- How To Win At Slot Machines
- Buffalo Slot Machine Wins
- How To Win On Slot Machines Tips
- Slot Machine Wins Youtube
Slot machines have several attractive qualities, including jackpots, bonus features, and interesting themes. Many gamblers are drawn to these benefits as a result.
However, one big downside to slots is that they seem unbeatable. Your bankroll often vanishes much faster on slot machines than with any other casino game.
There are three reasons why: Playing on slot machine is solitary, rapid, and continuous. You don’t have interruptions like you would in a live poker game, waiting for cards to be dealt. The outcome of each spin is random. Your odds of hitting a jackpot do not increase based on the number of spins. Each time you press the spin button, the slot machine will generate a random sequence of.
You may leave the casino feeling like you never win with slot machines. The truth, though, is that slots winnings are simply misleading.
In this post, I’ll cover why it feels like you can’t win with slot machines along with the reality behind the situation.
The RTP Is Misleading
Each slot machine is programmed to offer a certain return to player (RTP). For example, a slot with 96% RTP will pay back $0.96 for each dollar wagered on average.
You definitely want to play games with high payout percentages whenever possible. But even when you’re on a game with high RTP, you may lose lots of money.
This situation leads to conspiracy theories, such as casinos changing payback whenever they feel like it or purposely lying about RTP. However, the truth is much less sinister.
Instead, slots are just extremely volatile games that offer unpredictable short-term results. Volatility refers to how consistent short-term results are in relation to the mean.
You may win far more money with a slot that has 90% payback versus one with 96% RTP because of volatility. In short, payout percentages do little to influence how much you win or lose in a given session.
Volatility is influenced by a combination of factors, including jackpot size, payout sizes, and RTP. Of these aspects, the jackpot and payout sizes play the largest roles.
You stand to win more often with games that have a combination of a small jackpot and other small prizes. These slots can afford to pay more frequently because they don’t have huge payouts available at the top.
Meanwhile, slot machines with big jackpots and other large prizes are highly volatile. They must cover occasional big wins and can’t offer frequent payouts without costing the casino money.
You Need Big Wins to Feel Like a Winner
Regardless of how volatile a slot machine is or isn’t, you need to hit big prizes to come out a winner. Otherwise, you’ll just keep bleeding out money over the course of a session.
Slot machines aren’t built to offer lots of payouts over a short time span, such as with baccarat or blackjack. Instead, they only deliver occasional prizes compared to your number of bets.
Even on a 50-line slot, you might only earn a payout on one out of every five spins. In this case, you’re winning just once out of 250 chances (5 x 50) on average.
Even during the course of a hot streak, you’re probably only going to collect several prizes every five spins. On the same 50-line slot, this frequency amounts to five to 10 wins out of 250 opportunities.
You aren’t going to nickel and dime your way to winning sessions. Instead, you’ll need at least one or more large prizes to profit from a slot outing.
Your Winnings Will Be Spread Out
As covered above, you ultimately need big payouts to win in slots. Unfortunately, these large prizes don’t come around very often.
You’ll rarely hit a sizable jackpot, if ever. You may have to spin the reels hundreds of thousands or even millions of times before collecting a huge prize.
That said, you have to accept the fact that your winnings will be spread out over many sessions. You may lose money for 10 straight sessions before you finally leave the casino a winner.
Part of this is due to the fact that slot machines are negative expectation games. Of course, all house-banked casino games carry a negative expectation to some degree.
You might win money in nine out of 20 baccarat sessions on average. But, with slots, you may only profit from two out of 20 sessions.
Again, everything goes back to volatility. Slot machines are so unpredictable that you don’t know when to expect your next successful casino trip.
Tips for Boosting Your Slots Winnings
You’re never going to have the degree of control over slots as you would with, say, Texas holdem or blackjack. Slots just don’t feature the same level of strategy as many other casino games.
However, you can take a few steps to improve your chances of winning. Here are some tips that’ll help you earn more with slot machines.
Play Less Volatile Slots
If you’re sick of losing session after session, then you should really consider playing less volatile slot machines. No slot pays out at a truly high frequency, but the less volatile ones do provide better short-term chances of winning.
The key aspects to consider are the payout sizes. Generally speaking, games with smaller jackpots and other prizes pay more often.
In contrast, you may want to avoid slot machines with huge progressive jackpots. Providers often seed these payouts with a fortune (e.g. $100k to $1 million), meaning they need a lot of money coming back.
Sometimes, a volatile slot machine will have a small jackpot but feature several bonuses that can lead to big payouts. These types of games also pay less frequently to make up for the lucrative bonus features.
Look for Games With High RTP
You aren’t guaranteed to win at a high rate just by playing slots with good RTP. However, you can definitely improve your long-term chances of winning by consistently playing slot machines with high payback.
Online slots are typically the best games for favorable payout percentages. Internet casinos don’t have as high of overhead costs, meaning their slots pay back more than those at land-based casinos.
Furthermore, you can actually find RTP for most online slot machines. The developers often make payback publicly available information, meaning you can just google something like “[slot name] RTP.”
Unfortunately, land-based slots don’t usually have publicly available payout percentages. The reason why is because casinos can order different pay schedules, meaning there’s no uniform RTP figure for a specific game.
A good rule of thumb, though, is that slot machines with higher coin denominations pay more. Penny slots may only offer 88% to 91% RTP, while a quarter game might deliver 93% to 95% payback.
Take Advantage of Comps
I want to state right away that casino comps aren’t worth as much as most gamblers think they’re worth. However, VIP rewards do help your bottom line to some degree.
You automatically generate comps at most online casinos. All you have to do is play real-money slots to begin earning loyalty rewards.
Land-based casinos, on the other hand, require you to sign up for their VIP program. Once you do so, you’ll receive a slots club card that tracks your play.
Cashback is universally the best comp that you can get at an online or land-based gambling establishment. This perk gives you back a percentage of the amount you bet (usually 0.1%).
Other loyalty benefits differ based on whether you’re playing online or at a brick-and-mortar venue. Internet casinos offer free spins, deposit bonuses, and birthday gifts to VIPs.
Land-based casinos are much more extensive in their offerings. Their comps can include free drinks, meals, hotel stays, limo rides, nightclub bottle service, and show tickets.
Have a Stop-Win and Stop-Loss Limit
You should always have a predefined plan before stepping into the casino. Specifically, you want to have both a stop-win and stop-loss limit set for slot machines or any other game.
Both of these limits are predefined points at which you plan to quit playing for the day. The goal is to either minimize your losses or bank winnings.
Here’s an example for how each limit works:
Stop Win
- You set a limit of $500 in winnings.
- You hit a big prize and earn $773 overall.
- You quit playing for the day.
Stop Loss
- You set a limit of $300 in losses.
- You have a rough session and quickly hit the limit.
- Even though you haven’t played long, you stop.
Stop-loss and stop-win limits don’t improve your chances of beating slot machines. But they keep you more disciplined and, in the case of stop win, help you walk out of the casino with some profits.
Conclusion
Slot machines can lead to frustrating experiences when the losses mount. Worse yet, you may have little idea on why you keep losing.
But you’ll feel better about the matter by understanding exactly why slots offer such inconsistent wins. Furthermore, you can adopt a better bankroll management plan to absorb the losses.
How To Win At Slot Machines
The first aspect to understand is that the RTP has little bearing on short-term results. You may win slightly more during a single session on games with high payback. However, RTP figures are based on average payback over the course of countless spins.
Volatility is more indicative of how much you’ll win in the short run. A really volatile slot won’t pay out as frequently as a game with lower volatility.
Regardless of how volatile a game is, you’ll still need large wins to book profits. Meanwhile, you won’t win much if you’re just earning tiny payouts here and there.
The key through all of this is to be smart about bankroll management. As long as you don’t bet more than you can afford to lose, then you’ll be fine with slot machines.
How to Improve Your Blackjack Game
Slots manufacturers and casinos swear it’s impossible, but many people claim they know how to tell if a slot machine is going to hit. Some say just by watching, they can tell when it’s “due”. Others say they emit a hot or cold aura. We’ll examine these theories and more to get to the bottom of the mystery.
- How Slots Work: Before we get into theoretical suppositions, you should know exactly what it is that makes today’s modern slots tick. Random RNG algorithms control each spin, while a predestined RTP gives the casino its edge.
- Due for a Win: “This slot machine hasn’t paid more than $5 in two hours. It’s due for a win!” Is that really true? Learn why it isn’t, and at the same time, it is…
- Hot & Cold Slots: If you’ve ever gone swimming in a pool, you know what it’s like to hit a cold spot, or worse, a warm spot (ew!). Some people claim slots emit the same thermal vibes.
- Luck & Variance: Gamblers call it luck. Slots makers call it variance. It’s the same thing. Lucky/variance is the fluctuating up/downswing that occurs between meeting a game’s RTP.
- Tips for Winning Slots: Whether you’re instincts are spot on or dead wrong, there are provably effective methods to increase your chances of winning slot machines.
Disclaimer – Not all forms of gambling are legal in all provinces of Canada. The legal age to gamble also varies by province. Breaking the law is a serious matter. The information provided on this website is meant for educational purposes only, and we will not be held liable for any irresponsible / illegal activity on your part. Know the gambling laws in your province and follow them. The following pages provide more information on Canadian gambling laws: Alberta – British Columbia – Manitoba – Newfoundland & Labrador – New Brunswick – Nova Scotia Northwest Territory – Nunavut – Ontario – Prince Edward Island – Quebec – Saskatchewan – Yukon |
How Slot Machines Work – RNG, RTP and Volatility |
The first slot machines were invented over one hundred years ago, long before computers came along. They were mechanical devices featuring an array of drums. On the drums were various symbols. When a lever was pulled, the drums spun around, coming to a random stop. If the symbols matched up, you won. If not, you lost. Figuring out your odds of winning the big prize was as simple as multiplying the number of symbols on each drum together. Not anymore… Since the dawn of computer technology, these games have been programmed to defy traditional odds. There are no drums. The number of symbols per reel is not static. Everything is controlled by a computer chip running a software program, designed to pay out a very specific percentage of its take. The three main programmable functions of a slot machine are the random number generator (RNG), the return to player (RTP), and the volatility. Let’s take a closer look… Random Number Generator (RNG)Remember the movie, The Matrix, when the green numbers kept raining down the computer screen? That’s an RNG. It’s a random strain of seemingly endless numbers generated by a computer. The algorithm it generates determines an outcome. There are countless applications for an RNG in the real world, but few so famous as casinos games. In a slot machine, the RNG determines exactly what symbols will land in each position on the reels. If you could see the RNG, you would never be able to read it. Each and every number in the sequence is changing with each passing nanosecond. It does not stop until the exact moment a player presses the SPIN button. At that very moment, the sequence of symbols is determined by the number produced. As a player, we still see the reels spinning as they come to a slow halt, but the machine already knows where they are going to land, because the RNG told it so. The whole purpose of the RNG is to ensure no one – not the players, the casino managers, or the players – is able to predict what will happen on any given spin. It’s all about timing. Press at just the right moment, and the jackpot is awarded. For this reason, a machine could pay back-to-back jackpots just as easily as withholding the jackpot for more than a year. Knowing that this is how a game works, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could know how to predict when a slot machine will win. And yet, so many seem capable of doing so. More on that in a moment… Return to Player (RTP)The RTP is the amount of money a machine pays out, compared to what it takes in. The RTP is always displayed as a percentage. For those of you familiar with how “house edge” works, the RTP is the opposite of the house edge. RTP refers to the amount players win back, whereas house edge is the amount the casino wins. Put them together, and you get a total 100%. For example, let’s say a slot machine has a 95% RTP. This means the game will pay back 95% of its monetary intake over time. The other 5% is the amount the casino wins. Theoretically, if you were to spin the reels 100 times on this machine at $1 per spin, you would end up with $95 left. The important word here, however, is “theoretically”. RTP is always theoretical. Yes, the machine will meet its RTP. It’s a computer. They don’t make mistakes. But the RTP will only be met over a very long period of time. We’re talking 20-25 years. So no, you’re not going to win exactly $95 back and lose $5 for every $100 you wager. If that were the case, every player would lose and no one would ever want to come back to the casino. That’s where volatility comes in… VolatilityA game’s volatility determines how often it is likely to strike a winning combination, and the average size of each prize paid. It can be low, medium, or high. A low volatility game is one that pays out very small amounts very often. A high volatility game will pay high prizes, but not very frequently. And a medium volatility is a balanced game, where mid-sized payouts occur on a regular, but not too regular, basis. The volatility of a machine will not alter its RTP. Over time, they all perform equally. But in the short term, their attributes can seem very different. At low volatility, a machine will arrive at its intended RTP more frequently, whereas a high volatility game will have much greater upswings and downswings.
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How to Tell if a Slot Machine is Due to Win |
If a game has not paid out a decent sized win in a relatively long period of time, it is said to be “due” to hit. When a progressive jackpot reaches record height, more people play it because they feel it’s due to strike any moment. This certainly seems like a logical mode of action. The game will pay out big at some point, and the longer it’s been since the last big payout, the closer that moment has to be. But is it really possible to predict exactly when it will happen? As we’ve already learned, a slot machine’s RNG makes it impossible to know the exact moment a game will pay out a jackpot. But knowing when a relatively large payout is due – that’s really not so far-fetched. We know that game’s are destined to meet their RTP. And we know that an RNG determines every outcome the moment the SPIN button is pressed. Wouldn’t it make sense that the likelihood of the RNG producing a winning combination of numbers would be amplified by an actual RTP that is far below its intended RTP? The real problem with this theory is that you have to know what a game’s actual RTP is, compared to its intended RTP. The only way to know if a game is far enough behind to potentially impact the value of the RNG algorithm is to sit back and watch the game for a long period of time. If you have the patience for it, give it a shot. |
Does this Slot Machine Have a Temperature Gauge? |
Some say slot machines can be hot or cold. Some believe this is a metaphorical statement, while others swear that game’s can produce a genuine thermal output. We’ll start wit the metaphorical… A slot machine is hot when it is producing above average wins. It could be paying more frequently than its volatility implies, or it might be paying larger prizes than average. There are slots enthusiasts out there that will only play hot slot machines, hoping to ride that wave of success all the way to shore. Then there are players who avoid these game’s for fear they’ve paid all they’re going to pay for a good long while. The opposite is true of a “cold” slot machine. A cold machine is one that is paying well below average. As we’ve already discussed, a game that hasn’t paid out a decent prize in a long time gets labeled “due” for a win. Contrary to hot-slot-lovers, some players will lie in wait for a slot machine to become very cold, then pounce on it as soon as the previous player leaves, expecting a quick strike. As for those who believe a machine can become physically and detectable hot or cold, I’ve never experienced this myself. Maybe it takes a special kind of person – someone with a sixth sense, or one who can sees auras. Those who attest to its accuracy say a hot machine is ready to pay, and a cold one is not. My suggestion would be to walk the aisles and, if you feel a warm spot, give it a try. |
The Correlation Between Slot Variance & Luck |
A slot machine’s variance is how far it strays from its RTP. It is similar to volatility, except that volatility defines how much it should stray, whereas variance defines how much its actually straying at any given time. Variance is, in reality, what the majority of gamblers refer to as “luck”. When a player is having a good day at the casino, we say he is very lucky. One who is having a bad day is said to be unlucky. Luck is either on your side, or it’s not. As fun-loving gamblers, we attribute a lot to luck, or a lack thereof. But variance is the technically appropriate term. It is variance that allows some casino players to win large amounts of money, without hurting the casino’s bottom line. Those who win are on the receiving end of a game’s variance (lucky). But many more players lose, or fall on the negative side of that variance (unlucky). If one player wins a $10k jackpot, imagine how many players have to lose to pay for it, and still ensure the casino gets its due. Suffice it to say, for all those who get lucky, many more will be unlucky. It is those who genuinely believe that you make your own luck that tend to proscribe to the theory that you can tell when a slot machine is about to win. Which brings us to our final segment… |
Five Ways to Better Your Chances of Winning on Slots |
After all you’ve read, do you think you know how to tell if a slot machine is going to hit? Whether you answered yes or no to that question, here is some genuine strategic advice that really will give you the best odds of leaving the casino a winner. 1. Higher RTP is BetterLook for slot machines with the highest RTP. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win, but it does increase the potential for winning. Not all games will display their RTP, but most will define it near the end of the paytable’s Info section. 2. Play Online SlotsLand-based casino slots have a typical RTP range of 85%-95%. Online slot machines have much higher RTPs, often ranging from 95%-97%. Online slots are also more likely to reveal their RTPs in the Info section. 3. Utilize Free SpinsTake full advantage of free spins bonuses whenever possible. These promotions come with wagering requirements and other stipulations that must be met before you can cash out any winnings, but it’s hard to complain when those spins aren’t coming out of your pocket book. 4. Beware Branded TitlesAs a society, we are drawn to things we are familiar with. If we like something, we flock to its brand mimicry. Case in point – The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It is immensely popular. If you love Ellen and her show, and you walk into a casino and see her face plastered on a slot machine of the same name, odds are you’ll want to play that game. Casinos and slot manufacturers know this, and use it to their advantage, which is why branded slots tend to have the lowest RTPs. Steer clear. 5. Ask the LocalsLocal slots players who frequent a casino know exactly which games pay out best, and which ones do not. So long as you’re not infringing on their seats, they are usually happy to share that information. In fact, there are social media groups dedicated to this topic. All you have to do is ask. |
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