Slot machines are completely random and if you are having a string of bad luck it has nothing to do with anybody “rigging” the machine. The slot machine has a computer program that dictates the overall payback percentage of that machine.
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Busting myths about online slots
- Slots from the company XXX are rigged.
- Verdict: Partially true.
In case of an emotional outburst during a losing streak, players tend to think irrationally. They will blame whoever and whatever. This is normal behaviour; it's just how our mind works. At such times, you will hear popular phrases such as 'yes, all Microgaming slots are rigged'. Replacing 'Microgaming' with another manufacturer such as Playtech, NetEnt, Novomatic is also a regular thing. Most of the time, it's a wrong accusation. Licensed slot machines work as they are intended to work by developers. The only 'rigged' systems are the ones that are pirated or copies of original games. These games can mislead players and steal their money. They are customised by online casino owners and can have any RTP (return to player percentage).
In most cases, these sins occur on slots by 'Novomatic' and 'Playtech does not affect. There are only a handful of online casinos with a licensed 'Novomatic' slots. But there is another side to this. 'Rigging' can happen differently as well, such as the operation of the slot. For example, a machine can give two scatters very often to lure the player further and further. A player sees the bonus symbols and subconsciously (sometimes fully aware) keep on playing because they expect to see the third scatter and trigger the bonus feature at any second even though the possibility of this has not changed. The machine can tease you and rip you off in such ways. These tricks happen quite often — especially flashing and expensive-looking symbols on different reels. It's cheap tricks like these that work perfectly in the flavour of an online casino. Even modern machines use this method of 'rigging opinion, but it is also essential to understand that the payout percentage on these freaks do not affect. The slot will give as much as they are programmed to give. Learn more what software is better: Netent, Microgaming or Playtech.
- Playing by using the 'max-bet' button increases your odds of winning or changes the current cycle of the online slot.
- Verdict: Not true.
In most cases, this is a serious misconception, though there may be some nuances. It's quite possible that a slot doesn't work the same as any other, and during the production of the slots a button can have a malfunction and will perform differently. If we talk about the machines from NetEnt, the changing of cycles is impossible. Learn if a player can affect on the slot's program.
- Jackpots are issued by pressing a button.
- Verdict: Partially true.
There is an opinion that the biggest jackpots only get pulled by prior decided players or players that are close to the developer himself. For example, Swedish people seem to win many jackpots on the slots from NetEnt. Coincidence? Try to prove this accusation. According to the basic principle of every operating slot, each spin is unique. This means that you cannot adjust the machine to have a particular result at a certain time, let alone award an individual player with a huge jackpot. How would it even be possible when there are hundreds and even thousands of players playing on a company's server at the same time? Maybe it is a coincidence, but there's still a little bit of thought on this issue that gets in the mind of the player. Alas, the human brain likes to look for any pattern. Learn more about progressive Jackpots by Netent.
- Three-reel online slots allow winning less than their modern
- Verdict: Not true.
- If there hasn't been a win in a long time, it must happen soon.
- Verdict: Not true.
Does the result of the black or red sector of a roulette depend on the previous one? Let's say that until now the result has been 10 black numbers so that it will be black again right? If you agree with this statement, then you have not wasted time reading this article! Each spin in roulette – just like each spin in a slot game – does not depend on the previous one. If you have gotten a black result for last 10 spins, you will still have the same possibility of getting a black or a red number. Same with slot machines. Each spin is unique and independent from the previous one. If the slot hasn't given you anything during last 10, 20 or 30 spins, this won't affect the result of the next spins. Always remind yourself that every spin is unique. Everything else is about the theory of probability. Learn more about prize pools and big winning factors in online slots.
- There's no point in playing a slot that has issued a jackpot or a big win recently.
- Verdict: Partially true.
- The slot can be 'hot' or 'cold.'
- Verdict: Not true.
Each spin is independent of the previous one. This is an axiom. This rule only applies to the licensed casinos in which the software is being provided from a legit developed. In a legit and popular online casino, slot machines work as they are expected to work: they follow the rule of RNG. Winning or losing streaks should not happen. BUT! The player has to understand: when the machine adheres to the theory of probability, the results can be quite unpredictable. This means that the slot can have a winning streak of 5000 (in theory, this is unlikely but possible) spins or a losing streak of 5000 spins. For example, there is a chance that slot will give you two or three winnings in a row followed by one or two losing spins. The probability of this happening is around 80%. But there are other outcomes. For example, a slot will give you 20 losing spins. The probability of this is equal to 0.5%. So, this will happen a lot less, but this is normal. If streaks like these did not happen, that would be very weird. So, it's quite a common thing in the world of mathematics and statistics. Learn more about hot slots by Netent.
- The probability of winning depends on the time of day.
- Verdict: Not true.
This myth came from land-based casinos. Some players still believe that slots in online casinos are programmed to have a low winning percentage during the peak hours, and thus they have a higher return at night or in the morning. The fact of the matter is that the casinos have no reason to limit payments during a particular time of day. Casino gets a profit whether one person is playing or a hundred of them. Also, this would be very obvious, and even beginners can notice this trend. Also, none of the licensed casinos would pass independent testing. It's just too obvious.
- Playing in 'auto-play' mode decreases (or increase) the chances of winning.
- Verdict: Not true
- Playing with bonus money gives you a smaller win.
- Verdict: Not true.
A popular misconception based on understandable logic. Player gets a bonus and wants to use it. If it is not profitable for the online casino, they should prevent it from happening. If this were true, nobody would be able to use bonuses. In some cases, lucky players can get a positive result. Learn how to get a positive expectation of winning at the Netent casino.
- High-rollers always win the progressive jackpot.
- Verdict: Partially true.
This myth had roots in the past when giants such as Microgaming and Playtech dominated online gambling. Their machines have a condition that allows players with a maximum betting rate to win the largest jackpot. Because of this, the 'belief' that high rollers will win the most massive jackpots began to spread. Nowadays we have a universal rule: Play on any bet, and you will have the same chances of winning the jackpot as the other players with other bets. This rule is being applied to most of the new slots. That's why there is no need to play with the maximum betting rate all the time. The possibility of winning the jackpot is very close to zero. The average player should focus on making a profit on his bankroll instead of chasing the colossal jackpot to become a multimillionaire.
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One of the most common questions you’ll see about anything in the casino gambling industry relates to “honesty”. You’ll see this question asked about every casino game under the sun. You’ll also see it asked about every casino, especially the online gambling sites.
In this post, I want to address this specific question:
Are slot machines honest?
How Do You Define Honest?
When I use Google to look for a definition of honesty, I see some of the following definitions listed:
- “Free of deceit and untruthfulness”
- “Sincere”
- “Morally correct or virtuous”
- “Fairly earned, through hard work”
I think most people are thinking of the first definition when they ask whether slots games are honest. They want to make sure they’re not being cheated. In this context, the answer is yes, slot machines are honest. I’ll explain why in detail in the rest of this post.
In the second context, where “honest” means “sincere”—I’m less sure. Are the casinos sincere when they want you to think you’re able to win money? I think so, but they know in the long run, anyone who plays slots long enough will lose all their money.
In the third and fourth contexts, I’d have to say that slot machines are NOT honest. Slot machines are closer to morally neutral than they are to sinful, but you might have a different belief system about such things. It’s hard to say that slots don’t appeal to one of the seven deadly sins, though (greed).
I’m not sure anyone could (or would) consider money won on a slot machine “earned” or to have anything to do with “hard work”. It’s a game of luck. If you win, then you got lucky—it has nothing to do with working hard or being smart.
I’ll explain more about that later in this post, too.
How a Slot Machine Works Mathematically
Answering the question “are slot machines honest?” begins with learning how the games work mathematically. The math behind the games is easier to understand than most people probably think.
The first concept to understand is basic probability. When someone says “probability”, they’re talking about the mathematical likelihood that something is going to happen. That “something” is called an event.
The probability of an event is always represented as a number between 0 and 1. An event that will always occur no matter what has a probability of 1. An event that will never occur has a probability of 0. An event that will occur half the time has a probability of 0.5.
For simplicity’s sake, and to make understanding the concept easier, I just used whole numbers and decimals in the previous paragraph. But probabilities are almost always expressed as percentages or fractions.
How to Express Probability as a Percentage
You’re watching the evening news, and the meteorologist says there’s a 50% chance of rain tomorrow.
That means it’s just about as likely to rain as it is to not rain.
Here’s another example:
You flip a coin. You have a 50% chance of it landing on heads. You also have a 50% chance of it landing on tails.
If you add the probabilities of all possible events together, you always get a total of 1 (or 100%).
Probability is the mathematical engine that makes gambling games possible.
How to Calculate a Probability
Here’s how you calculate a probability:
You take the number of ways an event can happen. You divide that by all the total events possible (including what can happen and what happens if it doesn’t.)
You’re rolling a single six-sided die. You want to know the probability of getting a 6.
There are 6 possible outcomes. Only one of them is a 6.
The probability of getting a 6 is 1/6.
Another way to express that is using odds, which can be useful when calculating whether a bet is expected to be mathematically profitable or not.
Odds expresses the number of ways something can’t happen versus the number of ways it can happen.
In the six-sided die example, the odds of getting a 6 are 5 to 1. You have 5 ways of NOT rolling a 1, and only 1 way of rolling a 1.
If you want to calculate a probability that includes the word “or”, you add the probabilities of the events together.
If you want to calculate a probability that includes the word “and”, you multiply the probabilities by each other.
You want to know the probability of getting a 1 or a 2 on a roll of a six-sided die. The probability of each is 1/6.
1/6 + 1/6 = 2/6
You can reduce that to 1/3.
Here’s another example:
You roll 2 dice. You want to know the probability of getting a 6 on both dice. The probability of each is 1/6.
1/6 X 1/6 = 1/36
Applying Probability to a Simple Hypothetical Slot Machine Game
But how does all this apply to the honesty of slot machines?
I’ll use a super simple hypothetical slot machine game to explain how this probability affects the integrity of the game.
This super simple game has 3 symbols on each reel—an orange, a lemon, and a cherry.
The probability of getting a lemon on the first reel is 1/3.
The probability of getting a lemon on the second reel is also 1/3.
In fact, it’s the same on each reel.
But the game only pays off if you get 3 of the same symbol on each reel.
The probability of that is 1/3 X 1/3 X 1/3, or 1/9.
Online Slot Machine Real Money
Let’s suppose the payoff for getting 3 lemons is 4 for 1.
And let’s suppose the payoff for getting 3 cherries is 3 for 1.
Finally, we’ll suppose the payoff for getting 3 oranges is even money.
- The probability of winning 4 coins is 1/9.
- The probability of winning 3 coins is also 1/9.
- The probability of winning 1 coin is also 1/9.
- The probability of winning nothing is 6/9, or 2/3.
Now let’s suppose you’re putting $1 in on every spin, and you play 9 spins, getting every possible result once.
You win 4 coins once. You win 3 coins once. You win 1 coin once. That’s a total of 8 coins you’ve won.
But you’ve inserted 9 coins into the game.
Where did the extra coin go?
In the pockets of the casino, that’s where.
By setting up the payoffs so that they’re lower than the odds of winning, the casino sets up a situation where it’s guaranteed a mathematical profit over the long run.
Of course, most modern slot machines aren’t quite this simple. They have more symbols on each reel, for one thing. For another, the probability of getting a particular symbol might be different from the probability of getting another symbol.
For example, you might have a 2/3 probability of getting a pear, and only a 1/24 probability of getting a cherry.
What Happens in the Long Run vs. the Short Term?
By manipulating the payoffs and the probabilities of the symbols, the casino can guarantee that over a long period and many spins, they’ll profit.
But in the short run, a player might win a big jackpot or lose several times in a row.
That’s the nature of random events. In the short run, anything can happen. In the long run, the numbers get closer to the theoretical probability.
This is obvious when you look at it with an extreme example.
On an infinite number of spins, your average loss per spin will mirror the mathematical expectation.
The closer you get to an infinite number of spins, the closer you’ll get to the mathematical expectation.
Do Slot Machines Cheat?
The casinos don’t need to cheat to make a healthy profit.
The slot machine designers and manufacturers don’t need to cheat to make a healthy profit.
In fact, in well-regulated jurisdictions (like Nevada), games are thoroughly audited for fairness. When they’re auditing a game for fairness, one of the things they check is whether a game has a jackpot that’s impossible to win.
That’s the main concern many players have when they ask if slot machines cheat.
Does the game have jackpots that are impossible to win?
The short answer in almost every case is no, they don’t.
But you have no way of knowing what the probability of winning that jackpot is. Slot machine games have opaque odds and probabilities. The results are generated by a computer program called a random number generator (RNG).
The only people who know the exact settings for that RNG are the designers and the casino managers.
In fact, you could be playing two identical slot machines located right next to each on the casino floor and have different odds of winning. Not only is this legal, it’s common.
Does that sound like cheating?
By the strict letter of the law, it’s not.
Is it honest?
I’d say yes. Having two games next to each other offering different odds is intentionally misleading. It’s legal, but it’s not sincere in any way.
Online slot machines are no different, except that in some cases, these games HAVE been known to cheat. But not reputable casinos and not reputable software providers.
How do they cheat?
They set up games which are impossible to win.
The reasons baffle me. You stand to make far more money in the long run if you offer an honest game.
Even an idiot can tell after a while that he’s never going to win a rigged casino game on the Internet.
But otherwise smart people will continue to deposit money and wager it at a breakneck pace if they’re winning something every now and then, even if they’re showing a net loss over time.
That’s how gambling works.
What About Video Poker Games?
You need to understand immediately that video poker games are NOT the same thing as slot machine games. They look similar on the surface, but the math and the gameplay couldn’t be more different. And the philosophy behind these games is different, too.
Here’s why:
A video poker machine uses a random number generator that duplicates the odds found in a 52-card deck of cards. You know the probability of getting a specific symbol. Any specific card has a 1/52 probability of appearing.
A card of a specific suit has a ¼ probability of appearing. A card of a specific rank has a 1/13 probability of appearing.
Payback Percentages and the House Edge
Knowing this enables mathematicians and computer programs to calculate the actual payback percentage for these games.
What’s a payback percentage?
It’s the percentage of each bet that’s paid back to the player on average in the long run. It’s the opposite of the house edge.
On a slot machine, you have no way of calculating a game’s payback percentage. It’s impossible, because you have no way of knowing the probability of getting a specific symbol.
But on a video poker game, you can calculate all the possibilities. And since you know how much the game pays out for various combinations, you can add the expected value of each to get an overall payback percentage for the game.
And you know what’s even better than this?
The payback percentages for video poker games are significantly higher than the payback percentages on slot machines in almost every case.
Even the worst video poker game usually has a payback percentage of 95% or so. But the better games offer payback percentages in the 98%+ range. Some (rare) games have pay tables which offer a slightly positive game for the player, like 100.2%. But those numbers assume perfect strategy on your part.
But even the best slot machine games usually have a payback percentage in the 95% range. The more common games slip down into the lower 92% or so range.
Expected Hourly Loss Rates in Slot Machine Games vs. Video Poker Games
What does this mean to your bankroll?
Let’s look at how much money you can mathematically expect to lose playing 2 different games:
We’ll start with an average slot machine game with a 94% payback percentage. You’re playing for $1 per spin, and you’re making 600 spins per hour. You expect to win 94% of each bet back, which means you expect to lose 6% of each bet.
6% of $600 is $36, which is the amount the casino expects you to lose on this game on average over time.
Then we’ll consider a 9/6 Jacks or Better game which you’re playing with perfect strategy. The payback percentage for this game is 99.54%, which means the house edge is 0.46%.
We’ll assume you’re playing a quarter machine and betting 5 coins per hand. You’re putting a little more money into action on each bet–$1.25. Most video poker players are as fast as slot machine players; they play 600 hands per hour. That’s $750/hour in action.
But with a house edge of 0.54%, your expected loss on that kind of action is only $3.77.
That’s right.
Playing slots costs you 10 times as much as playing video poker.
Video poker offers other advantages over slots, too. One of these is the skill element. You might not want to think about what you’re doing when you’re gambling.
But if you’re anything like me, you want to be able to at least exert a little bit of control over your destiny.
In video poker, you get to do that. The decisions you make playing each hand have a direct effect on your bottom line.
Play your hands well, and you’ll be playing one of the best gambling games in the house.
Should You Play Slot Machines at All?
This is a legitimate question. Should you play slot machines at all?
Here are some pros and cons of playing slots:
Pros:
- You can win bigger jackpots on slot machine games than any other gambling game except maybe keno. If you’re looking for a life-changing jackpot, like you’d see if you won a lotto drawing, slots are the way to go.
- They require little in the way of attention or effort on the part of the player. This suits some temperaments just fine. Relaxing in front of the spinning reels seems like a good deal for a lot of people.
- They’re available in an endless variety. You can find a slot machine game with any theme you can imagine. Love Elvis Presley? You’ll find a slot machine for it. Play Dungeons & Dragons when you were 12? There’s a slot for that, too. The themes and games are almost endless.
Cons:
- They offer some of the worst odds in the house. The house edge for slot machines vary widely. Some of them might offer good odds, but most of them have a house edge of between 5% and 10%. This isn’t awful. After all, roulette has a house edge of 5.26%. The problem is that slots play so fast that you can easily put more money into an action than you thought you could.
- You can’t figure out what the odds are. I have a philosophical problem with slot machine games. No other casino game is opaque about your odds. You can calculate the house edge for any table game in the casino. You can calculate it for video poker, too. But you’re never given the information you need to figure out the house edge on a slot machine. This is unacceptable to me.
- They’re designed to be addictive. Slot machine manufacturers spend millions doing research into what kinds of stimuli are going to put most people into the “flow” state. Flow is great if you’re interested in personal productivity at work, but if you’re playing a gambling game, it’s awful. No other casino game is as addictive as a slot machine.
Conclusion
Yes, slot machines are honest—in a manner of speaking, anyway. Casinos don’t make claims about slot machines that are blatantly untrue. If a game has a maximum jackpot of $1 million, you do have a chance of winning that much money.
What you don’t know is how likely or unlikely it is to win that amount.
Is this disingenuous on the part of the casinos?
I think it is, at least to some extent.
But all casino games have math behind them that puts the odds in the casino’s favor. That’s just the nature of the games. Slots are no different in that respect.
No matter which casino game you play, if you stick with it long enough, you’ll eventually lose all your money.
The only exceptions are certain games that can be played with advantage techniques, but that’s another subject entirely.
The only way for you to get an edge against a slot machine game is to cheat.
Are Online Slot Machines Fixed Machine
In most jurisdictions, cheating is blatantly illegal. You’re better off learning to play poker at an expert level, or learning how to count cards in blackjack.
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