How To Play At Slot Machines

History – How To Play – Rules – Odds – Strategy – Pro’s Perspective

Slot machines are referred to as slots, pokies, 1-arm bandits, fruit machines and poker machines. Players will place wagers in the form of coins (or virtual coins if it is an online slot) in order to spin the reels of the game. Any slot machine will have a minimum of 3 reels and players can start spinning these reels by pulling a lever (or clicking on Spin). The symbols on the reels will start to spin until they stop. When they stop, players will be rewarded according to the combination of symbols they achieve on the payline. The payline is a virtual line on which players must get certain symbols in order to get paid.

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Players will be paid based on the bet they have placed, the combination of symbols, and the paytable of the game. The paytable is a table that shows players the different combinations and their respective rewards. This paytable is usually found at the top above the reels of the slot machine or on the game screen itself – whether land or online-based. The symbols appearing on these reels are usually bars, cherries, bells, watermelon, and sevens, this is why they were called fruit machines. Other advanced slots might have a certain theme. For these games, the symbols will be inspired by that theme. For example, Thunderstruck is an online slot which is themed around Thor and the Norse gods. On this game’s reels, players will see symbols that include Thor, Thor’s Hammer, and Odin among other related symbols.

Slots History

The history of the first slot machine dates back to 1895. The father of the first slot machine was Charles Fey, whose original slot machine had poker symbols on its three spinning reels. The symbols also included hearts, horseshoe, bells, and spades. Since the game only had 3 reels automatically, it was easy to make the game payout for the winning combinations. The game paytable was available at the top and it showed players the different winning combinations. The highest combination paid 50 cents when players got 3 bells on the win line.


In 1891, Sittman and Pitt invented another form of slot machine. This new machine looked a lot like the early version of slots that can still be found to this day. The game included five reels and 50 cards with a poker game theme since players were paid according to the poker hand they formed. This is why they were called poker machines. Players would start the game by putting a nickel into the game’s slot and by pulling the lever in order for the reels to spin so they could get a poker hand. Most of these machines used to pay players in the form of gifts such as cigars, drinks, or food or other things that were sold at the pub or bar where it was being offered. In order to increase the odds of the house and make it hard to get a poker hand like a Royal Flush, the game did not have a 10 of Spades or a Jack of Hearts.

In 1907, Herbert Mills invented another machine that was called Operator Bell and by 1908 these slots were installed in every bowling alley, cigar store, or salon. One of these original “Liberty Bell” slots can still be found in a Reno Restaurant in Liberty Bells Saloon.

Another great development occurred in 1963 when Bally invented the 1st electromechanical slot machine called The Money Honey. This was the first slot to have a bottomless hopper and it offered automatic payouts as well. The biggest reward that could be claimed was 500 coins. This machine was one of the reasons behind the skyrocketing rise of electronic gambling. Reel Em was the first-ever video slot that offered players bonus rounds.

In the 1990’s multi-line slots made an entrance to the scene. These games had more than one winning line. This meant that players could claim payouts according to combinations on more than one line aligned on the game’s screen. With the emergence of online gambling, slots were one of the first games to be adopted and transformed into online games. They developed quickly and can now offer up to 100 lines and 1024 ways to win. They also offer players a lot of bonuses in the form of wilds, scatters, and progressive jackpots.

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How to Play Slots

Slot machines can be found at every gambling venue, whether online or land-based. The online gambling world has fewer restrictions in terms of technology and development, therefore players will find a wider array of slot machines than those found at land-based gambling venues. We are going to discuss the gaming procedure for both online slot machines and land-based slots:

For Land-Based Slots:

For land-based slots, players will have to buy bar-coded coins, quarters or other cash values the game accepts. Usually, players will see the cash value the game accepts written on the game itself. After players enter the coin or cash in the game’s slot, they will pull down the lever or press the spin button, causing the reels of the slot to spin. The symbols on these reels are usually themed around fruits that are accompanied by bells, sevens, and the usual one bar, two bar, and three bar symbols.

After the reels stop spinning, players will be rewarded if they have a winning combination on the game’s win line. Players can find out the combinations that would make them eligible for a win at the game’s paytable. This paytable can be found at the top of the reels, or these days on the game screen itself. It will show the different combos and their rewards.

There are also slot machines that resemble video slots that can be found online. (Some can even be found with the same features online.) These video slots usually have a touch screen that players will use in order to control the game like in video poker.

For Online Slots:

Players who want to enjoy this game at an online casino will have to follow another gaming procedure. For online slots, players will first choose the game, then they will choose their wagers. Choosing the wagers, whether a classical or a multi-line video slot, includes 3 options:

  • Choose the number of lines that players want to activate by placing their stakes on.
  • Choose the coin value that players want to use to place wagers and get rewards.
  • Choose the number of coins they wish to place on every activated line. All of this creates the wager. The total amount of their bet will be seen under the Bet Cell.

After placing the wager, players will be able to start the game by clicking on Spin. It is usually found under the reels in the game’s control panel in between or next to the wagering options that were mentioned above. The symbols will spin and, after they stop spinning, players will be paid according to the paytable, their bet, and the winning combination. The paytable can also be viewed at the top or as players click on “View Pays” or Paytable that is found somewhere on the game’s screen.


Slots Rules

The rules differ from one slot machine to another. Each slot machine will have its own set of rules printed on the game itself or, in the case of online slots, players can view them by clicking on “Game Rules.”

Max Bet Only Triggered Bonuses:

Some bonuses and jackpots will not be triggered or activated unless players have placed the maximum wager.

Wild Symbols:

Wild symbols differ from one game to another and can substitute for any other symbol the slot machine has. These wild symbols will not replace other bonus or scatter symbols.

Triggering the Jackpot:

The jackpot is triggered when players get a certain combination of symbols on any of the winning lines of the game. It can be found at the paytable.

Scatter Symbols:

How To Play A Slot Machine And Win

Scatter symbols are special symbols that reward players generously in the form of scatter payouts. They can also trigger free spins. Free spins mean players will get a number of spins on the slot for game free. They are usually triggered when players get three scatters on the reels or three of the bonus symbols on the payline.


Apart from these rules, there are also some rules of etiquette that players should follow when playing at a land-based casino or a venue that is offering these slots.

Players can play on two slot machines side by side provided that the gambling venue or the casino is not crowded. If it is crowded and there are players waiting to be seated, the attendant will ask players who are playing on two slots to end one of the sessions.

Some players prefer to keep rapidly clicking on the buttons thinking that it gives them better luck. This is usually frowned upon because it causes the buttons to wear out quickly and causes a lot of disturbance to other players in the casino or the gambling venue.

Players who want to watch another player spinning the reels should leave one chair between them and the players unless they plan to play on the slot machine right next to that person. If they do not do that, an attendant will approach them and ask them to move away.

It is ok to celebrate when you get a big win or hit the jackpot, provided that you do not celebrate for too long. Also, when you get a big win, it is customary in certain parts of the world to tip the attendant who is getting the payout for you. It’s common etiquette.

Lastly, if you spot a slot machine that has a leaning chair on it, it is advised to leave that slot machine alone. It signals someone is still playing at the slot machine and he had to go to the bathroom or get something to drink and will be back shortly, it is courteous to leave it for a maximum of 10 minutes before you move the chair and take a seat.

Slots Odds

Slots are usually programmed to payout 82 to 98 percent of what was wagered in the form of winnings. This percentage is known as RPT (Return to Player) or the Theoretical Payout Percentage. The minimum RTP for every slot machine depends on the regulations and laws of the state or country. In Nevada, for example, the minimum percentage is 75 percent, in New Jersey it is 83 percent and in Mississippi, it’s 80 percent.

The winning combinations and patterns on a slot machine, the amount it pays, and the frequency of these payouts are carefully calculated and selected so they pay a specific fraction of money to the casino or the house while giving back the rest to the players. For example, a spin on a slot machine costs one dollar and it has an RTP percentage of 95. It can be calculated that over the long term, for example after one million spins, the game is going to give back $950,000 to players from the 1,000,000 dollars they have put into the slot. The house or the operator will keep the remaining $50,000.


The RTP is not the only important statistic in slots as the percentage of every payout on the game’s paytable is also important. For example, in any slot machine that has 12 different rewards in the paytable, the probability of every reward equaling 0 percent except the jackpot can be quite deceptive. If the jackpot win is 4000 times the wager, then it would happen 1 time every 4000 spins and would make the game have an RTP of 100 percent, despite being a very dull game.

The table of the probabilities for any slot machine is called the Paytable & Reel Strips sheer, also known as PARS. PARS helps players understand the psychology of the slot machine. For instance, if the game has 13 payouts that range from 1:10 up to 2400:1 it will show that the 1:1 payout would happen once every 8 spins, the 5:1 would happen once every 33 spins while the 2:1 payout will happen once every 600 spins. The PARS sheet is usually confidential and developers and manufacturers never post them; however, it is possible to find the PARS sheet of any of your favorite games posted online. Despite this, they are not of any real value to players as slot machines usually have 8 to 12 different programs that have varying payouts.

Slot machines are also known for the “Taste.” The Taste refers to a small amount of money the game pays every few spins to those who are seated at a slot machine to keep them engaged in the game. The logic is simple: if players keep losing their bets without winning any back, they will eventually grow bored and leave the game. The taste is usually the 1:1 or the 2:1 payout.

Slots Strategy

Slot machines are games of luck, so there are no strategies or techniques to implement. On the other hand, there are some tips and suggestions that may be quite useful for any player who is looking forward to spinning the slots:

Stick With Slots With a Low Jackpot:

If you are a land-based casino player, you will notice that the slot machines that offer millions in jackpots are not that popular because the chances of hitting the jackpot are very slim. This is why you should stick to slot machines that have a jackpot in the $1,000 range since you have a better chance of triggering it. These smaller jackpot slots are known for paying out better rewards and more frequently, too.

Know When You Should Move On:

Like any other casino game, you might find yourself on a losing streak. When that happens you should just move on or stop playing or perhaps go to another slot to change your luck.

How To Play At Slot Machines

Quit While You Are Ahead:

If you have been on a winning streak or have just hit a jackpot, it is a good idea to cash in your winnings and leave. The more you play the bigger the chance you might lose what you won (or at least a big chunk of it). Like any casino game, you should quit while ahead.

Work According to a Betting Pattern:

You should always follow a wagering pattern that will help you earn rewards. For example, always start with the minimum wager possible and, if you lose, up it up a notch and keep increasing the bet after each spin. When you win, do the opposite. The + / – betting pattern is not guaranteed as there are no guaranteed betting patterns for slots because it is 100 percent random, but this can help increase your odds.

Placing the Maximum Wager:

Although this contradicts the last tip, it is another way of playing. The aim is to place the highest wager so you can earn high rewards. This is essential in online video slots as some bonuses cannot be triggered if players do not place the max bet.

There are also some misconceptions we have to clarify:

  • Playing the game faster will not increase the chances of winning.
  • Clicking on the spin or pulling the lever rapidly will not affect the outcome of the slot. They are all the same.
  • Each spin is independent, so the game will never be “due to hit”.
  • When someone wins a great payout on a slot machine that you left does not mean that you missed that payout. There is a big chance that you wouldn’t have hit the same payout because you would not have pulled the lever at the same fraction of a second that the player did.

Pro’s Perspective: Slot Strategies and Tips

With John Grochowski

Modern slot machines are multimedia technological marvels complete with animation, sound effects, and sometimes even video clips from movies and television shows.

While three-reel slots still exist, the majority in both live casinos and online casinos have five reels, and sometimes have six, seven, or more. Instead of one payline, modern video and online slots usually have 20, 30, 40, or more pay lines. Some don’t even use pay lines at all, making any combination of the same symbols connecting from left to right a potential winner, even if they’re not on a line as such.

During regular play, you may win a trip to a bonus event during which you have a chance to win money without making any additional wagers. Here are a few of the most common bonus types.

Free spins

You could win a specified number of free reel spins. Many free spin bonuses are played on the same reels as the main game and it’s possible to win any of the usually available prizes. Sometimes, the main reels fade from the screen and are replaced by bonus reels with different symbols and different winning potential.

For example, in the last few years, games have been introduced in which the lowest-paying symbols are removed from the bonus reels. It’s still possible to win nothing on a bonus spin, but the frequency of big winnings are increased.

Wheelspins

The original wheel spin game, Wheel of Gold, was introduced in the mid-1990s and it led to the ever-popular Wheel of Fortune slots. Since then most slot manufacturers have incorporated wheel spins.

In a wheel spin bonus, you see a wheel divided into prize segments. On some, all prizes are credit amounts, but some wheels offer credit multipliers, progressive jackpots, and trips to other bonus events. You start the wheel spinning, then hope it lands on a big-paying space.

Pick’em events

The reels are replaced by a different scene. Some have included aliens in hiding spaces, dancing gift-wrapped boxes, dishes on a Chinese menu, fishermen on a pond, and much more.

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You touch the screen to choose an icon, and the item then reveals a credit reward for you to collect. On some pick’em events, you make just one choice. On others, you keep picking until you choose a bonus-stopper symbol.

Personal preference

All these bonus events are designed to make the games interactive and fun to play. How much they contribute to the overall payback differs from game to game and manufacturer to manufacturer, but as much as 40 percent of the overall return may come from bonuses.

Free spin games tend to be more volatile with the potential for bigger wins offset by the possibility of spins that bring no credits. Pick’ ems are used in what the slot industry calls “entertainment” games in which it’s larger goal is to add fun and extend your play rather than to offer big wins.

Ultimately, which is best for you comes down to personal preference. Do you like pick’em entertainment or do you want to keep those reels spinning?

Apparently playing slot machines is more fun than just about anything. Old articles about the casino industry used to tout that slot machines made up 70% of a casino’s revenue, on average. More recent literature suggests that it’s even more than that—along the lines of 80%.

I live near the Winstar Casino, and I have a number of friends who visit the casino at least once a week—sometimes more—just to play slot machines there. I’m not a fan of slot machines to begin with, although I enjoyed The Big Lebowski slot machine for about an hour during my last visit with my buddies.

I thought it would be fun to write a post explain how a smart person might play slot machines. I don’t know how smart I am, so a lot of this post will just look at what I THINK a smart gambler might do. Maybe this will help inform your own decisions.

1- Smart Slot Machine Players Don’t Play with Money They Can’t Afford to Lose

You’ve probably seen the expression, “scared money always loses.”

This is true for any kind of gambling, but maybe not for the reasons you think. It’s not a supernatural occurrence based on the vibrations you’re sending out into the universe.

The fact is, slot machines are a worse bet in the casino than almost any other. The odds are against you, and in a significant way.

If you have money set aside for rent, or for a utility bill, or for a child support payment, you shouldn’t gamble it on a slot machine. Slots are negative expectation games.

In fact, you shouldn’t gamble money you can’t afford to lose on positive expectation games, either. That’s because games of chance are RANDOM. In the short term, you can lose any game, even if you have a mathematical edge over the casino or the other players.

Any money you gamble with should be earmarked as part of your entertainment budget. The healthiest way to approach gambling on slot machines is to treat it as entertainment. You’ll sometimes win money, and that’s great, but there’s no way to become a professional slot machine player.

Don’t even try.

2- Smart Slot Machine Players Keep Detailed Records

I often relate a story about how I used to work in middle management in a corporation in Dallas. I wanted to be good at my job, so I studied several management books. One of the first and most important things I learned is that performance measured is performance managed.

This means that if you’re not keeping written records managing your performance, you’re making a mistake.

Of course, slot machine players aren’t professional gamblers, and they can’t improve their performance by playing more skillfully.

But I’m convinced that smart gamblers, even recreational gamblers, benefit from mindfulness. One of the easiest ways to be mindful of something is by paying attention to it. If you’re keeping records, it’s easy to pay attention to it.

Another benefit to keeping written records of your results at the casino is for tax purposes. If you win more than $6000 on a slot machine, the casino sends a notice to the IRS to report the income. If you’ve lost $4000 prior to that at the casino, you can probably deduct that and only pay taxes on your net winnings—the winnings minus the previous losses in that calendar year.

Finally, the biggest mistake I see most slots players making is their belief that they’re winning more often than they’re losing or that they’re breaking even.

The payback percentages for the slot machines in Oklahoma can’t possibly be higher than 75% or 80%. But all my friends are convinced that they’re losing far less money than they actually are losing. Some of them, in fact, are convinced that they’re net winners.

I have one buddy, though, who gambles so much that he’s moved up to the next tier of the players club. He gets a free cabana by the pool. He knows how much he’s lost so far this year. Even though he plays a lot and loses a lot, he knows the amount.

Knowing is better than not knowing.

3- Smart Slot Machine Players Count Funny Things

Some of the best advice I’ve ever read about playing the slots is that the most important thing you can do to minimize your losses is to slow down your rate of play. The more spins you make per hour, the likelier you are to lose a lot of money per hour. You don’t even necessarily get more pleasure out of it.

I took a recovering meth addict to the casino with me once. I’ve never seen anyone play a slot machine faster. If she wasn’t making 900 bets per hour, she was coming close. I’ve also never seen anyone lose that much money that fast.

I’d had a discussion with gambling writer Michael Bluejay a week before my last visit to the casino, though. He’d mentioned that he’d read one of my posts about how important rate of play was to your predicted hourly loss. It got me thinking about making actual measurements of my own rate of play next time I was at the casino.

The average number of spins per hour that everyone quotes when talking about slot machines is 600 per hour. I decided to see how close I came to that number, so I counted off each spin as I made it. I also waited until all my winnings were credited before making the next spin.

I made 201 spins in half an hour. (I used the stopwatch function on my phone to track this.) This means I was making 400 spins per hour on average.

That’s only 2/3 of the average, so I’ll lose 2/3 of what the average player will lose spending the same amount of time on the machine.

If you really think of gambling as entertainment that you’re paying for on an hourly basis, you’ll easily see why this is a good thing. Bargain gambling is good gambling.

I also tracked how much money I lost over that time period, so I was able to do a short-term calculation of the machine’s payback percentage. I know that with only 201 trials, my number isn’t close to perfect. But it’s still fun and interesting to track such things.

From a longer-term perspective, if you’re keeping records, you know how much you’re losing, and you don’t fall into the trap that some people do of thinking they’re winning at a game they’re actually losing.

4- Smart Slot Machine Players Take Advantage of the Players Club

I’ve weighed the pros and cons of the players club. Most writers in this industry, by the way, make an unqualified recommendation that you always join the players club. I don’t think this should be the default choice for everyone, though.

Here’s why:

The players club is a tool the casino uses to market to gamblers. If you’re more susceptible to advertising than the average person, you might wind up losing more money to the casino than is reasonable or expected.

Or you might just hate getting advertising in the mail.

The players club card is a credit card shaped plastic card that you insert into the machine so that the casino can reward you for your play. They give you points based on how much money you place in bets. These points aren’t related directly to your losses, either—they’re related to the amount you gamble.

If you wager $450 per hour through a slot machine with the card inserted, you’ll get points based on that amount even if you win over the course of an hour, a session, or a visit to the casino.

These points are then used to give you rewards like free food, lodging, and entertainment. The casino knows that the more you play, the more money they make in the long run. Their losses are averaged over thousands of players per day, and so are their wins. Since the slot machines pay out less than they take in, the casino has no doubt about its profit potential.

These rewards are cool and worthwhile, usually. I think, for most gamblers, especially smart ones, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks here.

But you know better than I do how important your privacy is. If you don’t want to get ads via direct mail, being a member of the players club might not be for you.

Keep this in mind, too. The casinos track your activity on the slot machines closely. This gives them aggregate information about player tendencies that they can use to push players’ psychological buttons.

For Example

Suppose a casino analyzes their slot machines’ hit ratios versus time spent on machine. They learn that the average time on the machines with a hit ratio of 30% is 90 minutes per game.

But on the machines with a hit ratio of 25%, the average time spent on average on each game is only 60 minutes.

The payback percentage can be adjusted to anything the casino wants, regardless of the hit percentage. You can have a slot machine with a hit percentage of 30% with an 85% payback percentage, but you can also have a slot machine with a hit percentage of 25% with the same 85% payback percentage. All the slot machine makers need to do is adjust the payback amounts and probabilities for the various combinations of symbols.

They don’t do this in any kind of short-term way.

But the longer they collect this kind of data, the more of it they have, and they’re becoming incredibly efficient at exploiting slot machine players’ psychological tendencies.

How To Play A Slot Machine

You have to decide if it’s smart to contribute to that.

5- Smart Slot Machine Players Learn How the Machines Work Before Playing

Maybe this should have been the first bullet point, but that other stuff is SO important, too.

Any fool can put money in a slot machine, press a button, and win or lose.

But what’s fun about that if you don’t know what you’re looking at?

Here’s one of the best slot tips you’ll ever find – If you really want to have fun on a slot machine, you need to understand what you’re doing.

Let’s start with the really basic stuff:

At most casinos, you can put money into the machine in various ways:

  • Cash
  • Coins
  • Payout tickets
  • Player cards

If you’re using cash, you can use almost any denomination you can think of, from $1 on up to $100.

Most modern slot machines don’t take coins anymore, but if you can find one, you just drop the money into the slot. (That’s where the games get their name, by the way.)

The payout tickets can be used just like cash in modern slot machines. You also use them when it’s time to cash out—you just take them to one of the machines that converts them into currency. When I started, you still got your winnings in coins. Those days are long gone.

You can use your player card to put money in the machine if you’ve been awarded rebates to your card in the form of credits.

No matter which method you use, the slot machine converts your money into credits on the machine. You can see how many credits you have in the machine at any time. The total is always prominently displayed. Depending on the game’s denomination, you might have trouble converting that amount to cash in your head. But the machine will do that for you when you cash out.

Some slot machine games include their pay tables on the machine itself, but others require you to access a screen via their touch-screen. (Look for an option labeled “HELP.”) The pay table lists the symbols along with what the payouts are for the various possible combinations of those symbols. It will also include information about where the pay lines are. These are the lines along the front of the machine where the symbol combinations occur.

This screen will also explain things like the bonus games, scatter symbols, and wild symbols.

Finally, you need to know where the CASH OUT button is. Don’t just sit there and play until all your money’s gone just because you can’t find the CASH OUT button. That really is crazy.

6- Smart Players Know that Denominations Can Be Misleading

You’ll hear a lot of people talk about “penny slots,” “nickel slots,” and “quarter slots.”

This does not mean that you’re betting a penny per spin, a nickel per spin, or a quarter per spin.

Most games encourage or force you to bet multiple coins per pay line, and you usually need to bet on multiple pay lines, too.

The most recent slot machine I played on was a penny slot called Lightning Sevens. It was a penny slot, but you had to bet 5 units per line to be eligible for the jackpots. (The game had 4 progressive jackpots, too.) The game also had 25 paylines.

As a result, I was betting $1.25 per spin on a penny slot machine.

This is another reason you should pay close attention to the HELP or INFO screen. On a lot of slot machine games, you can win the top jackpot even if you’re not betting max coins. But some games have lower payouts for the lower denominations.

It’s important to know the difference.

7- Smart Players Don’t Worry about the Locations of the Machines

One of the strategies you’ll often see touted on websites and in old books about playing slot machines is to try to play the games on the edges, nearest the walkways. The theory is that the casinos put the loosest machines there to attract more players to the games.

This might have been true at one casino at one time a long time ago.

But that’s almost certainly not true in a modern casino.

Casino managers probably employ some type of methodology related to the placement of their machines, but it’s probably subtle enough and complicated enough that you’ll never be able to use that logic to your advantage.

In fact, smart slot machine players don’t really worry about any kind of slot machine strategy at all. After all, the smarter you are, the more you realize that no slot machine strategy has any kind of validity at all. These games are entirely random.

You see, it’s worthwhile to study basic strategy in blackjack. It’s even worthwhile to learn how to count cards. Your decisions matter at the blackjack table—mathematically.

But on a slot machine, all you can do is put your money into the machine and hope for the best.

I’ve seen all kinds of silly advice that’s supposed to help you become a winner at the slot machines. For example, I read one author who said that if you get more than 7 spins in a row with no winners, you should switch machines. The same author suggests setting a percentage of your “session bankroll” as a win goal and a loss limit.

You’re then supposed to quit when you’ve won that much or when you’ve lost that much.

That kind of money management strategy doesn’t really matter, though. In the long run, you’re just playing one huge, almost infinite session. Arbitrarily taking breaks during your lifetime gambling session doesn’t increase your chances of winning.

The only way to do that is to only play slots once, get lucky, quit while you’re ahead, and never play again.

That’s a smart strategy in its way, but it’s a little limiting if you enjoy playing slot machines.

8- Smart Players Avoid the Biggest Progressive Slot Machines

A progressive slot machine is one which has an ever-increasing jackpot. These come in 3 varities:

  1. Standalone progressives
  2. In-house progressives
  3. Wide area network progressives

A standalone progressive takes any bet that’s made on that machine and applies a small percentage of it toward its jackpot, which gets larger as a result.

An in-house progressive is networked with other slot machines in the same casino. Any bet on any progressive in that in-house network increases the size of the jackpot for all those machines.

A wide area network progressive is a game that’s networked with multiple slot machines in multiple casinos. Any wager made on any machine in the network increases the size of the overall jackpot, which can increase its overall size.

Here’s why smart slot machine players tend to avoid such machines, though:

That tiny percentage that goes to fuel the jackpot comes out of the payback percentage. The full payback percentage on the machine isn’t fully realized until you’ve won it. In the case of the largest progressive jackpots, that might not happen ever.

Megabucks is the best known of the largest progressive jackpots. The jackpot starts at $10 million, and it’s not unusual for the jackpot to get as high as $20 million.

As you might guess, the probability of winning Megabucks is on a par with winning the lottery.

And we all know that smart gamblers don’t play the lottery, right?

The opposite of a progressive slot machine, by the way, is a “flat-top” machine. That’s a game where the jackpot is a flat dollar amount. It doesn’t change as the game is played.

Flat top machines generally have better payback percentages than progressive machines.

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Conclusion

Let me be clear about this:

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Slot machines are always a negative expectation bet. No amount of smarts or strategy can help you overcome this mathematical edge.

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This doesn’t mean you can’t play slot machines like a smart person. You just need to do what a smart slot machine player does—treat the games as the entertainment devices that they are. Treat the money you wager on such machines as an entertainment expense.