Originally Posted by mickeycrimm View Post
Someone in Bally's came up with the idea of one pair, jacks of better being the low hand. This brought the RTP up. They put the machines back in and they got continuous action.

At the time Bally had no way of knowing what the RTP was. They paid people to play the game and recorded the results.
The payout adjustment boosted potential RTP from 81.4 to 99.5%. The way I've heard the story, players also enjoyed the illusion of being paid for a push. Probably no way to know for sure.

I wonder though why they would put out an 81.4% product to begin with. If they tested the game at all, they must have been roughly aware of the low return.