Ahhh who remembers these?, 2p a go, the wheel in the centre would start spinning, “place your bets now please”, you popped your 2p’s in the slots, the wheel would stop and the ball would land in a colour, you picked the right one it would pay-out.
Simple enough, enjoyable, odds are against the player (what machine isn’t) but at least I can assume it is genuine in it’s action, eg. there are no magnetic shenanigans going on.
Anyways, I took a closer look at this machine today, (you tube video and this photo) and I notice some clever (or maybe accidental) psychology going on. So I’m going to break down the machine.
There are 5 colours (Red / Blue / Green / Yellow / White) as presented to the player, with Red & Blue sharing the minimum pay-out (but not sharing the same odds, I’ll come to that in a minute) followed by Green, Yellow and White. The bet is always 2p, the pay-outs if you bet successful are below (I assume the arcade owner could change these, so I’ve gone with what I can see in the you tube video).
| Colour | Pay-out | Spaces | Odds | Chance | Min Bet | House |
| Red | 4p | 8 | 8/25 | 32% | 8p | 4p |
| Blue | 4p | 9 | 9/25 | 36% | 6p | 2p |
| Green | 8p | 4 | 4/25 | 16% | 14p | 6p |
| Yellow | 12p | 3 | 3/25 | 12% | 18p | 6p |
| White | 32p | 1 | 1/25 | 4% | 50p | 18p |
Betting on White is a mugs game, it has a very slim chance of coming in, the pay-out is pittance to the amount you need to stake to assume a win..
Green and Yellow are basically the same, the pay-outs cancel out the difference in odds.
So what I’ve found interesting about this machine is simple, despite Red and Blue being presented as equal odds, Blue has a better chance of winning. Red is presented as the first (left most) option for betting, so you may incorrectly assume that has the best chance of winning or at least an equal chance based on pay-outs. Ultimately If you only have 2p, and going to bet on red or blue, pick blue!!!.
Disclaimer :- I am aware there is a simple flaw in my table of stats. Every game is “unique” your odds don’t improve if a colour you pick didn’t come in the last game (or games before that). Min Bet and House are “in theory” columns, if everything is equal and there is no real luck involved.
Why do I care? It’s interesting, I never realised there were more blue spaces than red until today!. I also thought I might have a go at writing a version on PC, I don’t know, here is an early screenshot.
