Slot machines are the most popular games in the casino, although they’re not as popular as they used to be. In some casinos, 80% of the profits are generated by the one-armed bandits. The question on everyone’s mind seems to be the same: how do you win on slot machines?
- How To Win At Slots Every Time
- How Do You Win On Slot Machines In Casinos
- How Do You Win On Slot Machines
- Tricks To Winning Slot Machines
I wish I had a magical formula I could see you that would ensure you’d walk away from the slots a winner. Unfortunately, I don’t have one. Luckily, neither does anyone else.
Slot machines are entirely random, and they’re programmed to pay out less than the odds of winning, so in the long run, slots are good for nothing more than eating up your gambling bankroll. If you still want to play slots after understanding that, well, good for you. That’s not a problem.
If you’re trying to work out how to win big on slot machines, unfortunately there are no slots strategies as such. However, it’s worth fully understanding how the features of your chosen game work. In order to win these jackpot awards on casino slot machines you will need three things: 1) Deep pockets (a bankroll of at least a few hundred dollars you can afford to lose) 2) Balls of steel (the courage to continue even when behind a few hundred dollars) 3) The LUCK to hit a jackpot before your bankroll has been wiped out. Manage your bankroll. To built up a gaming strategy, the slot player must first of all decide on the.
There are some things you can do to improve the odds, though. That’s what I’ll focus on in the rest of this post—actual, practical things you can do to improve your odds of winning on slot machines.
1. Understand the Theoretical Cost of Playing Slot Machines
The savviest gamblers understand the math behind gambling games better than most people. If you grok the way slots work better than other people, you’ll be able to make better informed decisions about what to play and how.
The first concept to understand about slot machines is that each outcome has a probability attached to it. When you multiply those outcomes by the probability of achieving them and add them all up, you get the mathematically expected return for the game.
Here’s an absurd example that illustrates the point well:
You’re playing a slot machine that costs $1 per spin. 50% of the time, you’ll get a combination of symbols that will result in $1 in winnings. The other 50% of the time, you’ll get a combination that results in no winnings at all.
It’s easy to see, given these numbers, how the casino makes a guaranteed profit in the long run from a machine like this.
But to keep things interesting, slot machine designers have multiple combinations with multiple prize amounts. When you do all the math, such a game has a theoretical payback percentage—the percentage of each bet that the game returns in winnings.
These payback percentages vary wildly from game to game, from casino to casino, and from location to location. In competitive areas like the Strip in Las Vegas, slot machines might have a payback percentage of 96% on average. In non-competitive places like the airport, these games might have a payback percentage closer to 75%.
For the purposes of this post, I’m just going to assume that the average slot machine has a payback percentage of 88%. That’s the equivalent of a 12% house edge.
To calculate how much money you can expect to lose playing such a slot machine, you simply multiply the amount of money you’re betting per spin by the number of spins you’re making per hour. Then you multiply that by the house edge, and that’s your hourly expected loss.
So if you’re playing a dollar slot machine and betting $3 per spin, and you’re making 600 spins per hour, you’re putting $1800 per hour into action.
The casino expects to win, on average—in the long run–$216 per hour.
That doesn’t compare favorably with other casino games, by the way. Contrast that with blackjack. Let’s say you’re playing blackjack with perfect basic strategy, and you’re getting in 100 hands per hour. And let’s also say you’re betting $5 per hand. That’s $500 per hour you’re putting into action.
If you’re using perfect basic strategy, the house edge in blackjack is probably 1%. Your expected hourly loss is $5 per hour.
That’s a big difference.
One might almost assume from this that the best way to win at slot machines is to refuse to play them at all.
2. Understand What’s So Attractive about Slot Machines
Most gamblers understand on some level, even if it’s almost unconsciously, that slot machines are a lousy bet.
But they’re still the most popular game in the casino.
How does that happen?
I can guess at some of the reasons slots are so popular. Some of these reasons are easy to understand, too. Remember how I pointed out that you’d only lose $5/hour playing blackjack if you use perfect basic strategy?
Memorizing and implementing basic strategy in blackjack requires work and effort. Some gamblers don’t want to put in any effort toward that sort of thing. They’d prefer to play a game that’s easy to understand and easy to play. And nothing could be easier than mindlessly pressing the spin button on a slot machine.
Also, when you play slot machines, you usually have the opportunity to win a prize of 1000 units or so on a single spin. (A “unit” is the amount you’re betting. If you’re betting a dollar, then a lot of slot machines will have a jackpot of $1000.) Many gamblers like the idea of winning a big prize.
Compare that again to blackjack. You go to all that effort to learn basic strategy, and the biggest prize you can win is 150% of your initial bet. It might be a little higher than that if you get to split your hand or double down. But realistically, most of the time, you’re only going to win a single unit or 2 on a hand of blackjack.
Finally, slot machines are designed for the express purpose of keeping gamblers interested. The companies which design these machines spend countless dollars researching which images, color schemes, and sound effects are going to be most attractive to gamblers. Wheel of Fortune slot machines are no accident. They’re the most popular game for a reason.
If your goal is to play an easy game where you have a shot at a big jackpot, slots might be the right game for you. You just want to decide beforehand if the trade-off is worth it.
3. Improving Your Chances of Winning and Reducing Your Potential Losses Are Both Realistic, Worthy Goals
Let’s talk about how you can make playing slot machines less expensive in the long run. Adults only slot machines free.
The first and easiest way to reduce the amount of money you lose playing slots is to slow way down. The biggest factor determining your hourly expected loss is the number of spins you make per hour.
Really fast slots players can make 1200 spins per hour. Average slots players probably get in 600 spins per hour.
But if you go slow, you can probably get down to 300 spins per hour.
In the example I gave earlier, we predicted you’d lose $216 on average per hour. If you were to slow down and only place 300 spins per hour, that number would drop to $108 per hour.
Maybe that doesn’t increase your probability of being a big winner, but if you really want to maximize your probability of winning, you have to switch to a different game entirely—one where you can get an edge. That’s impossible with slots. To get an edge, you need to be able to count cards in blackjack or play expert level poker. There are other ways, too, but they’re an order of magnitude of difference from slot machine play.
You can also reduce your expected losses by playing for less money. There’s a big difference between making 300 spins per hour at $3 per spin and making 300 spins per hour at 75 cents per spin. Your total hourly action drops from $900 per hour to $225 per hour.
With a 12% house edge, that’s a difference of $108/hour versus $27/hour in expected losses.
4. Use Some Practical Tips for Improving Your Chances
That 12% house edge that I keep mentioning is just for illustrative purposes. The truth is, most slot machines have different payout percentages. Your goal should be to find a slot machine with a higher payback percentage rather than a lower payback percentage.
One easy way to compare slot machines is to look at the size of the jackpot. The bigger the top prize is, the lower the payback percentage is. This is especially true when you start looking at progressive slot machine jackpots.
How To Win At Slots Every Time
The probability of winning one of those huge $10 million+ jackpots is comparable to winning the lottery, which is to say that the odds are astronomical. Since a portion of the overall payback percentage for that game is attributable to that jackpot, which you’ll probably never win, your practical payback percentage is much lower.
So if you’re choosing between 2 slot machines, choose the one with the smaller jackpot.
Here’s another trick:
Play the highest denomination machine you can afford. The higher the denomination, the better the payback percentage is. That’s a general rule of thumb, but it’s not bad strategy.
And since a lot of lower denomination slot machines push the multiple lines/multiple coins play so hard, you might be betting the same amount per spin anyway. If you’re playing a penny slot machine and betting on 5 lines with 5 coins per line, you’re betting 25 cents per spin.
You’d probably have better odds playing a quarter machine for one payline and one coin per spin.
And it should go without saying that the location where you’re playing has more to do with the payback percentage than almost any other factor.
But I’m not talking about whether the machine is near the restaurant or on the end of a bank of machines or something like that. I’m talking about the location of the casino itself.
The biggest payback percentages on slots in the United States are at the Las Vegas Strip casinos. That’s because that’s the most competitive marketplace there is.
On the other hand, if you’re at the airport in Las Vegas, well… those are the only games in town, right?
They don’t have any real competition, and they know you’re just killing time and playing on a lark, so they don’t need to provide a competitive payback percentage to get your business.
This is also true of bars and gas stations, etc. They’re not competing with other gambling businesses. They’re just looking to make a quick buck while you’re stranded there doing whatever kind of business you need done.
5. Don’t Pay ANY Attention to Silly Slot Machine Systems Being Sold by So-Called Experts
One of the most cringe-worthy gambling books I’ve ever read was John Patrick’s Slots. It’s a collection of 2 or 3 dozen slot machine systems that are supposed to increase your probability of being a winner at slots.
Most of his advice has to do with switching machines when you’re “running cold.” He has a limit for the number of “naked pulls” you’ll accept. (I think it was 7.)
A naked pull is a spin of the reels where you don’t win anything. If you get 7 naked spins in a row, that’s supposed to be a sign that the machine is cold and you should switch to another game.
He also has some general guidelines for session bankrolls. He suggests that you have a win goal and a loss limit for each session, something like 20% of your bankroll for that session. So if you sit down at a game with $100, and you get down to $80, it’s time to quit and switch machines. Same thing if you get up to $120. Quit and switch machines.
Of course, voodoo like this has no effect on your probability of winning or even of walking away a winner. It’s just silly.
You’ll also find people selling books about slots that are supposedly written by “slot machine technicians” who can help you predict when a machine is getting ready to pay out. One of these clues is supposedly the “zig zag” method. The idea is that you find a slot machine where 2 out of 3 winnings symbols are visible at the same time. Such a machine is supposedly close to paying out.
This is just nonsense, too. Every spin of the reels is an independent event, and what happened on previous spins has no bearing on what’s going to happen on subsequent spins.
6. Join the Players’ Club
I have mixed feelings about the players’ club. On one hand, I’m not crazy about sharing my personal information with the casino. They’re going to use that information to advertise to me. I understand why that makes sense for them, but it makes less sense for me.
But from a purely mathematical perspective, it makes sense to join the slots club and always play with the card inserted into the machine. The casino measures how much time you spend on the machines and rewards you with rebates and comps accordingly.
Don’t buy into the myth that playing slots with the card inserted interferes with your ability to win. That’s just silly. The casinos don’t need to cheat in this way. The games already have a mathematical edge, and the rebates and comps are programmed in such a way that the casino is still hugely profitable.
But even though the comps are much smaller than the amount of money you’re expected to lose, it’s still money that you shouldn’t walk away from. After all, there’s no difference between playing with the card inserted and not inserting the card.
You should milk those comps for everything they’re worth.
Conclusion
Free keno slot games. How do you win on slot machines?
The short answer is simple enough:
Get lucky.
Slot machine games are entirely random, so there’s no way to get an edge over these games. Anyone who tries to tell you different is hoping you’ll buy something from them. And what they’re selling is worthless.
The best you can do is hope to lower the casino’s edge over you. You can also adjust the way you play so that you minimize the amount of money you lose.
But forget about finding some foolproof way to beat the slot machines. People selling that information are the modern equivalent of snake oil salesmen.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.I recently read an article where someone asked for advice on changing your bet size while playing slots. The idea was, when you get ahead, you raise your bets to try to hit a bigger win.
Over the years, I’ve also seen questions about betting more when you’re losing to try to make up for past losses when you hit a win.
These look like two different questions, but they’re actually the same question. And the answer should be the same to both questions.
In the article I just read, the answer was decent, but it didn’t cover the real reasons in enough depth. Anyone asking either of these questions doesn’t understand how slot machines work. They also don’t really understand how expected value and long term expectation works.
I’m going to explain why changing the size of your bet while playing slots doesn’t matter. The fact is that the more you bet, the more you lose. These two things might not seem to go together, but after you learn how slots work, you’re going to see why both statements are true.
Slots and Expected Value
Every slot machine in existence, whether located in a casino or online, has a built in house edge. The house edge is how the casinos make money, and it’s impossible to legally overcome the house edge on a slot machine in total. What I mean by “in total” is that slot machines make money collectively.
A few players win more than they lose in the short term, and a few lucky players win a big enough progressive jackpot to come out ahead. But overall, the slot machine industry is wildly profitable.
Expected value is a term often used in gambling that is a way to express the value of a betting decision. It’s used most often in poker to determine the best way to play a hand in a certain situation. You can also use it in games like blackjack to determine the best way to play a hand.
In games like poker and blackjack, you can make strategy decisions based on expected value. Bets on slot machines also have an expected value, but they’re all negative. A negative expected value means that, on average, you’re going to lose money.
Here’s an example of expected value on a slot machine.
If a slot machine has a house edge of 5% and you bet $1 on every spin, the expected value is -.05 per spin. On an individual spin, you might lose your entire $1 or win something, but the expected value is the amount you expect to lose on average over thousands of spins.
Expanding this example, if you make 500 bets in an hour, you’re expected value is -$25. In other words, you can expect to lose $25 an hour playing this slot machine. Once again, this is an average, so in any single hour, you can lose more or win.
The expected value is tied directly to the house edge. If you bet more than $1 per spin, it doesn’t change the house edge. You’re still going to have an expected value of -5% on every dollar you bet.
The house edge is the same whether you bet $1 or $100 per spin. It’s also the same if you lost the last three spins or won the last three spins. The house edge doesn’t change, so changing your bet sizes doesn’t help you win more often.
Slots Long Term Expectation
This is going to sound similar to what you learned in the last section because it’s closely related. The mistake many slots players make, like the ones asking the two questions in the opening section, is thinking past results in some way change future results.
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How Do You Win On Slot Machines In Casinos
But, if nothing you can do changes the house edge, how can you believe that you should raise your bets after a losing streak or after a winning streak?
The belief is that because the long term results must come very close to equaling the expected results that there must be a correction one way or another after a winning or losing streak. But the problem with this is that the house edge and expectation are based on a large number of outcomes.
Instead of it being based on 10 or 100 spins like many players act, it’s based on hundreds of thousands or millions of spins. Even if you win 10 spins in a row, it doesn’t change the odds of what’s going to happen on the next spin because the machines are based on such a large number of spins.
I’m trying to show you why without getting into complicated mathematical principles, but you can run the math on the effect of short streaks in large pools of results to prove what I’m saying is true.
The belief many players have about short term streaks is made worse when they guess correctly about the next result after a streak. This reinforces what they want to believe, even though the math shows it isn’t true.
If you win 10 spins in a row, what do you think is most likely to happen on the next spin? Some players say a loss, because the machine is due for a loss. Other players say a win, because the machine is hot. How can both opinions be true?
The fact is that neither opinion is true based on why they think they’re correct. The true chance of a win or loss is 100% based on how often the machine is programmed to produce a winning spin.
Is It Ever Correct to Alter Your Slots’ Bet Size?
When I play slots, I operate in what I call the “jackpot or bust” mode. I set aside a bankroll to chase a jackpot and keep playing until I either hit a jackpot or run out of money. Most of the time, I run out of money, but every once in a while, I get lucky and hit a small jackpot.
I know that, in the long run, I’m going to lose unless I hit a big slots jackpot. I’m okay with this, just like I’m okay with buying a lottery ticket chasing a big prize. The odds of winning are low, but I’m willing to risk a set amount for the chase.
I always bet the minimum amount on my chosen slot machine that allows me to qualify for a jackpot. I tend to look for machines that have a low bet threshold to unlock the jackpot, because I want to take as many spins as possible.
If you buy a lottery ticket, do you ever spend more money than the ticket costs? Do you give the store clerk $5 for a $3 ticket and not expect to get your $2 in change?
This is how I feel about betting more than I need to while playing slots. This is why I never bet more than the minimum to qualify for a jackpot while playing slots.
The question of changing your bet size while playing slots has two answers. The first answer is if you’re betting more than the minimum, then you should bet less. The second answer is that it doesn’t matter if you change the size of your bet for any other reason. As long as you understand that the more you bet the more you lose, you can do whatever you want. It’s your money, and you can play any way you like.
But if you want to know the best way to play, it’s simply to bet the smallest amount you can while still having a chance to win a jackpot.
Conclusion
How Do You Win On Slot Machines
You’re welcome to change the size of your bet while playing slots any time you like. It doesn’t matter if you’re winning or losing, changing the size of your bet isn’t going to alter your chances to win. The only thing that matters is the house edge you’re working against and the average bet size of your wagers.
When you bet more after a win, you’re just going to lose more in the long run. When you bet more when you lose, you’re just going to lose more in the long run. The only way to lose less money playing slots in the long run is to bet less.
The best way to lose less playing slots is to stop playing. But that’s not much fun, and you’re never going to hit a jackpot if you don’t play. I don’t recommend that you stop playing. But use smart money management so your bankroll lasts as long as possible and you have the best chance to hit a jackpot before you run out of money.
Tricks To Winning Slot Machines
The only way you can possibly come out ahead in the long run playing slots is to win a jackpot big enough to cover all of your previous losses. This doesn’t happen often. The best chance to do this is to make the minimum bet that unlocks the chance at the jackpot and hope for the best. Changing your bet size isn’t going to help in the long run.