Jun 13, 2019 All slot games will have an RTP which is a theoretical expected percentage a certain game at casino sites pays out to you over its lifetime. It also helps you determine how much of a house edge the casino has.
Most people who go to a casino do not really know how to determine where the best slot machines are located. In the past, such machines were placed at the entrance, as well as at the ends of the aisles. However, things have changed since then, and casino managers have made some modifications.
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Usually, landbased casinos offer slot machines with different payouts. The same applies to virtual casinos, which offer online slots. There are machines with a higher and lower return to player (RTP) percentages. It is the first type, the so-called loose machines, that players should look for when in a casino.
The first thing a player should do is observe which machines are preferred by the locals, who know better from their personal experience. Usually, the groups of machines that no one is playing are the so-called tight machines. Take that in mind when choosing a slot. The player should look for a loose machine in the more crowded areas on the casino floor. Do not give up the idea of playing such a machine, even if you have to wait for a while.
Sometimes, the slot machine attendants could also help players with some information, because they know which machines are loose, and which are not.
Loose Slots Locations
As mentioned above, nowadays the casino management chooses how to organize the machines on the floor. Loose slots are placed by the casino management in specific areas of the casino floor.
Here is a list of the most common places where you can find loose slot machines:
Loose machines are usually placed on elevated carousels
The casino management is aware of the fact that people seeing other customers winning is good for business. The fact that these carousels can easily be seen from anywhere in the casino, is the main reason why a lot of loose slot machines are situated there.
Crossover areas
These are the intersection areas where people pass from one part of the casino to another. Such areas are usually considered an ideal place for placing more generous slots because a great number of people walk by on a daily basis.
In near proximity to cafés and snack bars
Cafés and snack bars are the places where usually there are not so many people playing. This, however, does not mean these areas are not among the most preferred ones when it comes to placing machines that payout.
Slot machines are also placed close to cashiers, ABMs, change booths and ticket redemption machines
The logic here is simple; all of the above-mentioned spots are places where people get money. The more people win at machines there, the more likely it is for them to withdraw more cash and use it on the slots.
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All casinos are absolutely aware of the fact that their regular customers know where the more “generous” slots are situated. This is exactly why these machines are frequently moved around the place in order to make it harder for local people to find them. In such cases, players could make a note of the slot machine's identification number in order to easily recognize it when it is moved.
Tighter Slots Locations
There are also some general rules on how to spot the tighter slots in order to avoid them. Here is how you can easily recognize them:
Secluded areas
Tight machines are usually placed at the more secluded areas of the casinos. Secluded areas may look very comfortable, but they are quiet for a reason; almost no winnings are made there.
At the casino entrances
As mentioned above, these were great places when it comes to putting loose slots. But casino management realized that it is not a good place to situate such a machine, because people never went any further into the casino. This is exactly the reason why nowadays the slot machines located at the casino entrances are tighter.
Slots located near ticket or show lines
This is actually a great place to put a slot machine because most people actually just stand there and wait. This is how people can be tempted to just go and try their luck on the slot machines nearby instead of waiting in line.
Around the table games and near the sportsbook
The slot machines located around most table games are usually tight in order to distract players from their gameplay. The same applies to the machines situated near the Sportsbook.
Reading the Slot Payout Meter
After choosing the best area to play a slot machine in, choosing the machine itself is also not an easy job to do. Players also find it hard to pick a certain machine, because sometimes there are several identical machines located in the same area, and they are striving to always choose the machine showing the highest jackpot on its payout meter window.
When it comes to playing in landbased casinos, the mechanical slot machines usually have their payout meter window situated at the bottom left or right corner, next to the window that displays the credits available.
It is also important for the player to check the payout meter window to get some information about the previous amount the machine has paid out. Of course, the fact the last player managed to win money does not necessarily mean that the same applies to the next player.
Still, it is proven that there are certain patterns that exist in systems of random numbers. These patterns can occur even when the player gets several wins at a time. Of course, this does not mean that the machine is not controlled by a Random Number Generator, but that there are some patterns even in systems of random numbers.
Some experts recommend that it is a good idea to play several spins on a machine, which has just paid out a large amount of money, or even the jackpot itself, instead of playing one that shows zero on its payout window. Some players even leave a machine as soon as they have managed to get a payout without even bothering to clear the payout window. It is also a great idea to choose such machines.
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Introduction to Choosing Slot Machines
Once a specific casino has been determined to currently be the best of any available, choosing slot machines becomes the next step towards making a profit at slots.
Remember, statistics supplied to state gaming commissions show that the odds of winning are, on average, somewhere around 90%. By assessing all available casinos, then selecting the best possible, you’ve already improved your odds of winning – perhaps by several percentage points.
Whatever your gambling goals are, we’ll talk about those in the next step Identifying Gambling Goals. For now, we need to consider choosing slot machines that will most likely improve our overall odds even more.
So, we’ve walked into our best casino to choose slot machines with the highest odds of winning we can find. How do we select a good slot machine? Most people don’t – they dive right in without much of a plan. Well, we have a plan.
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Why? Because everybody says it’s all about luck. If you pick wrong, “Well,” they say, “better luck next time.” Remember, casino employees are trained to say things like that. If you’d won a jackpot instead, you can believe they would have said, “You’re lucky! I’ll see you later when you win another jackpot!”
Slot attendants have a job to do, and it most certainly isn’t to get you to leave when you should. And, it’s difficult to not to influenced by such comments. But, try not to be.
In the following sections, I’ll briefly explain the following aspects of choosing slot machines:
- How odds are set within a slot machine
- Choosing denomination and maximum credits based on bankroll
- Basics of reading a slot machine’s paytable
- A simple way to use paytables to pick the best machines, and avoid the worst
Two Separate Odds of Winning
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The odds of winning for a slot machine is a limited number of settings from the manufacturer. Besides understanding limited settings are available, it may help to understand that slot machines have two odds of winning to determine:
- If a player will or will not win anything
- How much that win will be, i.e., the jackpot amount
Why is understanding these two types of odds significant when choosing slot machines? Because winning slot machines come in all jackpot sizes. You’re still winning if you’re getting enough small jackpots that your bankroll isn’t shrinking. Even if it is slowly depleting, the bankroll can last quite a bit longer, so that’s also a winning slot machine.
Winning many jackpots this way is bankroll cycling. It may not seem very satisfactory, but whether it does or not depends entirely on what your gambling goals are. One type of gambling goal, earning maximum complimentary gifts, is most often achieved via bankroll cycling.
Another point about setting slot machine odds is, how often they change? Of course, it depends on the age of the casino, as discussed in the previous step Assessing Casinos for Success, or if it’s been renovated lately.
In my experience, older-style casinos change their slot machine odds every 7-10 days. Newer-style casinos can change their slot machine odds whenever the machine has been idle for 15 minutes or more, without a players club card inserted or the machine temporarily locked by a slot attendant.
Matching Bankrolls to Denomination/Credits
Only you can decide how much bankroll you want to risk gambling. I highly recommend bringing only as much money you can safely afford to lose comfortably.
Bankrolls quite literally determine which slot machines you can play. But, there’s more to it than understanding a $100 bankroll lets you play a 1-credit, $100-denomination exactly once, with very, very little chance of winning.
Whatever bankroll you have limits which slot machines can be played and how much it can be played. Slot machines have denominations ($0.01, $0.25, $1, $5, $10, etc.) and the maximum credits that can be placed in a single bet.
Slot machines typically must run for a while before wins become more likely. Yes, wins can occur at the first press of a button. They can also happen within the first few bets, where casinos offer a taste. But, usually, they need to run for a while.
About 100-120 bets is the right amount to be prepared to play to determine if you’re sitting at a winning (or breakeven) slot machine. Yes, be careful initially, perhaps making as few as 20 bets, to determine if it happens to be a “bad” machine. Trust your instincts!
If it is a poorly performing machine, a “tight” slot machine, it won’t pay out anything at all. Quick decisions are necessary here, so limited betting gives a clue to its performance, yet still leaves enough to gamble with on another machine if it isn’t – assuming you stop playing it as soon as you notice it’s not performing well enough.
So, again, you determine how much bankroll you can afford to spend. Now, take that number and divide it by 120 bets. If your bankroll is $60, then that’s 50 cents per bet. In such a way, the right choice is a 2-credit, quarter-denomination slot machine. Or, a 50-credit, penny-denomination slot machine.
Always remember to play maximum credits for the highest odds of winning. Meaning, your casino may not have a 2-maximum-credit quarter or 50-maximum-credit penny machines. But, perhaps they have a 1-maximum-credit quarter or less-than-50-maximum-credits penny machines. Such slot machines would provide more than 120 bets of play, which is going in the right direction!
Reading a Slot Machine’s Paytable
When choosing a slot machine to play, a crucial aspect of winning is to review its paytable before playing. Frankly, the casino industry gains an advantage over players that don’t read slot machine paytables.
Located somewhere on a slot machine is one or more tables showing the number of credits won if specific combinations of reel symbols appear in the pay line after the player makes a bet. Below is a relatively generic example of a paytable.
The figure shows reel combinations along with their jackpot depending on the number of credits bet. Paytables don’t typically explain how much credits
Not every reel combination and its associated jackpot are usually shown in a paytable. Other reel combinations not shown in the top rows are also presented in the paytable area. Slot machines with WILD symbols can represent it with a myriad of other possible reel symbols.
A final element of paytable example provided is specific information on winning reel combinations, which can include an indication of how the slot machine operates during play. The bottom row of symbol explains that that slot machine has reel symbols which will move after the reels stop momentarily.
Such additional features may not activate until the maximum credits are bet. It can sometimes be difficult, or impossible, to determine this. Most slot machines with bonus rounds will provide at least some information about it within its paytable.
Developing a habit of reviewing and studying a slot machine’s paytable can help improve your ability to judge the financial risks involved with playing that slot machine.
How to Avoid the Worst Slot Machines
The best way to improve the odds of winning via slot machine gambling is to stop making “sucker bets”. In less colorful language, avoid playing slot machines with terrible odds of winning.
First and foremost, understand when choosing slot machines that there are indeed terrible slot machines at a casino. By merely avoiding them whenever possible, on average, your long-term gambling return will improve. Each time we raise our odds like this, we’re pushing closer to achieving our gambling goals. So, let’s make sure we do that, shall we?
Calculate this “Goodness Ratio” as follows:
- When choosing slot machines, as discussed above, find the paytable with the denomination and maximum credits that best matches your available bankroll.
- Take a close look at the paytable. What is the maximum possible jackpot when maximum credits are bet?
- If the top jackpot is displayed in currency, divide it by both the denomination of the machine and the maximum credits
- If the top jackpot is displayed in credits, divide it by only the maximum credits
This “Goodness Ratio” tells us how worthwhile a specific slot machine is to play relative to others. By using this approach, any slot machine can be compared to any other slot machine.
Example: In the paytable above, the maximum jackpot is 2,400 credits with three maximum credits. Therefore, its Goodness Ratio is 2,400 / 3 = 800.
Repeat this calculation for slot machines of interest. While this Goodness Ratio will be similar for many slot machines, it can be startling to find “sucker bet” slot machines that might not otherwise be avoided.
Summary for Choosing Slot Machines
After a casino has been chosen, it’s time to select candidate slot machines most likely to result in a relatively high-value win. The size of your available bankroll, whatever it is, is an essential factor in this selection process. The bankroll size needs to be matched to the slot machine’s denomination and the number of maximum credits.
Here, we’ve also discussed how slot machines calculated odds twice: once to determine if you’ve won, and again to determine how much you’ve won. Another critical aspect discussed to improve a player’s performance was the basics of reading a slot machine’s paytable.
Finally, we talked about the “goodness” ratio to help select candidate slot machines and, perhaps critically important when improving our odds of winning, knowing precisely which slot machines must be avoided.
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The next step on your journey to improving slots performance is Identifying Gambling Goals. Enjoy!
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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
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