Slot machines allow players to choose how much they wager per-spin. Not only can you choose your denomination, you can also choose how many units of that denomination to wager on each spin ofthe reels. In exchange for your larger bet, you get access to larger prizes and more valuable bonus rounds and side games. The ultimate goal for a slot player is finding a loose machine amidst the vast sea of machines on the casino floor. Some equate the task equal to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack while others concede it is more like looking for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
If you walk into any brick and motor casino, one of the most games you will find people playing are classic fruit machines popularly known as slots. The internet has made work easier for gamblers because using a smartphone, tablet or PC, slot machines can be played at the comfort of one’s home or office. Quite frankly, the online versions of slot machines are a great activity for people who love the indoors but do not mind the occasional thrill of waiting upon a bet. Compared to classic slots, online slots are more exciting because they have wild and scatter symbols plus an interactive gameplay of bonus rounds.
If you use Google to dig up knowledge on various subjects, you must have come across websites that promise to make you loads of money from their secret slot winning strategy. Did you go along with the advice given? The truth about slots is that they are based on pure luck which cannot be influenced. While slots are undefeatable in the long run, there are tips that can turn even an average gambler into a pro. Here is the step by step guide you can use to maximize your chances of winning at slots:
1. Know the ins and outs of slots machines
You have likely heard this before; find a game whose winning event is due. While some people will interpret this to mean that slot games are self-correcting, the truth is that mathematical probability is the greatest determinant for winning in slots. Ever spin that is made on a slot machine is independent of any other but they are collaborating to prove mathematical accuracy of the games. Assuming that a game pays out a win when 3 identical symbols appear on separate reels, for a game that has 3 reels, this would mean that players have a 1:1000 probability of winning. Does this mean that you have to make 1000 spin to land one that pays out? The truth is that the longer a slot has been played without a paying out, the more likely that a win is coming and it could be you spinning.
2. Understand that there is more to slots than just RTP percentage
Many people will consider the RTP of a slot game before making the decision to play that game. Well, it is an important factor but not the only one especially because the concept of volatility comes into play. In a game like we mentioned above where the probability of winning is 1:1000, the nature of play is highly volatile. If this is the only gain you are going to be anticipating the entire game, it might take you a minimum of 2 hours to get a win.
What if we had a game where there were smaller wins throughout the game? It will take you the same amount of time as above to win big but the smaller wins will keep you interested in the game and cause you to play longer. This increases your chances of winning.
3. You cannot tell a game’s payback percentage by looking
For slot machines with mechanical reels, the payback percentage is a factor of the number of symbols and various possible combination payoffs. If for instance, you aim at a certain result, you can obtain the odds of hitting it. Compare what you get to the amount expected as payback then add together the respective returns. Modern slots played over the internet haverandom number generators that come up with outcomes. Upon pressing the spin button, the reels spin and stop on a random number which is tied to certain reel combinations. If the game developers adjust the odds for certain symbols, it could be impossible for a player to calculate the payback percentage accurately. Whether you manage to self-calculate or rely on what has been given by the developers, a game with a higher payback is better than the opposite.
4. Apply slots generalities based on jackpot size to win
Did you know that a small jackpot is easier to win than a huge one? According to Michael Bluejay, a slots machine blogger, smaller jackpots in slots means better payback percentages. A small jackpot is easy to beat. On the contrary, play slots with large progressive jackpots for the fun, not for the money. The bigger the jackpot size, the lower the probability of hitting a win. This would mean spending more time on the slot not to mention the amount of money you need to have spent before hitting the jackpot. It is alright to try gaming luck on progressive jackpots but take care not to get used to it – they will kill your morale as well as bankroll pretty fast.
5. Apply slot generalities based on location
Manyslot reviewers and analysts are of the opinion that the slot machines that are placed on the edges have higher payouts. This theory rides on the assumption that players start choosing slots from the outside and edges are a strategic place to have higher-paying games. Well, this might have worked in the past but not anymore. Actually, it depends on where you are because theslot machines in Las Vegas airport have a payback percentage of around 80%. If you love gambling and are stuck at the airport, you will just play, right? If you’re interested in checking out the most popular and legal casinos accepting online players, check out this website: https://www.onlinecasinos.co.uk.
6. Go for slot machines that have guaranteed payback percentages
While not all games post guaranteed RTP percentages, this is a common trend especially for games from Net Entertainment and a few other gaming providers. This, unfortunately, is the exception when it comes to land-based casinos. If you come across a slot machine which has the payback percentage advertised, take it. The minimum stake per spin is most likely to be a dollar or more but the outcome will make you glad that you did. Such machines have the return to player (RTP) percentage of above 97% so play on.
7.Ignore the slots club myths
If you are in a slots club or someone who is, you have probably heard the myth that your chances of winning are reduced if you have a slots club card in the machine when playing. Total lie! The role of the slots club card is to track the amount of action that originates from your account. This makes it easy to calculate rewards and rebates as a way to give players incentives at their level. Slots make money from casinos so it is standard business practice for a casino to want to see how much traffic is generated from them. Do not be fooled into thinking that the random number generation and RTP will be influenced by the absence or present of the slots club card. Slots writers who imply that playing with your card inserted is beneficial to your account are somehow right. These regular rebates mean that you lose less overall.
8. Play multiple games to get paid entertainment
In a casino setting, slots appear to be the easiest to tackle as far as winning is concerned. For some players, the visual appeal, captivating soundtracks, and thrill of reels spinning is simply addictive. Have you ever considered that playing slots is more expensive than playing any of the other games in a casino? Well, if you are an average player, you are likely to make 600 bets in an hour on slots, thanks toIoT in gambling. This translates to more money spent on slots if gaming was to continue throughout. Taking breaks in between slots betting is a good way to unwind, earn money from other games and spend less on slots.
Log in atSlots.lv for instance, and there is a huge range of games to pick from and play (over 400 to be precise). Here, as in very many other online casinos are a diverse selection of games designed to appeal to various personalities.
9. Enjoy better winning odds with video poker
If you are new to the gambling space, it might take you a long while before you can tell the difference between video poker and slots. In the real sense, there are huge differences between these two. Using the same probabilities you would apply when playing with a deck of cards; it is possible for players to effectively calculate the RTP percentage on a game of video poker. The average RTP is 93% for video poker games which gets better with enhanced skills and a better choice of games to up to 99%. If you are going to balance your time between video poker and slots, you will obviously have different fun levels with each. Addicted to the slots? It is perfectly fine because the wins you gain from video poker can fund the slots, keeping you playing longer.
10.Understand and stick to your goals
The most important goal for any casino player is to be entertained. Entertainment costs money and rarely do people pay for a movie expecting that they will win money that is enough to buy more movies – It should be the same with gambling. The most reasonable long term goal for those who play on slot machines is to receive entertainment that is equivalent to the amount of money they have paid in as stake. Any form of benefit that you will receive during play is just a bonus. Think of the free drinks you receive in a land-based casino or the loyalty points you earn on online casinos to be just that – free gifts courtesy of the casino for choosing to give them business.
Clearly, there is no secret formula on how to win at slots but everyone who plans to try should do it from an informed perspective. Enjoy the game and stay free of the addiction and winning will be the only event that turns your life around. So, how do you deliberately have fun at the slots? Since all casino games are programmed to the house’s advantage, none can have an RTP that is 100%. You, therefore, need luck to win at a slot game and that is why games with higher volatility are better.
Assuming that you opt to play a game that has low volatility, the results you will obtain over time will be as close as possible to the anticipated payout which is obviously less than 100%. In the high volatile game, on the other hand, the player still places bets and loses some but they stand a chance of reaping huge payouts because of the volatility being high. In simple terms, try playing slots with smaller but frequent bets; you tend to lose less money over time and when you hit the big win it is likely to repay all that you have lost. There it is: the secret to winning on slots is keeping track of the game’s volatility in line with the RTP. Some practical tricks below:-
- Stay away from bet types that decrease the RTP significantly – you might have noticed that many, actually the majority, will post a uniform RTP regardless of the bet size. For some online slots that have been adapted from land-based slots, there is a slight disadvantage when some bets are placed. If this is the case in the game you have chosen to play, always go for bets where this disadvantage does not apply. For instance, if a bet on 3 win lines costs 2 cents and a bet on a single win line costs 1 cent, it is clear that you save more if you bet on more win lines. In this case, it is always best to go for multiple win lines because of the disadvantage posed by betting on a single win line.
- Take advantage of the double up feature – this is a clever way to keep the volatility of a slot machine in check. Once the double up feature has been activated, the player stands a chance to win double the amount of money they have won in a game as the payout. Some games give you the opportunity to double up several times in a row and this is a chance to walking away richer than you were when starting the game. Actually, you will be twice as loaded than when you received the payout. Interestingly, this feature shoots the volatility of a game upwards. In the long haul, playing in such a slot game will offer you the opportunity to get less wins but of high value. For instance, imagine that you get your bet’s payout and walk away. You have probably been winning $1 for the last 40 wins – that is good. If you activated the double-up feature on your winnings and won $8 on 5 rounds, the outcome would still be the same as the first round but happening over fewer instances.
What aboutpenny slots? This trick will work for these types of slot machines because they are designed to accept a 1 cent per pay line. The catch is that multiple lines have to be played in a single spin. Instead of counting from the perspective of how much you expect to win, how about you bet the amount of money you are willing to lose on around. The reality in most land-based casinos is however from what really happens. Instead of betting with actual money, credits apply. Sounds sneaky, right?
Well, there might be special regulations for using the double up feature on money won from bonus rounds so it is important to check the terms and conditions before starting.
- Play with few pay lines – this is another trick for increasing the volatility of a game. Are you aware that a game with 10 pay lines can be played using a single one? This has the effect of multiplying the volatility by 5 to 10 times. For instance, if you have $2 which you bet on a single pay line, the expected win will be much higher than if you distributed the money over 10 pay lines to bet as $0.20 on each line. The mote pay lines are on an active bet, the less the amount of money is to be received in the way of winnings. The only downside to this trick is that it will not apply to high roller players since the maximum amount that can be placed as a bet on a pay line is capped. Lucky you if you have discovered a casino where you can play the Cleopatra slot from IGT because these regulations do not apply.
Conclusion
The greatest strategy of playing the slots that every gambler should bear in mind is that addiction is the door that leads down the road of self-destruction. If you must make gambling at the slots a habit, make sure it is on your own terms. The analogy is pretty simple; you cannot become an alcoholic from taking a beer in the same way that you cannot become a gambling addict just because you have pulled the slots lever. Do you know when you are losing control on the slots? That should signal you to stop!
I went to a party Saturday night, and whenever I go to parties, someone inevitably learns what I do for a living. (I write about gambling.)
This always leads to one of two or three outcomes:
- I hear a gambling anecdote about my new friend or one of their friends
- My new friend asks me how to win money gambling. Sometimes they specifically ask how to choose the winning slot machine
- Both #1 and #2 (this is actually the most common outcome)
I enjoy all these outcomes, by the way, but here’s what happened at this specific party.
A friend of mine started telling me the story of his friend who got fired from Walmart. Later the same day, his newly unemployed friend went to the Choctaw Casino in Durant and won $40,000 playing a slot machine.
My friend’s question to me was, “How do I do that?”
How can *I* choose the winning slot machine?
This post has the answer, but it’s almost certainly not what you’d think.
You Can’t Win by Choosing the Slot Machine With the Highest Payback Percentage.
When I search for this phrase in the most popular search engines, I see pages touting this advice repeatedly:
You have to play the slot machines with the highest payback percentage.
What’s a payback percentage?
It’s also called “return to player” or “RTP.”
A slot machine’s return is the amount of money paid out to a slot machine player compared to the amount of money the player wagered. The RTP gets expressed as a percentage.
If you made $100 in wagers on a slot machine and won $125, you’d have a return of 125%. If you won $90, you’d have a return of 90%.
The difference between the return and the amount you wagered, obviously, is the casino’s profit.
The payback percentage, or return to player (RTP), is a statistical prediction of a slot machine’s return over a massive number of spins. The closer you get to infinity, the closer the game’s results should get to the payback percentage that the game is programmed to have.
In the long run, all slot machines have a payback percentage of less than 100%. This means that, in the long run, you’ll always lose at slot machines.
How to Calculate the Payback Percentage of a Slot Machine
This theoretical payback percentage can get easily calculated if you have the probabilities behind the machine. It’s just the probability of each win multiplied by the amount of that win, divided by the amount you’d have to play every probability.
If, for example, a slot machine game had 10,000 possible combinations, and if you hit every combination, you’d win 9,000 coins, and the payback percentage would be 90%.
A slot machine doesn’t have to pay out less after a win to “catch up” to its payback percentage. Every spin of the reels on a slot machine is 100% random. The casino makes its profit because of the discrepancy between the odds of winning and the odds that each payout offers.
The payback percentage is not available to the consumer at most casinos. You have no way of calculating it because you have no way of knowing what the probability of getting a specific symbol on a stop is. You can’t calculate the probability of a combination of symbols without that information.
You have the payouts for the prizes, but you don’t know what your probability of winning those prizes is.
Where Does the Casino Put the Slot Machines With the Highest Payback Percentages?
You could play two identical slot machine games sitting right next to each other. One of them might have a payback percentage of 91%, while the other might have a payback percentage of 96%.
You have NO way of telling which machine is better than the other, even if one of those games is paying out more than the other. After all, the payback percentage is a long-term phenomenon.
In the short run, anything can happen.
But even if you DID know the payback percentage for the game, you couldn’t choose the winning slot machine just by choosing the one with the higher payback percentage.
The probability of winning the big jackpot on most machines is at least 1000 to 1.
If you play for two hours, you might make 1,200 spins. You might even win the big jackpot.
But you’ll (usually) have wagered more money on the machine than you won.
You’ll find advice about how to find the slot machines with the highest payback percentages, but most of it is useless. At one time, sure, the slot machines closest to the aisles might have had higher payback percentages.
However, I’ve seen multiple interviews with multiple casino managers who insist that isn’t true.
What About Playing Higher-Denomination Slot Machine Games?
You’ll also see people explain that the payback percentage on the higher-denomination machines is better. This is true as a general rule, but it might or might not be true at the casino where you’re playing. The penny and nickel machines might average 91% at your casino, while the dollar machines might average 95%, but that’s an AVERAGE.
This doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically have a higher payback percentage just because you played a higher-denomination machine.
Even if you did, you’re still fighting a negative expectation game.
Should I Play Slot Machine Games With Higher Volatility?
- What about volatility?
- Is a slot machine with a higher volatility more likely to be a winner?
- Or should I look for the games with lower volatility?
A slot machine’s volatility is its variance from the predicted results. The higher the volatility is on a game, the wider the swings between the wins and losses tend to be.
A game with high volatility pays out less often but can sometimes offer bigger payouts to compensate.
A game with low volatility pays out more often, but those payouts are still low enough to guarantee the casino a profit.
The slot machines at your local casino aren’t labeled according to their volatility, by the way. There’s not a special section for low volatility slots.
You can, though, get an idea for the volatility of a slot machine game via your observations of how often they pay out.
To make your own estimate, you need to count how many spins you make. You also need to count how many of those spins are winners (as opposed to losers).
Divide the number of winning spins by the number of spins you’ve made, and you’ll have the hit ratio for that sample set.
The more spins you’ve made, the more likely the hit ratio you’re seeing is close to the expected ratio.
If you make 500 spins on a game in an hour, and 150 of those spins are winners, the hit ratio for that game is 30%.
If 200 of them were winners, the hit ratio would be 40%.
The game with the 40% hit ratio is the less volatile game.
But keep in mind that an hour’s worth of spins is not representative of the long run. Those are still short-term results. The longer you play, the more accurate your results will get.
You COULD also estimate the slot machine’s actual return over those 500 spins.
Multiply the amount you wagered per spin by the number of spins you made. Then divide how much the game paid out by that amount to get a percentage.
If you put $500 into a $1/spin game, and then you make 500 spins, you’ve wagered $500.
Let’s say you have $400 left after all that wagering. This accounts for all your wins and losses, so the payback percentage — the observed return — is 80%.
That doesn’t mean that this is the theoretical return, but it might be close — especially if it’s a low volatility machine.
Does any of this information help you choose the winning slot machine, though?
Walking Into The Casino And Choosing A Slot Machines
You Can’t Use the Zig-Zag System to Pick a Winning Slot Machine
You might have already heard of this system, but if not, here’s how it’s supposed to work.
The zig-zag system tries to identify slot machines that are about to pay out by looking at the pattern of the symbols on an inactive machine. You’re supposed to look through the slot machines on the casino floor and find one where the winning symbols are in a zig-zag pattern on the front of the machine.
It doesn’t really matter much what the pattern looks like. As long as three winning symbols are present somewhere on the front of the machine, that machine is supposedly “ready” to pay off.
Proponents of the system even suggest that games with two winning symbols showing are getting close to paying off, too.
The idea is that the symbols are coming up more often because the game is getting ready to pay off. Therefore, you’re supposed to sit down and play until those symbols actually do line up on one of the pay lines, and you win.
You can picture these zig-zag symbols in your mind as diagonal lines connecting the symbols on the front of the machine. They might make a V or upside-down V, for example. This is also called a diamond, and it’s supposed to be the best pattern you could ask for.
I can only think of one problem with the zig-zag system.
It doesn’t work.
Understanding why involves understanding something about how a slot machine works. Those spinning reels on the inside of the machine aren’t actually physical reels. They’re controlled by a random number generator. This is especially obvious with video slots, where all the action is entirely animated.
The random number generator (RNG) is a computer program that cycles through thousands of numbers per second. When you click the “spin” button or pull the lever, the computer program stops on a number. That number corresponds to a combination of reel symbols.
Before the reels stop spinning, the RNG has determined the outcome, win or lose.
Every spin of the reels is an independent trial. What’s happened on the previous spin has no effect on your subsequent spins.
What About John Patrick’s Slots Strategies?
My favorite strategies for playing slots come from a book by John Patrick. In it, he outlines several money management techniques which are supposed to help you win at slot machines. All of his strategies are more or less worthless.
Below are some of the concepts he suggests.
The first is the concept of a “naked pull.”
- A naked pull is a spin of the slot machine reels that results in no winnings at all.
- He suggests choosing an arbitrary number between 7 and 14 as your “naked pull limit.”
For example, you might choose 7 as your naked pull limit. If you play a slot machine game and get 7 losing spins in a row, you would quit playing that machine and move on to another machine.
This MIGHT help you avoid a low volatility slot machine game, but it doesn’t do much for your probability of winning in the long run. In fact, it does nothing in aid of that.
Having a naked pull limit, though, can be an interesting way to get in some action at multiple slot machines. In that case, you might have a more interesting and fun time playing, which is a type of winning in itself.
Another concept that he suggests is having a session bankroll.
- In other words, you have a bankroll of how much money you’re willing to gamble with.
- Let’s say you’re going to Las Vegas for three days and two nights, and you have $600 to gamble with.
- You might decide to have two slot machine sessions per day — one in the morning and another in the evening.
- You would then have six sessions planned, and you would divide your bankroll into six-session bankrolls of $100 each.
He combines the idea of a session bankroll with the idea of a loss limit and a win goal. These are just percentages of your bankroll that are going to serve as the end of your session.
For example, you might set a win goal of $50 and a loss limit of $20. If your bankroll slips to $80, you quit for the session. If your bankroll grows to $150, you quit for the session.
This, by the way, does nothing to increase your probability of finding a winning machine. It just means you won’t gamble an entire session bankroll.
It also means that sometimes you’ll grind out a winning session.
In the long run, though, you’ll wind up with a loss similar to what you’d expected based on the theoretical payback percentage of the machine. The longer you play, the more likely you are to wind up with those kinds of results.
All his systems combine these concepts to create cleverly named systems, but none of them do anything to get you an advantage at slot machines.
In Fact, No One Can Tell You How to Choose the Winning Slot Machine
You can’t choose a winning slot machine because you can’t predict the future. Slot machines are random. They’re also an example of negative expectation games.
If you play slot machines long enough, you’ll surely lose.
But Here’s the Good News
The expected return on these games is a long-term expectation. This means that not only CAN you win in the short run, but you’re almost guaranteed to have an occasional win in the short run.
In fact, the casino is counting on it.
If you never won, you’d never play.
The trick is to have some idea of what kind of win will satisfy you. When you know what that is, you can play until you hit it and call it a day.
As long as you understand that if you keep playing negative expectation games, you’ll eventually lose all your money, you’ll be okay.
- Treat slot machine gambling as entertainment.
- Quit if you get ahead by a significant amount.
And NEVER spend money on any kind of lame slot machine system that guarantees you the secret to choosing a slot machine that’s ready to pay out.
Conclusion
Slot machines are fun, and choosing a winning slot machine seems like a worthy goal.
Luckily for us, it’s a skill that everyone has in equal amounts. Everyone has a 0% probability of accurately predicting which slot machine is going to be the winning machine.
It’s not like the World Series of Poker, where the players’ skill levels have a huge effect on the outcome.
Sure, you can win at slots.
People do it every day.
It just takes luck and a willingness to lose some money trying to win.
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