Casino Gambling and Advantage Play: Aladdin’s Fortune 3D

Premise

In my first article in the Advantage Play series, I go over the basics and history, as well as a thorough analysis of the first advantageous game – Plants vs. Zombies. The second article in the series talks about Adventures of Sinbad and strategies. This article will focus on the final game – Aladdin’s Fortune 3D, and the future and expectation of these games.

Game 3: Aladdin’s Fortune 3D

Simlar to Plants vs. Zombies, Aladdin’s Fortune is created by IGT. While we saw it on our first trip, it was not until our second Vegas trip together that we learned the mechanics behind the game from an exceptionally helpful casino floor server at Paris Las Vegas. The information below is from her, which helps crack the bonus structure.

Visible Bonus Meter

This is a five reel single player game. At the top of each reel, players can see four lamps at various states of lighting. As the player spins, he may earn a lamp, which grants one of the four letters of “WILD”. Upon reaching the fourth lit lamp, the reel becomes WILD for four consecutive spins.

Strategy

The dominant strategy for rational players is to target the game when many of the lights are lit and concentrated on the left side.

Specifically, the best possible option is to have all reels WILD, but more likely you’ll be looking at each reel having between one and three lamps, for a total possible fifteen lamps lit. You want as many lamps lit as possible and the lit ones concentrated on the left side of the screen (Reels 1, 2, and 3). This is because the game pays out from left to right, so three lit lamps on Reel 5 are worth much less than three lit lamps on Reel 1, etc. By playing games where lamps are lit and the WILD is close to completion, you will have more positive expectation of WILD reels and payouts.

Additionally, you would rather have a consistent spread of lit lamps. For example, having Reels 1-4 be at 2 lamps each is better (theoretically) than Reels 1 and 4 having 3 lamps and Reels 2 and 3 having 1 lamp. This is because statistically each reel has the same likelihood of rolling a lamp, and you want to have them hit four lit lamps (WILD) at the same time.

The goal is to get WILD on as many reels from left to right as you can – resulting in large and consistent payouts.

Optimal Strategy – Play when reel 1-3 have 2-3 lamps lit each, ideally with at least ten lamps lit over 5 reels.

Caveats

There are several caveats to this game, which players must be aware of.

• The game can mis-time the lamps, giving you WILD on Reel 5 and requiring you to connect four before the fifth comes into play. Or the game may have little or no overlap of WILD reels.
• Even if you hit WILD on one or two separate reels, you may have little to no payouts.
• Even if you have 2-3 lamps, it may be a while until you collect the final fourth lamp to make the reel WILD. You may spend a significant amount of time and money chasing lamps.

Understand that it is not guaranteed, but having finding a game with more lamps lit is better than one with less lamps lit.

Returns

We have seen wins of ~$60-120 on 60 cent bets when a couple reels are WILD, which is ~100-200 times the bet! However, we have also seen much smaller wins of $3-15, so your experience will vary.

Location & Outside the Game

I have seen these games by themselves (one-off), but more typically they are located in larger “banks” of games. They will be close to other IGT products of similar size and shape, such as Dreams of Asia, Aladdin’s Fortune, Sphinx 3D, and Plants vs. Zombies etc. They are pretty tall and are easy to pick out of a casino floor.

Specifically for Las Vegas, we encountered many old white and Asian men, and old Asian women, scoping out this game, ready to hit close bonuses if a poor tourist (like myself) let them.

Don’t let them. For me, I take great pleasure draining the bonus and losing a little, then getting up and not giving the local the freebie.

Future

During our conversation with the drinks server at Paris Las Vegas, she mentioned the clientele that these games attract. Because Las Vegas “lifers” hunt these games in packs, segregating them by casino and doling out territories much like the Mafia, it has started to attract a seedy element. She informed us that it has led to confrontations, sometimes physical, between tourists and locals who want to jump on a ready-to-hit bonus. Thus, she speculated that management may be tinkering with the games. For example, she mused that they may “reset” the same so that when people cash out or take out their card, the bonus meter will reset to some lower amount or even zero. This would reduce the hunting and scoping out that I and many others do. It will be interesting to see what happens, especially as the games are relatively new.

Conclusion

One interesting point to note for Aladdin’s Fortune. In Cal Neva our machine froze up and we saw a tech reset it. In the system was the payout, set to about 90-91% per the blue screen. A very interesting point, but of course it may vary by location or even between casinos. Using these three games and understanding them made our last several gambling trips very profitable, making several hundred each time. By comparison, the lady had never before gambled, and I would usually break even or lose a couple hundred each time, on average. We intend to continue using these tips and trying to learn about new games, to see if we can identify the advantage play strategy in them.

Featured image from pixabay of slot machines at the casino. For more info on this game, see the IGT site.

What do you think of my slot machine strategy for Aladdin’s Fortune? Let me know in the comments, or reach me directly at TheHotelion@gmail.com! Like my posts? See more here, on TravelUpdate! Follow me on Facebook (The Hotelion) or on Twitter and Instagram: @TheHotelion