This is correct. But combine this with the work of Kimms and you have the proof. He collected spin data for each reel for 10K+ spins on Thunderstruck and many other slots.
They showed
1) Reels are unweighted (except for the old slots, but in this case he also proved they were indeed weigthed).
I ran statistical analysis on the data and confirmed
2) There were no correlation between the reels. (independant reels)
What more proofs do you want?
Or come with one argument why it should not be this way. With a 5% house egde on slots, there casino has no reason to cheat.
1) and 2) is what defines a video-slot.
So do I. The following post by a Playtech casino manager gives more than a clue about Playtech slots payout%. I believe forgot to delete one of the digits...
Playtech slot payout% hint
For the fairness of video slots I often have a problem with picking games.
I still remember the RTG Fruit Frenzy that was suddenly introduced where you could never hit the canon in the feature. This had a drastic result on
the payout% of course. You have no idea of knowing what is going on in these picking feature games. Or what probability distribution is behind it.
For normal freespins slot this is not an issue. The reels will tell all there is
to know about the slot.
Thanks Zoozie.
Let me ask you a question and then I will go on to answer yours.
Do you have an explanation as to why, on many MG slots, the scatters will disappear for long periods of time Or why the amount of features won on some slots when the first Two scatters appear does not tally with expectation?
This combination should account for 30% of possible feature triggering combinations and yet it is much lower than this.
These anomalous results alone strongly suggest to me weighting or grouping and/or the use of algorithms even though there may still be random element.
If you do not accept what I am saying is correct then please gather your own data as I can not see how your results could conflict with mine.
Some slots are more obvious than others in this behaviour and I would suggest you collect your data on Moonshine and Halloweenies slots.
I also think that the amount of times Two scatters are hit without triggering a feature on these slots is inordinate but I have not done any proper analysis on this.
Now to answer that age old chestnut of
"they don't have to cheat so why would they?"
First of all the question is moot because we know some Casinos have and do indeed cheat.
However you may infer from this that I have no other reasonable answer so I shall give you not One but Two and if you can not accept these you can refer back to it.
1) To understand the first reason we have to make the distinction between software that is rigged and software that is manipulated.
Rigged software will typically cheat the punter, have none random results and
a low RTP.
Manipulated software will allow the punter to win and probably have random elements and may well have a reasonable RTP.
Both however can change the RTP.
In the case of MG my opinion is that the software is manipulated but the RTP is generally reasonable.
So we get to the first reason of why manipulate a slot that allows wins and has a reasonable RTP?
Because firstly it allows the operators elements of control and secondly it can be used to enhance the player experience by use of grouping (near misses,streaks etc)
Are you aware of how much research goes into what makes slots addictive and how they can be made to be more addictive?
It is a multi billion $ industry
The second reason I will give you is far more sinister and is all about ensuring profitability and predictable revenue stream and I know I need not go into detail as to why this would be appealing to unscrupulous Casinos/software providers.
As I say I am personally of the opinion the software is manipulated and not rigged.
I think you Zoozie and Kimms have done a great job and put a lot of time in on this area and my arguments are my own.
I am happy for them to be challenged and I would be happy to work with you to analyze data.