- Is There A Trick To Playing Slot Machines On Amazon
- Is There A Trick To Playing Slot Machines Near Me
Readers ask if quick reflexes are the key to winning
Over the years, we’ve seen it all. There are electronic gadgets you can buy that promise to trick slot machines intopaying out. Endless reams of paper have been wasted printing books that promise can’t-lose slot machine tactics.
By John Grochowski
I keep a list of questions that I’m most often asked about slot machines. You could probably tick off some of them: “Are games programmed to go cold after a big win?” “Do you get less payback when you use your rewards card?” And the big one, “Can you tell me how to win?”
Those have been standards ever since I started writing about casinos and casino games 20 years ago. But recently, another question has been shooting up the charts. I have it all the way up at No. 2 on the readers’ hit parade:
“I’ve noticed on a lot of video slot games that if I hit the button a second time while the reels are spinning, they stop right away. I was wondering if I could use this to my advantage. If I see the bonus triggers or the jackpot symbols at the top, should I quickly hit the button again and try to stop the reels?”
I had that thought myself the first time I accidentally double-hit a button and saw the reels click to an immediate halt. Could this be an answer to the chart-topping question, “how to win on the slots?”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In nearly all slot games that allow you to stop the reels, there is no skill or timing involved on your part. The random number generator has already determined your outcome when you hit the button to spin the reels, and you’re going to get the same result regardless of whether you stop the reels early, or let them halt in their own time.
When you play a slot machine, the game isn’t actually being played out on the reels, whether it uses “real” reels or video reels. It’s being played internally, on the game’s random number generator. The reels are just a player-friendly interface, and are told where to stop by the RNG. If there’s a malfunction and the reel display doesn’t match the numbers generated, it’s the RNG that counts. Large jackpots can be denied—and have been denied—if a check shows the random numbers on the internal computer chip don’t match the winning symbols on the reels.
But this is extremely rare. The engineering is good enough that almost all the time, the RNG and reel display are going to match up. This doesn’t change if you double-hit the bet button. If the RNG has spit out a random number that tells the first reel to stop on a single bar, then you’re going to get a single bar—regardless of whether you hit the button a second time for a “quick stop,” or just let them take their own sweet time.
There are rare exceptions. When I’ve answered similar questions in the past, I’ve mentioned IGT’s Reel Edge games. In their original incarnation, Reel Edge games enabled players to touch and stop the reels one at a time. There was actual skill involved. Your timing in stopping the reels determined the outcome. The reels spun very, very fast, so it was going take a keen eye and sharp reflexes to get better than random results, but it was possible.
I gave it a try, and found my reflexes just weren’t fast enough to generate more than my normal share of winners. In the original three-reel Blood Life game, I identified a green 7 as the easiest symbol to pick out as it whizzed by. I touched each reel individually as I saw a green 7 reach the top of the slot window, and managed to stop 7s on all three reels. Alas, I failed to land them all on the same payline. Some younger folks with quicker reactions may have been able to do better.
I don’t know if any of the first generation of Reel Edge games remain on casino floors. They were never widespread, and I don’t get lists from casinos or manufacturers telling me what games are available in any given casino. The new generation of Reel Edge puts the skill-based portions of the games in the bonus events.
Blood Life’s updated video incarnation, Blood Life Legends, allows you to test your skill with a joystick to guide a bat through the ups, downs, twists and turns of a cave as you try to collect gems for bonuses. There is actual skill involved, but it’s not the reel-stopping experience readers have been asking about.
On most slot games, even in the bonus events you’re getting an illusion of skill rather than actual skill. And when it comes to stopping the reels, it’s the random number generator, not your reflexes, that determines the results.
What about my readers’ other top questions?
To answer another—no, games are not programmed to go cold after big wins. Results remain as random as humans can program a computer to be. As long as the RNG keeps doing its thing, any big jackpot, any hot streak, and any cold streak eventually fade away into statistical insignificance, and the machine comes very close to its expected payback percentage.
No, you don’t get less payback when you use your rewards card. The player rewards system doesn’t interact with the RNG.
And no, with rare exceptions, there is no way to beat the slots except by being in the right place at the right time. There have been opportunities for small profit on games with banked bonuses such as the old WMS game Piggy Bankin’, where the sharpies would start to play only when there were enough coins in the bank to give the player an edge.
Such games are not common. Just as with stopping the reels early, your results are up to chance and the RNG.
Bavarian-born American inventor Charles Fey created the first working coin-operated gambling machine in 1895. Since that time, citizens of the world have remained hooked on the spinning wheels of chance in the hopes of winning giant payouts. With that in mind, we’ve compiled the best tips to help you win at playing slots. Read them before your next trip to Vegas, Atlantic City or any other gambling destination.
10 – Hot vs. Cold Machines
When it comes to the payout frequency of a slot machine many casino-goers tend to favour what is called “hot” machines. The temperature of a machine is gauged by its willingness to pay out; “hot” means a slot has frequent payouts, whereas “cold” slots garner virtually non-existent payouts. Take our word for it, this is a downright myth. Jumping from machine to machine has zero chance of affecting payout percentages, but does coincidentally count as part of your daily exercise routine.
9 – Location! Location! Location!
Here is one thing you need to know about slot machines: when it comes to payout frequencies of slot machines in most major casinos, it is an actual fact that machines placed at the end of an aisle pay out more money. There are two running theories as to why this may be. The first has to do with casino owners wanting your big payouts front-and-center for other patrons to witness. The other, more unlikely, a theory has to do with the fact there is more room for you to breathe and get comfortable due to there being one less person playing beside you. Either way, the place to be is at the end!
8 – Technical Interference
Admit it, you’ve seen technicians walking away from a slot machine and automatically run for the complete opposite end of the casino. That’s because instinctually you have assumed one of two things: that there was an error on the machine that needed fixing or the machine just had a major payout and required a reset. Either way most superstitious casino patrons will avoid that slot machine like the plague. The good news is that the odds are forever in your favour and randomised. Even if a machine just paid out a million dollars, the odds are the same no matter where you sit and play your money. So take a chance on the newly reset machine — it could very well pay out big time.
7 – Max Amounts
You don’t have to put down $1,000 per pull to win big at slots. The trick is to bet the max on the particular slot machine in front of you. When you bet big, you win bigger. So don’t go for the bare minimum. Take your chances on the bigger bets and you have a better chance of winning the largest payouts.
6 – Progressive Slots
Increase a number of payouts by letting other people throw into your pot. Look for progressive jackpot slot machines. Every time a player bets, part of that bet goes into a progressive jackpot. When a winner hits, the payout is exponentially bigger than a machine that racks up winnings on its own.
5 – Small Jackpots
This point may run counter to the two above it but it’s actually just a different strategy. More people will play the machines with the larger jackpots. Increase your odds of winning by heading to less-popular machines.
4 – Lever vs. Button Play
One major tip every casino adventurer should learn is that there is no difference between pushing a button to play vs. pulling a lever. All slot machines are completely computerised and behave much the same way as online slots. Many believe in the power of the lever because it is reminiscent of the “Old Vegas” but it’s simply superstition. Save your arm from unnecessary reaching, and just press the conveniently located spin button instead.
3 – Clubs
Most land-based casinos have clubs you can join that essentially work like loyalty programs. As you bet, you earn. You can then use those credits on slot machines, which is more money in your pocket.
2 – Research
Casinos will not release the odds of their machines winning – but players and other insiders often will. Most slot machines range from 80 to 98 percent winning so why not head to one with better odds?
Is There A Trick To Playing Slot Machines On Amazon
1 – Limits
Is There A Trick To Playing Slot Machines Near Me
Slot machines have gained much of their popularity over the years due to their interactive interface features. In fact, casino patrons prefer slot machines two-to-one over video poker and table games combined. Influenced by their favourite gambling scenes from the silver screen and armed with superstition and lady luck, every casino patron has his or her own technique for guaranteeing a win. The good news is that every player has the same odds of winning as anyone else on the casino floor.