Take the time to review the pay table and identify the type of slot you’re playing. Also, consider the slot machine’s payout percentage. With online slots, the payout percentage is usually audited by one of the large accounting firms. Many slots have payouts that approach 98%. A group pull is when a group of slot players pool their bankrolls to play a slot machine, often for a slightly higher stake than they would usually play slot machines for and split any winnings. Many of our featured slot channels hold group pulls, and as such if you are nearby one of the land based casinos in which they are being played at then. Like the roulette wheel, where every play is completely random and independent, one pull of a slot handle is completely random and completely independent of the previous or next pull. It all comes down to the precise moment that you pull that handle or push that 'Spin' button (i.e. Which set of random numbers you select).
The name “Penny Slot” is something of a misnomer. Most people who don't know better might assume that a penny slot costs a penny to play but that's not the case. For decades, the most popular slot machines in U.S. casinos were nickel slot machines. In the late 1960s, Bally Manufacturing developed an innovative machine called the Money Honey, a penny slot that could be played for up to five coins simultaneously. These multi-line machines that accepted multiple coins per line were a hit with players—despite the fact that they were playing more per pull of the one-armed bandit's handle.
The New Penny Slots Offer Extra at a Price
The new penny slot games offer their fair share of electronic excitement with such features as theme songs from popular game shows and movies, bonus screens, and special mystery payoffs. However, all of these extras come at a cost. The most popular games from the Japanese video conglomerate Konami including 'Race Driver' and 'Beat the Field' require a minimum of 50 coins amounting to a dollar per spin. Several other manufacturers have games with up to 16 lines that require up to 100 coins per spin—totaling a whopping 1,600 pennies.
While slot manufacturer IGT offers a penny version of its popular 'Megabucks' game that can be played for just a few pennies, for the standard 'Megabucks' machine, which is a $1 variety, the player must play three coins per spin, or $3. On the new 'Penny Megabucks,' the player is required to play the maximum of 300 coins per spin, so the price is the same.
The Odds Are With The House
These machines are built to be both fun and addictive. They require a minimum number of coins/lines to qualify for the bonus screens (where the bulk of the payoffs are made). Players must make sure to play enough coins/lines to get the payoff when a bonus hits.
For someone to play a 25-cent video poker game, they'll have to play five coins in order to qualify for a 4,000-coin royal flush. That's $1.25 per spin for a chance to win $1,000. On most penny slots offering payoffs of bronze, silver, and gold, the big payoff is much harder to win than the 45,000-to-1 odds on a video poker game. Plus, the player will likely risk $2.50 to $5 per spin to win it. That adds up.
The Psychology of Small Payoffs
Human beings are creatures of habit and thanks to the lure of instant gratification are prone to gamble. When players consistently receive small payoffs, psychology kicks in. The mind tricks itself into believing, 'Great, I'm winning,' when in reality, the player's initial deposit is usually being frittered away to nothing.
Penny slots have the kind of high hit frequency that ropes players in. As fun and exciting as the promise of winning may be, most of the time, the payoff is actually less than the initial wager on a spin. In other words, the bells and whistles go off on a regular basis but for small payoffs. For example, a player might risk something like 100 coins and only get a payoff of 18 coins.
Play Responsibly
The main issue with gambling in general—and penny slots, in particular—is that as a player, you mustn't forget that your personal bankroll is considerably smaller than that of the casino. Bear in mind that if you budget $200 for a trip to a particular casino where playing a penny slot takes 250 coins per spin, you won't get nearly enough spins to make a dent in the long-odds of hitting a substantial jackpot before your bankroll is exhausted.
Fast Facts: Tips for Newbie Penny Slot Players
As with any form of gambling, playing the penny slot machines should be approached with caution.
- Start by choosing just a few lines or just a single coin per spin.
- It's not recommended for players to automatically hit the maximum spin button.
- Read the help screen to find out how many coins it takes to have a bet on all the lines so you can better decide how many coins and credits to risk per spin.
Overall, players should enjoy their slot play, but never forget that gambling is gambling—especially on penny slots. A handful of pennies is still a dollar per spin. If you're playing more per spin, you'll bust-out fairly often—and it can happen very quickly.
Most amateur gamblers believe that if a slot machine hits the jackpot, then it immediately goes ‘cold’. They also believe the opposite is true; if a machine runs cold for hours, then it’s ‘due’ for a big payoff. But if you look inside modern slot machines, you learn the cold hard truth. Every single pull of the lever has equal odds of winning, and those odds are steep.
Since the earliest mechanical slot machines, gaming manufacturers have weighted the machines to tweak the odds. If you look closely at the reels of old machines, you’ll find many more blanks and low-scoring symbols than pots of gold, especially on the third or final reel. This creates the famous ‘near miss’ effect.
Modern slots have replaced the gears, cranks and stoppers with precision step motors and random number generators (RNG). When you pull the crank on a modern slot, a built-in RNG selects three numbers between one and 64. Each number corresponds to one of 22 spots on the three reels. The trick is that half of the numbers between one and 64 correspond to blank spots and only one random number matches the jackpot symbol. The odds of nailing the jackpot are 1/64 x 1/64 x 1/64 or one in 262,144.
The lever is just for show. Three internal step motors spin each reel and stop them precisely at the positions chosen by the RNG. Still feeling lucky?
Return vs payback
There is no such thing as a ‘loose’ or ‘tight’ slot machine. In modern casinos, slot machines are programmed to deliver a precise return percentage, somewhere around 95 per cent. That means 95 per cent of the money that goes into a slot machine is paid back out to the players and the casino keeps the rest.
But here’s where things get tricky. The return percentage is not the same as the payback, which is the actual amount of money you win or lose during each gambling session at a slot machine. If you sat down at a slot machine for eternity and pulled the lever an infinite amount of times, your payback percentage would be exactly 95 per cent. Likewise, in a casino full of gamblers, the collective machines will pay back roughly 95 per cent of the total money gambled during the course of a day.
Unfortunately, you are only one person and you don’t have infinite pulls. So your odds of winning are equally good or bad every pull. You could lose all day and that doesn’t mean the machine is rigged. And it doesn’t mean that the guy who wins the jackpot found the ‘loose’ machine. He just got very, very lucky.
Top 5 Facts: Gambling stats
1) Big jackpot, big odds
The odds of winning the jackpot on a ‘progressive’ slot machine like Megabucks is one in 50 million, although if you are that one you’re likely to become very rich.
2) ‘Easy’ money
68 per cent of people who gamble at Las Vegas play the slot machines most often. And there’s a large target market as nearly 90 per cent of visitors to Las Vegas gamble.
3) The house wins
In the United States, gaming was a $92 billion industry in 2007, double what it was a decade ago. And in the UK, there were 143 casinos as of 31 March 2009.
4) United States of Slots
Even though Nevada is widely considered the gambling state, there are 37 US states with some form of legalised electronic gaming device like slot machines or video poker.
How Many Pulls For A Slot Machines
5) Vegas’ most wanted
The Nevada Gaming Commission maintains a list of 35 people who are not allowed in any casino or gambling establishment. Only one of them is a woman.
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Picture Of A Slot Machine
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