The gaming industry is big business in the U.S., contributing an estimated US$240 billion to the economy each year, while generating $38 billion in tax revenues and supporting 17 million jobs.
What people may not realize is that slot machines, video poker machines and other electronic gaming devices make up the bulk of all that economic activity. At casinos in Iowa and South Dakota, for example, such devices have contributed up to 89 percent of annual gaming revenue.
Spinning-reel slots in particular are profit juggernauts for most casinos, outperforming table games like blackjack, video poker machines and other forms of gambling.
Buffalo slot machine game has a myriad of bonus features but is still relatively simple to play. Players must first select their reel cost and the number of bets per reel. This cost determines which symbols are counted as in-play for winning hands – values range from 10 through to 40 being the maximum with all play lines counting.
- How do slot machines work? Return vs payback. There is no such thing as a ‘loose’ or ‘tight’ slot machine. In modern casinos, slot machines are programmed to deliver a precise return percentage, somewhere around 95 per cent. That means 95 per cent of the money that goes into a slot machine is paid back out to the players and the casino.
- On a slot machine, a random number generator (RNG) picks a random number for each reel, which each number matching a stop on its reel. Then the machine directs the reels to stop on the spots selected by the RNG. Note that by the time the reels are spinning, the game is already over.
What about slot machines makes them such reliable money makers? In part, it has something to do with casinos’ ability to hide their true price from even the savviest of gamblers.
The price of a slot
An important economic theory holds that when the price of something goes up, demand for it tends to fall.
But that depends on price transparency, which exists for most of the day-to-day purchases we make. That is, other than visits to the doctor’s office and possibly the auto mechanic, we know the price of most products and services before we decide to pay for them.
Slots may be even worse than the doctor’s office, in that most of us will never know the true price of our wagers. Which means the law of supply and demand breaks down.
Casino operators usually think of price in terms of what is known as the average or expected house advantage on each bet placed by players. Basically, it’s the long-term edge that is built into the game. For an individual player, his or her limited interaction with the game will result in a “price” that looks a lot different.
For example, consider a game with a 10 percent house advantage – which is fairly typical. This means that over the long run, the game will return 10 percent of all wagers it accepts to the casino that owns it. So if it accepts $1 million in wagers over 2 million spins, it would be expected to pay out $900,000, resulting in a casino gain of $100,000. Thus from the management’s perspective, the “price” it charges is the 10 percent it expects to collect from gamblers over time.
Individual players, however, will likely define price as the cost of the spin. For example, if a player bets $1, spins the reels and receives no payout, that’ll be the price – not 10 cents.
So who is correct? Both, in a way. While the game has certainly collected $1 from the player, management knows that eventually 90 cents of that will be dispensed to other players.
A player could never know this, however, given he will only be playing for an hour or two, during which he may hope a large payout will make up for his many losses and then some. And at this rate of play it could take years of playing a single slot machine for the casino’s long-term advantage to become evident.
Short-term vs. long-term
This difference in price perspective is rooted in the gap between the short-term view of the players and the long-term view of management. This is one of the lessons I’ve learned in my more than three decades in the gambling industry analyzing the performance of casino games and as a researcher studying them.
Let’s consider George, who just got his paycheck and heads to the casino with $80 to spend over an hour on a Tuesday night. There are basically three outcomes: He loses everything, hits a considerable jackpot and wins big, or makes or loses a little but manages to walk away before the odds turn decidedly against him.
Of course, the first outcome is far more common than the other two – it has to be for the casino to maintain its house advantage. The funds to pay big jackpots come from frequent losers (who get wiped out). Without all these losers, there can be no big winners – which is why so many people play in the first place.
Specifically, the sum of all the individual losses is used to fund the big jackpots. Therefore, to provide enticing jackpots, many players must lose all of their Tuesday night bankroll.
What is less obvious to many is that the long-term experience rarely occurs at the player level. That is, players rarely lose their $80 in a uniform manner (that is, a rate of 10 percent per spin). If this were the typical slot experience, it would be predictably disappointing. But it would make it very easy for a player to identify the price he’s paying.
Raising the price
Ultimately, the casino is selling excitement, which is comprised of hope and variance. Even though a slot may have a modest house advantage from management’s perspective, such as 4 percent, it can and often does win all of George’s Tuesday night bankroll in short order.
This is primarily due to the variance in the slot machine’s pay table – which lists all the winning symbol combinations and the number of credits awarded for each one. While the pay table is visible to the player, the probability of producing each winning symbol combination remains hidden. Of course, these probabilities are a critical determinant of the house advantage – that is, the long-term price of the wager.
This rare ability to hide the price of a good or service offers an opportunity for casino management to raise the price without notifying the players – if they can get away with it.
Casino managers are under tremendous pressure to maximize their all-important slot revenue, but they do not want to kill the golden goose by raising the “price” too much. If players are able to detect these concealed price increases simply by playing the games, then they may choose to play at another casino.
This terrifies casino operators, as it is difficult and expensive to recover from perceptions of a high-priced slot product.
Getting away with it
Consequently, many operators resist increasing the house advantages of their slot machines, believing that players can detect these price shocks.
Our new research, however, has found that increases in the casino advantage have produced significant gains in revenue with no signs of detection even by savvy players. In multiple comparisons of two otherwise identical reel games, the high-priced games produced significantly greater revenue for the casino. These findings were confirmed in a second study.
Further analysis revealed no evidence of play migration from the high-priced games, despite the fact their low-priced counterparts were located a mere 3 feet away.
Importantly, these results occurred in spite of the egregious economic disincentive to play the high-priced games. That is, the visible pay tables were identical on both the high- and low-priced games, within each of the two-game pairings. The only difference was the concealed probabilities of each payout.
Armed with this knowledge, management may be more willing to increase prices. And for price-sensitive gamblers, reel slot machines may become something to avoid.
Most Popular Online Slot Games
All Aristocrat Slot Games
The sights and sounds of Buffalo Grand slot machine will be instantly familiar to anyone that enjoyed the original Buffalo slots. What is different in this version is the size of the screen. This towers above you. It has plenty of room for the unusual 4-5-5-5-4 reel setup, two bonus wheels and the big jackpot prizes displayed at the top.
Many of the elements of this game match with the classic version. This includes easy retriggers in the free spins bonus, sunset wilds which come with multipliers, and the high paying buffalo symbols – which appear to charge at you from the reels. This is a popular live slot, which has yet to make it to online casinos.
Basics: How Does the Buffalo Grand Base Game Work?
All the variations of Buffalo slots use an all-ways winning system. This means that win-lines are not needed, with symbols on consecutive reels from the left (with no gaps) triggering wins. Most symbols require a minimum of 3 in a row, though the higher paying Buffalo and Elk symbols only need 2.
Here are the winning symbols used for Buffalo Grand slots:
- Buffalo
- Elks
- Eagles
- Coyotes
- Wolves
- Playing Cards Aces to Nines
There are two other symbols on the reels. These are the sunset wilds, which show an orange and purple sky over rocks. These only appear on the middle 3 reels and will substitute for any of the regular symbols above. They can get multipliers of 2x or 3x at random during the base game.
The final symbol shows a wheel, this is the bonus symbol – which does come with a scatter prize. You need 3+ anywhere on the reels to trigger the wheel bonus game.
The penny version of Buffalo Grand has bets ranging from 75c to $3.75c. You need to bet $3+ to have a shot at the biggest of the progressive jackpots, the grand.
Buffalo Grand Bonus Wheel Feature
When you hit 3+ of the bonus wheel symbols, you’ll see an animated sequence showing an Eagle and hear the distinctive bonus soundtrack song, which is shared with all the Buffalo slots.
There are two wheels, with the biggest taking up most of the screen. This has different colored segments for the jackpots, interspersed with free spins with different numbers of spins on each.
You click to spin and keep on spinning until you hit a ‘free spins’ segment. If you win a jackpot, it will sometimes have the additional ‘bonus wheel’ sign on it. Here you get to spin a second smaller wheel that will give you a multiplier of up to 10x. There are 4 jackpots, mini, minor, major and grand. If you are betting less than $3 a spin, the Grand segment on the big wheel will have ropes over it – and can’t be won.
Free Spins Bonus Games
How Does The Buffalo Slot Machine Work Without
You can win between 8 and 20 free spins via the bonus wheel. These take place on the regular reels, though there are two big differences compared to the base game.
First, the sunset wilds will always get multipliers of 2x or 3x. During the base game these multipliers are random. They work together – so 3 of the 3x multipliers give you 27x on your win.
Second, the bonus wheel symbols are replaced with coins. You need 2 to get 5 more free games, with 8, 15 and 20 coming with 3, 4 or 5. You can’t win another wheel spin during your free games, though you can extend the spins multiple times.
Where Can I Play Buffalo Grand in the US?
As of the time of writing, you can’t find Buffalo Grand on mobile casinos in any of the regulated states. You will find plenty of slots with free spins bonuses and jackpot wheels – and sometimes the original Buffalo slot game.
To enjoy Buffalo Grand, you’ll need to pay a visit to your local land-based, riverboat or tribal casino. The size of the screen, distinctive Buffalo design and familiar music mean that you’ll have no problem locating this game. Some casinos have wide-area progressive jackpots for the grand, while other machines have stand-alone jackpots.
If you enjoy slots featuring native wildlife, other iconic games include Wolf Run from IGT and the gold-head collection bonus games of Buffalo Gold.
Iconic Buffalo Slots Design
How Slot Machines Work Inside
There are some entertaining details in the design of Buffalo Grand. Examples include the nail and wagon wheel used for the bonus wheel, along with the howling wolf symbol animation. Most of the designs will be familiar if you enjoyed the older Buffalo games. Aristocrat have given them a refresh, making the graphics as fresh and modern as the latest themed slots.
Buffalo Gold Slot Machine Rules
Wrapping Up: Play Buffalo Grand Slots
Buffalo Grand was the first in this series of Aristocrat slots to include a bonus wheel feature. This gives you a shot at winning more than one jackpot. You can also get a multiplier of up to 10x on the amount shown if you get the added ‘bonus wheel’ sign.
What Aristocrat did well with this game is to keep the appeal of the popular original, while adding extras to make it more entertaining. There may be an unusual reel setup, though the all-ways wins, higher paying Buffalo symbols and those sunset wilds are all in place.
How To Slot Machines Work
If you are in a regulated casino state, you’ll be able to find plenty of entertaining mobile slot games. If not, then why not head to your local casino and enjoy a session on the iconic Buffalo Grand.