I talked to a manager at the Clearwater Casino (near Seattle)
yesterday, and learned more about the setup there. They have two
types of machines, he called Class II and Class III. He said the
III's are like LV, but I'm pretty sure they are really VLT's that
behave like LV slots.
The Class II slots are different. There are only about 20 in the
entire casino. They accept US bills and are also TITO. The Class
III machines do not accept US bills. Also, the Class II machines are
basically run as a bingo game (but modified). The screen display
suggests otherwise, but it's really the bingo card that controls wins
or losses. These are all built by Cadillac Jack, Inc., with the
names Crazy Vegas, King Tuts Fortune, Cave Age, King Fish, Lusty
Devil, Whup Ass, Peace Love and Cash, and Barnyard Rock. They all
display the bingo card, but only the Barnyard Rock explains how the
bingo card relates to the screen display of the barnyard figures.
The bingo card numbers range from 1-75, like a regular bingo card,
except there is no free space ... so there are 25 numbers on the card
(not 24). You can change the card to different numbers by touching
it. The game selects 30 numbers and fills out the card to the extent
there are matches with the 30 numbers. Winning depends on the number
of "hits" and the pattern of the hits. You can win a little with 2
hits in a specific location, and win a lot with 13 hits in a specific
location. I was told that each machines operates independently ...
that is, is issued its own set of 30 numbers for each game played.
But, its also true that at least two machines must be "in play" for
them to operate. The manager did not know why this was true, but it
is. I also got the impression the only reason these machines are
here is some people like to insert US bills directly rather than use
TITO.
This so-called Class II bingo game is really a combination of bingo
and Keno. The bingo card is a "modified" bingo card, and 30 numbers
are drawn ... which is more like Keno (which draws 20). Unlike
bingo, each game does not have a winner, so in this respect it's also
like Keno.
Anyway, I thought some readers might find this of interest, since
there is so much confusion about VLT, Class II, etc. ... at least I
was confused.