WEBVTT - TechStuff Plays the Slot Machines 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:17.759 tech Stuff from housefi dot com. Hello again, everyone, and 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.160 welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.440 I am an editor at house stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.599 Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:30.480 Hey there you high roller you. Yes, today we're going 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.639 to take a gamble and I see what you did there. 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.800 Thank you. Yes, I made a jokey joke. We're gonna 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:42.360 talk about slot machines today. Actually high rolling really doesn't 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.640 have anything to do with it, but I needed something there. 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.120 So here's a quick question. Have you ever Have you 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.599 ever played a slot machine, like an actual standing up 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:53.120 thing with a lever on the side of it, a 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:58.279 real life, for real Z slot machine. Yes, no, you 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.040 have not. No. I have played video game slot machines 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.759 on my computer and my portable devices, but not for 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.360 money in a casino somewhere. I'm even in a non 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.560 casino I've played. I've played pachinko before, I have played 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.880 slot machines. Um, it's uh now grad the slot machines 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.880 I've played. Were the more um, the more modern ones 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.039 slot of your machines, Yeah, the ones that are not 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:30.560 dependent upon mechanical operation but on electrical or computerized actually 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.160 all of them are computerized operation. Um. But but we're 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.520 gonna talk a little bit about all the different kinds 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.840 of slot machines, not just the not just the computerized ones. 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.640 So for those of you who have never seen one 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.400 or don't know what we're talking about, the slot machine 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:52.840 is a gambling machine. And uh, typically a slot machine has, 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:58.920 especially the physical ones have three or more reels upon 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.200 which our pictures and the pictures could be anything, but 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:08.239 you know, the stereotypical one has like lemons and liberty bell, 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:13.720 Liberty bell cherries a bar, you know, and when three 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.919 of those pictures line up, or there's some interesting configuration 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:22.320 of those pictures, you win money. Uh And uh, you know, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.960 you might wonder what's the connection between the pictures and 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.720 the cash. And that gets really interesting, particularly when we 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.480 talk about the modern slot machines that are in casinos today. 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:36.280 But to start, we should probably talk about, you know, 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.320 why do slot machines even exist. Well, they're really for 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.680 the casual gamer. It's funny to think about because uh, 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.240 you know, our our audience is probably thinking of casual 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:49.000 games is something like Bejewel, the match three type games 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.760 or Marble shooting games. There are several different variations of 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.480 those versus uh, you know, the the role playing games 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.280 or the first person shooters. But it replies to two 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.440 games in real life too. In terms of casinos. When 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.000 we're talking about serious gaming, we're talking about the card 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:13.440 games that require strategy, um tables, craps tables, yeah, anything 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.080 that has sort of a high barrier really, because they 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.760 can be very intimidating to a person who's never played before. 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.240 You walk up and you're like, I don't understand. There's 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.480 so many things going on with this and so many rules. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.880 I'm not sure where to start or what's going on. Yeah, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.520 I'll admit, you know, that's one of the reasons I 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.040 don't play poker. It's not because not just because I'm 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.840 a terrible liar, but I can never remember which hand 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.040 is which. I know you know that there are certain combos, 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.120 but I don't remember where they rank in terms of 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.400 which one is higher than others. And high card pair 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.720 three of a kind to pair. No, I'm just I'm 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:51.200 not going to go through the whole thing. But yeah, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.480 I mean there's there's Yeah, you have to know something 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.480 about gambling if you want to go to the craps 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.000 table or if you want to, uh to play high 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.520 stakes poker, but you really don't have to know that 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.640 much to play a slot machine. You put you put 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.360 a coin in the machine, uh, you pull the handle 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.760 on the reels click into place, and you either win 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.320 or you don't. And and there are two things that 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.280 make that game very attractive to people who might otherwise 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.719 not gamble. One is that it's easy. Like you said, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.360 it's it's there's not much to it. Yeah, it's it's 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:26.279 and it's got a nice attractive sort of appeal to 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.720 it in that when it wins, it's a very visceral experience, right, 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.720 Like there's bells going off and coins are falling, and 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.960 it's a great, you know way of attracting attention. Well, hey, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:38.880 you know that's that's one of those things too. I 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.320 mean when you win, when you really win and the 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.039 bells go off in the lights flash, everybody around you 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.600 knows that you won, so everybody turns around to look 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.840 at you, and there's that thing of hey, awesome, and 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.680 the second big attraction to it is that has a 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.320 very low betting point for you know, typical machines do Anyway, 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.480 you can find machines that have much higher requirements, like 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.640 a hundred dollars per play, but the vast majority of 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.919 them tend to be cents, fifty cents, maybe a dollar 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.400 and uh. And so if when when each individual bet 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.479 doesn't have to be huge, it attracts the kind of 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.839 gamers who would be otherwise disinclined to play a game 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.400 where it's you know, twenty five bucks per play, especially 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.960 when they don't fully understand the rules, so they and 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.160 and it's turned out that these things have become huge 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.880 money makers for casinos. There was a report. We have 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.679 a great article on How Stuff Works about how slot 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:43.880 machines work. I really do highly recommend this because animations, illustrations, 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.440 it's it's an exhaustive approach to how slot machines work. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.760 And uh. In that article, it's revealed that something like 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.800 sixty of gaming profits in the United States stem from 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.000 slot machines. And when we get to the point where 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.000 we talk about payback percentages, that amount of money is 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.320 going to blow your mind. Yeah, and and those things 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.240 are changing too as as we speak, because there have 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.800 been recent developments in the slot machine. I know you're 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.800 you're going really they've changed slot machines. How how changed 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.560 can they be? They're changing them to where people think 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:21.560 that they're going to pay even more in the future. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:23.839 But what we can get into that in a moment, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.800 So let's start about talking about how they work. Will 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:30.920 eventually get into things like the odds that are involved 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.880 with the slot machine, and also the payback percentages, because 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:38.159 that's that's the part that the player really is interested in, 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.960 in the sense of, uh, what what's the likelihood that 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.200 I'll ever win money using a slot machine. I'll even 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.040 give you tips on how to pick the right slot machine, 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.400 because I'm I'm I'm that kind of guy. Well, I 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.800 would say there are four basic types of slot machines. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.560 This is This is just me making I didn't take 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.200 these four from somebody else. So I would say the 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.040 first one would be the purely mechanical machine. Yes, this 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.880 is the the old slot machine, the original slot machines 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:11.320 that used mechanical gears and levers to execute its function. Yeah. Yeah, 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.000 those showed up in uh in the eighteen eighties. Yeah, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.080 um or eighteen hundreds. Anyway, late eighteen hundreds and um, 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.080 you know that they name evolved into an electrical or 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:25.040 or electronic slot machines where these mechanical elements are working 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:28.480 in tandem with electronics to help control things. And then 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.000 you have the you know, a digital slot machine where 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.760 the pictures are now on screens rather than reels. Yeah, 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.960 you can also have a digital slot machine that still 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.640 uses reels. Uh, it's just it's, um, the all the 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.280 workings are behind the scenes digital, but the ones that 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.040 you know, what you're looking as a physical representation, it 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.600 looks like an analog system because you've got these physical 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.040 reels rolling around. But that's you know, that's really just 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.320 for show. It's really just to show you what the 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.200 final result of your spin was. And now I think 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:03.800 we're moving into the completely computerized version of the machines. Um. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.240 But yeah, let's start with the mechanical one, because I 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.080 think in a way to me, that one there's the 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.840 most fascinating simply because it's got uh gears and and 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.200 police and brand and there's a block and tackle and 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.560 there's a little man inside. Yeah, there's a little a 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:19.880 little bearded man. I need to check my notes. I 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.360 think I think I think we realized that in a 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:27.160 previous podcast that all technology in the nineteenth century was 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:33.480 ultimately powered by bearded old men. That was the mechanical turk. Yeah, 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.640 that was our Fax podcast. So we're gonna talk about 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:39.679 the mechanical ones. Yeah, if you were to open up 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.720 a mechanical slot machine, first of all, don't do it 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.280 in a casino, because that will get you in trouble. Yeah, 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:46.760 if you even look like you're going to mess with 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.480 the slot machines there, well they were, they were watching 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.920 you when he walked in. Very large people will come 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.120 and very very firmly but gently suggest you high tail 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:56.800 it out of there. But no, if you were to 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.839 open up a mechanical slot machine, you would see the reels. Now, 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.400 those are those, the spinning elements that have all the 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.640 pictures on them are connected to a metal shaft and 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.200 it's the central metal cheft supports the reels and allows 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:16.560 them to spin. Uh and not that kind of shaft 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.319 what you're talking about, so um just talking about I 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.600 can take it. So these the reels are actually connected 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.120 to some notched disks, and these notch discs are what 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.600 allow the reels to spin around the the the shaft, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.600 the shaft the and it also stops the reels from spinning. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.439 And I'll get into that in a minute. But anyway, 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.400 it's got notches. Kind of think about how a bicycle 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.920 wheel when you look at the central part of the wheel, 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.319 it has those notches where the chain uh connects and 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.200 pulls the wheel, so it turns the wheel, you know 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.640 I'm talking about. So it's same sort of thing. Now 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.040 that main shift shaft has a there's a secondary cheft 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.199 that has something on it called a kicker. Know. This 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.960 kicker is an element that that hits these uh these 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.480 notched disks and gets the reels to spinning. And the 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.280 kicker is actually attached to a spring. So when you 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.960 put a coin into a slot machine, a coin detector 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.320 first of all realizes that you put a coin in. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.480 Hey there's a coin, yeah, because otherwise you could operate 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.439 the slot machine whether you had put a coin in 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.880 or not, which would be not profitable at all to 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.720 the casino. Also, if you want, nothing would come out 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.800 because people would have been playing that already. But it 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.040 releases a break that's on that level, right, So the 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.839 brake gets released and once the break is released, you 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:38.680 can pull the lever down. This is these are the 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.840 old old we're talking about the purely mechanical slot machines. 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.840 Now that that pulls a hook, that pulls back the kicker, 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.079 and that compresses a spring, so once the hook moves 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.120 past a certain point, it releases the kicker. The spring 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.520 makes the kicker move forward, and the kicker hits those 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.920 notches that are attached to the reels, that makes the 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:05.000 reels begin to spin. Now, also attached to that kicker 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:11.439 are three stoppers. And the stoppers are these these uh, 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.520 these these pieces of material that can go into the 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:18.160 notches and stop the reel from spinning. It's like putting 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.920 a stick through a spoke in a bike tire as 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.280 it's spinning. It's gonna make the the bike tire stop spinning. 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.559 It is not. However, unlike the documentary Indiana Jones and 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.480 the Last Crusade going to cause you to flip forward, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.000 I was going to say, don't try that at home 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.360 unless your insurance is paid. Happen and you you don't 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.880 hold us responsible for whatever happened. There was actually a 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.040 great episode of MythBusters where they showed that that particular 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.280 stunt would not be possible that it would not make 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.520 you flip forward. It would make you crash, but it 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.600 wouldn't make you flip. Uh. So anyway, Yeah, the stoppers 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.520 insert into the notches and stop the reels and the 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:03.080 old mechanical ones. This was all purely by chance. The 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.600 way that these stoppers would come in, and uh, the 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.760 way that you would find out if you want, is 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:13.200 that certain notches within that notched disk are deeper than others. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.840 All right, So if the first stopper happens to go 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.640 into one of these deep notches, that deep notch corresponds 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.880 with a jackpot symbol on the reel, So that real 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.280 stops and then you get one of the jackpot symbols. 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.520 So let's say it's a seven. That's a very common one. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:34.440 So seven stops, yes, awesome, Well, that particular stopper moves 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.880 a little bit to the left, and the second stopper 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.120 inserts into a notch. Now, if the second stopper inserts 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:45.040 into the second jackpot notch, the second one with the seven, 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.800 that's again a deeper notch, it moves a little bit 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:49.560 to the left, and then you see that a second 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:54.560 seven has stopped and you think, oh, gay, so close, 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:57.280 and then the third stopper inserts. Now, if the third 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.760 stopper inserts into the jackpot slot again, it's a little 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.559 further in than the other notches. Uh, the the third 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.920 and final seven shows up and you think I win. 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:12.160 And meanwhile, the stoppers also connected to a little lever 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.920 system that opens up a trap door where all the 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.600 coins are, and then the coins fall through the trap 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:22.000 door and land in your hot little gambling hands. But 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.400 we're all over the floor. We're all over the floor. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:32.120 So if however, any of those stoppers hit a different notch, 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.240 they will not go so far in as to allow 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.400 that that doorway, that trap door to open. And so, uh, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.680 anything that is not a jackpot would not pay out. 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:50.200 And you could have different systems, uh, you know, different 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.199 levels of complexity for your your standard slot machine. But 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.400 the old, old old slot machines essentially had one payout 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.000 ability and that was it. And if it didn't land 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.320 end on just that configuration, then it would just keep 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:07.559 your money and you have to keep playing. Yeah. Now, um, 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.400 we were talking about casual games. These how these being 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.440 casual games. The very first slot machines actually used the 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:18.600 symbols for playing cards on the three reels UM. The 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.800 idea of being that it was a system that people 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.640 understood and probably would feel familiar with. UM. But it 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.840 was a guy named Charles Faye who who came up 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.360 with a machine called the Liberty Bell and he added 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:37.160 a symbol of the Liberty bell um UM and that 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.800 was it was sort of an experiment, really, Uh. He 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:41.360 was trying to see if this would catch on, if 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.960 they could use symbols instead of the traditional playing cards, 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.160 and as it turned out, it was very, very popular, 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.000 and that's one of the reasons why they moved to 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.760 the symbol version of this UM. And he also introduced 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.640 some other, uh, some other innovations too about the way 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:01.720 it would work UM. But Stephen mill In nine also 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:07.040 added more symbols and UM also worked on making it smaller. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.440 And uh you know, as time has gone on, they 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:16.080 have become easier to put into casinos in other places. UM. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.400 Jonathan and I went to uh UM Hotel and and 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.120 c E s in two thousand and eight, and uh, 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.400 you know, the hotel was sort of like any other hotel, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.440 except of course it had slot machines. Is the in 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.400 the waiting area and I was thinking, wow, you know, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.560 they'll put these things anywhere at ye, the airport too, 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.680 but they're they're smaller and easier to fit, you know. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.040 And then it's sort of like computers. They over time 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.680 they figured out ways to make them more refined and 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.040 easier to to shrink down. There's a particular slot machine 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.840 in the Vegas airport and I can't even remember. I 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:50.960 just remember every time I go there, I hear the 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.160 same phrase over and over because I'm always the wheel 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.480 of fortune machine? Is it? There is wheel of Fortune, 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.680 which I do hear over and over, but there's another 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.400 one that has like a like an old prospector type voice, 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.680 like that kind of thing, and it just goes over 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:08.720 and over and over again. And the problem is that 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.800 I always get to the airport well in advance of 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:13.720 when my plane is leading, so I get to listen 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.200 to it until I am ready to um to to 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.160 to screen like a crazy person, which by the way, 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.840 I do not recommend you do in an airport, uh, 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.800 particularly in an airport in Las Vegas. Gonna say, how 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:31.720 did you find that out? Anyway? Moving on, so so anyway, yeah, 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.680 that's so, that's that's the mechanical one. They're literally gears 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.440 and levers that stop the reels, and those reels do 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.920 correspond with payoffs and uh, it all has to do 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:46.920 with the actual physical um uh components. Now, once you 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.560 move on a little bit, it gets a little more complicated. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.920 The first electrical systems were not that different from the 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.960 mechanical ones, right the but instead of having these physical 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.400 stoppers go in two notches and that determine whether or 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:07.320 not a trap door opened, they would detect an electrical connection. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:13.840 So the the notched wheel or the wheel that's connected 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.280 to the reels has little electrical contacts on it, and 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.520 when the contacts line up in a certain way, they 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.800 create a circuit. And depending upon the circuit, that tells 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.280 the machine if it's a payout or not a payout. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:29.919 And this is interesting to me because it reminds me 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.520 a lot of the Enigma machine, because you think about 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.760 the Enigma machine, which was it was a ciphering device, right, 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.840 And the way the Enigma machine worked is that you 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.280 would pick a certain letter, you would uh, you would 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.000 set the reels of the Enigma machine to a very 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.280 specific setting, which you know the person receiving the message 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.800 would also have to do, and you would type in 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.560 your message, and depending upon the way the connectors went, 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.359 when you pressed say the letter A, then a metrical 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.600 signal was sent to the first reel, goes in one 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.119 side of that reel, uh comes out the other corresponding 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.640 to a different letter, which goes into the second reel, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.679 That goes out of the second reel, corresponding to a 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.000 different letter to the third reel. And so the ultimate 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.320 letter that you would get from your cipher would be 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.360 completely different from the letter you typed. And because there 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.840 were so many combinations, it was really tricky to break 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.160 that code. Well, the funny thing is that slot machines 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.919 when they were using these electrical systems, were very similar. 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.080 So an electrical current passes through one side of the reel. 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.399 Let's say that it's a bar, and then the second 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:42.360 one is also a bar. So the electrical current continues 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.280 all the way through the first reel. The two contacts 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.840 between the two reels are are touching one another, so 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.119 then it continues on to the third reel, which is 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.639 at a blank, so you have bar bar blank. It 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:59.000 hits that third reel, there's no corresponding contact. The machine 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.120 detects that it was a failed spin and you win 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.760 no money or you win whatever it is that that 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:10.000 two bars and and right there might be there might 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.879 still be an electrical current. But then what would happen 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.160 is it would be directed to a different sensor on 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.600 the far side of this system, so that way, uh, 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:22.880 you know, there might be one sensor that, when it's 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.920 lit up, says this dude just made himself a pretty penny, 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.000 And there might be another center sensor that says this 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.240 dude just made some decent money, And there might be 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.560 one So this dude needs to go and has some 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.120 drinks at the bar because he has not one a 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.560 darn scent And um, yeah, that's the that's essentially the 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.399 electrical one. But other other than that, other than the 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.360 the electrical component where it's trying to make that circuit, 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.760 it was very similar to the mechanical one. Now, eventually 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.560 you got to ones that would use an electric motor 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.320 to spin the reels as opposed to the the the gears. Yeah, 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:02.879 or the spring really I should say, because the kicker 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.879 was spring loaded. Um, there was something else that that 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.360 we didn't talk about as far as the basic functionality 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:14.119 of slot machines. In general. Um, the wheels spin all 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.320 the same time when you begin the game. However, they 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.560 don't stop at the same time. If you've never seen 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:23.680 a slot machine, you'll see the reels stop in order. So, uh, real, 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.280 number one will stop and the other two are still spinning, 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.119 and we all number two will stop, and so you 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.280 have an idea. You know, you may have thought if 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:32.960 you hadn't seen one of these when Jonathan was talking 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.080 about the sevens popping up one after the other, Um, 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.960 well you know, aren't they all stopping at the same time. No, 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.800 they're not. So wheels one and two have stopped, but 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.600 three is still spinning. What will it be? Yeah? It 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.640 helps helps build suspense and it and it encourages people 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.440 to keep playing. Yeah. You you might think that there 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:54.400 was a mechanical reason for this. It's not. It's completely psychological. Yeah, 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.520 it's it's so that it will convince people to keep playing. 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:03.440 For one thing, near missus can make a person determined 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.720 to play longer. Right, So, something that looks like it 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.119 you almost hit it, like you hit uh, you know, 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.920 you almost hit three bars. You actually hit three blanks, 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:16.600 but it's the three blanks directly above three bars, and 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:20.280 you think I close, I just I gotta keep playing, 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:22.880 and so yeah, it does keep people playing longer, which 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.960 and we'll get into more about the psychological elements later. 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:28.840 I thought near Mrs meant your wife was standing next 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:30.840 to you. Your wife's over at the nickel slots. So 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:36.399 next you have the photo electric cells version of UM 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:38.760 of a slot machine. Now this is similar to the 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:42.399 electrical detection systems, but instead of an electrical circuit, what 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:46.800 happens is the little um notched wheels. Instead of being 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.280 notched wheels, they have uh. These discs have little holes 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.520 in them, and a light source shines from one side 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.840 of the slot machine inside the slot machine. You can't 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.400 see it from the outside, but shines through, and if 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.640 the real alls are lined up properly, then a sensor 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.359 on the other side of the slot machine detects it 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:07.919 and that's what lets the slot machine know whether or 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:10.879 not to give a payout. So of course, if the 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.680 discs are not aligned quite right, then no light is 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:17.080 going to be passing through and that ends up being 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.600 a miss, and so or it could be a hit. 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:22.720 I mean, if you had it where all the different 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.920 positions had light except the one winning position, you could 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.760 have that be the hit. It all depends on, you know, 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:33.720 the actual manufacturer. But the the vast majority of slot 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.120 machines you will run into today, assuming you're not going 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.040 through like some sort of museum or curiosity type thing, 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:45.480 are computerized slot machines. And these are absolutely fascinating to 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:50.720 me because ultimately the mechanical elements of this device, all 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:55.000