Slots VLT vs. RNG

I read that the slots in Oregon are RNG, the ones in Wa. are VLT.

Which is "better," and why?

 

RNG is random, Class II VLT's are not. I stopped at Northern Quest outside Spokane this past March. I took a look at their VLT video pokers. The payscale showed 8/5 Jacks which, with an RNG, is a 97.3% game. The odds of making all the hands can be calculated per the strategy used because it's a random deck.

But with non-random VLT's they can set the odds of making hands at anything the want to. In 8/5 Jacks with a random deck and optimal strategy you make a four-of-a-kind every 423 hands. But with a VLT, if they lengthen the odds out to 500 it would put the game at 96.4%. Then if they lengthen out the frequency of a full house from 86.85 (random) to 100, now it's a 95.2% game.

While the Class II VLT's might show a 97.3% game it's probably more likely in the low nineties percentagewise.

BTW, have you been to that new casino, Ilani, at mile 16 on I-5 in Washington?

 

Portlanders now have a casino much closer to home than before; the Cowlitz tribe, in partnership with Mohegan Sun, opened Ilani (pronounced AY-LAH-NAY) casino, about fifteen minutes north of Stumptown, at the La Center exit of I-5,

I've been there a few times, inititially to check it out, then to gamble.

I doubt I'll return too often.

Pro:

Brand new; architecturally and design-wise quite modern.

Four craps tables.

BJ pays 3-2.

No loud tones coming from the slot machines.

Con:

3X4X5X odds on craps, when competition offers 5X odds.

Weird layout; all the services, restaurants, restrooms, stores etc. are on the outside edge of the building; in the center is a circular bar, with gaming between the two. There are designer fish dangling from the ceiling. Seems cavernous.

No self-serve coffee, soft drinks or water: no water fountains.

Almost all modern, penny slots: no older games such as Double Diamond; the slots seem tight: I observed nobody getting a jackpot or even a nice hit.

Smoking / non-smoking sections have no wall or enclosure to separate them.

No buffet.

Unbelievably bad access once off the freeway with several confusing rotaries and insufficient feeder roads into the self-parking area.

Not enough ticket redemption machines, and the ones there are not clearly marked or visible from any sort of distance.

By report, expensive bar drinks, poorly made after a very long wait.

Ugly, purplish design on the carpet.

Overall: new, but ... meh.

 

I like that carpet!

I also like Hawaiian shirts, which that carpet looks like.

You're right, it's probably almost objectively hideous.

But, I still like it.

 

A little secret. I was in the joint a couple days after they opened. Nothing of value to an AP.