How Do Coin Pushers Make Money

Coin-Pusher Games (like Flip-Information technology)

Original: 2002 • Updated: August, 2018

"Just wanted to thank you for writing the Flip-information technology analysis.
(I teach game blueprint at MIT and handed it out in class.)"  — Jon

Introduction

This game goes by various names, but the concept is the aforementioned:  A motorcar has two trays completely filled with coins.  The upper tray slides back and forth and the bottom tray is stock-still.  Y'all insert a coin, which drops onto 1 of the trays, and if you're lucky it'll get pushed into the stack of coins, causing one or more to spill over the edge and be returned to you.

The game takes quarters, dollars, or tokens, depending on the season of the machine.  Video arcades sometimes pay out in tickets rather than actual coins.

In some flavors of the game the coins simply drib onto the tray.  In the ones I used to run into in Vegas, the coins were flipped up onto the tray past a spinner.  That version of the game was chosen, accordingly enough, "Flip-It".  Sadly, I haven't seen the game in Vegas in many years.

How the operator gets its profit

The operator makes its coin from the coins that spill over on the extreme left or right edges, which go sucked into the machine instead of being returned to the player.  This fact is not obvious, because the holes on the edges are subconscious behind or underneath signage.  Without knowing this, I've heard people opine that they effigy the operator opens the machine at night and scoops some of the coins off the trays.  That's not how it works.  The profit comes from the (hidden) holes on the edges.

Although it'southward obvious how the operator profits once you find the border holes, I did confirm anyway with staff at the 4 Queens casino that they don't open upward the car at nighttime to scoop out the coins.

Equilibrium

If you play the game long enough—and it doesn't have long—y'all'll find that the machine always returns to an equilibrium.  That is, the coins don't stack ever higher and college.  The average number of coins in the machine is pretty abiding.  The machine can get temporarily overloaded with "extra" coins, and and so later a large payout it might have a deficit of coins, but with more than play pretty presently it'll be returning to its happy residue.

Each machine has its own personality, and has a different boilerplate money depth.  That might be two coins deep on one machine and v coins on another.

It doesn't take long to come across this effect.  My experience is that on nearly machines y'all could notice it with fewer than 80 plays (e.g., $xx worth of 25¢ coins).

Basic Strategy

The machines let you choose whether you want your coin to drop in the left, middle, or right of the car.   Since you don't get coins that spill into the holes on the edges, the offset function of bones strategy is to simply play the center, minimizing the number of coins that become to the edges.

If your car allows y'all to choose where your coin drops, then the second part of basic strategy is to time the drib so that your coin falls onto a naked space on the tray, behind all the other coins, so your coin pushes into the mass of coins.  If your coin falls onto the top of the stack, it won't help button the coins towards the edge.  The Flip-Information technology games don't give you much of a choice equally to where your coin drops.  However, every bit nosotros'll encounter later, these games are amend for money-counting advantage play.

The House Edge

Different machines carry different house edges, and seem to exist in the range of 10-33%. Some games don't let you precisely command where the coins country.  Games that send your coins to the edges sometimes volition have a higher firm edge than those which don't.  Also, some games are simply engineered and then that more coins get pushed into the side holes than other games.  Finally, trickery could increase the firm edge even more...

Some operators put big prizes on summit of the coins, similar unabridged rolls of coins, which are always correct near the edge, enticing you to play considering they seem piece of cake to win.  The truth is that those prizes are unwinnable.  The edge of the tray is hard to see considering it's covered by coins, but if you await advisedly you tin can run across that it's slightly angled up.  When the rolls of quarters go pushed up towards the edge, they'll just roll back down the hill about an inch, farther away from the edge.  In my listen, the presence of the coin rolls is fraudulently, criminally deceptive.

Information technology might exist worse than that the coin rolls are unwinnable.   I suspect that the weight of the coin rolls causes more of the coins to spill over to the sides.  Last night at a pic theater I played $xx and got back $13.fifty.  The machine seemed to be in equilibrium, so that would make the house border a whopping 32.5%.

I estimated the house edge on the dollar machine at the Four Queens to be nigh eleven.one%.   This was based on 405 coins in, 360 coins out, taking most an hour of play, and using Basic Strategy.  On any other casino game, 405 rounds would exist pitifully pocket-sized and not at all statistically significant, simply quarter pushers are unlike.  A few hundred rounds easily cycles nearly of the coins in the machine, and it's very clear from playing even 15 minutes that the machine seeks its own level.

On Flip-It games, I constitute that quarters tended to flip to the sides more oftentimes than dollars because they're lighter and their trajectory is all over the map. I made a rough estimate that y'all could easily lose nearly as much on quarters every bit on dollars, just because of all the extra quarters that go to the sides.

The Wizard told me that Stanford Wong calculated the firm edge on the game to be well-nigh 10%, since the holes on the edges comprise about 10% of the total spill surface area width.  That's a reasonable hypothesis, and indeed, in my testing I got 11.i% on a item game which was pretty close, only another game I tested suggested the edge is a lot closer to 32.five%, possibly because the rolls of quarters could be encouraging coins to become into the side holes.

Volatility

Machines that gravitate towards shallow stacks have low volatility. You will hit oftentimes, but get but a few coins when you do.  Machines that stack high will take greater volatility: You won't get payouts as often, simply when yous practise, they'll be larger.  The long run expected return is the same.  The machine with the least volatility that I found was the dollar car at Iv Queens, which preferred to be almost merely two coins deep.  The 4-deep dollar machine at Stratosphere was much more volatile.

Baskets

Some versions of the Flip Information technology game feature modest baskets at the very peak of the game, and if your coin flips all the mode up there and into a basket, you win the number of coins listed on the handbasket (commonly x, 20, fifty, or 100 coins).  On some of the dollar machines, the 50-betoken baskets movement continuously back and forth, left to correct, for added excitement.  If y'all hit ane of these baskets, there'southward a bonus round where slot auto reels on the very top of the game spin, and diverse combinations pay various numbers of coins, with the top jackpot beingness $2500 or $9999. This jackpot is often listed in an LED marquee to brand it await similar it's a progressive jackpot, only it's really but a fixed jackpot beingness advertised with a marquee.

The baskets are nearly worthless.  In thousands of Flip-It hands, I hit a basket peradventure three times, each time the everyman-payout basket.  Equally farther proof, in the six weeks I was in Vegas, nobody hit a fifty-point basket at the Four Queens dollar machine to go a reel spin.  I know this because for the unabridged six weeks, the reels were stuck on the exact same combination.  (And that was a losing combination to kicking, that paid out nothing coins for its bonus circular.)  The machines entice you to play the sides by putting the higher-point baskets on the sides.  Don't autumn for information technology.  You won't hit the baskets, and your coins going to the sides of the machine won't get returned to you when they spill. Note that although I believe baskets to be about worthless, you're more probable to hit them on quarter machines than on dollar machines, because the quarters are lighter and flip up higher.

Money Counting

Blackjack players can motility beyond their basic strategy and count cards, giving them an reward over the business firm.  Flip-It players can likewise move beyond their basic strategy and count coins, then the odds are in their favor.  The concept is simple: Play only when the machine is primed (property more coins than boilerplate), and then that coins are more likely to spill than stack.  I believe this works only with the Flip-It games where y'all don't have much of a choice as to where your coin drops.  On the games where you lot can choose to drop your coin onto a naked area of the tray, presumably most players will do so, then the coins won't stack very high.  But in Flip-Information technology games where your coin is flipped past spinners onto the trays, many of those coins are going to stack on top of other coins.  It's the imbalance of loftier stacks which yous'll be hunting.

I tested my theory past playing a trial of 558 coins over several days, playing but when I thought the machine was primed, and I wound up ahead 9 coins.  This is a 1.half dozen% advantage, which is more than you can become from counting cards at blackjack.  (Blackjack is however more profitable, apparently, because you tin can bet more than than a dollar at a fourth dimension, and because profitable decks occur more oft than profitable Flip-It shelves.)  At ane betoken in a carve up trial, my reward was 83% after playing just 24 coins.

Had I played more conservatively (playing only when the machine looked extra skilful), I'm confident that I could accept achieved greater than a 101.6% return.  Merely the return is not the ultimate indicator of how much money you make.  What you ultimately walk away with is a part of your advantage multiplied by your action (how much money y'all put into the machine).  Playing 500 coins conservatively with a four% reward yields the same profit as playing 1000 coins more aggressively with only a two% advantage ($20, either way).

To count a machine accurately, you must first know how many coins deep that automobile gravitates towards, which I'll refer to as the machine's "level".  You could detect this out by playing the machine for xv-30 minutes, or you could back-count the machine by but watching someone else play.  Once yous know the auto's level, y'all can use a uncomplicated +/- count.  Count only coins in the middle, not on the sides:

-1	Every space and level where the stack is less than the level.  For example, if this is a 3-deep motorcar, and at that place'due south a spot that'due south only two levels deep, there's one money missing, and so that'southward -1.  If there's a spot that'south only one level deep, and then that'southward -2.  Count every deficient spot this way.
-1	Every half-coin space and level where there's almost a half-coin hole.  The coins are not pressed together snugly, and you tin can see directly through to the shelf.  When this happens and gap is almost the size of half a coin in foursquare inches, count -1 for each level.  Let's say you accept a iii-level machine with four half-coin gaps.  You have iv 10 -3 = -12.
+i	Every space and level where the stack is greater than the level.  For instance, if this is a three-deep car, then count every money on the 4th level equally +1.
+1	Every coin that is teetering over the ledge by at least 1/3 money.

Add these all up and y'all have a rough idea of your advantage, or lack thereof.  When you have a positive count, play the car. If the machine is negative, don't play.  If the motorcar is positive, and yous play, and you win, count the machine over again. If it's yet positive, y'all tin keep playing.  Different blackjack, the pit bosses don't care if y'all back-count and Wong in when the count gets loftier, but you can't Wong in whenever you like, since simply one person can play the machine at a time.  You'll just have to promise that the person playing the machine before you leaves when yous desire them to.

I had an interesting experience at the Four Queens.  I had been playing the motorcar for a while, and had relinquished it to a immature woman who was watching me and was eager to play.  I waited for her to finish, and then she turned the auto over to me (in most the same condition as I'd left it).  She continued to lookout me although she was ostensibly done playing.  Before long I had a major hit for a bunch of coins, which instantly fabricated the machine seriously negative.  Only every bit she jealously watched me get that large hit, she asked anxiously, "Tin can I play now?" I was just as well happy to plough the negative machine back over to her at her request, so she could prime it for me again.  Some might call up I was taking reward of her, but remember, she asked me to let her play.

The summary, though, is that although you can play Flip-It at an advantage, you lot tin can't brand a living at it, unless you can live on a few dollars a day.

Casino Player

In the Dec. 2001 issue of Casino Player, the executive editor ran an article about how she lost $240 playing quarter Flip-It.  Information technology was hard for me to believe that someone could be then bad at Flip-It as to lose $240 playing for quarters.  That's a loss of 960 coins! Yous'd take to play at least two hours straight and lose every coin to lose that much coin!  I doubtable that the editor made upward the numbers for her story, and/or fudged other details.

Further, I was challenged by the editor's assertion that "You simply can't win on this machine."  I had always suspected that with proper play, Flip-It could actually be played at an reward—in other words, profitably.  That's why I prepare out to prove that I could win at Flip It.  And I did.

[Update: Casino Player invited me to write a comprehend story for them in 2005, which I happily did.  It was non most Flip Information technology.]

Miscellaneous

Unfortunately, Flip It doesn't accept slot club cards.  It should, considering that the house edge (≥x%) is at least as high as the border on a typical slot machine.

Most Flip It machines have a sticker that says "Game is over 35 seconds afterwards last coin is played.  Coins spilled after this time will not exist returned to the player."  So if a batch of coins is teetering on the brink and about to spill, and you're waiting and watching while it takes a while for them to actually drop, you might not get them.  But don't worry, 35 seconds is longer than it seems.  I timed information technology and institute that information technology took 20 strokes of a pusher arm to equal 35 seconds, so while waiting for coins to fall, I simply made certain that I didn't go longer than 15 strokes before I played my side by side money.

I now know more about Flip-It than whatsoever person always should.  I'm not sure which was the bigger waste of my limited fourth dimension on this planet:  Trying to beat an insignificant casino game for an insignificant amount of money, or writing a lengthy article about information technology.  Either mode, this probably explains why I don't get many dates.  [Update, nine years afterwards: I'thousand married now.]

See as well how to play:

• Baccarat
• Blackjack
• Craps
• Roulette
• Slot Machines
• Video Poker

Practise gambling with play coin

Before yous throw downwardly your hard-earned cash in a casino, Do FIRST! Larn the games with play money where it doesn't cost you anything if you lose.  Seriously.

You can play Bovada'southward games (below) right away without registering for an account.  Nearly every other online casino makes you surrender your email address just to play the fake-money games — ugh.  That'due south the principal reason Bovada is the simply online casino that gets advertizement space on my site.  (When you lot encounter the registration box, you can abolish it and proceed to the game without registering.)

Source: https://easy.vegas/games/flipit

Posted by: oharaganow1988.blogspot.com

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