By PANU KASAR
The human brain is still by far the most advanced phenomena in the whole universe. Most people deny that fact. That is why many couldn't learn about computers. They are afraid to learn. Always remember that humans created computers. That's why when I teach my technicians on repairs I make sure they have confidence in themselves. Human also using their brains created computers to even trick other humans. Poker machines are standardised systems used to make profit. Computer games such as pokies are simply custom built computers made for generating profit. To think of it a poker machine is calibrated to make money for its owner. Even though how hard you try you can never win. Of course you will win but that will be after the machine gets what it wants. It is designed to let you get only a small percentage of what it collects. Say it collects 95% and you get 5% of its takings. You don't realise that because players who came before you already gave the 95% that it wants and you came in time to collect the 5%. Why would pub owners' waste money on equipment that uses electricity all night making a lot of noise? Simply because it helps them by making you give them your money. They know it and will never tell you. Most of the time you are so drunk to figure that out.
The poker machine runs on a microchip integrated with a computer program written by programmers. Usually it's what programmers call a loop. A loop is a string of codes that run in a repeating sequence to execute its code. The poker machine is a computer program designed to make you contribute to the gaming industry. The machine simply executes how its code is written. The loop executes sequence of its code in many ways some times in random order. The codes are long and can last for months before it repeats making it hard for people to study the winning pattern. Of course the programmers know that nobody will work out the code because usually most players will be drunk. Now you know why the pub is close by the poker and they serve you jugs while you play.
Some follow random codes where they pay out on a spree then start collecting to make up their program percentage. Therefore poker players may notice that some machines don't pay for some time even longer periods. Simply because they are executing the program loops where the takings are being collected.
In large casinos the owners knows exactly how much a single poker machine will make in a year. Whether you win or lose it doesn't matter a machine will still give its owner how much it is programmed to make. Just like you buying a new radio and realizing that it will produce 200 Watts of sound power output. Poker machines are like that it just give its owner according to how it is designed. Some generate up to K500, 000 per year. When a buyer wants a machine he can choose to buy according to the output. You shocked? Yeah and some of that money comes from you. So if say you own five poker machines in your water hole that keeps spinning the whole year you are a millionaire.
The music from the poker machines also plays a part. Of every invention there is psychology involved. The music teases the mind and the color from the display develops an inviting lust for the drunken victims. Therefore as for the victims it's a matter of winning a game getting hooked and even losing sometimes but managing to win back. The winning then suddenly stops but the memory of the wins keeps the gambling going. The losses are not remembered by the way. As one gambler said "In all the time I've spent in the proximity of poker machines, I've never seen one taking anything from anyone who didn't willingly give it. I have never seen a poker machine preventing someone from doing what they want to do, or imposing its own personal will or preference on a single inhabitant of planet Earth".
Usually the maximum payouts are a fraction of the annual profit generated by the machine. A machine having a maximum payout of K5, 000 may have an annual profit of K500 000 but when it makes the payout the music and the lights celebrate with you making the small payout a grand event. These figures are just an illustration of the revenue concept of poker machines they real figures may never be known. Well kept secret of the industry.
Game programming is a lucrative trade; the industry employs the best computer programmers to design the best profit making machines. That is why poker machines are perfectly designed to lure money. The new designs do not have gears or matching slots like you see on the screen. They are just visual representations. When you open a machine you only see a main board with an integrated micro chip.
The gaming sector is simply the cash cows of the entertainment industry. That is why the government cannot get rid of it. To them it is simply a way of making people willingly pay their taxes. A person will criticise huge tax cuts in salary then retire to the pub to play poker.
In Australia about 90% of clients who attends Wesley Gambling Counseling services are addicted to poker machines. ''Most of the people we counsel have hit rock bottom and about 10 per cent have thought about suicide,'' said Wesley Mission, Sydney superintendent, Reverend Keith Garner. These counseling services fortunately are funded by the gaming industry. Just like the warnings on cigarette packs.
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