Almost a year after Casino Rama was shut down due to the pandemic, there remains “no set timeline” for its reopening.

And according to an internal memo sent to employees this week, there are plans afoot to “refresh” the casino’s gaming floor.

“At Casino Rama we will be using the continued closure time to refresh our gaming floor,” notes a memo sent to employees by the casino’s operator, Gateway Casinos and Entertainment.

“The changes will include reconfigurations of the slot and table floors as well as refreshing slot product.  

“The new floor design will also be better aligned with the volumes we were experiencing prior to closure,” notes the memo.

Corey Dalton, the president of Unifor Local , says the “refresh” will see the removal of about slot machines and 20 table games.

However, he said “there will not be an alteration to staffing levels” at the gambling facility east of Orillia.

“There were 1, Unifor members before the pandemic,” Dalton told OrilliaMatters. “The reconfiguration of the floor (and the removal of the slots and tables) is not expected to have any impact on staffing levels.”

He said “these machines and tables were considered to be excess before the pandemic; most were rarely used, if ever. 

“The size of the workforce is already proportionate to Gateway's expected market demand at reopening. They have expressly advised Unifor Local reps that they have no plans for additional reductions to staff levels,” he said.

Rob Mitchell, director of communications and public affairs for Gateway, said the union leadership has been involved in the process.

“The work is being done by Gateway's corporate slots team, who are responsible for all gaming floor projects at all Gateway sites in Ontario. The union has been notified of the renovations and are fully aware of the project and have been actively involved in the recall of staff who are working on the refresh,” said Mitchell.

“While the gaming floor is in part being reconfigured to better align with the new landscape created by increased competition within the gaming industry across the province, we also believe the refresh will improve the customer experience. 

“The new layout will provide customers better access to their favourite games and allow guests to more easily navigate the gaming floor. The present refresh was in the planning stages even prior to the COVID pandemic, as business volumes did not warrant the number of machines we had in operation at the Rama location," Mitchell explained.

“The new design of the gaming floor aligns with the layout and gaming variety we successfully employ at other Gateway Casinos in the province that has proven very popular with our patrons,” said Mitchell.

He echoed Dalton’s sentiments about the impact on employees. “There are no anticipated impacts to staffing as a result of the redesign,” said Mitchell.

Dalton said the lengthy closure has been tough on employees. (Casino Rama was ordered closed by the OLG on March 16, ).

“Nearly every casino worker in Canada has been off work for more than 11 months,” said Dalton. “The hospitality and gaming sector has been crippled by the effects of COVID

“The financial impacts of being off work for nearly a year will take an incredible toll on any worker,” he said.

Union workers have also been out of work, noted Orillia’s Tshweu Moleme, a Unifor rep at Casino Rama.

“I can assure you that Rama union leadership has been working very hard, alongside our Local and Unifor’s national leadership, during this pandemic,” said Moleme.

“We are also out of work, like millions of Canadians, but we continue to put in hours of our own time into making sure that Rama workers will return to a safe workplace and that they will have jobs to return to.” 

He noted businesses also have rights. 

‘We expect that such rights won’t be abused and that our Rama members will be able to return to their jobs once time allows and it is safe to do so,” said Moleme. “Our membership can’t wait to return to work and deliver some of the best customer service in the country.” 

Dalton noted the union has fought to maintain benefits for unionized employees and said full benefits will remain in place for unionized employees until the end of March. And partial benefits have been guaranteed until at least June

As of April 1, a reduced benefit plan will be enacted; that will include full prescription drug coverage and life insurance.

However, workers will, temporarily, lose their dental, vision and paramedical coverage.

When members return to work, full benefits will be restored.

As for a potential reopening date, that remains unclear.

“Gateway has not shared any planned opening dates,” said Dalton, noting re-opening is subject to approval from multiple entities including Gateway, OLG, Rama First Nation, Public Health officials.

Mitchell said it’s not clear when Casino Rama might reopen to the public.

“No decision on re-opening has been made at this time as we continue to monitor COVID infection numbers in the region,” he told OrilliaMatters. 

“We will only re-open with the approval of Rama First Nations working in conjunction with local public officials and the visitation limitations prescribed by the provincial government.”

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If you think the Wheel of Fortune patent was one of the most important concepts in the history of slot machine design, you’d be right. But there was another idea, some years before, that was perhaps even more influential. In last month’s Frank Floor Talk, Frank Legato did an excellent article called “Copy Cats” about features that are replicated by multiple manufacturers (Part Two of the article is in this issue). He included a nice summary of what’s called the “Telnaes Patent,” or TP. Due to its impact on our industry, I thought the topic deserved an even closer look, since it served as the cornerstone for today’s proprietary battles, high hit frequencies, large payouts, and even modern Random Number Generators (RNGs).

The original patent was granted on May 15, to Norwegian mathematician Inge S. Telnaes, who was working in Reno, NV at the time. The first line of the abstract says, “A gaming machine of the type utilizing rotating reels…a brake to stop the reels at a selected position and a random number generator for selecting the reel stopping position. Numbers are assigned to the reel stopping positions and entered into the random number generator with each number being entered one or more times to control the payout odds of each particular stopping position being selected thereby enabling any odds to be set without changing the physical characteristics of the machine^.[1]”

That description, while perhaps confusing to some, resulted in millions of dollars in legal settlements and revolutionized our industry, helping to turn it into today’s $50B+ gold mine.

But let’s step back and begin at the beginning &#; at least, the modern beginning. We’ll declare that as the creation of the Liberty Bell slot machine by Charles Fey. Most agree that this device was the first reel (and real) slot machine. Fey had a plant on Market Street in San Francisco before it was destroyed in the earthquake. His concept used three rotating, spring-driven reels. Once the handle was pulled, the reels spun until a lever dropped onto one of the notches (or stops) cut into the center of the reels. Once all three stopped, payout fingers were released against a disk attached to each reel. They cut a number of holes or slots into each of these disks. When the reels stopped spinning, if there was a hole in the disc at the position where it stopped, the payout finger would go in further and activate the drop of a certain number of coins from a pre-filled tube into the player’s tray (see photo illustration at left). This latter feature made the machine “automatic” since the payout came from the machine, rather than an attendant or bartender.

Importantly, even this early model had an RNG. It wasn’t a computer chip, of course, but rather a “fan clock.” (see image below right). Much like a wind-up toy, this mechanism had a rotating vane attached to its main axle. It was “wound” by pulling the slot handle. When this fan clock begins to run down, it releases the stop lever, and then the payout fingers are dropped against the slotted discs. The “randomness” comes from bends and shape of the fan vane and from the simple atmospherics of changing humidity, density and air pressure. Collectively, these were known as “luck”.

The fan clock is often difficult to spot on older machines, since it’s usually located at the very bottom on the machine underneath all the other complex mechanicals. From Fey’s invention until the s, this design was the basic underlying principal for all slot machines. There were 98, slots in Nevada in Today, that number has not even doubled: , Yet revenue has increased over ten times, from $M in ’84 to $M in And that increase came despite the competitive explosion of casinos in nearby California and across the nation. It seems safe to say that the Telnaes patent (TP) was one of the major factors in this boom. But why?

Pre-TP pay tables were designed and calculated by the number of stops on the discs that were attached to the reels. To the player, stops were represented by symbols like cherries, plums, bells, bars or blanks. Practically, you could fit about 21 or 22 symbols on a reel strip without them getting too small or too crowded. As a refresher, slot math says that you multiply the number of stops on each reel to get the total possible unique outcomes. For three-reel games that commonly was 21 x 21 x 21, or 9, One solution was to add more reels (five would get you over 4 million combos), but players, in the pre-video age, disliked anything more than three-reels. Or you could make the reels bigger, but that meant bigger machines and fewer would fit on your floor. So, for game designers, pay tables were limited. As comparison, a common older game today (like a Blazing Sevens) has 68 x 68 x = , possible outcomes. That means there can be a lot more winning combinations (and losing ones, too) and the payouts can be substantially larger. Today’s three-reel games may have x x = 16, , possible combinations. Or a lot more. The sky’s the limit. How?

This was the issue facing Telnaes and others in the late 70s and early 80s. How can you get more outcomes and still use just 21 or 22 symbols? These were the days, remember, where personal computers were generating new technology almost daily. One important innovation was the stepper motor. Wikipedia defines this as “a brushless DC electric motor that divides a full rotation into a number of equal steps. The motor&#;s position can then be commanded to move and hold at one of these steps without any position sensor for feedback as the motor is carefully sized to the application in respect to torque and speed.” For PCs, that meant precise data retrieval on hard or floppy disks. But for slot machines, these steps seemed perfect to use as stops.

Bally and others were already working on using RNGs and stepper motors, instead of springs and levers, to spin their reels. While he doesn’t get as much attention, James C. Saxton was also pioneering these same concepts. He filed his patent in , a decade earlier than Telnaes. Saxton was first to propose using computerized RNGs instead of fan clocks and controlling “discs” to display the outcomes. It was a major step forward.

But Telnaes saw this technology as a way to turn physical reels into virtual reels using these stepper motors and the computerized RNGs. In a drawing from his patent application, you can see 22 stops on the inner ring, but then they are divided into 44 virtual stops and again into even more slices. He had the RNG compute a number, and then that number would correspond to a pay table outcome, whether it was a winner or loser.

You can experiment yourself, with Microsoft Excel and the RAND function, to visualize Saxton’s and Telnaes’ concept. Simply enter the function into any cell and it will generate a number between 0 and 1 out to 15 places. If you copy the function into multiple cells, you’ll get a different number virtually every time. Depending on how you configure the RNG, you can have any number of possible outcomes.

That’s essentially what Telnaes proposed, although he used a much more sophisticated RNG than the one in Excel. He then assigned each resulting number to a distinct outcome on the pay table. Next, the stepper motors (attached to standard physical reels) would display the appropriate outcome. He could use the symbols over and over again to create multiple versions of the same outcomes. While the reels were still physical, the outcomes were now virtual. Twenty-one stops could easily become

The concept was only theoretical in until IGT installed new machines at the Four Queens in downtown Las Vegas. Overnight, they doubled the profit from an equal number of old school mechanical games. It was clear that virtual was a hit with players.

Universal of Japan, also working with the new design, came up with a twist on Telnaes called near miss. Since the RNG had already determined the outcome, they figured, why not make the losing combination look like it was almost a winner? In other words, instead of displaying a bar and two blanks as the actual outcome, Universal machines showed two Blue 7’s on the first two reels and just one stop off on the final reel. It was still a loser, but it looked like a near miss. The public loved it, and Universal quickly became America’s favorite slot. At least until IGT took the issue to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. They claimed that regulators needed to either ban this concept or let IGT duplicate it. Apparently, the regulators didn’t even know this was happening and quickly enjoined Universal to cease and desist, deemed the new design to be misleading. The company quickly faded in the US until years later, when they returned as Aruze (have you noticed the contrasting colored “U” in their logo that subtly references their Universal heritage?).

IGT purchased the exclusive rights to the Telnaes idea in They also obtained the Saxton patent, which gave them the additional ability to store and validate outcomes on an EPROM. Thereafter, they licensed these to others, while grandfathering in Universal and Bally who had similar products. Everyone else would have to pay IGT to use the concept.

Well, not everyone.

WMS Industries of Chicago, aka Williams, built their own games with the same features, but decided not to pay. IGT sued in and won $M in actual damages, which was tripled to over $33M because the court found that WMS “willfully violated the patent.” Unsurprisingly, WMS appealed, and the two parties eventually settled for $ million. That was a record verdict at the time, especially considering it was in pre dollars. It also was a model for the many infamous patent suits that IGT would launch defending Wheel of Fortune, video poker, even touch screens.

All good, and even bad, things eventually come to an end. The patent expired in February of By then it had lost some of its value, since reel games were on the decline and losing out to video. Ironically, Telnaes’ basic concepts of using virtual reels to achieve higher hit frequencies are the very concepts that video has used even more effectively to dominate in the last two decades.

And his innovations with reels are making a comeback today, even though the patent is no longer a factor. Today’s reels, like the IGT S, the Bally Twin Star Reel, the Aruze Innovator, the Konami Advantage and the Aristocrat Relm, are resonating again with the public.

No wonder: they have large pay outs and high hit frequencies. Besides, with just 21 or 22 symbols they don’t seem to be that complicated. You can thank James Saxton and Inge Telnaes for that illusion.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] You can see the full patent at: ingalex.de

It&#;s crazy that we&#;re just a week away from ending The site&#;s also quickly approaching the th post, with at least one post going live daily since the launch in May of

That milestone has given way to thoughts about what to do from here. The original goal was to achieve a daily post for a year, a milestone that&#;s long been met and completed more than twice over. And so now, as the site continues to grow and evolve, here are a few changes that will take effect entering

New Posts, and Updated Posts

With that many posts, and a lot of great material on the site, it stands to reason that some of the topics people ask about now have been covered in the past. And, because some posts are quickly approaching the three year old mark, there&#;s items that could probably use a refresher, either with additional information that I&#;ve incorporated in other pieces since, or because items have fallen out of date.

Sometimes I&#;ve written multiple posts on a topic that could be better served in a combined post. In other cases I have posts about promotions that have since concluded, relaunched, concluded again and so on.

In the spirit of tidying up the site a bit, content will still be available daily, but some days old posts will be revisited with updates and re-launched on the site. Some topics with multiple posts will be combined and cleaned up to provide a definitive article. Some topics that were posted about often in the early days of the site, like mobile social casinos that offer real rewards, will be updated with the latest information.

In all, the goal will be to balance new material with revisions of old information to be fully up to date and current on the site, in the interest of ensuring that Know Your Slots remains an accurate and helpful resource. And while the bulk of entries on the site will be entirely new and continue building upon what exists now, the goal of a completely new daily post will be adjusted in an effort to ensure the site&#;s content remains relevant and helpful.

Email Newsletter Launch

It&#;s been about a year now since the newsletter registration form was first added to the site. Thousands of readers have since opted in, but there has been no newsletter from this side.

The original plan had been to launch the newsletter in , but other initiatives and efforts got in the way. With many of those now under control or complete, it&#;s time to come back around to this.

The newsletter won&#;t come too often &#; the initial aim is going to be once or twice a month, but will likely orient around various topics, and highlight a mix of newer and older content on the site. Many of my readers find the site via search results, or through the daily timeline of posts on social media, so there&#;s a good percentage that haven&#;t seen everything that&#;s gone up.

My hope is that the newsletter will be a fresh way to tackle the variety of topics that are shared on the site, and bring some additional helpful information to you directly. If you&#;d like to sign up, use the form below to be on the list when it launches in January.

More Interviews and Deep Dives

One thing that&#;s been great about the site is that I&#;ve met a lot of amazing people within the industry who create the games that we all play in casinos. I&#;ve also met some people who work within the casinos themselves, who read sites like mine, and feedback like yours on various social groups, to better understand what&#;s on players minds.

To that end, one of my goals next year will to be to expand the various interviews and content that ties in with some of those I&#;ve met over the years. Some of these conversations will extend some of the conversations that have had a lot of popularity here on the site, for instance. I made some acquaintances at G2E, for instance, that could lead to some great conversations for the site. So look forward to more of those conversations here.

&#;and Perhaps More?

There&#;s a few other ideas that are being considered and may make their way out in Many of them have been part of the site&#;s long term roadmap, and will just depend on timing. Others are ideas that are being considered but not a lock. I&#;m holding back on sharing those from now, as I like to deliver on promises whenever possible.

So for now, that&#;s what I&#;ve got, and of course the steady mix that includes slot tutorials, travel, making the most of comps, and various casino news items, will continue to make up the site&#;s structure today.

Are there things you&#;d like to see on the site? Share below &#; and perhaps you&#;ll see some of that come to life in as well!