Is that payback % adjustable.... I think so.

[spxChrome]

Just to edit a mistake it was DDB 9/6/4 not 5 for the straight.
 
On a side note I forgot to mention that after the tech tinkered with the machine it was no longer linked to the progressive jackpot but the paytable remained the same.
 
And WM yes that interface is very close to what I saw.  It was an IGT machine and it list the different games with buttons.

JOB -
DB -
DDB -
TDB -
DW -
 
and so on.  That is when I noticed he clicked on DDB and to the right it read 97.3% payback with two little arrows which he clicked on up a few times and down a few times adjusting/testing the payback precentage function.  He then clicked around a bit more to fast for me to keep up and closed the machine.
 
At that point it was no longer showing the progressive amont for the RF but just 4,000.  It stayed like that for a few days and then one day was back.
 
I'm not saying it was illegal but why not have a lower payback if they so choose.  It just threw a wrench in things for me as I thought the payback was always a direct reflection of the paytable.  But it is very easy to have adjustable paybacks precentage on any paytable, from a programmers standpoint.  And requlations I assume only require a very low payback % by law.  After that its up to the casinos.
 
Same as with slots, some banks guarantee 99% payback while others with the same paytable will not have that guarantee.  And did you know even if that bank advertises 99% payback it has to be only 1 machine from the bank that lives up to it.

[Webman]

I don't have any official info on the keychip at this time, faygo. My assumption was that it is some sort of authentication process by which you must insert something into the machine to perform a pay table change. Perhaps some technicians would have different authorizations... they could view the settings but it would require the manager's "key chip/card/thing"  to actually set a new pay table on the machine. Or perhaps all techs would have one and it would track the changes to that tech's id so that if there was an unauthorized change the management would know who to fire. Just guessing here though.

[faygo]

I don't have any official info on the keychip at this time, faygo. My assumption was that it is some sort of authentication process by which you must insert something into the machine to perform a pay table change. Perhaps some technicians would have different authorizations... they could view the settings but it would require the manager's "key chip/card/thing"  to actually set a new pay table on the machine. Or perhaps all techs would have one and it would track the changes to that tech's id so that if there was an unauthorized change the management would know who to fire. Just guessing here though.
 
Your guess makes a lot of sense.
 
 

[Webman]

spxChrome,When he was clicking through those percentages, he was almost certainly cycling through the different pay tables available for that game. I'm not certain how the pay tables vary for a progressive machine but the interface would likely be a little different, as it also varies over the years  from version to version I am sure. The pay table functionality should be virtually the same from a technical standpoint as the screens I posted, with different pay table codes that account for the progressive payouts.

[Eduardo]

Simple question... if the return could legally be set to a lower percentage than the pay table accounts for, why would casinos not simply make all machines "full pay" and set their actual payouts to 90%? It just doesn't make sense to cheat the system when the machines are mathematically shown to make tons of money by operating legitimately any way.

[faygo]

 
On a side note I forgot to mention that after the tech tinkered with the machine it was no longer linked to the progressive jackpot but the paytable remained the same.
 
 
 
 That is when I noticed he clicked on DDB and to the right it  
At that point it was no longer showing the progressive amont for the RF but just 4,000.  It stayed like that for a few days and then one day was back.
 
 
 
 
Did the other machines in the bank still reflect the progressive?  If not, then somewhere else in the Casino the progressive had to show up. Maybe not on one machine but many. Progressives are considered the players money and cannot be used for a " shall I say windfall profit."
 For whatever reason it appears this particular machine was removed from the progressive system. Not uncommon to find in a bank of progressive machines, one or two without the progressive. just a way for them to get the less experienced.

[spxChrome]

No the other 7 machines stayed linked to the progressive.  Another funny thing was even after they got it back into the progessive lineup.  This one machine is now the only machine in the bank of 8 that has the "double up" feature.  So, consistency and accuracy isn't the front runner when tinkering with these machines.  You would think somewhere, somebody would see... hey this machine hasn't had the double feature enable for 4 years and none of the other machines on this bank have it enabled. 



Its the little stuff that makes you wonder about bigger stuff.

[Eduardo]

spx that sounds like a problem with the technicians, not the machines. If they are screwing up the way they set them, it doesn't sound like the machine is to blame or that there is anything suspicious about the way it pays out. People can sit down at the machine and see the pay table, see the double up feature, and know what they are getting themselves into.

[pokeherguy]

Crap, why ya'll gotta ruin all the fun with your stupid facts and figures. While I can present no proof I wonder if the computers/programs used inside vp machines could have evolved to the point as to where they can think for themselves, an artifitial being so to speak. Just throwing that out there. I do love the answer many give which is "why would they when they are already making a ton of money". It is very hard to believe that a corporation who is already making a ton of money would want to make even more. Like say all the major oil companies. 

[Eduardo]

You have a point there about making money pokeherguy, but I see nothing in the interfaces that have been discussed or shown to indicate now that the casino people can set the machines to pay out some amount lower than what we have been told about pay tables. If spx is saying he saw something suspicious beyond what we are being told, then he should say so. Otherwise, I would say this has been explained and that the technicians simply messed up in their settings of that machine.
 
There is a reason why full pay machines are getting harder to find these days. If casinos could simply drop the payouts without telling anyone, I think they would have taken that approach instead of lowering pay tables and turning away people who look for full pay machines or lowering the rewards points for full pay machines.