Why don't American Vegas fruit machines have gambles like ours do?

[ulrichburke]

Dear Anyone.

I love watching NG Slots and the others in Vegas but I've never understood 2 things.  The first is 'denom'.  What's the difference between playing - say, I'm making this up because I don't understand it so if I get it wrong, forgive me! - $50 a spin at 5 cents denom and $50 a spin on a dollar denom? It's still $50 a spin so what's the difference? Amount of winlines? I've got a feeling I'm going to feel pretty dumbass when someone explains it to me - but right now I don't get it.  And here's the other.

Why don't Vegas machines have pie gambles? You'd think everyone would love trying to gamble - say - a $50 win up to thousands - and usually losing! - but you'd think Vegas of all places would be ideal for that.  Why do you think they don't and we do?

Yours respectfully

Chris.

[MikeV]

American here.

Based on your examples, $50 a spin at 5¢ denom is a 1000 credit spin and $50 at $1 denom is a 50 credit spin. For the second example, that could be 50 winlines with 1 credit staked per winline or 10 lines with 5 credits per line. It depends on the game. In general, the denomination of a slot shows the player how much each credit is worth, as wins and balances are displayed as "credits," though most newer games allow you to toggle between credits and cash.

Example: You have 2,000 credits in a 5¢ denom slot, how much cash is that? Take 2000 and multiply it by the denom: 2,000 x 0.05 = $100.00

As for why we have denominations on our slots, that goes back well over a few decades ago when slots only accepted physical coins and dispensed coins to the winner. Back then, the denomination determined which coin the slot machine would take. For example, a quarter (25¢) denomination slot would only take quarters. You also couldn't bet more than a few coins at a time in older machines, so a high roller looking to bet big had to look for a machine with a higher denom.

Nowadays, most slots are multi-denom and you can bet more credits per spin on lower denom games. However, here's a fun fact. It's industry standard for casinos to set their high denom slots with a higher theoretical RTP than their lower denom games. So in your previous examples, if you had a choice of playing $50 a spin at 5¢ denom or $50 at $1 denom, there's a good chance that the casino has set the RTP of the $1 denom game higher than the 5¢ denom game.

As for pie gambles, I'm not sure. As a matter of fact, there are almost no gamble options. You are more likely to find a gamble feature on video poker machines. These are the Game King branded machines from IGT. After you play your video poker hand, if you won, you may see a button near the bottom of the screen that says "double up." Selecting it will take you to a gamble feature where you must pick one of 4 cards and the card you choose must be higher than the dealer's card. If so then your win is doubled and you get to play again, or take the winnings. I think Darren has played this type of gamble feature before on "20p Slot," if my memory is correct.

The closest experience to a "pie gamble" that we have is the "wager saver" feature that is present in some newer SG slots. If your balance in the machine goes down below your last stake amount (example: you have 40¢ left and your last wager was $1), then you will be presented an opportunity to gamble your last 40¢ for a chance at 1 spin at your last bet amount ($1). This is shown on-screen as a pie gamble.