Very surprised at the nature of John Steeds comments.
I think he is right about the reason the OP has been receiving so much attention though.
We all have our own personal views and beliefs but we generally come to respect the views of other long standing members even if we do not agree with them because we can see how genuine they are in those beliefs.
As such their opinions, claims and statements are given more credence because they have earned a little respect by proving over time they operate in the same way.
A statement in the absolute obvious but sometimes we can not see the wood for the trees.
The OP should understand you have to earn the trust and respect of a forum before you can expect them to take every word you say as gospel.
Making snide comments and being confrontational with your First few posts, especially with a subject as controversial as this, is not smart.
To then try and take the moral high ground is just plain hypocritical.
Another problem is that the OP seems to be coming into the discussion a couple of Years too late.
Some things they consider to be conspiracy theory have long been established as true and if they take a little time to read the forum before jumping in they will see many threads pertaining to this fact.
The only debate is how fair software is that can have the theoretical return changed without the players knowledge.
I include all software here too not just RTG.
It has been common practice for Years to have slots operate in the way they do and it is much the same as land based slots.
They are not rigged, they retain a random element but they are open - and indeed designed - to have a control element that can be manipulated to alter return.
This is quite a problem for the player of remote slots because they can be manipulated in real time.
Not only this but there is basically no regulation to keep greedy operators/software in check.
Think of it this way.
You are selling a product for 85c and selling 1000 a Week = $850
what you want to know as a business man is what will happen to your sales if you charge 90c per Week.
Now as long as you sell more than 945 units you will be making more profit (945*90c = $850.5) but you have decreased your customer base.
The beauty of being an online slot operator is that you charge more (sometimes much more/say 85% RTP) for your product without the customer even realising.
What happens if your customers get a sniff something is wrong?
Simple set the price of your product back to the price it was selling well at.
It's a win win situation for the Casino and software provider.
The reason I go into such analogies is because it pains me to see such ill thought out arguments about why slots are not weighted or payouts are maintained at 97%
It is moronic actually and that is why the argument if you don't like don't play also hits a snag.
I agree with it to a point but the problem is you never quite know what you are going to be playing. 99% slots 85% slots?
I like to gamble but I like to know the odds - I don't like to gamble with my gamble.
Final observation. (phew - sorry - again)
Because a decent size of the total return is made up from feature wins then this is the most obvious place to look for changes in the return.
If this is the case here are a few things you should look for.
You should find that when you are playing the lower return versions that scatter symbols appear much less often and when they do (because of how the software is manipulated) they will probably appear on the first Two reels without a trigger( This gives the illusion that you were close) or the final Two reels.
You should also find that when you do trigger bonus rounds they pay from below expectation to average. (this should tie in with fewer features)
Finally you should also find that retriggers become very unlikely.
That is all.