Before we explain Class II slot machines, it’s helpful to understand what the Federal government defines as ‘Class II Gaming‘.According to The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act it is “the game commonly known as bingo (whether or not electronic, computer, or other technological aids are used in connection therewith) and, if played in the same location as the bingo, pull tabs, punch board.

How Class II Slot Machine Games Differ from Class III Slot Machine Games What VGT did was create bingo game software that determines the actual prizes awarded to players. But to make the bingo games look like slot games, they used the bingo game’s random results as if they are the random numbers that Class III slot games use. The IGRA provides for regulation of Class II games by both tribes and the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). In states allowing Class II games, like California, there are no limits on the number of Class II games that a tribe may operate. Class III games (sometimes called Nevada-style games) include all other types of gambling. Class III slot machines are the ones we all know and love. These slots you will find in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and most of the other casinos of America. Class II machines are for specific jurisdictions, often introducing a bingo element into the slot machine experience.

Slot machines burst onto the American gambling scene in the 1930’s and have captivated risk-takers with their bright lights, shiny reels and a chance of striking it rich with their jackpots. Fast-forward to the 1980’s, and slot machines were deemed to be more profitable than table games like blackjack or craps. For the most part, the same remains true today. From Las Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City casinos to racetracks, barges, and riverboats along the Mississippi River, slot machines are still big business.

How Does a Slot Machine Work?

Named after the slot where cash, tokens or even new paper tickets are inserted, slots is a game for all skill levels. The object of the game is to win money from the machine. This happens by matching a set of symbols that roll and stop at random once its lever is pulled or button is pressed. The amount bet on each spin varies between machines. Most offer a variety of winning combinations which are linked to different rewards (extra spins, cash, etc.) and usually displayed on the machine itself.

There are several kinds of slots available nowadays, from the classic lever-and-spinning-reel variety to vivid display video slots. Regardless of their technological advancement since the 1930’s, slot machines are still categorized into two groups: class II or class III.

Class Ii Vs Class Iii Slots

Class II Slot Machines

• All machines or terminals are linked together so that players end up competing against each other for a common prize.

• Winners are determined via a Video Lottery Terminal (VLT), much like a lottery scratch card.

• With a set quantity of wins and losses, they are preprogrammed to pay out at particular times.

• Not every game is guaranteed to have a winner, but play will continue until a winner is determined.

• Machines are interactive and, just like with the game of Bingo, players must announce their win in order to claim their reward. Prizes are not given automatically.

• These types of slot machines can be found primarily on Indian gaming reservations and ‘Racinos’, which are establishments that not only allow class II slots on premises but also have a live horse racetrack.

Class III Slot Machines

• Typically known as ‘Vegas-style’ or traditional slots, these are what most people think of when they envision a slot machine.

• Each terminal is independent of the rest, with players competing against the house or casino for a pay-out prize.

• Winners are determined via a Random Number Generator (RNG), giving every terminal the same chance of winning during every game.

• Despite misconceptions about a slot machine being ‘due to hit’, they aren’t preprogrammed to pay out at any particular time.

• If a player uses a terminal that someone else just abandoned and wins the jackpot, the likelihood that the previous player would have won if they stayed longer is very low. The RNG is timed down the millisecond of when a button is hit or lever is pulled, which must be done at a precise time in order to win each particular game.

• Wins are instantaneous and prizes are doled out immediately.

Many gambling enthusiasts in the United States are at least vaguely familiar with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, US law Pub.L. 100–497, 25 U.S.C. § 2701.

Passed in 1988, this federal law established how Indian (Native American) gaming would be managed and regulated. The act included definitions for 3 types or classes of gambling games. They are usually referred to as:

1. Class I games
2. Class II games
3. Class III games

Congress passed the law to help Native American tribes and nations improve their economic status after more than a century of oppression and exclusion in mainstream US society. Many Native American groups wanted to build land-based casinos, which would not only attract tourists but create jobs.

There was considerable resistance to this movement in many states, most of which did not allow gambling of any kind. To help resolve the conflicts and provide some clarity between treaties, state law, and federal law, the US government established a framework that eliminated some barriers to Native American investment in gambling industries. The law also provided some regulatory limits to respect state laws.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act introduced some confusion into the worldwide lexicon of gambling games because the distinctions are only observed within US jurisdictions. Other nations regulate gambling with different definitions.

But as the internet became a worldwide communications network in the 1990s and 2000s, most of the content published about gambling dealt with US law and casinos. Although non-US casinos have to observe their own laws and regulations, players who research gambling law on the internet must be careful to distinguish between USA gambling definitions and other gambling definitions.

What Are the 3 Classes of Gambling Games?

Class I gambling includes all traditional Native American gambling games, most of which are only used for ceremonial purposes or in the contexts of cultural-specific celebrations and ceremonies. These games, which are only available at small stakes, are completely regulated by the Native American tribes and nations.

Class II gambling includes all variations of bingo games, player-vs-player card games like poker (where the house does not play a hand in the game), tip jars, pull-tab games, punch card games, and anything similar. Some people mistakenly include lottery games in this category, but the law clearly excludes state-run lotteries and similar games from Class II.

Class III gambling consists of everything that is not included under Class I gambling or Class II gambling. That means the lottery games you play are Class III gambling games. Slot games, roulette, dice games, and card games like blackjack where the house is also a player all fall under the Class III gambling games category.

So How Can There Be Class II Slot Machine Games?

If you’ve ever visited a Native American casino–like the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma, you’ve almost certainly played some Class II slot machine games. They look much like traditional slot machine games. They have 3 to 5reels with symbols on them, they pay jackpots, and they do everything else you expect of a slot game.

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.

In other words, the slot machine cabinets contain two screens, one that displays the results of the bingo game and one that displays the results of the simulated slot game. This dual visualization of the gambling game takes advantage of the fact that at the core of all gambling games is a simple principle:

You’re making a wager on an unknown outcome. What the Class II slot games do is take the result of the bingo game to determine what happens in the slot game.

What’s cool about this approach is that VGT was able to add bonus games to the bingo games that work like slot machine bonus games. They’ve developed a huge selection of bingo games that play like slot games. VGT is so successful they were acquired by Aristocrat Leisure Limited in 2014, although the former VGT still operates as an independent subsidiary company of Aristocrat.

How Do Class III Slot Machine Games Work?

The key to the hybridization of bingo and slot machine games is the Random Number Generator. Mathematicians have been developing algorithms to calculate unpredictable numbers for hundreds of years. For a detailed look at the concept, read “How Do Random Number Generators Work?” on Jackpots Online. Although the RNG does not produce a truly random number, in typical circumstances the number is random enough. Even so, slot game designers use random numbers in multiple ways.

Before I continue, I should mention that US law requires slot game designers to work by different rules from other countries’ slot games. In the United Kingdom, for example, the outcome of a slot game is determined by a single random number. In the United States, the outcome of the Class III slot game is determined by several random numbers.

To begin with, an electronic slot machine or online slot game uses a software concept called an array to represent each reel. Computer arrays work like rows of boxes, where each box holds one piece of information. The arrays for slot reels may have anywhere from 22 to 256 slots. Each slot in the array holds a symbol marker that tells the slot machine game what to display on the screen.

Slot game designers use special algorithms to decide how often each type of symbol should appear in each slot array. The frequency of the symbol’s use in the array and the size of the array determine how likely or unlikely it is for any single spin of the slot game reels to create one or more winning combinations. The game’s software may award prizes for one or more winning combinations at a time, depending on how many pay lines the game offers.

The random number generator produces a new number every few milliseconds. The number is placed in a temporary memory location called a register. The slot game software grabs the latest random number from the register and uses that to determine what happens next. For example, a 5 reel slot game needs 5 random numbers to pick how many slot positions will be spun on each reel before the reels stop in new locations. If the slot game awards random prizes like progressive jackpots, these are determined by additional random numbers.

How Class II Slot Machine Games Differ from Class III Slot Machine Games

What VGT did was create bingo game software that determines the actual prizes awarded to players.

Class Ii Vs Class Iii Slot Machines

But to make the bingo games look like slot games, they used the bingo game’s random results as if they are the random numbers that Class III slot games use.

Class Ii Slots Vs Class Iii Slots

To ensure that the slot game winning combinations match the bingo game prize values the VGT games work more like slot games in the United Kingdom. The game determines what prize was won and then creates a short video simulation of the slots landing on that winning combination.

Conclusion

How do class II slot machines work?

Either way, the slot games award prizes on a random basis. You could say that US gaming laws are paranoid in that Class III slot game software is required to closely emulate the physical spinning of slot reels. In fact, physical slot reel games have been displaying results of these virtual, in-memory array games for more than 20 years. So even when you see physical reels spinning, their stop positions have already been determined within microseconds of your pressing SPIN.

The Class II slot gaming experience is a fun gaming experience.

But the bingo game is displayed on a small screen, because VGT’s designers have found that players don’t enjoy looking at bingo patterns as much as they enjoy looking at 3 to 5 reels spinning and stopping on various symbols.

Class Ii And Class Iii Slot Machines

For the player, what matters is that they’re gambling for real money on an unpredictable outcome–and they can enjoy an entertaining evening with friends or loved ones.