Slots on cruise ships

a friend of mine swears he watched an attendant on a cruise ship change the chips in slot machines so they wouldn't pay out.

Is this possible?

Although It is possible, I highly doubt that was the case for 2 major reasons.

1. it's not necessary to change the chips in a machine to change pay percentage. all the possible pay percentages are already coded into the hardware(usually ranging from 87% to 95%).

A simple turn of a key is all that is needed to change pay percentages. on most land based casinos regulations prevent them from changing percentages on the fly, and if it is changes it has to be approved by a state inspector who is usually present during the change. *(mind you this may not apply to cruise ships, since there are no laws in international waters, usually why you can gamble when they are docked in US ports)

2. Once a cruise ship is out at sea there is literally no competition, youre stuck on the ship, so there is no reason for them to make the machines loose. for this reason they are usually kept a the lowest possible payout. A good rule of thumb is don't gamble on cruise ships, the same apply to games in airport terminals.

so to revise, when your friend saw a tech changing hardware it was more than likely for a technical reasons, than it was to reduce the pay percentage.

I hope that helps

SAM WROTE:
mind you this may not apply to cruise ships, since there are no laws in international waters, usually why you can gamble when they are docked in US ports)

I've been on 17 cruises & they never let me gamble in any U.S. port, let alone any foreign port. Maybe your wording is incorrect, as there probably is NO gambling allowed in ANY port.
My 17 cruises were all CARIBBEAN--can't say what European cruises might allow.

Yeah i meant to write Can't gamble instead of can, I forgot the T

oh another thing I forgot to mention. when I Said you dont need to change the chips to change the percentage, that only applies to Video Slots.

I have little to no Experience with Mechanical Slots(one armed bandits). they may require a chip change to change percentages.

Every cruise ship casino I've been in has had a clear sign that management reserves the right to reset progressive jackpots between voyages.

That alone would significantly help their advantage.

Recently I was at a casino when the player next to me hit a win for a couple hundred dollars. He hit cash out but this was a 'coinless' game which prints a ticket out and there happened to be a paper jam.

So the attendant comes over and opens the machine and within 2 minutes has the problem fixed and closes it up so the player can retrieve his ticket which he did.

Then a couple minutes later a guy comes up to that game and puts in $20 and within a few minutes has lost it.

So he leaves and a woman who was watching her husband play a nearby machine tells him that the attendant must have changed the payout so that 'nobody else would win' on that game. And of course she adds 'make sure you don't play that one!'

That's how these rumors usually start and generally they are started by people who have no idea how slots actually work.