[Guide/Warning] Watch out with slotmachines & casino's!

Hi gang,

Gambling, in the real world, is not allowed if you're underaged. On Empire Minecraft we have no such limitations and well, I think it shouldn't come as a surprise that there are some players who end up seeing a large chunk of their money disappear and sometimes even become plain out frustrated because of it. I'm (somewhat) sure staff knows, because something tells me that some players may even have resorted to /report. Which quite honestly won't do you much good if the contraption has been approved by staff, which is a requirement in the first place.

So step one in my guide, always check here: https://empireminecraft.com/wiki/approved-player-games/ before playing. If it's listed then you're (somewhat) safe. If it's not then tell the player that they need to get their contraption approved before using it, and don't play with it if it costs you money!

Step two is simple, but important to realize: the casino always wins. To put it blunt: generally speaking casino's and slot machines weren't build to entertain other players, they're build to provide the owner with a (hopefully) steady cashflow. If you want an honest challenge then seriously: don't bother with this and go play parkour, firefloor or participate in a skin competition.

And the most important of all is step three: greed is a very bad lead. If something sounds too good to be true then trust your instincts: it is.

So what to do if you want to play to see what the fuss is all about? Well, then go ahead and play of course. And maybe these tips can also help:

Tip one is to set money aside before playing. Before you start ask yourself how much you're willing to spend. Then look at the starting fee, and //calc how much times you can play. And when you reached that amount of plays then keep your own promise and stop playing.

Example: I'm willing to spend 100r and the fee is 45r: //calc 100/45 will reveal all.

Another thing to keep in mind is tip two: some slot machines may provide small prizes. But in 99% of all slot machines you'd be cheaper off if you had bought that item in a random playershop (/v +shop). So you're not winning, you're basically buying overpriced items

And finally tip three: get it into your mindset already that the casino always wins!

And to close...

Quite frankly I have mixed feelings about these things. Personally I don't care that much because I don't play these, if you want money you're better off mining (gets you some fun and rupees as well). But after seeing some player reactions across random servers I do have some concerns.

Still... In the end this is a game and quite frankly I think that if players do get upset over losing money in some kind of player casino then there might also be something positive here: they learned an important, maybe rough, lesson that in the end the casino always wins.

And that could just make the difference when they grow up and get tempted with this in real life.

But yeah, I'm sure some players may not appreciate this guide but there ya go: careful with gambling!

As a redstone expert myself I would like to add that there are machines where players can control the odds of winning. Take for example a real life claw machine: The machine is rigged to only give the claw full force every 20 tries. ( It can vary but usually it is 20. ) Understand that redstone slot machines are no different and can be rigged as well.

I didn't notice, but I think someone had to put this here way earlyer, thank you again shel for makeing this kind of threads

wait, so you're saying all I have to do is play the $1 claw game 20 times to get that stuffed teddy bear I have my eye on? Wow, brb while I go play.

Not a smart idea.

you can also sand back, let everyone before you, wait until you see that someone gets one, wait longer but now count the amout of times someone fails, after you see someone having a price agin, count again, and take that one change it is at full power (my unkle did alsways do this to get cheap teddybears for the girlfriend he had at that moment)

Tell your uncle he is smart.

he is Prof. Dr. at the moment, so, I think he knows so

How much time would that take you, though?

Do did you win the bear last night?

lol, no. i was being sarcastic. not going to pay $20 for a cheap teddy bear made in china for a buck fiddy.

Well you can't put sarcasm in text so didn't know that lol.

i never knew slot machines were made to scam people out of their money

It's not scaming but do you think the casino owners make the casino to lose money, no so the odds are always in the casinos favor (and clearly stated at the casino) and the winnings not worth the risk.

u got me

It is most definitely not scamming, and I sure don't want to create that impression. But the odds aren't in your favor

The thing with these machines, just like in the real world, is that the chances of winning are usually quite low. For example: say the price is a nice promo and the casino uses a dropper to determine your winnings. A dropper has 9 slots and if all of those are filled then it'll drop its items in a random order.

And that can be used to create a randomizer. You make the dispenser push something in a hopper, and depending on the item the redstone signal from the hopper gets increased in a different way (becomes higher). Based on that signal you could determine if someone has won or not.

So here's the deal: if I place 2 mineral mincers in the dropper and the rest is bogus then you'd have a 2/9, or approximately 22% chance of winning. In other words: there's a 78% probability that you won't win anything. It is after all a gamble. And that's what makes these games tricky sometimes.

You should explain that to my parents.

Step one to winning money in gambling games: Walk away.

Yeah. Well mathed. lol

Either way while I myself am not one to play these kinds of games (oh I'm such a cheapo lol), I did enjoy reading this guide, and think it is very good for players who might stuggle a little bit more with this.

That's strange, I don't see anything odd up there <innocent whistling>. Thanks for the heads up!