Eligibility and Multipliers for Bonus Events on Community-Style Slots

By John Grochowski on Monday October 4, 2010

gaming, gaming-strategy, slot-machines, slots, tunica

Video poker players who have been around a while might remember a game called Flush Attack. Every so often, the game would go into “attack” mode, and the next flush on the bank of machines would pay as much as four of a kind.

In the beginning sharp players would play until they were dealt a flush, or four parts of a flush, then  wait for the attack before drawing. The sharps would collect the big bonuses. The tourists didn’t stand a chance.

My friend and mentor Lenny Frome, the original video poker guru, warned the game designers that would happen. They told him, “We know it COULD happen, but we’re hoping it won’t..”

When it did, programming was adjusted so that machines sitting dormant weren’t eligible for the attack. You couldn’t just sit and wait.

A lesson was learned, and today slot manufacturers apply that lesson to community-style slots. On modern community-style slot machines where players go to the bonus event together, only active players are eligible. You can’t just sit at Reel ’Em In: Compete to Win, and make no bets or ultra-slow minimum bets and wait to go fishing in the big bonus event. You have to keep those reels spinning.

Same deal on the Wheel of Fortune Experience, with its community-bonus event where three active players are randomly selected to choose letters in a puzzle to collect bonuses. The key word is “active.” Occupying a seat is not enough. You have to actually be playing the game for a chance to turn those letters — and there’s good reason for that requirement.