Mar 27, 2020 And yet, they are not slot machine games. A clever company in Franklin, TN, known as Video Gaming Technologies, or VGT, developed electronic bingo games for Native American casinos that use the results of those bingo games to emulate slot game action. Jul 09, 2019 Bingo games were popularized in some states by the company VGT, now owned by Aristocrat, and a lot of investments in the idea and the system were made by the Seminole tribe in Florida. You can spot them pretty clearly as a bingo card is placed on the screen and the games are rendered against the cards as the slot reels are spinning.
To understand how, or even why bingo-based slot machines exist, it helps to have a quick background on Native-American (NA) gambling.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
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The IGRA was signed into law in 1988 and established the framework for Indian gaming. It gave the authority to tribes to conduct, license, and regulate gaming.
Class I, II, and III Games
For legal reasons, the IGRA created 3 different classes of gambling. Class I refers to simple, traditional social games for small prizes and is not controlled by the IGRA. You won't find these at casinos.
Class II games are games of chance based on bingo and similar games, like pull-tabs or lotteries. Class II games are most attractive to NA casinos because not only do they not require tribes to enter into state compacts, but tribes don't have to pay taxes on Class II gaming revenue.
Finally, Class III is a catch-all classification for games that don't fall under Class I or II classifications. Class III includes traditional casino games such as true slot machines, roulette, craps, etc.
How Bingo-Based Slots Work
Many early NA casinos were nothing more than bingo halls. As time marched on and customers flocked to slot machines, companies innovated what essentially were (and still are) fancier displays of bingo games.
When you play a slot machine at a NA casino and there's a bingo card somewhere on the screen, that's a good indication you're playing a Class II machine instead of a true, Class III slot machine.
Whereas Class III machines operate in a independent manner, Class II machines are really just an elaborate display for the bingo games running in the background. When you hit the spin button, you enter into a game of bingo. Like real games of bingo, Class II games require at least two players. If you're at a small casino that's not busy, the reels may spin for an abnormally long time while it waits for someone else to join the game.
And while each slot manufacturer may design their Class II game slightly differently, they always involves the same bingo elements: multiple players attempting to match certain patterns on their cards compared to numbers centrally called.
Are Bingo-Based Slots Fair?
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Native American casinos often get a lot of criticism for their self-regulating nature and lack of transparency, especially when compared to Vegas casinos which are required to publish all sorts of information like payouts and revenue.
Class I, II, and III Games
For legal reasons, the IGRA created 3 different classes of gambling. Class I refers to simple, traditional social games for small prizes and is not controlled by the IGRA. You won't find these at casinos.
Class II games are games of chance based on bingo and similar games, like pull-tabs or lotteries. Class II games are most attractive to NA casinos because not only do they not require tribes to enter into state compacts, but tribes don't have to pay taxes on Class II gaming revenue.
Finally, Class III is a catch-all classification for games that don't fall under Class I or II classifications. Class III includes traditional casino games such as true slot machines, roulette, craps, etc.
How Bingo-Based Slots Work
Many early NA casinos were nothing more than bingo halls. As time marched on and customers flocked to slot machines, companies innovated what essentially were (and still are) fancier displays of bingo games.
When you play a slot machine at a NA casino and there's a bingo card somewhere on the screen, that's a good indication you're playing a Class II machine instead of a true, Class III slot machine.
Whereas Class III machines operate in a independent manner, Class II machines are really just an elaborate display for the bingo games running in the background. When you hit the spin button, you enter into a game of bingo. Like real games of bingo, Class II games require at least two players. If you're at a small casino that's not busy, the reels may spin for an abnormally long time while it waits for someone else to join the game.
And while each slot manufacturer may design their Class II game slightly differently, they always involves the same bingo elements: multiple players attempting to match certain patterns on their cards compared to numbers centrally called.
Are Bingo-Based Slots Fair?
Bingo Slots Games
Native American casinos often get a lot of criticism for their self-regulating nature and lack of transparency, especially when compared to Vegas casinos which are required to publish all sorts of information like payouts and revenue.
But the fact is bingo-based slots can actually be more transparent than their Class III counterparts (if someone does the legwork). Within Class II machines' paytable will be a list of all the winning bingo patterns and resulting pays. With a little bit of effort, you can actually calculate the odds of each pattern and win and combine them to create an 'expected return' value which is equal to the game's payout. Trying to figure out the payout on a traditional Class III machine is impossible without running it through millions of spins.
Class II vs Class III
Though what's going on in the background varies between Class II and III games, the player's experience is basically the same. Both types of games have a specific payout associated with them. The bingo balls and cards generated by Class II machines come from random number generators, just like Class III machines.
So while some are suspicious of Class II games and their operation, the end result is practically no different from any normal slot machine.
Being in west Arkansas, the closest casinos we have are eastern Oklahoma Indian casinos, which are known for the Class II bingo slot machines. My favorites are the Lucky Ducky, Crazy Bill's and the other 3 reel slots with the red spin features.
I've been playing these pretty heavily since early summer, and I think I've finally got them figured out. To be honest, it does take a little of the fun away knowing how the bingo numbers and patterns work, and once you learn a certain game's patterns and payouts, you often have a good idea what's gonna come up when the machine red spins. I still get pleasantly surprised, but it doesn't happen often anymore. Here's what I've learned so far..
You can watch the screen before playing; it will cycle through all the winning bingo patterns and what they pay on each bet. I've seen people under the assumption that they have to 'wait' or 'pick' a pattern to go for lol. They don't realize it's just 'advertising' so to speak.
Red spins occur when you have more than one winning bingo pattern on your card. The spins are awarded from lowest to highest. For example, if you get a red spin after getting mixed bars, the red spin will be something equal to or greater than the mixed bar payout. If you get more than 2 winning patterns, it will continue to red spin until all patterns/payouts have been awarded. I once seen a machine go red on mixed bars, then the machine proceeded to red spin AT LEAST 7 times after, with the last spin being triple bar, duck, duck on a quarter machine for over 400. My personal record so far is 5 red spins on Lucky Duck for over 900 on a dollar slot.
You get a new randomly generated bingo card every time you hit the spin button. Right below where your card is displayed, you can see all the bingo numbers that have been called so far. You'll see a set of gold/orange numbers, then you;ll see a set of white numbers that are 'called' by the machine every second or so. Here's the catch..you only get a payout for a bingo pattern if that pattern is made up of the gold/orange numbers. The white numbers being called out will be marked on your card, but you can't win anything off them. As more white numbers are called, the more impressive your bingo cards look as you hit the spin button, but still, you only get credit for patterns made up of gold numbers. Think of the white numbers as a countdown to the next bingo game; once all the bingo numbers have been called, a new game is started and the gold/orange numbers are changed. When a new game is started, 38 numbers are randomly generated to be gold 'winning' numbers and then the server begins calling out the rest of the numbers in white until they have all been called again.
Different casinos have different winning patterns; at one casino here, a triple bars payout on Lucky Ducky is getting a peace sign on the bingo card, whereas at another casino the same payout is achieved by getting an 'L' pattern. Again, the numbers making up these patterns have to be in the gold/orange section. You can also get what I call a 'double trigger' on the same pattern. My local Lucky Ducky machines have an 'anchor' pattern that gives you 2 double bars and a duck for 120 credits max bet. However, if all the gold numbers that make up that pattern are also in the FIRST 27 gold numbers listed, it will turn red and hit the anchor pattern again, but this time you will get the scattered 3 ducks for an additional 480 credits. There are 3 patterns that I know of that hit this way: champagne glass, anchor, and quotation mark I believe. These are also the highest hits you can get without hitting the jackpot, hence the reason they're so hard to hit.
There are some anomalities I haven't been able to understand yet though. For example, the 'cross corner' bingo pattern on Lucky Ducky is a small cross in the center of the card plus all four corner spaces. Normally, you will get credit for just the small cross first, then get a red spin that hits the cross corner pattern, which is displayed on the reels as two mixed bars and a duck. However, sometimes I've hit this without a red spin; I'm puzzled over why it doesn't always red spin when you clearly have 2 winning patterns in one. I've also hit some really big hits that just roll down without red spinning at all; most big hits are complicated patterns that also contain other smaller winning patterns within them.
I think I'm starting to ramble lol..but I hope that this may help anyone who plays these games and maybe has a hard time understanding when and where the red spins come from. Yes, once you learn all the patterns, it does take some of the thrill of a red spin away..unless you have a pretty full card and it red spins; so many bingo combinations are possible at that point and it happens so fast and you don't have time to see which numbers on your card are in the gold or white category. I wish there was an option to hide the bingo card from view; that would really make it exciting.
