25. Memorandum from Accor Casinos,
Paris, France (GMB 10)
This document is submitted following the Joint
Committee invitation to interested organisations to submit written
evidence as part of its inquiry into the Government's response
to the Joint Committee on the draft Gambling Bill's recommendations
79, 80, 81, 83, 84 and 85, which focus upon the definition, location
and economic and other implications of the largest casinos. This
document focuses on the effect and the usage of the type of slot
machine known in Britain as a Category A machine and planned for
installation in Regional Casinos. These machines are in use in
casinos in France, a similar gaming jurisdiction to Britain.
Accor Casinos is a subsidiary of the Accor Group
and Colony Capital plc. The company currently operates 23 casinos
in four European countries, of which 19 are in France, one in
Belgium, two in Switzerland and one in Malta. Accor Casinos has
developed and set up in all of its casinos a set of rules, procedures
and operational and organisational principles covering the key
areas of safety and security of persons and property including
a responsible gaming policy, quality and customer satisfaction,
personnel management and motivation. As a European operator of
a park of some 2,600 slot machines, Accor Casinos is well qualified
to advise on the operation and effects of such machines.
1. SLOT MACHINES
This document covers the operation of slot machines
in France, which country authorised the use of such devices in
1988. In order to keep this document short, the comments are restricted
to two areas:
2. BRIEF OVERVIEW
OF THE
FRENCH SLOT
MACHINE MARKET
2.1 Casinos in France must provide three
different offers:
— Full Gaming offer—tables and
slots
— Entertainment or cultural activities.
2.2 At the end of the financial year 2002-03
there were 180 casinos in France and of these 176 have slot machines,
the four others were in their probationary first year in which
slot machines are not normally authorised by the Interior Ministry
(Home Office).
The Gross Gaming Win for all French casinos
was 2,546,842,990 Euros and of this 2,365,476,854 came from the
slot machines (92,88 %). The market as a whole was up by 3,68%
on the year 2001-02. In the year there were 61,238,186 customer
visits made to the slot machines and 2,262,029 to the table games.
(Note that in France table gaming and slot gaming are separate
and thus an accurate count of entries may be made). This gives
an average loss per customer per visit of slightly under 39 Euros.
There was an installed slot machine base of
16,096 machines in the 176 casinos, making an average of 91 machines
per casino, or a median of 65.
3. MACHINE TYPES
3.1 In France there are three major types
of slot machines that are authorised for use by the Ministry of
the Interior, which is the sole decider of what may be installed
in casinos for gaming purposes.
3.2 Reel Machines: The first of these types
are Reel machines, so-called because the symbols that show the
result of the game are on reels that rotate once the handle has
been pulled or the button pressed to start the game. When the
game starts, a random number generator selects a result that is
then shown by the reels to the customer. It is the machines computer
that decides the result and not the reels, so the game cannot
be the subject of fraud by blocking the reels in a winning position.
Reel machines have at least three reels, each
of these having a total of at least 32 symbols. These 32 symbols
are not unique, there may be between eight and 12 different symbols
on each reel, many of them repeated to make up the total of 32
(or more depending on the machine). It is the composition of these
reels that determines the machines payouts. Thirty-two symbols
on three reels give a total of 32*32*32 or 32,768 combinations.
The payout table of the machine shows how much, if anything is
won by the shown combination and this amount is then paid by the
machine.
More recent machines have five reels each with
84 "stops" or symbols for a total of 84*84*84*84*84
or 4,182,119,424 combinations.
3.2.1 Two sub-categories of machines exist,
the first is the Multiplier where the winnings, if any are multiplied
by the number of coins played. As an example, on a certain machine
it may be that three "Bars" on the win line of a machine
pays 10 coins when the game was played by one coin; it pays 20
when played by two coins and pays 30 when played by three coins.
All of these results are taken into consideration when calculating
the payout percentage.
3.2.2 A second type is the Buy a play machine
where each coin played gives the player a set of winning combinations.
For example, it may be that the symbol "7" and the win
line of three "sevens" (one on each reel) only becomes
a winning line if the customer has played by two coins, if the
customer had played by only one coin he or she will not win anything.
Again all possible combinations of symbols and coins played are
used to calculate the payout percentage.
3.3 In France the minimum payout permitted
by law is 85%. This means that in the long run, based on statistical
averages, the machine must pay out in winnings at least 85% of
the sums played by customers. In the busier casinos, a popular
machine may be played up to 8,000 times in a day, this means that
on the simplest machine with a cycle of 32,768 combinations, the
"cycle" may be completed in less than five days. Most
machines nowadays have cycles of around 262,000 combinations,
so, at best, the cycle may be completed in about 33 days. It is
important to stress that a "cycle" is an abstract notion,
as the result is determined by a random number generator and as
a result, on the machine described above with 32,768 combinations,
the fact that a particular combination—a jackpot say—has
not come out in the previous 32,767 plays in no way means that
it must occur on the next play.
These machines are purely random and it takes
about three times more plays than the "cycle" for the
real payout percentage to be very close to its theoretical payout
percentage. The major concern is that the random number generator
should really be random. As a general but non-exclusive rule,
reel slots can be played for one, two or three coins at a time,
the amount being played depending on the wishes of the customer
who is the sole decider of the amount played.
3.4 Poker Machines: The second major type
of machine is the Poker "family". As its name suggests,
the game is based on poker.
As a rule a "virtual" deck of 52 cards
is used, on pressing the start button, the player receives five
cards. Depending on the cards received the player may change between
one and five cards in order to make a winning combination. The
payouts depend on the final hand made and the payout table. The
results are displayed on a video monitor in the machine. There
are various different incarnations of the poker games, some use
jokers that replace cards in most hands, most games differ only
in their respective payout tables.
3.5 Video Machines: The third type of machine
is essentially a hybrid of the first two. It is basically a "Reel"
machine where the reels have been replaced by a video screen,
which gives much more flexibility and originality to the game.
Bonus games are common as the screen can be used to display many
different things either simultaneously or one after another.
4. STAKES
4.1 It is currently possible in France to
have machines that can be played in values that correspond with
legal tender coins in circulation. As an exception, 1, 2 and 5
cents (ie hundredths of an Euro) cannot be used as it is believed
by the government that this might lead to "pauperisation
of the public". It should be noted that as limited series
of five, 10 and 20 Euros made of gold are minted and are consequently
legal tender, it is therefore possible to have machines where
the play is done in multiples of these values.
4.2 Although the law sets out the coins
(or tokens) that can be played in machines, it sets no limits
to how many coins may be played on each game, so the stakes are,
at least in theory, unlimited. In reality the stakes are capped
by the type of machine. Generally reel machines can accept up
to three coins per game, though machines that accept five or nine
exist. Poker games usually have a limit, set by the casino of
20 coins per game, though some exist with a 100 coin maximum.
As for video slots, the maximum is generally 81 pieces (nine coins
played on each of the nine possible winning lines). As a direct
consequence of this, there is no legal maximum payout as payments
are a function of coins played.
4.3.1 In first of the following tables (Fig.
1), the average amounts played per game over a complete financial
year in each of Accor Casinos' French casinos—by type and
by minimum stake—are to be found. The great advantage of
this setup is that it is effectively the customer who chooses
the amount of his or her stake each time the game is played, customer
choice being one of Accor Casinos' main priorities.
4.3.2 Fig. 2 shows by casino, by type of
machine and by value of stake the amounts really played on average
on each game over the whole of the financial year 2002-03. The
average amount played in Accor Casinos' casinos on each game can
be seen to be 2,25 Euros. The average stake on the Poker and the
Reel machines is very similar whilst the amount staked per play
on the Video slots is always superior to this amount on a comparable
minimum stake basis.
4.3.3 It should also be noted that the Video
slots are primarily used as low value games, the high value end
being dominated by the Poker and Reel slots. The lowest average
stake per casino of 1,07 Euros is in a casino that has a customer
base of tourists, whereas the highest average of 2,92 Euros is
in an urban area. Few casinos have many slot machines with five,
10 or 20 Euro minimums as these are not very popular with the
customers, less than 1% of Accor Casinos' machines have these
high minimum stakes.
4.3.4 The average top payment, as set on
the slot machine, for nearly all the slot park for Accor Casinos
is between 5,000 to 10,000 coins. Payouts of more than this amount
are really only found on the machines that offer "progressive"
payouts (jackpots).
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