Slot tips and slot secrets to winning on slot machines - Part 1

With hundreds of slot and video games to choose from in casinos, the majority of casino goers walk away losers because they think that every game in a casino is programmed the same way, and that their chances of winning or losing on them are the same.

That is far from the truth, because some games only have 4,097 winning and losing combinations, while others, such as progressive games, have as many as 48,836,032, making them nearly impossible to win on. The only thing every slot and video game has in common is that all of them only have one winning jackpot combination programmed into them.

A good example of how difficult it is to win on progressive games is IGT's Wheel of Fortune nickel game. Before Josephine Crawford hit the jackpot for $10 million on the machine she was playing at Harrah's in Atlantic City during April 2006, the jackpot had been building for three-years. For three years, slot players played the game without hitting the jackpot on it.

Another example is IGT's Megabucks game. At one time, the jackpot reached $39.7 million until a man who did not want to be identified hit the jackpot on it on March 21, 2003, at the Excalibur in Las Vegas, Millions of players who wagered $3.00 a spin playing the game walked away non-winners.

Besides the number of winning and losing combinations in a game, the next most important thing in winning, is how often the game returns credits to you. While the majority of games are programmed to return credits on an average of every 8.5 spins, the better games return credits on an average of every three to five spins. Averages are based on the expected life of the machine, which is three years.

The next most important thing in winning is how many credits are returned on those winning combinations. On the poorer paying machines, fifty percent of the time, you will only win minimum credits, such as cherry or wild symbol credits that only pay 1, 2, or 3-credits, or 5, 10, or 15-credits for mixed bars, depending on how many credits you wagered.

How you do on a game depends on a device called a "random number generator." As long as the power to the machine remains on, even if the game isn't being played, the RNG continuously picks a winning or losing combination every "millionth of a second." If you press the spin button or pull the handle on the machine at the precise millionth of a second that the RNG picked a winning combination, you will win whatever that combination pays, including the jackpot, if the RNG picked that combination.

A broad misconception among slot and video players is that after they stop playing a machine and see someone hit a high paying combination or the jackpot on it, that if they had played the game longer they would have won. The only way you would have won, is if you had pressed the spin button or pulled the handle at the exact millionth of a second that they did.

It really doesn't make a difference if the game has three, four, or five spinning reels, because the RNG takes control of them the instant you press the spin button or pull the handle that starts the spin. The reels will stop spinning on the winning or losing combination the RNG picked for you, using a device called a "stepper motor" to stop them. The use of a 4th and 5th reel only adds excitement to the game as you watch the reels stop spinning, hopefully, with winning symbols on the payline.

Over the years, casino goers and slot attendants have asked me hundreds of times if it makes a difference in the outcome of a spin if you only play one-coin instead of maximum coins. If you're playing games such as the Double Diamond games were your paid 800-credits for playing one-coin, 1600-credits for two-coins, and 2500-credits for playing three, it doesn't make any difference how many coins you play. It does not increase, or decrease your chances of winning. The only difference is how much you will win.

Before playing any game, you should carefully read the paytables. On every trip to a casino I see people playing games such as the Flaming Sevens were your only paid for bar combinations if you play one-coin, and any winning combination for playing maximum coins. Even if you point out to the person that they will not be paid for the seven combinations when they come up, or the jackpot, they continue to play one-coin.

Several years ago, a woman was playing the Megabucks game in Las Vegas. Instead of playing three-coins to be eligible to win the multi-million dollar jackpot, she was only playing one-coin. When the reels stopped spinning, she had the three winning Megabucks symbols on the payline. After being told that she only won $10,000 instead of the jackpot because she only played one-coin, she fainted and had to be taken to the hospital. Besides not being paid for the jackpot, it cost her over $3,000 for her hospital stay.

Never play a game that you do not fully understand. Read the paytables; flip through the help screens on video games or ask a slot attendant to explain the game to you, or someone you trust that understands the game. While playing multi-line video games, you should wager at least one coin per line.

While it is totally impossible to know how many combinations a game has, or how often you will be paid for winning combinations just by looking at a machine. Keep in mind that the higher the jackpot or payout is, the more losing combinations a game will have, the more difficult it will be to win on.

While the random number generator determines whether you win or lose, there are plenty of ways of improving your chances of winning and saving yourself money while playing slot and video games. Two of the ways are to study the pay tables carefully, and play in casinos where local residents do, and watch what kind of machines their playing, and which ones their playing and winning on.

Another important thing to realize is that not every slot club works the same way in awarding points for your play. In one of the casinos I play in, they award one-point for every twenty dollar played. Some casinos award one point for every twenty dollars played in slot machines, but require you to play forty dollars in poker video machines to earn the same point. Some of the Las Vegas Strip casinos require you to play up to one-hundred dollars in the same machine to earn one-point.

Good luck on your casino ventures. Play to enjoy yourself, not to try to break the bank - it rarely happens!