And the machines are programmed to pay out only about 75% of the money they take in.
The $100 machines probably have better odds than 75%, but certainly less than 100%. If the evil one hadn’t been consistently losing money, the hotels wouldn’t have been consistently giving him great comps.
“And the machines are programmed to pay out only about 75% of the money they take in.”
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The US Gov could take a lesson from them - the country wouldn’t be in debt!
Don’t forget that while he’s sitting there for 8 hr stretches, he’s probably not just watching his machine. He’s noting the machines that are being played and if the heavily used ones have paid out or not.
So while he scrubs his money at a loss, he can tick his odds of winning up a little more than his own machine would allow if he sits down at a machine after someone else has given up on it after a long play and dry spell. If he does it at the right time, no one takes his machine while he does it, if he wins he can go back to it.
The machines don’t care who they pay out to, they just pay out what they are programmed to do, at irregular intervals, which have to be controlled somehow by some algorithm, unless they have squirrels inside randomly pulling strings.
The casino doesn’t care who they pay out to either, all they want is for other gamblers to see someone win enough to keep them salivating...so they probably have a way of making sure the wins are staggered throughout the day to maximize the number of witnesses and to keep up the excitement.
So while he loses over time, which keeps him in good graces with the casino, maybe he doesn’t lose as much as ordinary gamblers that are just hoping and don’t invest so much time and attention to it to care about algorithms or how long it’s been since a machine paid off.
Just a guess- only time I’ve ever gambled was penny gambling on Poker and Michigan Rummy at my folks’ and neighbor’s houses as a kid.