MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Does MAME still have a "no gamblers" policy?

> Pretty much all jurisdictions (even Vegas) have regulations designed to set the
> minimum payout rates of these machines (i.e. for every x amount put into the machine,
> y amount must be paid out). No casino is going to risk their license by breaking the
> rules. (online gambling shops operating from countries with no regulation on the
> other hand...)

Yep, technically "indianmm" is/was illegal to operate in Australia without the link jackpot (as with most jackpot-based games, e.g. Cash Express), as it is below the minimum return to player of 87% (you'll find the RTP in the game code, 82.11% in this case; the progressive jackpot added roughly 5% to the total amount, making the game legal).

Also, the "y amount must be paid out" is entirely based on 1 occurrence of every single win combination possible, with the reel strips (including video-based machines) being "weighted" with multiple symbols of the same type to make a certain payout value, even if the paytable is identical between games or even the same ROM set (most Australian games have multiple variations which have better or worse symbols depending on the payout percentage).

Bonus wins (features, free games etc.) are part of the total return to player amount as well (e.g. Queen of the Nile would only have a 60% or so payout if it didn't give out 15 free games with everything x3 in the feature). Of course, with machines being entirely random for every spin, it is still possible to hit the exact same combination more than once and not hit other combinations in the lifetime of the machine (the "lifetime" being the theoretical 1-hit-of-every-position-in-each-reel - Queen of the Nile has 5 reels with 30, 30, 30, 30, and 44 symbols respectively, thus having 35640000 different reel combinations in total). Normally the double up game will not affect these machines, as their are a fair 50/50 chance, with the machine randomly picking between red or black, or the four card suits if it has the option (they don't cheat or deliberately make the game lose more often than win, at least in Australia).