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El Toro is a
3-reel 1-line classic slot machine with an interactive bonus
game. The pay table is displayed on the machine. El Toro slots
may be played in denominations of $.05, $.25, $.50, $1, and $5.
El Toro slots is RealTime Gaming’s first three-reel machine
with an interactive bonus game. The bonus game consists of a
matador on the left side of the pay table and a bull on the right
side of the pay table. A player must make a 3-coin wager in order
to be eligible for the bonus game. When a player receives a matador
and a bull icon on the same spin wagering 3 coins, the “Bullfight”
bonus game becomes active. Players choose who they think will
win – the bull or the matador. Players make their choice
by selecting only one of the icons on either side of the pay
table. Once they have made their selection, the bullfight begins.
The bull icon on the reel charges the matador icon. Either the
bull will flatten the matador or the matador will successfully
dodge the bull. The player wins the bonus (200 credits) if they
have chosen the winner correctly. If the player makes the wrong
selection, a nominal amount is awarded (10 credits). In addition,
a rose icon (wild) matches any symbol on the pay line except
for the matador and bull icons. El Toro may also be configured
as a local progressive game, where a 3-coin bet (max bet) hitting
three “Red Sevens” on the pay line wins you the local
progressive jackpot total, which appears just above the reels.
In a modern slot machine,
the odds of hitting a particular symbol or combination of symbols
depends on how the virtual reel is set up. As we saw in the last
section, each stop on the actual reel may correspond to more than one
stop on the virtual reel. Simply put, the odds of hitting a particular
image on the actual reel depend on how many virtual stops correspond to
the actual stop.
In a typical weighted slot machine, the top jackpot stop (the one with
the highest-paying jackpot image) for each reel corresponds to only one
virtual stop. This means that the chance of hitting the jackpot image on
one reel is 1 in 64. If all of the reels are set up the same way, the
chances of hitting the jackpot image on all three reels is 1 in 643, or
262,144. For machines with a bigger jackpot, the virtual reel may have
many more stops. This decreases the odds of winning that jackpot
considerably.
The losing blank stops above
and below the jackpot image may correspond to more virtual stops than
other images. Consequently, a player is most likely to hit the blank
stops right next to the winning stop. This creates the impression that
they "just missed" the jackpot, which encourages them to keep gambling,
even though the proximity of the actual stops is inconsequential.
A machine's program is
carefully designed and tested to achieve a certain payback percentage.
The payback percentage is the percentage of the money that is put in
that is eventually paid out to the player. With a payback percentage of
90, for example, the casino would take about 10 percent of all money put
into the slot machine and give away the other 90 percent. With any
payback percentage under a 100 (and they're all under 100), the casino
wins over time.
In most gambling
jurisdictions, the law requires that payback percentages be above a
certain level (usually somewhere around 75 percent). The payback
percentage in most casino machines is much higher than the minimum --
often in the 90- to 97-percent range. Casinos don't want their machines
to be a lot tighter than their competitors' machines or the players will
take their business elsewhere.
The odds for a particular
slot machine are built into the program on the machine's computer chip.
In most cases, the casino cannot change the odds on a machine without
replacing this chip. Despite popular opinion, there is no way for the
casino to instantly "tighten up" a machine.
Machines don't loosen up on
their own either. That is, they aren't more likely to pay the longer you
play. Since the computer always pulls up new random numbers, you have
exactly the same chance of hitting the jackpot every single time you
pull the handle. The idea that a machine can be "ready to pay" is all in
the player's head, at least in the standard system.
You can turn
the paylines on through one of two different methods in the interface.
If you click on the Bet One button, the number of active paylines
will increase by one. If all five paylines are already turned
on, and you click on the Bet One button, then the number of active
paylines will reset to one. The Bet One button will be enabled
regardless of the balance or the credits in the machine. You
can also select paylines by clicking on the payline indicators,
which are located to the left and right of the wheelhouse. If
you click on a payline indicator, then all of the paylines up
to and including the line associated with the indicator are turned
on. All other paylines are turned off. For instance, if you click
on the third payline indicator, then the first, second and third
paylines become active, and the fourth and fifth paylines are
turned off. If you click on the first payline indicator, then
only the first payline is active. If you click on the fifth payline
indicator, then all five paylines become active. You cannot selectively
turn on individual paylines (for instance, you can not activate
the first, third, and fifth paylines, and turn off the second
and fourth paylines).
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