One-armed bandits - how did they appear and where to play? One-armed bandits. Free one-armed bandits are interesting

Types of slots

IN currently slots can be divided into two large groups:

• mechanical slots- those same “one-armed bandits” often with a handle to start the game, usually have three reels and from one to five paylines. For a long time could equally be launched by a button, but are currently not so popular.
• video slots- more modern look slots where the screen is used to display the reels. Video slots can have up to five reels and up to fifty paylines. Thanks to the use computer technology, in such slot machines the player is provided with a wide range of additional features that increase interest in the game, such as bonus games and bonus rounds, scatters, wilds, etc.

The presence of progressive jackpots plays a big role in choosing a slot machine for a player. Slot machines that have a common accumulative system are called progressive. From online slot machines in prize fund a certain percentage is deducted, which makes up the jackpot. To win the jackpot, a player generally must land the highest combination of symbols at the highest bet.

Description

Slot machines have different numbers of reels and paylines. All buttons on a slot machine have a constant value, although there are exceptions. As a rule, in English, on each button it is written what action will be performed after it is pressed:

• Spin- game start button.
• Bet- setting the player’s bet at which he is going to play.
• x lines- game on X lines.

Modern slot machines usually have 9 (1-3-5-7-9) or 20 (1-5-10-15-20) lines, with the first 10 most often having central symmetry, and the next 10 - axial. It is very rare to find slots with up to 100 playing lines). Sometimes positions on the reel are “acquired” by the player, which in the 5*3 field corresponds to playing from 5 to 243 combinations.

• Collect- fixing the game and the player’s deposit for its subsequent withdrawal.
• Bet one- game with one bet.
• Bet x2- a game with a bet multiplied by two.
• Bet x3- a game with a bet multiplied by three.
• Bet x5- a game with a bet multiplied by five.

(in modern slot machines there is usually a maximum bet multiplication of x10 or x100.

• Bet Max- exhibiting maximum bet, for which the slot machine is designed. In some machines, pressing a button Bet Max spins the reels with the maximum bet.
• Last bet- the ability to repeat the previous bet.

Slot machines have special symbols on the machine screen:

• Credit- player’s score in conventional units.
• Win- a winning combination has appeared.
• Paid- total payment.

All slot machines have a payout table for symbols, so the player can always find out what is due to him when certain combinations appear.

To start the game, the player needs to place a bet and spin the reels. If a winning combination appears on the winning line after the reels stop, the winnings are determined according to the winnings table.

see also

Links

• Online slots - information on slot machines, database of Internet slots.

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See what “One-armed bandit” is in other dictionaries:

Noun, number of synonyms: 4 machine gun (43) slot machine (4) mechanical gangster ... Synonym dictionary

Publ. Joking. iron. Slot machine. BS, 20; TS of the twentieth century, 72 ... Big dictionary Russian sayings

bandit- a, m. bandit m., floor. bandyt, German Bandit, etc. bandito. 1. Robber, robber in Italy, others European countries. Sl. 18. The bandit tied a girl to a tree. Emin Miram 1763 1 65. Bandits and counterbandits. Jan. 1803.|| Armed robber... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

The goal of the game is to collect a winning combination of symbols by spinning the reels. The better the combination, the greater the winnings.

Types of slots

Currently, slots can be divided into two large groups:

• mechanical slots- those same “one-armed bandits” with a lever to start the game, usually have three reels and from one to five pay lines. There are also machines with push-button start, but these days they are not so popular.
• video slots- a more modern type of slots, where a screen is used to display the reels. Video slots can have up to five reels and up to 243 paylines. Thanks to the use of computer technology, such slot machines provide the player with a wide range of additional features that increase interest in the game, such as bonus games and bonus rounds, scatter symbols, wild symbols, and so on.

For a player, the availability of progressive jackpots plays a big role in choosing a slot machine. Slot machines that have a common accumulative system are called progressive. From online slot machines, a certain percentage is allocated to the prize fund, which makes up the jackpot. To win the jackpot, a player generally must land the highest combination of symbols at the highest bet.

In addition, in the era of Internet development, slot games in online casinos have become widespread. Every year new slots and their varieties appear, in which the emphasis is on modern 3D technologies.
To attract new players and retain old ones, some online casinos allow a limited number of free spins in real money slots.

Description

Slot machines have different numbers of reels and paylines. All buttons on a slot machine have a constant value, although there are exceptions. As a rule, in English, on each button it is written what action will be performed after it is pressed:

• Spin- game start button.
• Bet- setting the player’s bet at which he is going to play.
• N lines- game by N lines.
• Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, ... - gives the player the opportunity to choose game lines independently.

Modern slot machines usually have 9 (1-3-5-7-9) or 20 (1-5-10-15-20) lines, with the first 10 most often having central symmetry, and the next 10 - axial. It is very rare to find slots with up to 100 playing lines. Sometimes positions on the reel are “acquired” by the player, which in the 5*3 field corresponds to playing from 5 to 243 combinations.

• Collect- fixing the game and the player’s deposit for its subsequent withdrawal.
• Bet one- game with one bet.
• Bet x2- a game with a bet multiplied by two.
• Bet x3- a game with a bet multiplied by three.
• Bet x5- a game with a bet multiplied by five.

(in modern slot machines there is usually a maximum bet multiplication of x10 or x100.

• Bet Max- setting the maximum bet for which the slot machine is designed. In some machines, pressing a button Bet Max spins the reels with the maximum bet.
• Last bet- the ability to repeat the previous bet.

Slot machines have special symbols on the machine screen:

• Credit- player’s score in conventional units.
• Win- a winning combination has appeared.
• Paid- total payment.

All slot machines have a payout table for symbols, so the player can always find out what is due to him when certain combinations appear.

To start the game, the player needs to place a bet and spin the reels. If a winning combination appears on the winning line after the reels stop, the winnings are determined according to the winnings table.

Game symbols

Traditional symbols for slot machines are images of fruits, cherries, bells and the number “7”. The biggest win was usually awarded when all sevens or bells were rolled one at a time game line, the smallest - when cherries fall out. At the same time, very often the loss of at least one cherry image along the playing line meant “zero winnings,” that is, the return of the bet to the player’s account.

Later, images of gold bars were added to them; in some machines, black rectangles with the inscription “BAR” were added. The symbols depicted different numbers of bars - most often one, two or three, sometimes more. In this case, any combination of ingot images along one playing line is winning and its rank is determined by the image with the smallest number of ingots. For example, for three reels the combination “3” - “1” - “3” is equivalent to the combination “1” - “1” - “1”.

After the advent of 5-reel machines with large reels, images with the numbers “2” - “9” and the number “10” were added to the number “7”, as well as the letters of playing cards - “J”, “Q”, “K”, "A". Poker combinations have been added to the winning table. Sometimes "Joker" is also present.

The set of symbols in modern slot machines is very large and varied.

Slot clubs

Many American casinos offer players free membership in slot clubs, which return a percentage of the amount lost, which is paid out in the form of bonuses - free food, drinks, hotel rooms, or simply valuable gifts, less often bonuses are paid in cash (with the condition that the cash will be paid later).

To benefit from club membership, players are required to use special cards inserted into slots, which allows the gambling house to track the player's actions (what bets he makes and how long he plays), which is often used to set a certain level of play for a player who has right to additional bonuses. Bonuses or cashback from these clubs can increase significantly in size if you play for a long time.

In Russia, slot clubs appeared quite late, only in 1992. Before that, slot machines were only in casinos and small shops, but later slot clubs began to grow throughout the country. The most popular and numerous clubs were “Vulcan 777” and “Taj Mahal”; There were also lesser-known ones that opened in huge numbers after the procedure for obtaining a license was simplified in 2001. After 2009, when a ban on gambling establishments was introduced, slot clubs disappeared almost throughout the entire country and appeared in specially permitted gambling zones, in addition, many establishments switched to online business. There are also illegal slot clubs, but law enforcement agencies are actively fighting them.

Slotosphere

Slotosfera is a casino for lovers of slot machines; as the name implies, such establishments do not have roulette,

It is completely unknown when the nickname “one-armed bandit” literally stuck to slot machines, but it has accompanied them practically since their birth at the very end of the 19th century. Without dwelling on the history of invention and evolution, which has already been described on the pages of our website in the article “Slot machines: from the Liberty Bell to the Internet,” let’s talk about the origin of the apt nickname “one-armed bandit”, that is, in fact, why a bandit and why, Suddenly, one-armed?
Of the two questions, the answer to the second lies literally on the surface and does not cause difficulties if you have ever seen a slot machine at least once in your life or at least look at their “great-grandfather” - the famous “Liberty Bell” of Charles Faya (see picture). But before continuing the story, and in order not to raise puzzling questions in the future, let me remind you that their other name is “slots” - slot machines received thanks to the narrow slot of the coin acceptor and at first all machines, from vending machines to gaming machines, were called this word. But let's return to the "great-grandfather" of slots.
Charles Fay's "Liberty Bell" was equipped with a lever to start the game, and thanks to this single handle, the slot machine became "one-armed". Some modern slots even today, more as a tribute to tradition, have retained this lever, which, by the way, has been sometimes shaped like a hand for some time now.
And if with the “one-armed man” everything is clear and simple, then with the “bandit” everything is much more interesting. Although, why is this so, because a bandit is the one who takes money; Players, for more than one hundred and twenty years, have been putting coins or tokens into the slot machine themselves in the hope of winning. And the whole point is that the slot machine was originally conceived as a rather effective method taking away money, presenting the player with a deliberately minuscule chance of winning. Judge for yourself.
The first slot machine had only three reels of ten symbols each. When the game started, each reel rotated independently of each other and with at different speeds. You don't need to be a great mathematician to calculate the chance of three identical symbols appearing on three different reels. You can argue, of course, that there were more winning combinations and you will be right, but only partly. Winning combinations, making up the so-called winning table, there were only about a dozen, with the most big win relied on the loss of three “bells” and was equal to only... half a dollar, while one attempt to play cost five cents.
In essence, the entire process of the game boiled down to “sink or perish,” with the only difference being that the negligible chance of “sink” accounted for the overwhelming number of opportunities to “sink.” But nevertheless, the excitement of the players did its job, because for many people it is so common to think and even be sure that happiness will certainly smile on them, and it does not matter that literally next to them, before their eyes, people are losing to smithereens. And, of course, the ineradicable thirst for “freebies”, when the imagination imagines the opportunity to rip off money without putting in any work and, what is equally important, without having any skills or knowledge, but just like that, “for a fool”... It should not be surprising that slot machines quickly gained popularity, and there was no end to the owners of saloons and various establishments who wanted to install a slot machine.
The continued struggle for the player's pocket led to the creation of slot machines with five reels and with up to twenty sectors on each of them, which made the chance of winning even less - go ahead and win. But, nevertheless, with all the tricks of the machine manufacturers, mechanical slots were, in general, “fair” machines, the operation of which was based on the so-called generator random numbers, and some innovations even allowed the player to partially influence the game process. Everything changed completely with the advent of video slots, inside of which an electronic chip was placed instead of a mechanical device, and tangible reels were replaced by an animated picture on a video screen. At the same time, make no mistake, this is not some expensive processor - exactly the same ones are built into any cheap watch. And with the advent of the Internet, slots were successfully mastered and virtual world, and now you can completely freely try your luck on some online slot machine, but they still remain the same “animated pictures”. Slot machines have changed so much that it took quite a long time to overcome the prejudice of players who rightly accused video slots of being “dishonest.” And that's why.
In mechanical slot machines, the reels and segments were real and the falling symbols occupied specific place on the reels, and the mechanism itself was a random number generator that physically could not be taken out of thin air. In modern slots, the whole principle of operation is completely different. There are no physical reels here and they are replaced by a processor that independently “comes up” with a number, not based on any order, sequence or any laws or rules, and then this “pseudo-random” number is displayed to the player as a picture on the screen. Moreover, when starting the game, already in the first second, the processor “knows” what number will be displayed on the screen, and the skill-stop, which played a certain role in the era of mechanical slot machines, allowing the player to stop the reels at any time, in modern slot machines only allows the player to think that the outcome of the game may depend on himself, while the processor absolutely doesn’t care when this same player presses the skill-stop button.
If this is not banditry, then it is "scam" clean water. When sitting down to play cards, for example, a skilled player is able to keep in mind and count the cards. It’s not for nothing that such “smart guys” are not allowed near the casino within a shot of a cannon, but here... it is absolutely impossible to predict what number the processor will “draw.” But that's not all. The processor allows you to set the so-called return percentage. This is that part of the amount received into the slot machine that the slot is “obliged” to return to the players. IN different countries it varies in value, but is rarely below 75-80%. By the way, Russia has one of the lowest rates. But it is completely wrong to believe that after “eating”, say, a thousand rubles, the slot will definitely return eight hundred to you. A slot machine will successfully eat up a thousand, ten, or a million rubles, but it is not at all necessary that it will give out 80% of the received amount. The thing is that the machine is programmed to give out 80% of the random amount, and not at all of the amount that was put into the slot for certain period.
It is not surprising that slot machines have become one of the most profitable methods of doing business. Interesting fact, which, for example, in the USA, homeland " one-armed bandits", players, if desired, have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the documentation for slot machines, while in some countries this is a sealed secret. You are not able to check either the payout percentage or any other subtleties of the slot program, and all the rules are boiled down to one - “if you don’t like it, don’t play.”
The funny thing is that even a legitimate win does not guarantee receiving money, because the owners of the machines can always refer to a “computer program failure,” which has been reported more than once in news feeds. In a word, literally everything - colorful design, images of the game's heroes, various features and bonuses, sound - all of this is needed for only one purpose - to maintain the player's interest in the game for as long as possible and keep him near the slot machine, which has come a long way from noble - the romantic, but now seeming so naive, the “one-armed” era of mechanical slots to the cynical and sophisticated “bandit” of the computer era...

Slot machines have been known to gamblers for a long time, but still not everyone knows why they are called One Armed Bandits. Previously in real casinos one could find very simple slot machines consisting of three reels. Various fruits were usually used as symbols, as well as sevens and the inscription “Bar”. A casino visitor could receive a win if three identical images on the same line. These slots were called “one-armed bandits” because in order to spin the reels you had to pull the handle. Now gaming machines have moved into virtual space, and great amount modern slots, but despite this, any one-armed bandit is capable of arousing increased interest among gamblers.

Free one-armed bandits are interesting

This section presents all the gaming one-armed bandits for free, and they resemble exactly the machines that were installed in real gambling establishments. The same minimum number of reels and lines, the same familiar fruit images, the same simple rules without any frills. All this attracts conservative gamblers who do not need additional functions of slot machines, who just want to play and enjoy winning. In the section, all one-armed bandits are available for free, so you can play any of them. It must be said that classic slots from modern manufacturers are sometimes supplemented with interesting features. For example, there may be wild symbol or scatter symbol. And this makes the game even more interesting!

Principles of free one-armed bandits

To play one-armed bandits for free, a gambler does not need to register and deposit his own money into the account. This allows you to get rid of unnecessary costs and at the same time gives you the opportunity to plunge into the unique atmosphere of land-based casinos, which offered such machines to visitors. But there was definitely nothing to do there without money, but here on the site any one-armed bandit games are available for free, so every visitor can enjoy the chosen slot. Play for virtual credits and have great fun!

How the one-armed bandit works June 12th, 2016

At first, slot machines were installed in saloons as entertainment for casual players, since, unlike traditional gambling such as Black Jack or dice, do not require special knowledge and skills - the player only has to throw a coin and pull the lever. These features allowed slot machines to achieve unprecedented success and become the most popular and profitable type of gambling, bringing in more than 60 percent of all profits received from gambling.

Modern machines use computers instead of mechanisms, but they look and feel like old mechanical machines. Slot machines safes play online - the random number generator at the heart of the computer ensures that with every turn of the reel there is an equally likely chance that the Jackpot will appear. Whenever the machine is turned on, the random number generator produces integer numbers (usually from 1 to several billion) one hundred times per second. The moment you "pull the handle" (or press the button), the computer records three random numbers generated by the generator. The first number is used to determine the position of the first reel, the second number is used for the second reel, and the third is used for the third reel respectively. Next, the computer checks the table, which tells it what the values ​​are on the virtual reel. Thus, in an electronic slot machine, the chances that the treasured symbol or combination of symbols will appear depend only on who, and how the virtual drum is configured.

Such programs are carefully designed and tested in order to achieve a certain percentage of return on investment. The payback percentage is determined by the percentage of the money that was put into the machine and the money paid to the player. With a payback percentage of 90, for example, the casino would take approximately 10 percent of all the money placed into the machine and give away the other 90 percent. Such a large percentage of payback is associated, first of all, with the desire of machine owners to attract as many as possible who want to try their luck. After all, there are a lot of competitors around, and if a machine only cleanses the pockets of players, it is unlikely to last long in the gambling market.

But how did those first mechanical “one-armed bandits” of the 19th century work? There were many varieties; below we will consider in detail only one, the simplest of them.

The basic design includes three drums mounted on a central rod. In addition, three toothed disks are attached to it, each of which is connected to its own drum. Under the drums there is a metal plate with three blades, the so-called kickers, fixed along its axis to a metal rod. A stopper is attached to each of the kickers - a plate that stops the movement of the drum.

When the player pulls the handle of the machine, the control cam (by appearance very reminiscent of a regular hook), fixed at the bottom of the handle, sets in motion a platinum with kickers that engage the teeth on the disks, and the reels begin to rotate. At the same moment, the stoppers are moved away from the reels by a special U-shaped plate located behind the kickers.

It should be noted that the stoppers have a specially elongated hook-shaped shape so that the ends cling to the U-shaped plate at the moment when the control cam sets the kickers in motion. Therefore, the drums rotate freely until the cam returns to its starting position, then the stoppers are released one after another, catching one of the teeth of the disk and thereby stopping the drums in turn. The fact that the reels stop does not at the same time add additional excitement to the game, forcing the player to look forward to the appearance of each next picture after the next reel stops. After all, only if there are identical symbols on the winning line will the player hit the jackpot.

But how does the machine itself determine that you have won?

There are many various systems winning payouts used in slot machines. The simplest of them is a system in which winnings are determined by measuring the depth of the teeth of the disks that move the reels. For simplicity, we will consider machines that accept only one type of coin and have only one possible combination for winning.

When you put a coin into such a machine, it falls into a transparent box. The base of the drawer is a movable shutter, which is connected to a metal shutter. Typically, the damper keeps the shutter closed. But when the Jackpot hits on three reels at once, the third stopper moves the shutter upward, opening the shutter so that the coins fall out of the machine.

But if only the second reel stops on the win, the second stopper will not move completely to the mark, because the first stopper will create an obstacle to its movement. Accordingly, the second stopper holds the third. Thus, in order for the shutter to open, all three stoppers must be on the winning mark.

Typically, slot machines have more complex system payments. Paying out part of the winnings for certain combinations of pictures and the entire winnings in full for a Jackpot combination.