Jerry,

I want to see if I understand what happened to you correctly. You felt that by them adding stikes to the empty cylinder it decreased your chances of winning from the cylinder with only two strikes left, including the red cap.

If I got the scenario wrong just let me know. And if anyone thinks I am wrong let me know.

I am a slot shift manager at the Hard Rock and have a different understanding of how the machine works. As I understand it if 2 of the 6 cylinders are empty in the new machine your chances of hitting are "not" now 1 of 4. They are still 1 of 6. The machine does not recognize when a cylinder is empty, thus increasing the odds of hitting a full cylinder. That is why a machine can land on a empty cylinder. The machine does not know a cylinder is empty until it lands on that cylinder and it fails to produce a strike and then signals an empty hoppe. I equate it to any other coin machine. For example: If the hopper in a $1 coin machine was completely empty, with no coins left, your odds of winning on that machine would not change. You would still have the same odds as if the hopper was completely full. Well, imagine the strike machine having 6 different little hoppers. If 1 or 2 are empty it does not change the odds of it landing on that empty hopper (cylinder).

The way in which they treated you was horrible. I would have taken the time to explain to you my understanding of how the machine works. As some of you here on the boards know I hve taken the opportunity to talk to you on several occasions. To make you feel better I would have moved one strike from another cylinder to get it to payout the 1 it owed you and allowed you to continue playing. I personally hate interupting a player to fill a machine when it easily could have been filled when no one was playing the machine.

Eric "EJ" Johnson