How To Play Slot Machines

1. How To Play Slot Machines And Win
2. How To Play Slot Machines For Dummies
3. How To Play Slot Machines And Win

MONOPOLY Slots takes your favorite elements from the game and combines them with the best Vegas slot machines. Play branded MONOPOLY slots and win bonuses and free casino coins. Spin free casino slots, earn coins, and design your city with houses and hotels! Play online slots and feel like the heart of Vegas strip. Free Slots – Play 7780+ Free Online Casino Games. You’ve just discovered the biggest online, free slots library. Like thousands of slots players who use VegasSlotsOnline.com every day, you now have instant access to over 7780 free online slots that you can play. Smart Slot Machine Players Don’t Play with Money They Can’t Afford to Lose. You’ve probably seen. Las Vegas slot machines are known by a variety of names around the world. Slot machines in Australia are generally referred to as video poker, poker machines or pokies.In Japan it is known as pachisuro.In. Slot machines is also one of the games which is offered at the casino tournaments, as if you think that you are lucky enough to compete against other players, you should apply for participation at one of them.

To know how do classic casino slots work you should know it is pretty easy to get the hang of and the basic way they work is to insert a coin or coins, spin the machine, and see if you win a prize. There are 3 reels that spin and in order to win you must get 3 identical symbols that line up in the middle.

Classic slots can also have 5 reels, in which case you need to get 5 identical symbols to win a game. The online or video slots as they are often called have a little more to them than that. For 5 reel online slots as well as for some 5 reel you can win by getting a winning combination of symbols not only in the middle line, but also on the top or bottom lines, or even by making a zigzag pattern.

The thing to remember here is that all 5 reel games are a little different and will have different winning combinations and various winning patterns.

How Do Slot Machines Work in Casinos?

There are quite a few different types of slots machines that accept different currencies. The most popular are penny and nickel machines, although there are also dime, quarter, and a dollar. Each one of these takes either pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, or dollar coins.

There are even machines that can take up to 100 dollars at once. Most physical reel spinners can take up to either 3 or 5 coins at once, where as many online or video slots can take up to 45, 90, 250 or sometimes even 500 credits at once.

How to Play Reel Spinning and Video Slots

It doesn’t really matter if you have bills or coins because if you only have a 20 dollar bill you can always insert it into the machine using the currency adaptor, and it will load the corresponding number of credits into it. For instance, if you load a quarter slot machine with a 20 dollar bill then you will have 80 credits to play with.

If you don’t know how to play reel spinning slot machines, all you have to do is push the button that is marked with “play one credit”; you can press this over and over again until you have reached the desired amount of coins that you want to bet, that or until you reach the maximum bet allowed.

Some machines also have a button that says “play max credits” which will automatically place the maximum allowed bet. Once this has been done, click the “spin reels” button, or for those few that still have handles, pull the handle to spin the reels. If you get a winning combination of 3 or 5 symbols in the middle line, then you win. Many reel-spinning machines have just one payout line, but some have 3 or even 5.

How do Video Slots Machines Work In Casinos

It is a little different on how to play video slots where you can do quite a bit more. You can choose the number of pay lines that you want to activate (these are the winning combinations of symbols in different patterns). These winning patterns can come in the form of straight lines, V’s, upside down V’s, and zigzags too.

The more pay lines you activate, the higher your chances of winning are. You can then also choose how many coins that you want to bet for each activated pay line. Most video slots have either 5, 10, 15, 25, and sometimes even 50 different pay lines. Moreover, most will accept up to 25 coins or credits as a maximum bet per each pay line activated. The more coins you bet per pay line, the more money you will win when you get a winning combination of symbols.

Of course both physical reel spinning slots as well as video have a fair amount of special symbols like scatter symbols, wild symbols, and other things which can give you free spins or bonus games. One of the best is a scatter symbol which means that if several of them appear on the screen, you will win the corresponding prize, and that’ even if they don’t appear in a winning pattern or combination.

All of these symbols give you a better chance of winning something, and they will be talked about a little later in this article. On a side note, they often have far more bonus symbols than in reel spinning cases, as well they also tend to pay out better and more often.

Class II and Class III Slot Machines

There exists a subtle difference in how to play these 2 slot machine types of. Class III slots are most often found in casinos, and they tend to be the regular where the winnings come out of the pocket of the house or casino that owns them.

On the other hand, the strategy on how do Class II slot machines work in casinos, they are ones that still look like slots, but their winning system functions more like bingo or the state lottery. This means that in Class II games the winnings come from a jackpot created by other players, and the actions or winnings of other players will affect your wins and losses.

In essence, with Class III the money you win comes from the establishment you are gambling at, whereas with Class II machines the winnings come from a jackpot created by other players.

Flat Top versus Progressive Slot Machines

A flat top slot machine is one where the jackpot is a fixed one. In other words, the jackpot is set to a certain amount, and it will always stay the same. The jackpot winnings in flat top machines are usually easier to win however they also don’t pay out quite as much.

How to play Progressive slot games? They have an unlimited maximum jackpot because they simply take a small portion of each bet that is made and add it to the jackpot until someone wins it. Once someone does win the jackpot on a progressive machine, it will then revert to its starting jackpot.

The jackpot here is harder to win but when you do the payout is much better than with a flat top.

How to Find a Good Slot Machine Due to Its Type?

• Video Slots – can have up to 100 different pay lines because they are digital. They can also have a variety of different interactive mini games that can be played. These kinds also have many more betting options than normal slots.
• No Deposit Slots – These kinds can come as a classic, a video or practically any other form of slot machine. The difference is that the no deposit types can usually be played for free up to a certain amount. These usually come with a number of free spins to entice players; however the payout is also smaller, and there is a lower chance of winning.
• Penny Slots – are exactly what they sound like; you use pennies to play. If you know how do these slots work, you can bet multiple pennies on one line and bet on multiple pay lines too. Penny slots usually come as 5 reel games which can have up to 25 pay lines. So you can easily bet up to $1.25 on a single game.
• Real Money Slots – are also quite self-explanatory. These can be physical or can be online too. Further, you will see how do the online casino slots work with their bonuses as a slot is one where you can bet real money, anywhere from one cent to $125 per spin. These can include progressives and instant win bonuses.

At The Beginning of the Game

The first step when you decide how to play slot machines is to set the amount that you want to bet per spin. Now this amount can be as low as 1 cent for penny slots, but is usually around the 5 cent mark for other. As well the maximum bet amount is usually around $100; it’s up to you to choose how much you want to bet. Many games have the option to bet half of a coin as well, especially on dime and dollar machines.

The second step after choosing the betting amount is to choose how many pay lines to activate. As we discussed some machines can have as little as 3 pay lines and some can have as many as 50. Keep in mind that your original bet will be multiplied by the pay lines that you activate. So if you bet 5 coins and activate 20 pay lines, then your bet will be 100 coins per spin.

So how do casino slots work with your bets? Of course, the more you bet, the higher the risk is, but there is also a higher payout if you do win, not to mention that many slot machines force you to make the maximum bet to have a chance at the jackpot. Once these 2 steps have been completed simply spin the reel and watch the symbols flash around until they come to a rest in either a winning or losing combination.

How to Start the Game?

Still didn’t understand how to play abovementioned slot machines? Don’t worry! Playing is fun because it often is accompanied with audio and graphic features to keep things exciting, and things will animate once you hit bonuses. Seeing bonuses or scatter symbols or any other kind of special symbol isn’t too hard because they usually flash or sparkle when they appear.

How To Play Slot Machines And Win

One important thing to do is to change the betting parameters of the game during different rounds to get the feel of things.

General “How to Play” Etiquette for Popular Slots

There are just a few rules on how to play slots in a place like a casino. First of all, it is only Okay to play more than one machine at a time if the casino is not full. You can’t pump money into 2 machines at once if there are other people waiting to play on just one of those machines.

Try not to play more than one machine at once or maybe 2 at the most, because if you can’t watch over them, then someone might take your winnings or your game while you aren’t looking. Also, remember that sometimes people take breaks and will tip their chair against the engine or put a coat on the chair, signifying that they will be back.

If you want to avoid getting into a fight with an angry gambler, then you shouldn’t take those machines.

Betting Preferences

For classic reel slots, there is usually only one choice in terms of the domination you can bet, that being either pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, or dollars, and the only choice you really have is how many of those that you want to bet.

With classic slots, there is often only one pay line to bet on so that usually isn’t an option. With online or video slots you can usually choose what the denomination of your bet is, and you can also choose the number of pay lines that you want to bet on, that usually being up to a maximum of 50 pay lines.

The good thing that will help you to know how online and video slots work in casinos is that they will usually remember your betting preferences.

The Number of Coins

Multiple Coins – When you hit a winning combination the amount of money that you win will be based on the number of coins that you bet. For example, if the payout for a specific line is 10 dollars and you bet one coin, then your prize will be 10 dollars. However, if you bet 2 coins, then your prize will be 20 dollars and so on. The number of coins accepted per spin is usually lower for mechanical slots, up to 5 at once, and for video slots, the number of coins can go up to 45 or more.

How Much To Bet – to play slot machine the common knowledge you should know is to always play the higher stakes machines as these will have the highest payout rates. If you can’t place the maximum bet, then it is recommended to place a lower bet as placing a lower bet will still yield higher returns than downgrading denominations.

Downgrading Machines – One thing that can be done if you don’t know how to use as much money playing slot machines is to downgrade from a dollar machine to a quarter machine. This means that you get 4 spins for every dollar instead of just one. Sure the jackpots and payouts won’t be as high, but you also won’t be losing as much money if you play for an extended amount of time. Downgrading is recommended if the amount of money you are playing with is dwindling.

Limiting Play – Usually, you do want to bet the maximum amount of coins available because that is really our only chance of hitting the jackpot. However, you do need to be aware of the fact that progressive slot machines usually take up to 2 times the amount of money for the house as others do which means that you can definitely lose your money twice as fast.

How to Play High and Low Stakes in Slots?

There is a very obvious trade off here. The knowing how to play a high stake in slots will always make you bet more money than a low stakes, and the chances of winning on a high stakes machine are also lower than that the chances of winning on a low stakes game types.

Of course, the obvious difference is that high stake slot machines also have far higher payouts than the low stakes machines. The chances of winning on a high stake machine are lower, but on the other hand, the payout when you do win is substantially higher.

Options When Spinning the Reels and Lines

How To Play Slot Machines For Dummies

Reels – The reels in slots are the number of symbols that can show up at once on a horizontal axis. The most common types are 3 and 5 reel games. The advantage of 3 reel types is that they can be easier to win, but often the payout is less. For 5 reel variations, there are more winning combinations and higher payouts, but it is also harder to win.

Many modern machines have the option to have a slow, medium, or fast spin speed. Also, many slots have a stop button which gives the player some control and lets a player choose when to stop the reels from spinning.

Lines – The lines in slots machines are on a vertical basis. Some have only 1 line, some have 3, and some can even have 5. Players can bet on 1 line, or they can bet on all visible lines if they so choose.

The Multiplier

Multiplier Symbols – Regardless your knowledge of how to use this symbols while you are playing slot machines it will multiply the amount of money that you win. For example, if you have a winning combination that pays out 10 dollars, and you have a 2 times multiplier symbol you will win 20 dollars.

Multiplier symbols can range from 2 times all the way up to 10 times. This simply means that if you bet 1 coin on a 10 dollar payout, and you get the 3 x multiplier, then you will win 40 dollars.

Buy a Pay

How do online casino slots use the Buy a Pay option in their work? This is a type of setting where a player can choose which symbols to activate. Each coin that you bet will activate the next set of symbols such as cherries, sevens, bells, or any other symbol present. In order to activate all symbols, the maximum bet must be made because each additional coin unlocks the next set of symbols.

This is why it is possible to hit the winning combination for the jackpot and not win it (jackpot symbols will require the maximum bet, so if you didn’t bet enough coins then the jackpot symbols won’t be unlocked).

The Progressive

On progressive machines, there isn’t a good reason not to make the maximum bet, especially because the jackpot is only available if you make the maximum bet, and the jackpot is the only real reason to play a progressive machine because the house often takes more of the payout. If you can’t place the maximum bet then, you are better off downgrading to a smaller denomination as there is really no point in playing a progressive machine unless you are eligible for the jackpot. Remember, if you know using the progressive, it can increase your chances notably.

Autoplay Features

Autoplay Option – The autoplay option usually comes with a range of different online slots and it is a very easy way to play. Once you activate the autoplay feature, the machine will play through spins several times over and show you the results every time. Once the machine is done it will go to the next spin by itself. This is a completely automated way to know how do slot machines work in casinos.

Bonus Rounds – Bonus Rounds can come with real slot machines, but most often come with video or online slots. These are rounds, usually little mini games that can be unlocked by getting a specific combination of symbols.

These games bonus games can be simple games or more interactive games that have actual plots. Some bonus games are completely random while others require skills. For many games, it is required to make a higher or even the maximum bet in order to have access to any bonus games.

Free Spins – This is quite self-explanatory on how to play slots using free spins; bonus or free spins are when you get a specific combination of symbols that allow for a free spin without betting any extra money. Also, free spins can be given on some slots machines after a certain amount of paid spins, kind of like an enticement to keep playing.

Gather Your Scatter Symbols

Scatter Symbols – These symbols are very popular with everyone because they let the player win money without having a winning combination of symbols. Scatter symbols will pay out no matter where they show up in the lines, and no matter where they show up on the reels.

Most scatter symbols do not pay out when there is only one of them, and most often it is necessary to get at least 3 of them. However, they do not have to be in any specific position or order.

How do the Pay Lines Work?

Pay lines – To keep it simple, the pay lines are the number of lines available in each slot machine that make result in winning combinations and thus a payout. Do not find how do slot machine work in online casinos and how many winning combinations do they have, as the number is from 1 to 100 winning combinations or pay lines.

Pay lines can be vertical, horizontal, or even zigzagged depending on the slot game that you are playing. For example, the Wizard of Oz game has 30 pay lines that can be activated. For these pay lines, as long as you get the right symbols, they don’t have to be beside each other to win.

Receiving a Bonus When You Sign Up To Play For Real Money

Getting something like a signing bonus is a pretty standard procedure – you should know how to play slot machines using all privileges. You should sign up and it has been proven to be an effective way of getting more people. Many online slots will offer some free bonus games, free credits to play with, or even a starting purse of a certain amount of money which can then be used to play with. This is a good way to get the feel for a game without having to bet any of your own money.

Progressive Jackpots

As mentioned above, progressive jackpots are those which keep climbing until someone wins them. Each player that bets money adds to the jackpot when they bet money, especially when they lose their money. Progressive jackpots are harder to win than static jackpots, but their payouts are also higher.

These jackpots will revert to their original amount that has not been added to by players once somebody wins it. This means that you are competing with other people to win a progressive jackpot.

Your Odds and Chances of Winning a Jackpot

To be honest, your odds of winning a slot machine do not depend on how to find or play a good slot machine. They are pretty low, especially when the jackpot is concerned. The odds of winning the jackpot on most machines are as high as 1 in 47,000 and as low as 1 in 50 million. This does depend on the type of machine that you are playing on as well as the jackpot amount.

Progressive jackpots are harder to get but do have higher payouts.

Generally speaking, the higher the jackpot is the lower your chances of winning are. Normal odds for winning various payouts are usually between 4 and 6 percent, with penny slots having a slightly higher win ratio of 10 percent.

Don’t Play Free Slots: No Prizes!

The reason to play with real money is obvious; there is no chance of winning any money, let alone a jackpot if you aren’t playing with real money. A few years ago a man named Georgios won 9 million dollars on the Mega Moolah slot machine in Vegas, the year before that someone won 5 million on the same machine!

Deposits and Withdrawals: How They Work

If you know how do slot machines work in casinos considering the deposits, you can skip this paragraph. Most online or video slot machines use electronic payments as a method of deposit. This can be through a wire transfer, straight from your bank account, or using a credit card. When you want to withdraw money all you have to do is click the withdrawal or cash out button to have the money transferred to the bank account of your choosing.

The withdrawal methods will be the same as those used to deposit money, however, be aware that there is usually a minimum limit on withdrawals.

Payouts and Paybacks for You

Payouts are more common on video slots than on reel slots. The highest payout rates are in Las Vegas where there is about a 95 percent payout rate and some machines have even been known to payout more than that; if you play slots then Nevada is the place to go.

However, the chances of winning a jackpot are astronomically low, even with a 95 percent payback rate, which means you lose 5 cents for every dollar. Don’t worry about the jackpot though because the rate of payback that comes out of the jackpot is lower than 0.2 percent (for most machines), however, a selecting such as Megabucks can go up to 10 percent.

How to Use Strategies to Play Slot Machines

The only strategy that we can provide is to always bet the maximum amount because that is the only way to win jackpots and to get some bonuses. Other than that there is nothing; most slots are completely random, and the combinations are generated by a randomized computer, therefore there is no strategy. It’s all luck and, thus, there is no real way to beat slot machines.

Slot’s Machine Myths

The jackpot change – many people will change machines after a large sum of money is paid out because they think it lowers their chances of winning again. This is false as modern slot machines are completely random.

Long time loser – people think that a machine that hasn’t paid out in a long time is bound to win soon. This is false because once again these machines are 100 percent random.

Payback percent – when casinos have many guests they lower the payback rate. Once again this is false because machines come with preset payout rates.

The fact is that slots are all based on luck and are completely random!

Use these myths to know more about slot machines and how to play them.

The Most Popular Games

The 4 games listed below are by far the most popular online slots right now and they also have a lot of winners too!

Wizard of Oz – The Wizard of Oz is generally a video slot machine that has 5 reels and 30 pay lines. These games are popular and have good gameplay. One of the special bonuses is the “Glinda Good Witch Feature” which will replace several symbols with wild symbols. The chances of winning this game are fairly high, but payouts are generally pretty low.

House of Fun – This is a popular game with many people. It has 5 reels and 30 pay lines, with bets ranging from 2 cents to one dollar. You can bet on 1 line or a maximum of 5, and max payout is 4,500 credits. One of the drawbacks of this game is that there are infrequent bonuses.

Quick Hit – These slots have a standard 5 by 3 layout and have a standard 30 line payout. Quick hits have many bonuses such as multipliers, wild symbols, and scatter symbols that make them fairly popular. The average payout rate is around 90 percent for these machines.

Wheel of Fortune – Wheel of Fortune is perhaps the most popular of all slot games. It has 5 reels and 20 pay lines, with a max payout of 8,000 coins. You can bet anything from 1 cent to 10 dollars, and you can activate up to 20 pay lines. Wheel of Fortune has several bonuses that give you free spins or wild symbols as well. In order to win the jackpot you must bet the maximum amount.

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.

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.

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.

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:

How To Play Slot Machines And Win

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.

Conclusion

Let me be clear about this:

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

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.