Intro
Effective date: 29 May 2024Last amended: May 2024Next review: May 2027
This Policy is designed to provide information in regard to the subject matter covered, and with the understanding that the Gaming and Wagering Commission is not passing legal opinion or interpretation or other professional advice. The information is provided on the understanding that all persons undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its contents.
This policy provides guidance to determine whether a game played on an electronic gaming machine (EGM) that is not a poker machine is authorised for use at the Casino. EGMs that are poker machines, including what are known as fruit machines or similar, are prohibited in Western Australia. 1, 2
It is the Commission's view that approved EGMs that are not poker machines must:
To ensure that these guiding principles are properly applied, the Commission may refer to the following EGM characteristics when differentiating between authorized EGMs and EGMs that are poker machines. The following are based off the Western Australian Appendix to the Gaming Machine National Standard NS11.1 and are defining requirements for EGMs that are not poker machines:
1. Appearance:
2. Speed of play:
i. shall exceed:
a) 3 seconds, where the game incorporates an Unpaid Game Feature(s)3;; or
b) 5 seconds, where the game incorporates no Unpaid Game Feature(s).
ii. In all cases, games shall not incorporate any form of auto play feature.
3. Player interaction:
4. Return to player:
ii. in Western Australia, the minimum Return to Player percentage in 90%
iii. however, this does not mean that any individual player can expect to see a return of 90% on any spin – or even on many spins over time
iv. the Return to Player percentage is a long-term average, based on mathematical probability over millions of spins.
5. Symbols:
6. Fairness:
The player must be able to:
7. Rules of play:
8. Misleading features:
9. Harm minimisation:
10. National Standards
i. Compliance with WA appendix of National Standards in respect to non-spinning reel games.
11. Chances of winning:
12. Win truncation
i. All wins must be paid according to the pay table for that wager and should not be truncated to the maximum win permitted on that EGM if the winnings were to exceed the maximum win permitted.