Take a look at this...

[faygo]

I think vp.com should add a new hat to their store ... made exclusively of tin foil. I think there's a big market.
 

[DaBurglar]

I think vp.com should add a new hat to their store ... made exclusively of tin foil. I think there's a big market.
  Holy crap. I just watched "Signs" with Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix and that little girl actress who is now all grown up, whats her name, little miss sunshine!?!?!   Their tinfoil hats that they constructed in the movie, to prevent the aliens from reading their minds, would DEFINITELY come in handy playing VP in AC, so as to prevent the guys sitting in the casino "control room booth" from flipping the "switch" to tell a game NOT to payout once I sit down at it and put my card in, thus notifying them that "uh oh, da burglar is here, he's an advantage player who used to win consistently from us years ago....its time we got our money back and then some from him!    Set the machine he is at to only deal four of a kind once in every 1,354 hands, and remove the three of diamonds if he is playing any of the Bonus games!    That will fix his greedy delusional compulsive gambling arse!"  

[mammajamma]

[QUOTE=shadowman]I think vp.com should add a new hat to their store ... made exclusively of tin foil. I think there's a big market.
  And you could ask the bartender to give you one for the yellow brick road.

[ko king]

I think vp.com should add a new hat to their store ... made exclusively of tin foil. I think there's a big market.

Have you ever watched "Inside Job" narrated by Matt Damon, pretty interesting movie. How and why could they do this, why would they risk their jobs, reputations, fines and possible jail time when they were already making money by the truckloads, turns out it had something to do with making even more money. Funny thing is there were no fines, nobody went to jail and the few that had their reputations tarnished and lost their jobs somehow ended up with some pretty important positions with the current administration.

[roveer]

as i have stated before in other posts, there is some sort of USER MENU/SETUP MENU that allows casinos to quickly access and change and work with the VP machines in their place of business.   These menus do have a lot of options and fields and what not that go totally UN-USED (for the most part) during the life of the machine.....such fields would encompass allowing  a user to actually exclude certain cards, increase (or decrease) the likelihood or appearance of a certain hand/result, etc.   The paytable is one thing, but actually manipulating the deal from the RNG is another.....this is obviously AGAINST the general regs, but it is nonetheless a functionality / utility reality.  
 I have to challenge the notion that there are menu's that allow you to "rig" the machine.  One of the reasons I made this and similar posts was in the hopes that someone with first hand knowledge would step up and say, yup those types of things exist and I've seen them.  Heck, lots of people have these machines in their homes.  Do you think it's possible for that many machines to be out there and have no-one say something about how they could be set to pay anything other than true pay table and RNG?  I hope to have physical access to just such a machine in the near future and believe me, I'll report back.  I also have access to a bunch of guys who refurb these machines for resale and they assure me that they don't change out the ROM's because they are selling a machine privately.  Once I've had an opportunity to throughly investigate I'll be sure and report my findings. A few months ago, I was right with you saying that AC had basically "shut down" payouts on VP but I'm more apt to attribute that to weak number strings being produced by the RNG based on seed values.  I've posted before about my theories of RNG, Seeds & number strings and with my somewhat elevated programming knowledge (used to progam RNG's for specific uses), and my time spent learning about cryptograpic exploits (WEP for wireless routers), have come to a higher understanding that even in a random world, there are strong points and weak points.  That might just translate in VP to hotter and colder, but on the surface, or the designed system, might be exactly as everyone has said for the past 25 years, RNG+Pay tables=VP.  Let me give an example.  In LV a few years ago I was having one of my marathon STP sessions late into the night.  At one point the multiplier stopped comming.  It shut off, hour after hour, no multiplier and than at 6am it all of a sudden came back.  Right back to 1-15 games or more.  Like water from a sink.  That would lead one to believe the machine was set to not give multipliers until 6am and the appearance that it was rigged.  What if at 6am the RNG took a new seed from the computers real time clock (which is usually how RNG's are seeded), or from whatever method they chose to seed and that seed produced a stronger or weaker number string which just so happened to result in more multipliers being generated.  It's Random, but in a way not random.  Not really any way it can be exploited unless one were able to figure out exactly how the RNG was being seeded AND determine how a seed could produce a stronger or weaker result after it ran through the game logic.  Seems very unlikely that anyone could derive an advantage, but who knows.  This would give the same appearance to the player as if it were rigged when actually it's not.  not at least in the way we think of rigged, through menu's or removing the possibility of a certain hand being dealt.   So my current working theory on all of this is that the machines are not "rigged" but there can and will be swings in how the RNG works based on seed.  Otherwise I'd expect to have a very typical outcome each and every time I play, and we all know that doesn't happen. Let's see what I find when I get inside.  From what I've been reading, these machines are so basic in their operation, that the pay tables, denominations and most settings can't be changed from a central location, a technician has to insert a chip into the machine, reboot it, remove the chip, insert the original chip reoboot again just to allow the menu's to change denom, games & pay tables.  All done for security reasons.  The fact that the machines are all connected via network is more for the players cards and (in the case of Caesars/Harrah's), automatic call attendant.  Even LL posted that he saw an attendant collecting statistal information from a machine, something that I would have thought would have all been aggregated at a central location.  Than you start to think, some of these machines have been out there for 20+ years, many of those concepts didn't even exist back then. There is even some good information posted here at videopoker.com (owned by action gamging) who makes these games for companies like IGT about how the RNG works when coming to deal and draw.  52 cars (53 for JP), RNG running all the time, hit deal, RNG gives a 52 card deck, machines pulls 5 top cards and displays, RNG continues to run, deck starts to shuffle (47 remaining cards), hit  draw RNG gives next 5 cards and that's the game.  Now, it answers one of my questions, in that it's not 10 cards pulled on the deal button.  That would mean the outcome of the game is determined at deal based on player holding the right cards, there is some additional randomness in that the deck is still shuffling until you hit draw, but what possible exploit could there be to that?  Wait 10 seconds, wait 10 minutes?  Wouldn't matter to the player.  Of course, i've seen this description of how the RNG works described this way in several places on the internet and I'd like to know with certinty that this is in fact how it works.   Maybe when I get a job for AG or IGT I will be able to confirm that.  it does seem like where this is all headed as my interest in all of this continues to grow.  Beats working for the dark side.  You've all seen those videos of the cheats getting tackled by security  That's all I got. Roveer...

[swivet]

The payback percentage referred to by OP changes the paytable.

I have watched slot techs set up machines....

Lets say the slot tech is setting up a 9-6 JOB machine. On the menu for payback percentage it will offer a few choices, with the relevent numbers beside it, for example

JOB payback %
-9-6 (99.5)
-8-5 (97.3)
7-5 (96.2) etc

Simple as that....they are setting the Theoretical, not some 'switch' to screw with randomness....

[BillyJoe]

In response to Roveer's post, I can say that I have seen machines act 'differently' casino to casino when you are playing a 'carnival' game, like Dream Card or STP. The frequency of that bonus appearing is definitely tied to something, IMO.
For regular VP poker, whether it be JOB or TDB, I do not see differences, other than the normal streaks, good and bad, that you would expect to encounter.

[Vman96]

In response to Roveer's post, I can say that I have seen machines act 'differently' casino to casino when you are playing a 'carnival' game, like Dream Card or STP. The frequency of that bonus appearing is definitely tied to something, IMO.

Tied to a RNG? Yes, I agree.   

As far as casinos go, I can't speak much for Dream Card because I barely have played the game. As for Super Times Pay and Double Super Times Pay, I honestly don't feel I have noticed significant variance between casinos in multiplier collection. Significant variance in different sessions, or even at different points in a session, yes definitely. Easy to go over 30 hands without one, just like getting 3 of them within 5 hands.

[roveer]

[QUOTE=billyjoe] In response to Roveer's post, I can say that I have seen machines act 'differently' casino to casino when you are playing a 'carnival' game, like Dream Card or STP. The frequency of that bonus appearing is definitely tied to something, IMO.

Tied to a RNG? Yes, I agree.   

As far as casinos go, I can't speak much for Dream Card because I barely have played the game. As for Super Times Pay and Double Super Times Pay, I honestly don't feel I have noticed significant variance between casinos in multiplier collection. Significant variance in different sessions, or even at different points in a session, yes definitely. Easy to go over 30 hands without one, just like getting 3 of them within 5 hands.[/QUOTE]
I have seen huge variations on STP on the same machine in the same casino...  Just because you've seen it at different casino's doesn't mean that it's being manipulated.  On different visits the same exact machine can either be an angel, the devil or just ok.  Huge variations.  Hours of no multipliers.  I think it's all just part of the randomness of the system, not what casino the machine is in.  It's just this type of experience (Having played the same machines for literally hundreds of hours) that leads me to say that.  If you've only played a machine for an hour or two, or a few hours, or a dozen hours and than had a different result having played a machine at another casino for a few hours, it might lead you to think that, but if you've played the same machine for hundreds of hours and had a very similar result of it being great and it being really not great, than is it being manipulated?  Can't really say for sure, but making the comparison of machines because they are at different locations is no more conclusive than say having a hunch.  Just doesn't make it so.Roveer

[DaBurglar]

Well, I am in trouble with one of my friends, a woman who worked in Reno for over 15 years, half of that as a slot manager, until 2010 when she quit to run her e-bay business full time.  She is one of several people who have shared with me their "inside" knowledge on just how these things operate, yet she found out I was posting online (here) about what she shared and is kinda pissed, since she claims she shared it with me in confidence.....she also points out that they all sign nondisclosure agreements when working for these companies that prevents them from divulging so called "proprietary" or "trade" secrets, which includes certain aspects of game operation. That is all well and good, and actually makes sense....in fact, the question everyone who wants to believe in the integrity of VP keeps asking is "why hasnt anyone blabbed about these so called FIX switches, or menus, or options?"    Well, aside from the fact that the FEAR these companies instill in their employees, both past and present, is real and palpable, I would submit that people HAVE in fact blabbed already (like, for instance, my friend with me!)  But for many of us who either do not want to believe this, or cannot, it becomes something along the lines of religious faith.... it is, in fact, an act of faith to walk in and play at a casino, lets be honest about that....the Matt Damon special referenced above about the shenanigans in the financial and housing markets of the past decade is UBER relevant here..... I am not a programmer, but I am extremely computer literate and savvy....I have participted in many software installations and testing, and data analysis and extraction is one of my fortes.  I know how simple and easy it is to manipulate and influence a typical RNG results, and if any of you have played any computer simulation or strategy games, you know what I mean.   Therefore, even though I have yet to personally see these so called menu options I can believe they exist pretty easily.  Whether they are used is another story.... But Roveer's "seed theory" also has validity in my mind, I can easily see that as a useful explanation for the weirdness I have personally experienced lately in VP.   How to prove that, I dunno, yet..... My results in AC these last 3 months are horrific, I have just finished compiling my latest trips results and am adding it to the bunch I already have.   Something clearly is NOT right in AC with its VP....I will post the relevant results in another thread soon once I get them all compiled, but here is a tidbit:   Out of a sample population of over 55,000 hands, my zero-value (i.e. BUST) hand rate is over 73%......SEVENTY THREE PERCENT!!!!    Normal value is around 55-60%         and 55,000 hands is not a insignificant sample size for the "ZERO VALUE" barometer I am talking about here.  Le stinky p.u.