| Slot Machines |
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SLOT MACHINES If you walk into any traditional casino in the middle of the afternoon, you’ll see them all there - Doctors, lawyers, teachers, drivers, coaches, students….their eyes all wide open, their ears listening to the “ring ring ring”…When the casino doors open at 15h00, some are lined up to rush in like a race horse to get “their” machine that they left the night before, where maybe they played for hours on it hoping and expecting that it would pay out what they put in. Oh so often, they just keep on throwing and a throwing those coins in hoping for that jackpot. Actually, it’s a little more sophisticated these days; Not so many coins. Now it can be 20 or 50 100 Euro bills. You have cards (like a debit card) that you can charge, and just stick it in the machine, hit max bet, and watch the wheels spin and spin until you get dizzy. Sooner or later, it will be possible to have your debit card directly linked to your bank account so it can just keep pouring and pouring on. However, some people, usually elders, prefer actually plopping in the coins for the fun of it. Casinos haven’t yet given up on these types of machines, because people still love them the good old way. Most people do not believe that slots machines can be beaten or that there is any skill needed to play slot machines. An acquaintance of mine once mentioned to me "What is there to know about slots? You pull the lever or push the button. If you are lucky you win. Slot machines were invented for people who want to gamble with the least skill possible." There are many misconceptions about slot machines. First, there is the myth that you can't win or that if you win it is just a matter of luck. Most people who play slots actually believe this. That is one of the reasons that they have no interest in learning anything about the aptly named one-armed bandits (another English term meaning “bandidos com um braço”). Gaming machines Fruit machines, fixed odds betting terminals, slot machines, pusher and crane grab machines are all gaming machines. The player generally wins by matching the symbols, usually fruit, on the central line of three reels. Gaming machines are found in lots of different places like family entertainment centres, pubs, adult gaming centres, clubs and bingo halls depending on what country you are in. When you are playing slot machines you are looking for a hot trend. You will be looking for that time when a machine starts spitting coins out at you ninety miles an hour, and your adrenaline level is off the chart. But you know that this doesn't happen all the time. It happens once in a while and doesn't last forever. When it does, you temporarily have the advantage over the casino. Machine categories There are four broad categories of gaming machine, depending on the take and the maximum prize they can pay out. Category A machines would only be allowed in the new supercasinos, if that went ahead. Category B machines are divided into four sub-categories (not shown here):
Types of machines Fruit machines Fruit machines, also known as gaming, jackpot, amusement-with-prize or all-cash machines, use a random number generator to determine whether you have won or lost. If you win, the display often shows three identical symbols in a row. Crane grab machine A crane grab machine uses a mechanical arm to try to pick up prize such as a soft toy and drop it into the chute. Pusher machine A gaming machine with a moving tray carrying various items which can be dislodged into a chute by coins pushed in by the player. The dislodged items are then won by the player. They include red and black plaques which can be exchanged for prizes. Setting up a Bankroll
If you want to play slots you have got to have the money to do it. Your slots bankroll is the amount of money you bring with you for slots play. This money is strictly used for gambling. It is essential that you stick by this rule. Notice I said the amount of money for gambling. It is not the total amount of money in your bank account. You've got to have money for everyday things and keep this separate from your gambling bankroll. Consider this money your “play” money, or the money that you can afford to lose, just in case. Your slot bankroll is the money you take with you only for slots play. The size of your bankroll governs how you will play. If you have a $100 bankroll, you are not going to play on $1 or $5 slots. With a bankroll this size you will be limited to quarter slots play or even forced to play nickel slots. With a $500 bankroll, you may want to play some $1 slots, but you are better off sticking with quarter slots. But you won't need to play nickel slots. These have the lowest payback amongst all slot machines, so if you think that you will get off losing little, think again. You are better off going for the 25 cent machines. With a $1,000 bankroll, you can play quarter, half dollar or dollar slots. If you are willing to bring $2,000 or more, you can play strictly dollar slots. I don't recommend playing $5 or $100 or $500 slots machines. These machines will suck up large amounts of money at a prodigious rate and if you want to play at these levels, you are better off learning how to play craps, blackjack or roulette. In fact, I very seldom even play dollar slots. Quarter slots offer as high a payback percentages as dollar slots in the better paying locales. There is nothing to be gained by moving up to dollar slots in terms of improving your prospects of winning. And, quite frankly, at this level of play, several of the casino table games offer better prospects. If you bought a roll of quarters for ten bucks and played the quarters through a machine programmed to payback 90% only one time, on the average the machine would return 90% of the ten bucks you plunked in it, or nine dollars. Because of the tremendous variability in slot payoffs it would be very rare if you received this exact amount, but if you played ten dollars through a slot paying back 90% over and over, you would find after many time of repeating this that you averaged getting nine dollars for each ten dollars played. However, you don't play slots that way. You reinsert coins as they are returned, or on the modern slots, you play off of credits. By playing this way, you are replaying the same money over and over. For our purposes, we will call each complete cycle of inserting all of your session bankroll a round of play. Now let´s compare paybacks where we continue to play the same machine round after round. After one round of play our $100 has been reduced to $98.00 on the 98% payback machine and to $90.00 on the 90% machine. After five rounds of play we are down to $59.05 on the 90% machine. On a 94% machine we still have $73.39 and on the 98% payback machine, we are looking good at $90.39. After ten rounds, we will be down to $34.87 on the 90% machine; feeling pretty discouraged having lost $65.13 or almost two-thirds of our bankroll. Here's our situation. We have had the same number of plays on each machine. We inserted the same amount in each machine. On the 90% machine we lose. A 94% machine squeezes out a small win. The 98% give us a decent win and we cash in a winner. Do you still think it doesn't matter where you play? Slot pros always prefer to play in slot jurisdictions with higher paybacks, meaning places that are known for having higher paybacks. There are places in the US that have indications of the best places to play slots. Unfortunately here in Portugal, there is no real way of knowing this type of information. You may have noticed that I didn't show you any numbers for Indian casinos. They are like Portuguese casinos as they don't publish their paybacks. We saw how even a couple of percent difference in slot paybacks can make a tremendous different in how much the casino takes (or how much you can win). The better paying slots are invariably located in casinos. You should never play slots where the slot machines are a side line to the main business. These machines only get play from persons who are there for some other purpose. As a consequence, these machines usually have horrific odds such as those you find in cafes everywhere in Spain. You will find slots in airports, grocery stores, bars, laundry mats, convenience stores, gas stations, car washes, and assorted other places where the slots will gobble up your coins as fast as you drop them in. The machines are usually placed by independent slot operators who split profits with the establishments hosting the slots, and the cute little grocery store where you hit a jackpot has no means of paying off your jackpot. You may end up waiting for some time to receive your jackpot. SLOT LOCATION PAYOUTS Studies have found that the main factor used to determine where to place slot machines was how visible the machines were to other slot players. In my studies, I found no pattern to placing machines near the outside doors of casinos or near the show lines as had been believed by many slot experts. The strongest pattern I discovered for placing the better playing slots was that casino bosses place the best machines in the areas most visible to other slot players. I also found that casino executives have become experts on human behavior. I know this for a fact. They want to know your habits, what you like, your kids, your work, everything they can, to throw at you. What’s worse is that you are there hours at the tables and the floor manager (in the US, they refer to him as the “pit boss”) comes over to you. He is actually an acquaintance and you don’t mind telling him your life story. Beware, because he will use this information in the next board meeting to find ways of getting you back to the casino to gamble some more. It is the best way a marketer can get to his customers, through these disguises of trust. Whenever humans behave in a sloppy or habitual or less than dedicated fashion in playing slots, the casino bosses have found ways to exploit it. Many players like to play two slots simultaneously. I have even seen players managing to play three slots at once. Here the grim player was a later than middle aged player wearing her blackened glove and stolidly pacing back and forth feeding her three slot machines with a look that defied anyone on encroach on her territory. I certainly won’t stand in her way.
PLAYING SIDE BY SIDE How many readers have felt like a big time gambler playing slots side by side? We all have. While most players don't play three slots machines at once, it is fairly common for players to play two side-by-side machines at once. Don't think the casinos don't know this. It is very rare that you will find two high payback machines next to each other. A good paying or "loose slot" is almost always placed next to a "tight slot." Besides not playing on adjacent machines, they discovered a number of other spots to avoid. He found that slot machines located next to table games and sports books were generally lower payers. That’s because people playing table games are not particularly interested in playing slot machines. However, they might plunk a few coins in a slot near a table game as they entered or left a game. The casino bosses, seeking to exploit this behavior, have decided to place some of the poorer paying slot machines near table games and lower odd games as the persons playing these machines by and large are not slot players and won't have their behavior affected one way or another by encountering low paying slots. The same rationale has been applied to slot machines located near upscale restaurants, show lines and ticket lines. Persons waiting in these spots are not primarily interested in playing slots. They may play a little before a table becomes available in a restaurant, or the show line moves. But the slot machines are only a sideline. So, the bosses reasoned, why waste higher paying slots on persons whose behavior is unlikely to be influenced by slot payoffs. The real reason behind the location of higher paying slots is to attract persons observing an apparent winner on these machines to play a different slot machine. The odds are very good that the person so induced will pick a lower paying slot to play. Even if the new player picks another high pay slot, his action will just serve as an additional advertisement to entice yet another player into the slot pit. Now you can see why casino bosses don't waste higher paying slots in areas where the players' behavior is unlikely to be influenced by slot payoffs. Table players do not typically switch to slot machines because of a few slot wins. Persons don't forgo dinner reservations because a slot threw a jackpot at them. The most people don't leave show lines because they won a few pulls on a slot machine. "So," the bosses reason, "Why give a sucker an even break?" So they don't. Consider a slot machine found in the men's room in a casino. I assume that the ladies' rooms also have them but being a male I have not personally verified this. Here you are in the WC and there stands the slot machine. So you plunk a few coins in. If you get a couple of wins are you going to spend all day in the toilet? How about the slot machines adjacent to the ladies rest room? Do you think the best slots will be there? Nope. If you look around, you will see that it is mostly men waiting for their wives, girlfriends, or mistresses.We all know that women take a little longer then the boys in the ladies room. So what do the guys do? They drop in a few coins to kill time. Do you think they will take up residence next to the ladies WC because of a few good slot payoffs. Not likely. Besides, if those machines next to the ladies room did start paying off, you would have hoards of people there playing, thus impeding the women from using the restroom. Then the ladies would feel uncomfortable about going to the casinos because all the guys were hanging out next to the restrooms and they wouldn’t want to go back to the casino. And we casino managers wouldn’t want that to happen. We want you back there all the time. Needless to say, avoid rest room slots. We also found that slots next to elevators and on the main access aisles used by casino patrons to reach elevators, rest rooms or the hotel desk had tight slots. So, you now know where not to play slots. I hope I haven't disappointed you if your favorite spot to play slots is in the middle of the toilet. Before I forget, don't bother playing the slots next to the slot change booth either. This is another case of where people are forced to stand in line and you know the story. THEY EXPLOIT human behavior. Of course these last circumstances pertain more to the US market, nevertheless, there are quite a few similar situations. The good machines (for us players that is) are using centrally located in full view for all of us to see and hear when one wins. Look for the locals, the older fellow that looks like he has just spent half his life at the casino. Follow where they go. Spend time going over their moves. You can even go up next to the machine they are playing and start chatting with them to get some “inside” information. The actual payoffs are determined by complex random number generators. The reels, which appear to spin just like the old mechanical slots, are just there for appearance. Unless you are playing in a venue featuring antique slot machines, you will not be able to avoid computer controlled slot machines. Modern slot machines accept more than one coin and multiply the payoff by the number of coins played. Some of these machines offer paybacks which are roughly proportionate to the number of coins played. The pay lines of the Double Diamond machine below is a good example of a multiplier where the paybacks are almost proportionate. Progressive machines offer the lowest chances of winning a jackpot. With their million dollar jackpots, these machines are much like the state lotteries which offer large jackpots with astronomical odds against winning them. I would advise you to stay away from video blackjack, keno and craps. You know not to get involved with a machine with flippers or horses running around the track. Let's assume that you have done your homework. You have identified several likely slot machines that fit your level of play and appear to be equally promising. What do you look for next? We examine the pay boards on the front of the machines. We are looking for a machine which accepts two or more coins and which offers proportionate paybacks. WHICH MACHINE SHOULD YOU CHOOSE? Let's look at three different slot machines.
Machine 3
There is one more criteria we will look for. We want a machine which has several paybacks in the range from 20 to 100. Let's take a closer look at Machine 1. Machine 1 looks promising. It accepts two or more coins and the paybacks are proportionate. This looks like an acceptable machine. However, before we start playing this machine we spot Machine 2. This machine is very similar to Machine 1. The paybacks are almost proportionate, the only exception being the top payline where the payoff for 3 coins is 2,500 coins instead of a proportionate payback of 2,400 coins. We decide we can live with the paybacks on this machine. So, do we play on Machine 1 or Machine 2? We should pick Machine 3, because the ability to play a third coin gives us more flexibility on how many coins we can insert in the machine. With either machine we can play any number of coins without having a penalty for not inserting the maximum number of coins. However, we would prefer Machine 3 because of the additional flexibility we gain from the ability to play from one to three coins. Now lets consider Machine 3. We first notice that this is a progressive machine. Notice that the payoffs for both the top payback and the second highest payoff penalize the player who inserts less than three coins. If we decided to play this machine and vary the number of coins played, we would be at a disadvantage because it is not a proportionate multiplier. There is one final thing we look for the payback schedule. We look for lots of paybacks in the range of 20 to 100 coins with one coin inserted. Machines 1 and 2 offer paybacks for one coin play of 25, 40 and 80 coins and meets our criteria. Machine 3 offers a range of paybacks with one coin inserted including payoffs of 20, 25, 40, 50, and 80 coins. However it fails to meet our tests of proportionality. We would select Machine 2 from this group of slots. Because paybacks are constantly changing and because the paybacks vary even on machines with the same name, I cannot give you a single machine with my highest recommendation. If I were to give you such a recommendation, the casino bosses would change other attributes of the machine so that my recommendation would be outdated almost as soon as it was in print. Finally, the reader may be wondering about my playing habits. I have had my share of gambling. I have won and lost. Over the years, I have probably broken out even, but in the meantime I had the entertainment to go along with it. Most people lose, so as I have broken out even, then I guess I can be considered lucky. Leaving a losing Machine Then there is the slot player who won't leave a losing machine. Yet see them all the time. They'll gripe, curse and tell everyone within eyesight about their bad luck, all the while continuing to feed coins into a slot which does nothing but eat coins or credits, with paybacks few and far between. This pattern of play is the nemesis of the slot player. Winners turn into losers because they become stuck on the same machine. Losers did bigger and bigger holes. I will show you a simple trick which will pull you off any slot which goes dead on you. We will use No-Payback Pulls to limit our losses on any slot machine. A No-Payback Pull is a play on a slot machine where there is no payoff. It could just as easily be called a zippull or a nada pull. It is a play where absolutely nothing is returned. In general we are looking for a machine which pays out frequently. It is far more interesting to play on a machine which pays off more frequently. I like the sound of coins tinkling into a tray when I play slots (I usually empty the credits after each payoff and play with coins). Play after play with only the normal slot sounds and no payback sounds is indeed boring. It makes the machine feel like a one-way street where coins enter never to be seen again. Perhaps more important than the sounds of coins spilling out is the fact that, when a machine is paying frequently, we know we are getting something for our money. One of our major objectives in our quest to win is to avoid losses. I know of no good reason to continue to play on a slot machine play after play with no paybacks. No-Payback Pulls is defined as the number of pulls or plays we will accept without any payback. Once we hit our limit, we are done with that machine. Our number of No-Payback Pulls can be anywhere from seven to twelve pulls. Let's say we decide on eight pulls. Now we have an objective way of knowing when a slot is not giving us our payoffs often enough. We count the number of pulls (plays) from our last payoff. If we hit eight pulls with no additional payoffs, it's hasta la vista baby! We change machines. We will add yet one more weapon to reduce the prospect of losses. We will set a Loss Limit for each session of slot play.
Let's say you decide to use a 40-coin slot session. Your loss limit is the number of coins you will set as your maximum loss for this session. This loss can occur on the first slot you play on, or on the second or third slot in a session, but once you hit it, you need to decide whether to continue playing or to wrap it up and take a break. Say you are using a 10 dollar session bankroll on quarter slot machines. You could set your loss limit at 50% of your session bankroll, or $5 in this case. You are playing on a slot you have picked. You are counting pulls between paybacks using the No-Payback Pull concept. In addition you will count up the number of coins you have after each round of play. A round consists of inserting all of the counts set aside for your slot session into the slot machine. I always use coins rather than credits for slot play so that I can keep track of my rounds of play. You will count the coins remaining after each round of play. If you lose half of your session bankroll you will take a break. What do you do when you hit your loss limit? You quit playing slots for a while. Take a walk. Or go to your room. Or have some coffee and pie. But when you hit a loss limit you walk away from the slot machine. I will cover another more pleasant aspect of playing slots, that of winning in the next chapter. But for now I want you to absorb the concept of leaving the slot machine whenever your number of No-Payback Pulls is hit or you hit your Loss Limit. Generally, if I hit the number No-Payback Pulls and still have not hit my Loss Limit, I will change slot machines and continue to play. However, once I hit my loss limit, it is time to take a break. When to Stop The secret of winning is to set realistic win goals and then learn to accept them. What you want to do is set a reasonable Win Goal related to your bankroll size. A reasonable Win Goal is an amount such as 30%, 40% or 50% of your bankroll. Before you sneer at amounts as low as 30%, I want you to remember that the lower the Win Goal, the easier it is to reach it!
However, your Win Goal is not an absolute upper limit on your winnings. Instead, it acts as a signal telling your that it is time to start locking up profits. My experience was winning in blackjack then losing it in the slot machines.
Learn to Play Another Casino Game Many slot winners become slot losers because they overplay slot machines. If they haven't learned to play another casino game the temptation may be there to continue to play slot machines simply because that is all they know how to do in a casino. I highly recommend that you learn to play at least one other casino game. My number one choice for a second game to learn is craps. Craps is still the favorite game of many high rollers. There is no other game in the casino where fortunes can be won or lost as quickly as craps. Yet many of the bets on the craps table offer some of the lowest odds in the casino. Pass Line and Don't Pass wagers only give the casino an advantage of 1.41% and 1.40% respectively. Put in the terms slot players are used to seeing, these wagers have paybacks of 98.6%, better than almost any slot machine you will find. Odds wagers can also be made which give the house no advantage whatsoever. You can play roulette for relaxation, but even when I relax I enjoy winning money. I use an intriguing roulette system which wins over 90% of the time and throws off nice winnings even against the American wheels. Visit the casino during the middle of the week. If you love crowded conditions, long lines, overworked employees, higher table minimums and in general a high hassle level, then you will want to arrive at your favorite casino on Friday afternoon and leave on Sunday evening. You'll get plenty of all of the above. If you want more personal attention, uncrowded casinos and restaurants and more relaxed casino employees around you, you will schedule your visits between Monday and Thursday. Casino Employees Don’t expect much help from the employee’s. After all, you are the one paying their salaries, which in turn pay for their house, car, kids, and so on. So casino employees are NOT your friends, but they are FOE. BEWARE. As you are playing the slots you get lulled into a trance and forget about your surroundings and the length of time you are playing. If you are one who finds yourself playing for longer than you planned to, here are some tips you to avoid getting caught up in your game. Hypnosis The sights and sounds of the casino are designed to make you lose yourself in the atmosphere and suspend reality as you enter a fantasy world where there are no windows or clocks. When you sit down to play the slots, the spinning reels on the machines can have a hypnotic effect on some players. Anyone who has driven long distances has probably encountered a mental state that has become known as “highway hypnosis.” This is usually occurs when you are driving on a long straight road at a constant speed. Your body becomes relaxed and the passing lines in the road, sends your brain into a passive trance. You arrive at your destination with no recollection of having actually driven there or the length of time you were driving. Workers performing simple and repetitive tasks and people deprived of sleep are likely to experience similar symptoms. These same symptoms can occur in slot players who deprive themselves of proper sleep and nutrition as they spend hours sitting in front of the slot machines playing their favorite game. Instead of watching passing lines in the center of the road they are staring at the spinning reels of the slot machine while performing the repetitive task of hitting the spin button. They are lulled into a state of state of “Slot Hypnosis” which causes them to lose all track of time and they are not aware of how long they have been playing the machines. Avoid the Trance If you are one who finds yourself playing for longer than you planned to, there are some things you can do to avoid getting caught up in your game.
Keep your eyes moving while you are playing, this will keep you from fixating on the machine and make you more aware of your surroundings while keeping you alert.
Make it a habit to check it occasionally. If you are by yourself you can set the alarm on your or phone.
Stick with the schedule plan and get up from the machine.
Specify at a specific time for lunch, dinner or coffee. This is will insure you a break off point to get away from the machine. If you are not there your friends can come and find you.
At the start of your playing session, start by warming up, just like you would if you were going for a work out or game.
Chat between spins. You can socialize and play at the same time. And this will help keep you from losing track of time.
Keep your eyes moving while you are playing, this will keep you from fixating on the machine and make you more aware of your surroundings while keeping you alert. We all want to have a good time when we visit the casino but it is not enjoyable when we come home exhausted from playing marathon sessions and losing your senses. Stay in control when you play and you will have a much better time. |
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