Talk:Slot machine

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The link to the Missouri gambling site is now out of date and needs to be updated.
Japan section reads as though it was written by the gambling industry - quotes of 160% returns are 'citation needed'.

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Archive 1

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Random number generators

I removed the section on random number generators as it contained multiple inaccuracies. The unsourced claim that "all modern slot machines use PRNGs seeded by the current time" seems highly unlikely to me considering any gambling system worth its salt would employ a cryptographically secure RNGs, which are not necessarily PRNGs and are likely to draw from multiple sources of entropy. My quick read of the Ronald Dale Harris case tells me it was also misrepresented, as it wasn't so much about the predictability and period of a PRNG but specific backdoors that Harris had installed. I couldn't find any good reason to keep the section after removing these claims. 11wx (talk) 10:05, 29 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There needs to be something that shows you cannot game these machines. Too many people think there can be a successful “system”. Play for fun, but no one can do anything but lose, except by chance. 2601:645:C601:6010:1834:4AAA:C4E4:578A (talk) 18:37, 18 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"pokie", singular, not "pokies"

Grammar fix: while the word is often used in the plural, it can't be right to say "a pokies is", can it? 2A00:23C5:FE1C:3701:E88E:4FF4:8B89:F8D1 (talk) 10:18, 2 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed, thanks. Barry Wom (talk) 10:27, 2 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Image caption

"Row of digital-based slot machines" .. but they're not digital. They have very conspicuous mechanical reels. 2601:642:4F84:1590:2C53:1ED5:7038:1090 (talk) 03:04, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nice spot! Now fixed. Barry Wom (talk) 11:20, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Taste" in the terminology section

There appears to be no use of this term outside of a single snake oil salesman who claims that these "tastes" are given out to entice players to gamble. Searches of academic and general media search engines do not yield any results that are related to this use of the word "taste."

The definition was added in the 19 November 2008 edit with no citation or explanation. It was accepted as being relevant and correct from then on. 98.10.89.102 (talk) 16:40, 9 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Now removed, thanks. Barry Wom (talk) 17:27, 9 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect description

The first image under the "Operation" section is not a slot machine - it is a video poker machine. A slot machine and a video poker machine are not the same thing at all. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_pokerSpektah (talk) 05:10, 16 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]