Yesterday: Virtual Reels
Today: Virtual Paybacks

Back in 1n 1986, the reel slots, like Alice, went through the looking glass and they never have been the same since then.

The transformation occurred because a new computer application, now referred to as the Telnaes invention, was accepted as a legitimate basis for slot machine design. The electronic or "Microprocessor Controlled" machine was born and it was hailed as the dawn of a new era, because it allowed reel-slots to operate in a brand new way. In more sophisticated circles it became known as The machine with virtual reels.

No longer constrained to awarding payouts in accordance with the distribution of symbols on its reels then new virtual reels format simply put the true mechanical odds in the trash bin. Sure, the machine looked pretty much as it always did but, in effect, the microprocessor simulated reels with many more symbols than ever was possible to paint on the real reels; hence the nickname, virtual reels.

Today, we have learned to comprehend what virtual reality means and even pay to have some experiences simulated by virtual reality machines. In reel slots, we get the same experience when we see a relatively simple looking reel slot pay out upwards of 11 million dollars for lining up some jackpot symbols which are only fighting odds of perhaps 40,000-1 in the real world.

As my readers know, I shed no tears for reel slot players (and even have less sympathy for video-reel slot players). For a long time, they have accepted the idea of playing machines where what you get is not necessarily what you see.

But when this nefarious invention is let loose on unsuspecting Video Poker players, that’s a different matter. Consider the following video poker machine which is now playing around Las Vegas. Like all standard machines it has a posted pay table and it deals cards at random, so one might think it’s a real Video poker machine.

5 Coin Pay Table
Royal Flush4,000
Straight Flush250
Four of a Kind125
Full House40
Flush25
Straight20
Three of a Kind10
Two Pairs5
Jacks or Better5


So far, no problem, except that its payback would be barely above the legal limit at 77% if the above listed pay table really applied. But this is where the Telnaes effect is introduced, as the glass shows:

Whenever a winning hand of Three of a Kind or higher is awarded, the award is Multiplied by 1, 2, 5, or 10.

The machine clearly spells out this bonus feature, emphasizing that some Royals will pay 40,000.

Video Poker just went right through the looking glass at warp speed!.

Welcome to the land of Virtual Paybacks!

There's no way that Multiplier can be truly random in the sense we all can appreciate, I.e., equally likely to be a 1, 2, 5, or 10. If that were true, the players would own the casino’s chandeliers in about an hour. But nothing on the machine tells what controls the Multiplier. In effect, that Multiplier is a mini-slot machine, operated much like its cousins all over the floor.

To make the cheese even more binding, it is impossible for players to know what the distribution of Multipliers really is; as a consequence, there is no way for the player (or his VP mentor) to even define an optimum strategy for the game. They might as well put a handle on the side of the machine like other reel slots.

The only recourse that real Video poker players really have is to become virtual players when they see machines with virtual paybacks. At least, until these machines can certify what the payback really is.