General Tips
First, a word about books on slot
machines. We've heard all kinds of claims about systems to play slot
machines. Be very wary of any such claims. Many of such systems are
based on how slot machines used to work and the casinos would
probably have considered them cheating anyway. The best strategies
for playing slots today center around money management, as boring as
that may sound. Since today's slots are all actually computers at
heart, money management techniques are the best way to keep playing
long enough to find the best machines. We suggest you don't buy
books that haven't been revised in 7 or 8 years. We also suggest
that you get recommendations from other players.
1. It's interesting to watch slot players.
We all have our little
idiosyncrasies. Some of us carry good luck charms, some pull the
arms, some prefer to press the Bet 1 button for the maximum
credits and then spin, some use the Bet Max button, some pull
the arm hard, some pull it ever so softly. Does any of this make any difference to
how the machine plays? Probably not, but if it makes you feel
better, have more fun, or feel more lucky, we say go for it.
2. Go to casinos that cater to slot players.
This is getting
easier to do since many casinos, even some of the big hotel casinos
on the Vegas strip are finding that significant portions of their
revenue and profits come from slots. However there are still a
number of things you can look for:
- Casinos with posted payout
percentages on slots of 95% or higher should be preferred. A
payout percentage of 95% means that the casino has an edge of 5%.
That's less than they have on American roulette (about 5.25%). If
there isn't a casino in your area that has a payout percentage that
high, prefer the casino that has the highest. If you can't find the
percentage posted, ask a casino employee what it is;
- Check out
the slot clubs at each casino. Find out how points are tallied and
what you get for those points. Also, various promotions are
sometimes in affect for slot club members. Find out what, if any,
the current promotions are. Prefer the casinos with the best deals
for slot club players.
- Ask about slot tournaments. Casinos who
appreciate slot players use these tournaments to get them in, and
hopefully keep them coming back.
- Ask the local players. If you
have two or more casinos close to you, you should understand this.
The locals, through experience, get a fairly good sense for the
casinos with the loosest
slots.
- Don't assume that just because a casino is
strictly a slot house that it's the best place to play. It very well
may be but you still want to check out the other points above.
3. Don't play slots in public areas or in businesses where
gambling is just a side game, such as airports. The first time we
went to Vegas we probably spent $50 before we even got out of the
terminal. We hit,
nada, nothing, zip. Of course it makes sense now. The airport isn't
in the casino business. They're not interested in getting you to
come back and play. They are only interested in getting as much of
your bankroll as possible before you lose it somewhere else. Stick
with the casinos where they have a vested interest in getting you to
come in, stay, and return.
4. If you're with someone else, don't play next to each for a
long period of time. As we mentioned in our discussion about Money
Management, the casinos spread the better paying machines around
strategically. It is doubtful that you'll find two next to each
other that are both hot. If you do start out playing next to each
other and you find one machine is hitting and the other is not, move
from the cold
machine. You should also limit how much you play two
machines yourself. The casinos love to see this. In fact most
casinos will even give you two or more slot club cards so you can
play two or more machines at once. Well, if you insist on playing
two at a time definitely get a second club card. But you're better
off in the long run testing one at a time and playing only hot
machines.
5. Sometimes you'll find other machines or
banks
of machines that are near impossible to get on. The regulars know
something. Take advantage of it. Hold onto your money and wait.
6. Don't look back.
It's happened to all of us. We walk away from
a machine and someone comes in behind us and after only a spin or
two they hit something really big. Don't worry about it. The next
time it might be you coming in from behind for that big win. You
can't be afraid to walk away from a cold machine for this reason.
More times than not, if it isn't hitting for you, it won't hit for
whoever comes in behind you. Keep in mind too that the random number
generator in today's slots is cranking out spins whether you're
playing it or not, in fact hundreds of spins per second. What spin
you get when you drop your coins in or hit the button depends on
whatever spin happened to be selected in that particular
millisecond. If you dropped the coins a millisecond faster or
slower, you would have gotten a different spin. So even if you had
stayed at the machine, the odds that you would have spun the reel at
the same millisecond as the player that came in behind you are pretty
small.
7. Playing progressives. A progressive
machine has a jackpot that
grows over time and play. It starts out at the minimum jackpot that
you would normally get for whatever type of machine it is. But the
jackpot steadily grows until it's won, at which time it's reset to
the minimum again. Progressive machines are usually linked to other
machines in a group or bank. Play on any of the machines in the bank
affects the progressive, and all machines in the bank are playing
for that one jackpot.
There are two types of progressive banks, local and statewide (or
even national). We prefer the local progressives. Local progressive
jackpots are usually smaller than the statewide because they are
based only on play on the machines in that one bank in that casino.
However, if a particular local progressive is popular those machines
may play looser than many others in the casino. Look for local
progressives that you can't get on. If they are always busy, there's
a reason. Take a look at what the others players have for credits,
or what they have in buckets. If there are two or three players with
several hundred credits keep watch and take a seat as soon as it
opens. Get to know how big the progressive typically gets before it
is hit (ask casino employees or other players). If it's getting
close to this amount play for it.
We stay away from statewide and
national progressives. These machines are also in banks but they are
linked with other banks in other casinos in other areas of the state
or several states. The jackpots on these big progressives can be
impressive, usually from tens of thousands up to millions of
dollars. However, to get the jackpots that big they need to take in
a lot of money.
Our experience is that statewide and national
progressive machines play fairly tight and your odds of hitting the
jackpot is smaller than on the local progressives.
8. Play tournaments.
Most casinos that appreciate slot players
have tournaments of some kind. There is a small fee up front to get
in, $20 is typical. But besides being a lot of fun the winner may
get $300, $500, or more depending on the tournament. That's an
excellent return for $20 of play. The tournaments differ somewhat
from casino to casino but here is an example of a typical tournament
in a local casino. You pay a $20 entry fee and select a machine.
The
machines used for the tournament have their payout percentage
cranked up so you get to hit a lot of stuff, even jackpots. You sit
down and the machine is set for ten minutes of play. The time starts
the first time you hit the Bet Max button. You keep hitting the
button and keep the machine spinning as much as possible for the ten
minutes. Whatever credits you rack up during that time are your
points for that round (sorry, you don't get to cash out).
The eight
highest scorers go on for round two. You play again for 10 minutes
and then the tournament money is paid out something like this: $25
to 6th, 7th, and 8th places, $50 to 5th place, $75 to 4th place,
$100 to 3rd place, $200 to second place, and $300 or more to 1st
place. The first place prize usually depends on how many people
played the first round.
The casino is looking to only break even at
best so since the prize money is a total of $800 they need 40
players to break even. If there are less than that the prize money
stays the same. For every player over 40, the 1st place prize goes
up $20! Sometimes we go just for the tournament and maybe play a
little between rounds. Some of the larger casinos, in Vegas for
example, will have higher stake tournaments where the entry fee may
be $200 and up, but the prizes are usually in the tens or hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
9. Try to always play the maximum coins
accepted. We're not going
to tell you that you should never play less than the
maximum coins accepted. This is really a personal choice as long as
you understand the payout
schedule on the machine you're playing. However, there are machines
that you should always play with max coins. These are progressives,
multi-paylines,
side game machines like Spin 'til You Wins, or machines where you
buy your payout.
Sizzling Sevens is
an example of a machine where you buy your payout. If you play one coin
you're buying payouts for anything up to triple bars.
But you have to play a second coin to buy the payouts for mixed
sevens, red sevens, or Sizzling Sevens. A multi-payline machine has
more than one payline.
It may have three or even five paylines. For each additional coin
you play up to the max, another one of the paylines becomes active.
Any winning combination on any of the active paylines pays out. Spin
'til You Wins have a bonus or side game. If you get a special symbol
on the payline, a wheel at the top of the machine becomes active and
you press a button to spin it.
The wheel has several different
credit amounts on it and whatever it lands on you win. However, you
have to have played the maximum coins for the bonus wheel to be
activated.
We explain progressives elsewhere on this page. The
bottom line is always play the max coins on these types of machines.
Check the payout schedule carefully on all other machines. If there
is any type of side game or bonus that requires maximum coins, play
the max. If the jackpot for max coin play is better than for fewer
coins, play the max. For example, if the jackpot for 1 coin is 800,
for 2 coins is 1600, and for the maximum of 3 coins is 2400, then
all three payouts are 800 for 1.
You could play less than max on
this machine if the other payouts all work similarly (these type of
machines are sometimes refered to as multipliers.
However, if the 3 coin payout is significantly larger, we suggest
you play max coins.
Another example is a 3 coin Sizzling Seven. This
is a buy your payout machine so you know you need to play at least 2
coins to be eligible for any sevens. But at first glance it might
seem OK to play just two coins not three. But a 500 coin jackpot for
2 coins is a 250 for 1 payout where as a 1000 coin jackpot for 3
coins is a 333 for 1 payout. A 150 coin payout for 2 coin red sevens
is a 75 for 1 payout whereas a 300 coin payout for 3 coin red sevens
is 100 for 1. Always play max coins on 2 and 3 coin Sizzling Sevens
or any other buy your payout type machines.
10. Join the slot club!
Slot clubs are a great way to improve the
return on your play. Most casinos that appreciate slot players have
a club of some sort. It costs nothing to join and you're issued a
card that looks something like a credit card. You inset the card in
a special slot on or near the machine you're going to play. The card
identifies you to the casino's network computer. While you play the
computer is awarding points based on how much coin you play.
There
are usually LCD readouts on or near the card slots that show what
you're earning and how many points you currently have. Sounds OK,
but what do the points gain you? That depends on the casino. The
benefits could include cash back based on total points, free meals,
free merchandise such as hats and t-shirts, tickets to shows, etc.
There are also promotions from time to time that may only be offered
to club members, such as buy $20 in coin and get $5 free, a free
nights stay in the casino hotel, and special slot tournaments just
for club members. Since the club costs nothing to join it is well
worth the minimal effort to remember to put the card in the machine.
And if you lose your card you don't lose the points you've
accumulated.
The card is used just to identify you to the computer.
Your points are stored on the casino network computer. If you lose
your card just go to the slot club booth and get it replaced, points
intact.
11. Some Common Myths.
Myth? The slot club card and slot
machine microprocessors
communicate. Complete myth! Using the casino slot club card has zero
impact on the way the machine plays. The machine does not know if
you're using it or not, and it doesn't care. In fact, it would be
illegal for the casino to even attempt this.
Myth? A machine that's just hit big or hit a jackpot isn't going
to hit again for sometime. Well, it is mostly myth. Just because it
hits something big doesn't mean it will immediately cool off. You
should stick with it for at least awhile, using techniques in the
Money Management section. Here are a couple of examples. We were
doing 'research' at the Sac and Fox casino north of Topeka in the
summer of 1998. I was playing a bank of dollar Sizzling Sevens (not
progressives) and a lady a few machines down hit the Sizzling
Sevens. I thought, "cool, I'd love to do that!" She had to wait a
while for the casino management to come pay her the $1000. After
they paid her they asked her to spin it one more time to get the
jackpot off the reel (this is pretty standard). On that spin she hit
Sizzling Sevens again! I couldn't believe it. I think the casino
management had a hard time believing it as well. But they paid her
off again and she was a pretty happy camper.
We were at the
President Riverboat Casino in Davenport, Iowa this January 1999. We
were playing a bank of quarter progressive Double Cherry Bars. I
wasn't doing too well until I hit Double Cherry Bar, Double Cherry
Bar, green seven for 800 credits. I waited for the credits to rack
up and decided to keep playing. Three spins later I was peeking
through the space between the machines and talking to my partner
when I heard coins start to spit out into the coin tray. I looked
and I had hit double, double, green sevens again!
Myth? A machine that hasn't hit for
sometime is 'due.' Again,
mostly myth. If a machine is cold, it's cold. Sure, it's going to
hit something big eventually. The problem is that by the time it
does you'll be lucky to break even. While even a cold machine will
hit winning streaks at times it isn't worth what it may cost to wait
it out. Stick to techniques like those mentioned in the Money
Management section and you'll do better.
