Mom hit two royals over the years at Holiday in Las Vegas. 25c machine, with the metal cards that flipped over. Also got excited and threw one away by hitting the draw button. Whatever machine it was (her lucky machine) they didn't used to lock on a Royal.

The way machines used to work, was you hit draw and all ten cards were dealt. The five replacement cards, were already behind the five top cards. No more. Actually this was seems more realistic, because the next cards are dealt off the "top of the deck". All ten cards are NOT dealt at the start.

This changes nothing as far as I'm concerned. It's still 1 in 54,000 (plus something) chances of being dealt a Royal. The odds of making a Royal, depend on what cards you have and what you draw to, so that varies. If someone says it's 1 in 35,000 I'll bite!

from IGT website

Q: How are cards dealt on a video poker machine?

A: In current IGT poker products, five cards are dealt off the top of the deck at the time the game is started. When the player selects the cards to hold and presses the deal/draw button, the game draws an additional five cards from the top of the deck to replace any discards. The discards are replaced in left to right order, in the same manner a normal poker game is dealt.

For example: The player is dealt the Ace of Hearts, two of Clubs, Ace of Clubs, four of Diamonds, and six of Spades. The player then decides to discard the two of Clubs, four of Diamonds, and six of Spades. The two of Clubs is replaced with the top card, the four of Diamonds is replaced with the second card, and the six of Spades is replaced with the third card.