10 Things you may or may not have not about online and “real-life” pokies
Every once in a while, you might want to take a (momentarily) break from the online pokie action to do something else … like read up on the pokies! For your (brief) edification, LiveCasinoDirect presents ten bits of trivia on your favorite pastime. No worries – they’re short.
The single largest win on an online pokie ever was recorded by a player from Greece in May 2009, who hit Microgaming’s Mega Moolah progressive jackpot for €6.3-plus million. The old record had been set about 13 months previously, when a lucky winner took €5.5 million on the same machine in April 2008.
Pokies first arrived in Australia in the early 1900s and, though much loved by many, remained illegal throughout the country until the mid-50s when the New South Wales government okayed their use in properly registered clubs.
The first Australian-developed and -distributed pokie was made by Aristocrat, was called “The Clubman” and was publicly released in 1953. Today, Aristocrat is Australia’s market leader in pokie production and distribution, while in 2000 the company obtained a licence to distribute pokie games in Nevada and Japan.
Since the online slot has no actual physical parts, fairness is assured by a critical piece of the software known as the random number generator or “RNG.” In actuality, the outcome an online slot will give is actually determined when you click your mouse to spin the virtual wheels. Hit that mouse three nanoseconds later and you’ll get a different outcome. RNGs are checked by conscientious online casinos with independent assessing bodies like Technical Systems Testing.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers reckons that online gaming is perhaps the hottest sector in the online entertainment industry in its appropriately titled report “The Outlook for Regulated Gaming: It’s a Good Bet. Says PwC: “Global revenue for casino and regulated gaming will increase by 8.8% annually, bringing worldwide income in the sector from the $82.2 billion mark posted in 2005 to $125-plus billion in 2010.”
Cheating at the casino slots isn’t nearly as easy online. Las Vegas has recorded over $100 million in slots losses through the years and over 97% of those who cheat at slots are never caught. We don’t have the stats, but suffice to say it’s a lot easier to catch someone messing with an algorithm than an actual physical machine.
The first online progressive jackpot machine is thought to be Microgaming’s Cash Splash, which was released in 1998.
Though a given online casino theoretically could tweak the algorithms that control the rate of payout, it is generally reckoned that such an enterprise would make literally more trouble than it’s worth, simply due to the problems inherent in reprogramming a random number generator.
The number of real-life slots available in casinos worldwide is estimated at over 3,000,000.
The number of distinctive Aussie pokies available only: Estimated at about 5,000. (Still more than enough, though, surely you’ll agree...)
21 July, 2011