Cube Slot Machine

This Instructable describes a game cube for slots. You don’t have to solve a Rubik’s Cube® (Rubik’s Brand Ltd, now offered by Hasbro Gaming), you only have to mix it up! Step 1: Without looking, randomize the cube. Step 2: Open your eyes and read the cubie on the top edge. Step 3: Follow the blue pointer to the middle cubie and read it next. (It may be topsy-turvy, but you’ll be able to read it.) Step 4: Follow the new, blue pointer to a corner cubie and read it, too. (It may be topsy-turvy, also, but you’ll be able to read it.) Now you have your result from the slot machine.

Buy a new Rubik’s cube. The new ones have plastic faces and a nice, smooth action. And a new one will be ready-to-go for this Instructable. (New ones cost only $7.00 or less, if you shop around.) You could use an old-style cube (with sticker faces), but you will have to peel off all the stickers and use some solvent to remove the glue residue. Next, get some permanent-style label sheets. I use Avery #8165 shipping labels, which are 8.5” x 11”. (I bought them at OfficeMax, but you could probably find them elsewhere, too.) I’ve provided the file in both Word and Pdf versions. Print out either file (Fig.1). Be sure to keep the backing paper on.

Optional (but recommended): make the faces smudge-resistant and shiny by using clear 2” packaging tape. First, cut the stickers crudely into strips, leaving a margin all around. Next, tack a piece of tape by one end onto the table top (Fig. 2); use tape guidelines for where the 2” width will be. Then slide the strip under (Fig. 3), between the marker tapes, and smooth it out with the clear tape on top. If you screw up (it’s easy to get wrinkles), just print out a new sheet and start over.

Next, use a sharp pair of scissors or, better, a paper cutter to cut the sheet into little squares (Fig. 4). (Please watch those fingers!) Finally, take those little squares, peel off the backing papers, and sticker-up your cube (Fig. 5)! When you do the stickering, be sure that the edge faces point inward (toward the center cubie); the center and corner faces may be any orientation (they’re going to get mixed up anyway). You’ve probably noticed that the central faces have astetrisks for suits. This indicates that the suit determination is ”wild”, i.e. you may declare it to be any one of the four options: spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs.

Slots is typically played by one person, but you could play with more by passing the cube around, if the others don’t have their own cube. You show the result immediately after each “pull”. One person is both a player and the banker. Here you must initially set up the bank with at least 200 units. One person could do this, or you could share in the effort. The units may be anything you choose: poker chips, pennies, dimes, dollars, M&Ms, or ???. You pay one unit to the bank before each play. If the bank runs out of money (or M&Ms?), it pays out only what it can, and then the game is over. (You could start over again, of course.) Setting up the bank is really like a loan. When you quit, you get to keep all the money (or split it appropriately if it was a joint effort getting started). BTW, the bank statistically (usually) comes out ahead.

Here are the payouts, the odds of winning, and, on average, how much you typically would win in 3456 plays. BTW, 3456 is the number of combinations in this game cube (24 edges x 6 centers x 24 corners). You don’t really have to play that many times!

Slot machine read....Payout....Odds of Winning.... Ave. take after 3456 plays

all bars......................500 ........1/3456=0.000289...500 units (Fig. 1)

all cherries................200.........1/3456=0.000289...200 (Fig. 2)

all plums...................100.........1/3456=0.000289...100 (Fig. 3

all strawberries.........50...........1/3456=0.000289...50 (Fig. 4)

Exactly two cherries..10...........0.0148....................510 (Fig. 5)

Exactly one cherry.....2.............0.220......................1518 (Fig. 6)

........................................................................total: 2878 (bank takes in 3456)

Anything else.............0