The Clock Desk / The session clock
Time and units of play
What an hour of play measures
Two clocks run during a session: the wall clock, which the account measures with a session timer, and the product clock, which counts rounds, hands or spins. They are not proportional, and the number that describes a session's cost is the product clock.
Account spec
- Session timer
- announced every 60 m
- Slot, 3 s a spin
- 1,200 units an hour
- Live table, 40 s a round
- 90 units an hour
- Ratio
- 13.3 times
the boundaryThe instant the account's day is measured from. On the samples it is 00:00 UTC, which is a different wall-clock moment for every reader.
the countdownWhat a window is measured from and whether day one counts. A window advertised as 30 days delivers 29 days 23 hours 59 minutes on the sample.
the calendarThe working-day clock money moves on, with its cut-off, its weekends and its holidays. One working day covered 87 hours 30 minutes on the sample.
Direct answerAn hour of play is 60 minutes of wall clock and somewhere between 90 and 1,200 units of play depending on the product, because the products open and settle at different speeds. A session timer measures the first quantity; what the account handles is the second, and the two are not proportional.
The two clocks of a session
- the wall clock
- Time since log-in, which is what a session timer counts and what a reality check announces. It runs whether or not a bet is placed, so a session spent reading the terms is counted at the same rate as a session spent playing.
- the product clock
- Rounds, hands or spins settled since the session began. It advances only when a round completes, and its rate is set by the product rather than by the player.
- the account clock
- The timestamps on the transactions the session produced. These are written on the operator's clock, and they are the record the other two are reconciled against.
Sixty minutes, three productshanded per unit and units per hour
slot, 3 s a spin 1,200 spins x 1.00 = 1,200.00 handled
electronic table, 12 s 300 hands x 2.00 = 600.00 handled
live table, 40 s a round 90 rounds x 5.00 = 450.00 handled
a 60-minute session timer announces the same thing at 60 min
on all three, and the accounts behind it have handled
1,200.00, 600.00 and 450.00 respectively
the timer is measuring the hour
the account is measuring the units
What a session timer starts from
- Establish whether the timer starts at log-in or at the first bet. On the sample it starts at log-in, so a session that begins with a long read is already counted.
- Establish whether it resets. A timer that announces every 60 minutes is a repeating clock; a timer that announces once is a single deadline, and the two behave differently over a three-hour session.
- Establish whether time logged out counts. A log-out and a log-in normally start a new session, which is a detail rather than a way around anything, since the allowance clocks are unaffected by it.
- Establish the relationship to the account day, which is separate: the session clock is measured from log-in and the account day from a fixed boundary. They share no start.
- Do not read a session timer as a spending measure. It counts minutes, and the product behind it counts units, and the ratio between them is a property of the product.
Where the controls themselves are covered. Which player-protection controls exist, how to set a session timer, a reality check, a deposit limit or a time-out, and where those controls stop working is the safer-play controls desk (cycle 10 of the series). This page is only the quantity each clock measures, and it gives no advice about how long to play.