General Rule: The higher the multiplying symbol, the lower the hit frequency. Machines with multiplying symbols tend to have lower hit frequencies than machines without them and the higher the multiple, the lower the hit frequency. Machines with multiplying symbols have what I call 'hidden paytable entries.' Although you can't tell that these machines are low hit frequency machines before playing them, you'll know pretty soon after you start playing them. If you track your hits while you play, you'll have a good gut feeling for the true hit frequency of a machine after about 500 spins and a very close estimate of the true hit frequency of a machine.
Slot machines remain a mystery to many gamblers because you can’t see their inner workings. This differs from casino games like blackjack or roulette, where you can physically see how results are determined.
This has led to may slots myths, such as casinos flipping switches to change payback or machines running hot and cold.
2 things I can promise you if you continue to play slot machines: #1 - You WILL get a 'hot' machine once in a while and walk away a winner. Sometimes you'll even win big. #2 - You WILL LOSE a LOT more money than you ever win, and that includes the occasional big winner.
The truth is that slot machines, and their results aren’t difficult to comprehend when you look closer at the matter.
Below you can see 10 important points on slot machines that will clear up many misconceptions. You’ll also see other info on the biggest slots jackpots, skill-based bonus rounds, and slots history.
1. Slot Machine Results Are Determined by Random Number Generators
One of the most important things to know about slot machines is how results are determined.
These games used to work on mechanical reels and levers. But now, almost every game is a video or online slot machine that features a random number generator (RNG).
The RNG cycles through sequences of simulated random numbers. Oftentimes the RNG moves at the rate of thousands of number sequences per second.
When you select the spin button, the most recent number combination determines your result. This means that the biggest determinant in your result is when you choose to spin.
Some players believe that they can produce desired results by “timing up” spins correctly.
This might be true if slot machines had more predictable RNGs. But given the speed at which RNGs move and how they continue working even when not played, timing up spins is impossible.
In summary, slots results are totally random. And you can’t do anything beyond developing an elaborate cheating plot to win guaranteed profits.
2. Slots Payback Determines Your Chances of Winning
Your odds of winning with a slot machine are determined by the payout percentage (a.k.a. payback).
Also called, return to player (RTP), this figure represents how much money you’ll theoretically win back from your bets. A slot machine with 95% payback would return $0.95 on every dollar you wager.
Many land-based casino jurisdictions require a minimum slot RTP. New Jersey requires a minimum payback of 83%, Mississippi requires 80%, and Nevada calls for at least 75%.
Most brick and mortar casinos have higher average RTP than the state required minimum because they want players to feel like they have a chance to win.
ThoughtCo reports that the average payback on Nevada penny slot machines is 90%, which is low in comparison to other types of slots in the state. But it’s also far higher than the state requirement of 75%.
Modern online slots payback between 95% and 97%. Online slots don’t have the same overhead costs as casinos, so they typically offer higher payback.
Obviously, you want a game’s RTP to be as high as possible. But the problem is that most casinos don’t advertise RTP on all of their slots.
This means that you’ll have to do research to find slots payback in many casinos.
This is easy to do with online slots providers because they usually offer a uniform payback across all of the casinos they serve. For example, NetEnt’s Blood Suckers slot has 98.0% payback at every online casino where it’s offered.
Land-based slot machine RTPs are harder to come by because they vary from casino to casino. But you can often find a composite RTP figure by researching individual casinos and games.
3. Casinos Can’t Change Slots Payback Whenever They Want
Slots payback is tricky because it’s programmed to pay out over a long time period. Payout percentages may not actualize until hundreds of thousands of spins.
If you’ve played a specific slot for this long, then you’ll be close to the game’s specified payout percentage.
But most players don’t realize how long it takes to reach a slot machine’s RTP. And they often think that they’re being taken advantage of when they go through a cold streak.
This has led to the myth that casinos use a back office switch to change payback. But this isn’t the case in either land-based or online casinos.
Brick and mortar casinos order slot machines with a specific RTP. The game developer then programs the payout percentage into the software and stores it on a nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM).
If a land-based casino wants to change payback for a specific slot machine, they must physically swap out the software. State/country gaming jurisdictions also require that casinos go through red tape before they change RTP on any game.
This means that it’s both time-consuming and illegal to randomly switch a slot machine’s payback whenever one feels like it.
Online slots providers control the payback that games have. Internet casinos license their software and feature whatever RTP is available.
This prevents tampering because the online casinos are merely licensing slots games.
Many gaming providers pay for third-party lab testing to ensure that their games are fair and random.
4. Slot Machines Have Fun Bonus Rounds
In 1996, WMS Industries created the first, second-screen bonus round in Reel ‘Em slot. Ever since then, slots creators have been adding more and more second-screen bonuses to games.
This creates excitement because you move off the reels and into a different type of game. What’s also fun is that you’ll find plenty of different bonuses across the slots world.
Bonus rounds usually have something to do with a slot machine’s theme. For example, Random Logic’s Millionaire Genie slot has a bonus round where you’re granted wishes that can turn into prizes.
Most bonus rounds fall into a broad range of categories, which you can see below:
- Choosing objects – This involves selecting items such as pots to reveal prizes.
- Fight – Select a character to battle an opponent.
- First person shooter – Allows you to move a cursor and shoot objects.
- Wheel – You spin a wheel to determine your prize.
- Board game – Move your character around a board to win bonus payouts.
None of these types of bonuses reinvent the wheel in gaming. But it’s still fun to trigger a bonus and do something different beyond spinning the reels when you get a chance.
5. Some Slot Machines Contain Skill
Slots players have been satisfied with spinning reels and winning prizes for decades. But casinos and gaming operators are now incorporating more skill into slot machines in an effort to capture younger players’ attention.
One way this is done is through skill-based bonus rounds. Let’s look at Scientific Games’ Space Invaders as an example:
- You have the option to choose a random or skill based bonus round.
- The skill based bonus takes you to a new screen, where you control a tiny ship at the bottom.
- You move the ship and shoot aliens as they travel down the screen.
- Your score (payout) depends upon how many aliens you hit.
Space Invaders is an old arcade game that’s been around since 1978. And most people would never play this game alone.
But it’s fun in the context of a slot machine because you’re doing something different and playing for real money.
Some companies are even developing gaming machines that are entirely based on skill. This includes GameCo’s Danger Arena, which is a first-person shooter that sees you blast robots for money.
Your score depends upon how many robots you can shoot within the allotted time frame. You earn the top prize if you’re able to destroy 10 bots and get a perfect score.
It remains unclear when skill-based gaming will take off in casinos. But the odds are that it’ll happen at some point within the next decade.
6. Class II Slot Machines Operate Like Bingo
Earlier I covered how slots operate based on random number generators. These are referred to as “Class III” slots in America.
But there are also Class II slot machines, which operate like bingo games.
These slots are popular in tribal casinos that don’t have a Class III gaming compact with their respective state. Many states have worked out Class II compacts with Native American tribes, allowing them to offer bingo style gaming.
A Class II machine looks just like a regular slot. But the results are determined as if you were playing electronic bingo.
What’s interesting is that the available number of prizes is capped to represent a real life bingo game. Once all of the prizes have been paid, the cycle starts over.
Essentially, Class II slots are just like the Class III versions in terms of randomness, payback, and jackpots. But they determine results differently to allow tribal casinos to still have slots like games.
7. The Largest Ever Slots Jackpot is Worth $39.7 Million
One really exciting thing about slot machines is that you can win huge jackpots. And the biggest ever jackpot is a $39.7 million prize that was won at Las Vegas’ Excalibur casino.
A 25-year-old software engineer from LA won this slots jackpot in 2003 while playing Megabucks. He put in $100 and never had to reload because he won the jackpot shortly after that.
Behar Merlaku thought he’d won a record $57 million at Austria’s Casino Bregenz in 2011. But it turned out to be a software glitch because the machine only offered a top payout of $6,500.
Merlaku took the matter to court and said that both he and his wife suffered emotional stress as a result of the malfunction. He also contended that his child was born with a cleft palate due to his wife’s trauma.
The couple was awarded €1 million as part of a settlement.
The largest online slots jackpot in history belongs to Jon Heywood, who won £13,213,838 in 2015.
The British soldier, who did tours in Afghanistan, was playing Microgaming’s Mega Moolah at the time of his win.
Heywood spoke with the Daily Mail about his windfall and said that he was going to help his father get a heart and lung transplant. He also planned to buy a yellow Bentley Continental GT car and decide what to do with the rest later.
8. Slots Jackpots Can Be Awarded In a Variety of Ways
Many slot machines have a specific symbol combination that awards a jackpot. Normally this involves getting the highest paying icon or wild symbol 5 times in a pay line.
But there are other ways that a slots jackpot can be awarded too.
One method involves awarded the jackpot randomly at the conclusion of a spin. It doesn’t matter how much you bet or even if you win because you’re always eligible for the jackpot.
Random progressive jackpots are good for low rollers who can’t afford to make maximum bets to qualify for the top prize.
Some slot machines only pay the jackpot on a certain pay line.
For example, you might have to play all 20 lines because the jackpot can only be awarded on the 20th pay line. Playtech has a few older online slots like this.
Another way that jackpots can be awarded is through bonus rounds.
Oftentimes this involves spinning a wheel to unlock a progressive payout. Microgaming’s Mega Moolah and NetEnt’s Mega Fortune are two examples of slots that award jackpots through the bonus.
Other bonus rounds may see you perform actions to win the jackpot. One example is Microgaming’s Hall of Gods, where you smash mirrors with Thor’s hammer to reveal jackpot symbols.
9. Some Countries Have Different Names for Slot Machines
Americans, Canadians, and some Europeans are used to calling these games slots or slot machines.
But other countries have different names for slots. And these games sometimes include rule differences too.
Australians commonly called slots “poker machines” or “pokies.” Pokie is just an abbreviation for poker machine, which has to do with slots history (discussed later).
Pokies operate just like slot machines in America and many other parts of the world.
The UK has lots of fruit machines (a.k.a. fruities), which refers to the common slots practice of using fruit as symbols. The Scottish commonly refer to a fruit machine as apuggy.
Fruities differ from traditional slot machines because they have hold and/or nudge features.
Hold lets you hold one or more reels in place while the others spin. Nudge lets you nudge one or more reels down a space to complete or improve wins.
Hold and nudge inject some skill into slot machines. But note that these features have already been factored into the overall house edge.
Japan’s version of slot machines is called pachinko. This is a slots pinball hybrid that begins with shooting a ball into the field of play.
If a ball lands in the right pocket, then the slot machine reels in the center will spin. The goal is to line up the right combination and win a prize.
I mentioned earlier that Canadians use the term slots and slot machines.
But their state lotteries play a big role in the gaming scene and offer video lottery terminals (VLTs). Most VLTs work just like slot machines because they have RNGs and spinning reels.
The only exception is that a VLT prints out scratch-off tickets, instead of working like a slot machine.
10. The First Slot Machine Was Invented in 1893
Brooklyn based Sittman and Pitt created the first gaming machine in 1891. This is regarded as the precursor to slot machines, and it featured 5 drums that held a total of 50 card faces.
Players inserted a nickel into this poker machine and pulled the reel to play. The drums would spin and offer players a 5 card poker hand.
Sittman and Pitt’s game was popular at bars because it awarded free beers and cigars. But it was far from what we typically think of regarding slots.
Charles Fey and Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze, who worked together at San Francisco’s Electric Works, are credited with creating the first slot machines.
Wilhelm Schultze was first, inventing the Horseshoe slot machine and an automatic payout mechanism in 1893. Fey introduced a newer version in 1895 that actually paid coins.
Fey would open a slots workshop the following year. It’s here where he developed the Liberty Bell, which became the most popular slot of its time.
Fey was unable to patent his device because gambling was illegal in California. This brought on lots of competition over the years and helped further the slot machine industry.
Another great development was when video slots were introduced to casino floors in the 1970s. Nowadays, almost every slot machine produced is a video slot.
Microgaming introduced the first online slots in 1994. The industry has since taken off, which thousands of online slots now available through PCs, Macs, and mobile devices.
Conclusion
Slot machines aren’t transparent in how they award prizes. But you’ll have a lot more confidence playing these machines when you understand payback and random number generators.
Furthermore, knowing about payback and the RNG clears up many of the myths surrounding slots.
Of course, the fun in playing slot machines isn’t in understanding how they work. It’s about the bonus rounds, jackpots, and cool game themes.
Luckily, there’s more of these aspects in the gaming world than ever before. I especially enjoy the bonus rounds that are being added into games today.
It’s also exciting to see skill injected into more and more slots. It’ll be interesting to see how much the slots world changes when skill-based gaming takes off.
When it comes to slot machines there are some key points to you need to master the perfect slot machine strategy. There are things that affect your performance, save you money and help you achieve success from the simple game of slots.
| Casino | Bonus | Terms | Software | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2500 | Play | |||
| $5000+ $10 Free | Play | |||
| – | Play | |||
| 4 | $4000 | Play | ||
| 5 | – | Play |
- Slots Strategy
- Are Slot Machines Totally Random?
- Is There a Trick to Slot Machines?
- Is There a Slot Machine Strategy?
- What is the Best Slot Machine Strategy?
- How Do You Know When a Slot machine Will Hit?
- +How to Win at Slots
- +How to Pick a Winning Slot Machine
- 1. The More Choice the Better
- 2. Practice, Practice and more Practice
- 3.Know Your Maker
- 4. Beat Them At Their Own Game
- 5. Experimentation
- +How to Pick a Winning Slot Machine
- Summary
- FAQ
Fantastic Casino Games that Pay – Learn Slots Strategy and Win Real Cash!
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of winning a yummy payout by playing online slots, let’s go through the basics all players should evaluate to be able to determine which online slots to play. This article will provide you with a detailed overview of how to win at slots and how to tell if a slot machine is ready to pay. Our expert team of passionate casino players will share their secrets to help you overcome any unexpected traps and challenges.
When you look for an effective slots strategy, make sure to check what types of games you should choose and how to choose the best machine in terms of your return on investment. Even though many players say that slots are games of luck, you will still maximize your chances of winning if you approach the game with a solid understanding of the process. Tune in and we will take you through it step by step!
Are Slot Machines Totally Random?
The short answer to this question is both “yes” and “no”. When you come to play any of the machines that are either within the casino or through our selection of demo games, you are faced with two types of algorithm which calculate and determines the winning outcome.
So, how does this affect your slot machine strategy? Knowing the facts, especially how a simple slot machine is programmed can play into your advantage. This, along with all the other areas of the slot will help to explain and to give you a clearer picture of the game to help you succeed whilst playing in some Vegas themed casino gambling for real money.
Breaking Random Myths
When it comes to any form of machine strategy, knowing the inner workings play a part in gaining knowledge and this, in itself, is an advantage. The slot machines are built with two forms of algorithm, the first is the RTP which means Return to Player. You will often find the RTP noted in the gaming description, for example, 96.5% RTP. This is a percentage-based program which only disperses money once the right percentage of money has been placed into the slot by all players, not just you. See this as the house edge and you get an example how big the gulf is with this edge.
The next algorithm is the random number generator, known as the RNG. The program for this is the fairest option of any machine to play because, this one is totally random and, therefore, dismisses the idea that all slot machines are somehow fixed.
Is There a Trick to Slot Machines?
The only important trick to any Vegas game, regardless of whether you’re playing online slots, video poker or enjoying a game of Roulette, is to know all the facts of the game first. This can be anything from the rules of play, through to knowing the odds of different actions.
When it comes to forming slot machine tips the order of knowledge is simple.
1. Do you know the rules of the game?
2. Do you know what the odds of winning are?
3. Are you able to budget your bankroll?
4. Do you know how virtual machines work?
5. Are you prepared to lose when gambling for real money?
These are simple steps, but within each, a certain degree of awareness is needed to achieve wins from any online slot machine or other casino game.
Is There a Slot Machine Strategy?
So, do slot machine winning strategies exist out there? Certainly! Look at the casino bonus of free spins a simple enough option provided to the player, but what you have already gained is an advantage to win free money without having to use your own finances to capitalize on the bonus. Now, if you have two casinos, one offering 25 free spins and the other 100. Logic dictates you are going to go for the higher amount of spins because, with 100, your odds and chances of gaining any return are greater to your advantage.
So, from this, your strategy is to find the right casinos, offering the largest selection of free spin bonuses. But this isn’t just the end of the development, what about what games are eligible to play with this bonus. From this point, a player can stray into a seemingly endless path of strategical checks.
Here is a basic checklist for you to follow and below, in our next section, we’ll elaborate on what the best strategies are and mean.
Your Path to Glory
- Decide the type of slot you wish to play according to its RTP.
- Practice playing games in Demo Mode first.
- Find games with high paylines, bonus levels and most reoccurring wins whilst practicing.
- Pick a casino that holds your preferred game and offers a slots bonus. (check bonus t’s&c’s).
- Use your bonus to play the very games you practiced on.
This is a very basic process and there are way more complicated procedures to take on, which we will cover just after this next section of picking the best strategy.
| Casino | Bonus | Terms | Software | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2500 | Play | |||
| $5000+ $10 Free | Play | |||
| – | Play |
What is the Best Slot Machine Strategy?
Let us now look at the slot machine strategies you can incorporate into your state of play. There really is no ‘singular’ best strategy, they each work in unison and never alone.
Our slot machine strategy is broken down into just 5 easy understandable sections which you can combine.
- 1. Practice will make you a better slot player: Demo games are a valuable tool, ironic they are free to play. This is the starting point of any strategy you take on, to know the game you are playing, learning to find those machines, which the casinos hold, that offer players a better chance of winning on, over those programmed to be less effective.
- 2. Why bother to pay and play? Basically, casino bonuses are going to save you a lot more money in the long run. If and when the opportunity arises to play with a suitable casino bonus, then take it. Having a chance of any free spins or free cash to play with, means you have a chance to gain free capital. Now that’s something you won’t find in Vegas.
- 3. Strike whilst it’s hot: Casino’s will inform you through a winners table which games are currently paying out. Knowing which games are in a hot streak of form is beneficial.
- 4. Progressive Wins: If you want to win the biggest jackpot prize, then the progressive jackpot slots are the ones to aim for. History has shown a very clear pattern, once a jackpot drops, another soon follows. Why? Because a lot of progressive slots are built using high RTP. Also, look out for daily jackpots. These forms of prizes have cash values which have to be won by a specific time or before a value is reached i.e. ‘5,000 jackpot to be won by 11 pm’ or ‘Prize to drop before 2,500’.
- 5. Beginners luck. (the more complex strategy.) A false claim or true that it exists? For any new player looking to join an online casino, we can say with much confidence that you will land a ‘BIG WIN’ from an online slot within your first 50 spins of a game. Here’s how we know… The casinos are built with management tools implemented into gaming analytics. They will know what you as a player will pay on average, what type of games you play and a few more detail irrelevant to the idea of using this as a strategy. A new player has no past expense history with the casino, therefore, it cannot dictate your winnings based on the money put into the games. So, for all players, once played, this is what you do: Clean your cache on your device. Don’t play the same game for a month. During this time the casino will have updated the games cleaning them of faults. Proceed to the games and play again and always play and bet on new ones. This is a strategy that will yield must success.
Note: Every virtual based machine is essentially a slot machine game, the programming and algorithms are the same, the only difference is the face of the game’s presentation i.e. cards, wheels, dice and video poker. The active motion of any game is the same, a roll of the dice is the same as a rotation of a slot reel, and so on. So, these strategies work for all games in the realm of virtual machine formats.
How Do You Know When a Slot machine Will Hit?
So, how to tell if a slot machine is hot. As mentioned previously, some casinos will hold a winners table, this informs players, who the user is which won, how much they won and on what game. Other indications come from news stories which we hold on our site. We will inform you when the big progressive jackpots are won.
If we go back to the function of RTP, not many players know the concept of this factor and inevitably bet on whatever game looks to have a more appealing title or theme. Therefore, a good indication is within the menu of popular of favourite games. A large portion of these will be high RTP based games, hence the money going in will increase the percentage chance of a payout.
Another tip, which no other guide will give, is to study the menu layout. If one week a game is found halfway down the list and then suddenly top the next. This is a good indication that the slot has been updated to clean any faults and to remove bugs. This means its cache has been cleared and will play like a new game, void of your history. A simple way to test this is to check to see if the coin/chip value is the default value or the value you last played, which is not the default amount.
How to Win at Slots
Knowing which slot is best to play will come time. You firstly need to experiment with demo machine games. This is the risk-free way to know which slots are best to play and which ones are to be avoided before gambling for real money. Learn to lose and learn to beat the house edge,
How to Pick a Winning Slot Machine
1. The More Choice the Better
Pick slots that offer high payouts and bonus rounds and bigger pay line win features. Games with more chance better your odds. So, look for paylines above the average, which is 20 lines, avoid single pay line game. Get games with layered bonus rounds and with multi-jackpot rounds.
2. Practice, Practice and more Practice
Knowing which slot is best to play, will come time. You firstly need to experiment with demo machine games. This is the risk-free way to know which slots are best to play and which ones are to be avoided. If you lose there is no real loss and this goes for all virtual machines like video poker, blackjack and roulette.
3.Know Your Maker
How Can You Tell If A Slot Machine Will Hit Twice
There are indeed many software developers in the industry and each one wants to be unique and different. No two developers are the same and because of this, you’ll find two distinct ways casino games are made. You have providers making their game which are filled will frequent winning occurrences but pay small. Then you have providers with infrequent payback winnings, but when they do land, they are bigger. Learn about your makers within the free games of our site.
4. Beat Them At Their Own Game
You now know of RTP and RNG, but another thing to learn is the Volatility of a game, also known as the variance which is the risk level of the game. This leads back to the development of the game. The Volatility of the game comes as either High or Medium. The higher the percentage of the Volatility you will know that your payback will be smaller in frequency but higher in value. Knowing these technical aspects of the game allows you not to be lured in by catchy titles or concepts when the outcome of all is predetermined by the programming.
5. Experimentation
This is part of the practice process, but more in how you practice. So here are some tips to help you to begin experimenting.
- Experiment with different wagering amounts you bet. Which values offer more frequent wins. Is playing lower wagers more beneficial than higher ones. Does alternating work? How about going up on each spin. Testing to see if patterns come about from tactical wagering and if the algorithm can be tricked is a big strategy. There’s a reason why all games have a default value, wink, wink!
- Experiment with multiple paylines. Some games allow you to change the number of lines you can bet on. All games default to the full number, this increases your wager. But test to see if altering this is of benefit. See if you win just as much after 50 spins on 15 pay lines and you do with 20 paylines.
- Experiment with two of the same games at once. Open a secondary browser so you have two of the same games on the screen. The first you play with no changes to the default setting, then second you test each area of the game 20 spins at a time to record your findings. If leaving a game in with its default settings yield more wins than changing things, then you know how to approach a game. You can also test the one that’s not left on default with autoplay, does autoplay affect the algorithm in a positive or negative way?
Slot Strategy Summary: Our conclusion and final words on the strategies surrounding the online slot machine
There’s certainly a lot to explore before gambling for real money, but effort and time really do pay off in the end and that is the key goal. Fast wins and big values take the necessary study to conclude these outcomes. For example, had you not read this, you may have opted for a game by a developer that purposely makes their games with low RTP, you may have become frustrated and increased your wagering value, which, in turn, effects the algorithm in a negative way and your losses therefore increase and your payback decreases.
We thank you for reading our guide, stick to the plan and now see the game in the bigger picture and we are more than confident you’ll succeed. The best of luck to you.
FAQ
💯 Is there a Slot strategy that works 100%?
🎰 How effective is practice before playing slots for real money?
🍒 How are slot bonuses a strategy?
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