Pokies losses › The see-through pokie
The see-through pokie
It looks like a poker machine and it spins like one. The difference is that this one tells you the truth after every spin. It's all pretend dollars, so there's no real money involved, and nothing you do here gets saved or sent anywhere.
The machine
After every spin, this box tells you what really happened to your money.
X-ray of the reels
Here's a secret. The result is decided the moment you press Spin, and all that spinning is just for show. Each reel is a strip of symbols, and the machine picks at random where each one stops. What decides your chances is how many of each symbol sits on each strip.
| Reel | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops on the strip | 48 | 53 | 51 | 51 | 46 |
| 7s | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Wilds | – | 5 | 5 | 5 | – |
- Two 7s at the start of a line come up about 1 in 283. Three 7s, about 1 in 14,416. That's because reels 1 and 2 carry three 7s each, while reels 3 to 5 carry just one. So two 7s turn up all the time and three hardly ever do. That gap is where near misses come from.
- Five 7s on a line? 1 in 33,819,936. At 3 seconds a spin with 20 lines, you'd expect that about once in 1,409 hours of non-stop play.
- Over the long run this machine pays back 87c in every dollar. Real machines have to pay back at least 85% in NSW and 87% in Victoria. So this one is as generous as Victoria's law asks, and a bit more than NSW's.
What it's taken off you so far
- Spins
- 0
- Put in
- $0.00
- Paid back
- $0.00
- You're up or down
- $0.00
- Share paid back
- –
- Time at a real machine's speed
- 0 seconds
On average, an hour at $1.00 a spin costs you about $0. A short session can go either way. A long one drifts towards the machine's 87%.
Fast forward
Skip ahead thousands of spins at your bet and see where your money ends up.
spins at each. On a real machine, that's about of play.
- Put in
- Paid back
- Up or down
- Biggest single win
- Losses dressed up as wins: . On a real machine, every one of those would have flashed and played music.
- Real wins, where you got back more than you bet: .
- Near misses with 7s: .
The line is your balance after each spin. The bumps are wins. The downhill slope is the machine's cut.
The tricks it just showed you
Losses disguised as wins
Your bet is spread across lots of lines, so a spin often "wins" on one line while losing overall. Think 25c back on a $1 bet. Real machines celebrate that with the same lights and sounds as a real win. In studies, players often remember these as wins, and their bodies react much as they do to real ones. A losing session ends up feeling like a winning one.
Near misses
Two jackpot symbols and a third just off the line feel like you almost won. It's a loss like any other. Reels can carry more of a symbol at the start than at the end, so the "almost" happens far more often than the win. And a near miss tells you nothing about the next spin.
Nothing is due
Every spin is random and has nothing to do with the last one. A machine that hasn't paid for a while is no closer to paying. The only sure thing is the average. Over enough spins, it pays back its set share and keeps the rest.
Speed
New machines in Victoria have to take at least 3 seconds a game, and older ones can be quicker. Even at 3 seconds, $1 a spin pushes $1,200 an hour through the machine. At this machine's return, that loses you about $156 an hour on average. Notes go in within seconds, so people end up spending more than they meant to.
We made this machine up for this page, so its reels, lines and pay table are its own. Real machines differ in the details and add things like features and free spins. Underneath, they're built from the same parts. Weighted reels, lots of lines and a set long-run return.
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If gambling is causing problems for you or someone you know, free and confidential help is there 24/7 from Gambling Help Online or on 1800 858 858. Here's how to spot the signs.