Nor do they.

 

[trancemonkey]

Hope you get better questions with the second thread.

Here's one. Do you see the RTP trend going generally towards 94%? It sure looks to me like there is currently a race towards the bottom, testing out how much players will "accept" without moaning too much!

I just reviewed the other day Marching Legions from Relax Gaming. It has an RTP of 98.12%.

No doubt, casinos won't like it but being an aggregator, they will push it into the market. The release is planned for 2nd July. And it is a really humourous take on the Roman legions with a good bonus game and max win at 10,000x bet.

Due to taxation and regulation, i can see RTP's coming down for sure.

My personal opinion is this - i would want to run my casino at the highest possible RTP that did the following:

1. Gave the players the best experience possible while
2. Maximising revenue for me

Why number 2? Because it's a business not a charity... so i want the best of both worlds.
How the governments tax is also a big part... i.e do they tax on cash in, gross win, etc... But yes, if i could run my casino at 98% and still make good money i would...

That said, governments see gambling as a cash cow, and shareholders nearly always want more - and the only way to do either or both of those things is to increase player spend (e.g more players..) or reduce the RTP. And if you can't get more players or more money out of those players, then you have to lower the RTP.

TL;DR - yes i think we will start to see RTP drop to between 94 and 96 in most places

 

[Kroffe]

Do you have any opinion on the number of casinos, and do you think that has a negative effect for the players?
Theres like a billion casinos out there, and im assuming most are making money because otherwise they wouldnt be in business.
If the numbers were suddenly cut in half, the remaining sites would see an upswing in players, and would maybe be able to keep the high rtp-settings is what im thinking.

There are 98 licenses given out on the swedish market, wich probably means 300-500 casinos-sites.
Just seems like such an overkill.

 

[Mark_32Red (retired acct)]

Hey TM,

Apologies if this has been asked/answered before.

We’re always looking for bespoke slots to be made for us, but very few studios are interested due to the work involved.

Obviously it will differ depending on the complexity etc, but in your mind how many man hours are involved in an average slot and perhaps how many people involved in total?

Mark

PS if you can convince the powers that be to help us with a bespoke game we’re up for it

 

[trancemonkey]

Hey TM,

Apologies if this has been asked/answered before.

We’re always looking for bespoke slots to be made for us, but very few studios are interested due to the work involved.

Obviously it will differ depending on the complexity etc, but in your mind how many man hours are involved in an average slot and perhaps how many people involved in total?

It very much depends on many things...

Complexity of game design
Complexity of maths (simple designs can sometimes have simple maths and vice versa)
Quality of graphics you want

It varies massively...

 

[Spikie]

Following on from Mark’s question , what are the barriers of entry of forming a slot development studio , how does it work ?

Do they just phone up Microgaming or Novomatic for example and ask if they can have a go ? And then get a cut of anything that gets used ?

 

[Slottery]

Do you have any opinion on the number of casinos, and do you think that has a negative effect for the players?
Theres like a billion casinos out there, and im assuming most are making money because otherwise they wouldnt be in business.
If the numbers were suddenly cut in half, the remaining sites would see an upswing in players, and would maybe be able to keep the high rtp-settings is what im thinking.

There are 98 licenses given out on the swedish market, wich probably means 300-500 casinos-sites.
Just seems like such an overkill.

In Sweden you might get your wish to happen. If you read through annual reports, there are very few (can only remember Aspire and they underlined how happy they are that Sweden is so small part of their operations, opposite than many others) who don't blame Sweden to be worse disappointment in 2019 (of course it's easiest to blame new regulated marked, but not really gold mine last year for most).

e: TM, probably asked earlier several times, but what's best slot you have created and enjoy to play most?

 

[Kroffe]

In Sweden you might get your wish to happen. If you read through annual reports, there are very few (can only remember Aspire and they underlined how happy they are that Sweden is so small part of their operations, opposite than many others) who don't blame Sweden to be worse disappointment in 2019 (of course it's easiest to blame new regulated marked, but not really gold mine last year for most).

Well anyone can give up their license at any time.
But instead of that happening, new licenses are issued every now and then.
And like you said, they are not a charity, so i doubt they would stay on the Swedish market if they were not making money.
Maybe not making as much as they would like, but there would be zero reason to keep the license if they were losing money by being here.

 

[CasinoNinja]

Is IGT releasing any bonus buy slots in the future?

 

[trancemonkey]

Is IGT releasing any bonus buy slots in the future?

I am looking at this option for sure. Whether they make it to online, I have no idea as yet...

 

[paul7388]

Is IGT releasing any bonus buy slots in the future?

Great idea. Ghostbusters with a bonus buy. Excitement is killing me lol.

 

[PMKFRUITPRO]

Hey TM,

Apologies if this has been asked/answered before.

We’re always looking for bespoke slots to be made for us, but very few studios are interested due to the work involved.

Obviously it will differ depending on the complexity etc, but in your mind how many man hours are involved in an average slot and perhaps how many people involved in total?

Mark

PS if you can convince the powers that be to help us with a bespoke game we’re up for it

Just do what all the other sites have done.

Get blueprint to clone one of their other 5,000 latest megaways releases and call it 32 Red Megaways.

However don’t forget to nudge the RTP down a few percent.

Sky Vegas Megaways anyone? 93%?? Fucking disgraceful.

Here is a question for you TM......

Why the fuck can’t I hit a decent bonus on DHV?

 

[Bloatgoat]

A week or so, i got a bonus offering of up to 150 euro / 50% deposit, so in terms i had to drop in 300 minimum in order to obtain the full 150. I depositted 400, just to make it up to 550 euro. After ive won big it was certainly impossible to hit on anything else really. At the end of the road i managed to play it all away. But it left me with a very bad taste. My suspicion is that the casino might have a clue on when i win and the amount. They kind of must have knew when to drop in that bonus that i accepted. If i take a bonus it's less risk for them, there's more wagering and thus more profit for the casino.

This scenario was'nt the first time it happend. I had quit a few bonusses that would land me on a rounded number like 500 or so after wagering was complete. Is it possible for a casino to predict my next bing win? Can a casino just run certain numbers on my behaviour and tap in on that? Can a casino drop in a bonus that seems to favor me at the end of the wagering requirement?

Just because of this i stop accepting bonusses in the first place. There was something fishy about it; and since then i stopped playing at this particular casino. I also noticed something else. I had a quick withdraw of 7500 a while ago. All good. I played every week once or so and when i won it always was at a certain threshold, before shit started to tunnel down. Once i lost that amount, and come back the next time or deposit some more, it would somehow grant me based on my deposits a bit more on the initial 'threshold' again.

It took weeks and awefully alot of deposits, to even come close to that 7500 again. You know gamblers have their bad and good days, where the good days suddenly any game seems to land, hit and play the joyfull sounds of winning. I know we have RTP's but games landing wins like this is a bit odd to me.



In my 5+ years of gambling i never came such close to something like this. as i wrote in another thread before i ditched in 600 that particular day, to feel like 'being compensated' for the loss somehow someway. Obviously after this nothing worked, and trust me i try a big variation of games from different providers. Even low wagering bets that vary from 40 cents up to 20 euro a spin.

Casino's cant control the outcome obviously; but looking at certain graphs or numbering i guess they can predict. It's like the casino is betting against me, by dropping in a bonus at the 'right' time.

Years and years ago, when i became i vip in a landbased, i questioned them instant like how did you guys knew you had to had me for this occasion? They said, based on my activity (playerscard) and the speed of how fast i was collecting points, they could reverse by a simple math and kind of estimate what i was doing. Based on that data i think a online casino has way more tools for this purpose as well.

I'm not saying the casino is dirty, but it left me with feeling a bad taste in my mouth. No i did'nt expect it to win big either, but it happend a bit too often now for me to understand, the casino is working or betting against me. Does that sound like logic? Lol.

I'm not a most ideal player. When i can tear you another a-hole as a player i will. When i see a shot to hitting a 2k bonus buy and hit the lot i will. I'm just more carefull from this point on, because casino's at the end of the day want to have a steady profit coming in. I had my sheer fun over there but capping games, bets and changing certain features of a game is a sign for me that they just want more.

Edit; i challenge any casino owner to prove otherwise and show me a tour in a online casino. Players stats, player bonus, that kind of stuff.

 

[trancemonkey]

A week or so, i got a bonus offering of up to 150 euro / 50% deposit, so in terms i had to drop in 300 minimum in order to obtain the full 150. I depositted 400, just to make it up to 550 euro. After ive won big it was certainly impossible to hit on anything else really. At the end of the road i managed to play it all away. But it left me with a very bad taste. My suspicion is that the casino might have a clue on when i win and the amount. They kind of must have knew when to drop in that bonus that i accepted. If i take a bonus it's less risk for them, there's more wagering and thus more profit for the casino.

This scenario was'nt the first time it happend. I had quit a few bonusses that would land me on a rounded number like 500 or so after wagering was complete. Is it possible for a casino to predict my next bing win? Can a casino just run certain numbers on my behaviour and tap in on that? Can a casino drop in a bonus that seems to favor me at the end of the wagering requirement?

Just because of this i stop accepting bonusses in the first place. There was something fishy about it; and since then i stopped playing at this particular casino. I also noticed something else. I had a quick withdraw of 7500 a while ago. All good. I played every week once or so and when i won it always was at a certain threshold, before shit started to tunnel down. Once i lost that amount, and come back the next time or deposit some more, it would somehow grant me based on my deposits a bit more on the initial 'threshold' again.

It took weeks and awefully alot of deposits, to even come close to that 7500 again. You know gamblers have their bad and good days, where the good days suddenly any game seems to land, hit and play the joyfull sounds of winning. I know we have RTP's but games landing wins like this is a bit odd to me.

View attachment 134017

In my 5+ years of gambling i never came such close to something like this. as i wrote in another thread before i ditched in 600 that particular day, to feel like 'being compensated' for the loss somehow someway. Obviously after this nothing worked, and trust me i try a big variation of games from different providers. Even low wagering bets that vary from 40 cents up to 20 euro a spin.

Casino's cant control the outcome obviously; but looking at certain graphs or numbering i guess they can predict. It's like the casino is betting against me, by dropping in a bonus at the 'right' time.

Years and years ago, when i became i vip in a landbased, i questioned them instant like how did you guys knew you had to had me for this occasion? They said, based on my activity (playerscard) and the speed of how fast i was collecting points, they could reverse by a simple math and kind of estimate what i was doing. Based on that data i think a online casino has way more tools for this purpose as well.

I'm not saying the casino is dirty, but it left me with feeling a bad taste in my mouth. No i did'nt expect it to win big either, but it happend a bit too often now for me to understand, the casino is working or betting against me. Does that sound like logic? Lol.

I'm not a most ideal player. When i can tear you another a-hole as a player i will. When i see a shot to hitting a 2k bonus buy and hit the lot i will. I'm just more carefull from this point on, because casino's at the end of the day want to have a steady profit coming in. I had my sheer fun over there but capping games, bets and changing certain features of a game is a sign for me that they just want more.

Edit; i challenge any casino owner to prove otherwise and show me a tour in a online casino. Players stats, player bonus, that kind of stuff.

We are not still going over the same things are we bloatgoat... we have been over this in many many other threads. Please don't hijack this one with more of your baseless assertions of compensation, rigged slots or anything else of the sort. Casinos can't predict how a game will play by looking at data - that's the whole point of random. It can't be predicted (unless you're using a shit RNG and some Russians reverse engineer it!)

For all those new to the thread, here is the truth:

There is no central compensator - games don't track your profit and loss and adjust their play based on it. It's illegal, and moreover, its pointless.

All the games providers are in competition with one another - they are NOT working together. The idea they are is preposterous. Ask @dunover or anyone else on here that has been involved in game design whether men in suits turn up when you start to make games and tell you to "break the law or else" by working together as a cartel with all the other providers. It is so far fetched from reality, and makes absolutely no sense.

So Bloaty, me old mate, I know you'll never accept it, but please don't hijack this thread for rants about how "this never happens normally" because conversely there will be thousands of other people who have had the exact opposite happen and also people who are luckier than you were - and none of those feel the need to put it down to anything other than what it is... luck.

 

[Bloatgoat]

i challenge any casino owner to prove otherwise and show me a tour in a online casino. Players stats, player bonus, that kind of stuff.

 

[pereblue]

Hey @trancemonkey I've changed Thread title :
"Ask Me Anything about Slots (AMA) 2020 with Trancemonkey"
Adding Prefix "Q&A" to a better understanding for newbies as well.

 

[bamberfishcake]

I have a question please.

Its with regards to free spins given away as deposit bonuses.

Are free spins already a pre-determined result as a batch?

i.e. When taking a deposit plus free spins it has been seen that the total amount won credits the balance before the free spins are played.

How can the batch of spins/casino/provider know what the end result would be if all spins are random?

Can you help explain please?

 

[Kroffe]

I have a question please.

Its with regards to free spins given away as deposit bonuses.

Are free spins already a pre-determined result as a batch?

i.e. When taking a deposit plus free spins it has been seen that the total amount won credits the balance before the free spins are played.

How can the batch of spins/casino/provider know what the end result would be if all spins are random?

Can you help explain please?

Ive always been of the opinion that freespins plays worse than normal spins.
My results from vs battle of slots backs it up

 

[pinnit2014]

Ive always been of the opinion that freespins plays worse than normal spins.
My results from vs battle of slots backs it up

100 FS the other day in that Tome of Madness (what a terrible game btw): 10ps, end result 1.94: went 35 spins without a win as well. I hereby submit that substantial sample size as evidence to your claim - case closed.

 

[Noekk]

To my knowledge the number of required spins to achieve the stated RTP of a slot is unknown, it's assumed that is in the millions. Few questions here.

Why the precise number of spins that are needed to reach the stated return is hidden?

Is the RTP of a slot a single body as in a pool that is not catering individually to the user account but to all the people who plays it? If so, is the RTP determined per casino, network or what?

Leaving out the balanced in and outs, when a slot pays 40.000x for example it means that points from the RTP were extracted out and other users will patch the points by seeding the RTP until the slot hits again, minus the house edge?


Does a particular account is of any value? As in on a casino i played 100.000 spins on a slot, on another just 100 spins on the same slot, does it mean anything in the economy of a slot? If the RTP is worldwide, network wide, and not individually, why the P from RTP is not meant to be plural, return to players.

If RTP had been catering to the individual, it would have meant that the slot have memory of past actions... that is not the case?
Having established that RTP is shared(among network, casino??), what effect does it have on slots that are not popular, how can the RNG behave randomly if the slot have a gap provoked by a major win and the slot is not popular enough to be reseeded, is that what we call dead slot? If the RNG is truly as stated with no interference of anything, why there is official information about a slot feature frequency if the slot is random and RTP is not catering to the individual?

To my understanding, at least on NetEnt, the slots have the outcomes built in, when the scatters come in, a request is sent to the server, the animation starts and a mathematical number is picked from a pool of feature outcomes. If so, then why the hell would they generate 0x, 1x outcomes? How do we know that they generated features(slot not so random after all) with the max win capability or near, if the RTP is stretched upon... how many millions spins again??(yeah wonky wabbits, the full screen of wilds promo fraud...)

That's it for now, I could go 2 pages long with questions derived from the misleading engine of a slot that is called RTP and how we are led to believe it functions. But asking the questions means that I'm willing to change my perception IF a worded explanation will be accompanied by a foolproof method to verify said words, transparency can't be achieved solely by words because many things relating to the online world of casinos makes no sense.

 

[dunover]

To my knowledge the number of required spins to achieve the stated RTP of a slot is unknown, it's assumed that is in the millions. Few questions here.

Why the precise number of spins that are needed to reach the stated return is hidden?

Is the RTP of a slot a single body as in a pool that is not catering individually to the user account but to all the people who plays it? If so, is the RTP determined per casino, network or what?

Leaving out the balanced in and outs, when a slot pays 40.000x for example it means that points from the RTP were extracted out and other users will patch the points by seeding the RTP until the slot hits again, minus the house edge?


Does a particular account is of any value? As in on a casino i played 100.000 spins on a slot, on another just 100 spins on the same slot, does it mean anything in the economy of a slot? If the RTP is worldwide, network wide, and not individually, why the P from RTP is not meant to be plural, return to players.

If RTP had been catering to the individual, it would have meant that the slot have memory of past actions... that is not the case?
Having established that RTP is shared(among network, casino??), what effect does it have on slots that are not popular, how can the RNG behave randomly if the slot have a gap provoked by a major win and the slot is not popular enough to be reseeded, is that what we call dead slot? If the RNG is truly as stated with no interference of anything, why there is official information about a slot feature frequency if the slot is random and RTP is not catering to the individual?

To my understanding, at least on NetEnt, the slots have the outcomes built in, when the scatters come in, a request is sent to the server, the animation starts and a mathematical number is picked from a pool of feature outcomes. If so, then why the hell would they generate 0x, 1x outcomes? How do we know that they generated features(slot not so random after all) with the max win capability or near, if the RTP is stretched upon... how many millions spins again??(yeah wonky wabbits, the full screen of wilds promo fraud...)

That's it for now, I could go 2 pages long with questions derived from the misleading engine of a slot that is called RTP and how we are led to believe it functions. But asking the questions means that I'm willing to change my perception IF a worded explanation will be accompanied by a foolproof method to verify said words, transparency can't be achieved solely by words because many things relating to the online world of casinos makes no sense.

The spins necessary for you to get your stated RTP are not fixed but a simple representation of the average - they cannot be fixed or the game would not be random, would it? You could have 100 spins at a Euro and win 96 back, hitting it in just 100 spins. Equally you could have 1m spins and be running at +/- say 20% deviation from the stated RTP, the deviation likely to be bigger the higher the volatility. I sense you are asking that if the RTP was say achieved over 1m spins, you had had 990,000 and were running 10% below the stated 96%, would you be guaranteed a 'recovery' spell over the next 1,000 spins? No. You wouldn't.
All the developers can do is audit the game over billions of RNG pulls and check it does fall very close to the RTP the maths was designed around.

Most games actually DO give the customer and sometimes the player the average win frequency, feature frequency etc. in the crib sheets/rules, even average feature returns.

True, you can get predetermined feature results (Netent you say, also like Push Gaming's Jammin' Jars) whereby the RNG result is from say 0x to 1500x and all you watch is animations to demonstrate the predetermined outcome. Some, like BTG, profess to pull random outcomes for each free spin therefore the total is not pre-decided as soon as you land the feature. Both methods are permissible and legal.

The RTP is sourced from the RNG on the game server, all players everywhere pull results from it. There can be more than one server for the game, depending on whose platform it is provided through, but it's irrelevant to you personally. The results aren't 'pooled' as you suggest when you say that a player winning 40,000x would mean other players have less chance. The 40,000x winner has simply picked the luckiest 1/10million RNG result, and that 'ball' goes straight back in the RNG pool so you have exactly the same chance of picking it on your next spin, as do all the players including the person who just won it! In fact if you refer back to @trancemonkey he will tell you that IGT actually go to great pains to specify that particular point in their game rules.

There's no point in 'compensating' or rigging the pool of RNG outcomes as the server is providing huge quantities of results to thousands of players and the game will, eventually, return it's 96% RTP and 4% house edge to the operators. Of course, some operators may 'lose' on the slot if their players win and be running 105% on it whereas another may be running 91% and have a temporary 9% house edge - the gambling aspect affects both you and the casino! You can see this demonstrated at casinos like Videoslots who state the current RTP for their individual slots offered.

So no, the server doesn't cater to the individual player, nor the individual casino (unless the casino is the only operator using that particular game server).

 

[9HOURSAWAY]

Hi Trance

When I play Raging Rhino and Montezuma at Unibet they both play fine without interruption, but when I play these two games at Genting, after around approximately 80 or so spins an error message pops up apologising for an unknown error and I have to close the game and reopen it, it will then play fine again for a while before the same thing happens again.
This happens regardless of if I'm playing on my desktop pc or android tablet.

Any idea why this happens at one operater but not the other?

Thanks in advance.

 

[bamberfishcake]

I have another question if i may. Sorry if im supposed to wait for the answer to the last one. Just thought it would be easier to bulk the two together.

here is the last q:

I have a question please.

Its with regards to free spins given away as deposit bonuses.

1) Are free spins already a pre-determined result as a batch?

i.e. When taking a deposit plus free spins it has been seen that the total amount won credits the balance before the free spins are played.

How can the batch of spins/casino/provider know what the end result would be if all spins are random?

Can you help explain please?

And, a fairly simple one i hope:

2) With regards to testing RTP on a new game - Is all testing done on a common/single stake size?

OR is each possible stake size for the game tested?

Thanks in advance Trance