Slot Machines, how do they work and how do you win?

The easiest way to win, is to hit a Jackpot on your first pull and go home. If that doesn't happen for you, the below might help.

Obviously there is no sure fire way to beat a slot machine. If there were, we would all be rich and casinos would no longer exist. But by following this guide of what to look for, you will be surprised at just how far your bankroll will get you.

Avoid the latest and greatest bells and whistles themed slots. What is a theme slot? If it features brands you know and love, like the Wizard of Oz or Willy Wonka and such. That's a theme. Pretty much anything based on a big movie or TV show is a themed slot. Recently these slot makers have added musicians, bands and even YouTube personalities to their list of themes. 

So why are they bad for you? Leasing and Royalty fees for one. Now, I'm just going to pull some numbers straight out of my asshole here, just in case you are a slot director. These numbers will vary by casino and market, but the premise is true. 

Lets say an average machine is expected to "earn" $50.00 an hour, 24 hours a day. A standard slot machine that the casino owns can afford to keep 10% of what it takes in. If you gamble $2.50 per spin and can get 200 spins in on an hour (3-4 spins per minute roughly) that's $500.00 of coin-in thru the machine. The game pays back 90% to you (on average) and gives 10% to the casino (this ain't no soup kitchen).

Fortunes are won every day on a slot machine. But those lucky few are such a small minority of slot players, and the average gamer can only dream of hitting the big one. The best I have ever done was winning a $10,365.00 progressive on a $3.00 Max Bet. But I did it! Sure it was dumb luck, unlike Video Poker, these machines have no player advantage. Pretty much hit the spin button and cross your fingers. But you can use your head and find the right game.

A lot of gambling jurisdictions have to report their holds. While not always by casino, certainly by area. Just google "Slot machine odds Nevada". You will notice  trends, and that is, the higher the denomination, the less the casinos holds. If they want the bigger play, from the bigger fish, they offer better returns on a $5.00 per credit denom machine, than a penny one. It is simple math. The higher the denom, the higher the bet can be.

If you are fine playing a game that has a $5.00 max bet, go ahead and see if you cant change that to dimes. You could bet the same $5.00 per spin (50 lines X 1 at a dime per line, VS 50 lines X 10 at a penny per line). While not always true, any casino host will tell you the higher the denom, the higher the return.

At the very least, these tips will give you more play time on a game, cutting down your losses by slowing the hemorrhaging of cash, is a win unto itself. But also picking the right slot can actually mean a winning day at the casino.

Avoid all of those huge progressive machines! Or at least play them sparingly. Most machines in a certain denomination pay back about the same. On pennies, figure 88% as a rough average. So that game with a max Jackpot of $1,000.00 is much more beatable than the one with a $1,000,000.00 Jackpot. It’s simple math. 

While both of these types have the same 88% payback, the one with the lower Jackpot will payout much more in the short term. Meanwhile that huge 1 Million Jackpot keeps building up, since the machine is taking away money that could have been put back into the game (to equal that 88% payback number) and it is now holding it for one lucky Jackpot winner. THEIR Million Dollar victory spreads out to equal the average.

IE, for a machine to return $1MIL, you can either play the game where 1 person will get a million OR, aim low, like my love life in college, and play a game that pays out $10,000, and sees 1,000 winners hit that over the expected average. The casino still see that $1MIL being returned, but which is more likely to be you? 1 in a million or 1 in 10 thousand? 

So find yourself a game with a low Top Award and play away. This is what I do. Sure, I chase the dream every now and then, but aiming for a low Top Award is playing smart. And even if you don’t win any money, all that extra game time you will be getting, as your smaller wins keep recycling themselves, will end up being more players club points on your card.

Sure, you lost your $1,00.00 in an hour, but you put a ton of play through your card (coin-in) and you now have some slot club credits that you will build up for a room or at least some food. So that’s still a win!

Now pennies are the worst bet in a casino. But they are now everywhere. Why? Game time. You can get plenty of play on one of these machines, and they will help you move up through those slot clubs even faster. These machines are notorious with “wins” that are actually losses. You spent $1.25 on that spin and you just “won” $1.00.

Sure, you actually lost a quarter, but you are now recycling your money. I know a ton of people with higher level players’ club cards that are actually low rollers in real life. But they play pennies, and get plenty of coin-in, so they are rewarded as much as players that bet bigger, but do so for a shorter amounts of time. Anything can happen in the short term. These machines are set up over the long haul. Casinos would much rather have a player betting 1.00 a pull on the pennies, for 10 hours a day. Then they are seeing a player betting $50.00 a pull on the 2 credit $25.00 denom machine, who only plays for a handful of minutes. Their total coin in is the same, but the actual risk to the casino is much higher with a stick and run higher denom player. 

The below example is the perfect machine to play, if you cant afford those $25 credit machines. You will get plenty of game time on this type of machine, and in the short term, you stand a decent chance of cashing out a winner. If you like penny slots, this would be your go to.

So what exactly are you looking at?

The top hit is only $67.50 per line hit. Now this is when you are playing at the .25 a spin level.  That’s 1 times the bet. That quarter will cover all 27 lines and whatever you win it pays back 1 times the symbol. So getting the 7’s will pay you $67.50 per line. Play .50 a spin and you are now doubling whatever wins you get. So, $135.00 is the top line hit now. Play .75 per and you are now looking at $202.50 ETC. With a top hit that low, and the same 88% payback as other machines, you stand a much better chance of actually hitting the highest award on the game. No “hold back” to feed a massive progressive.

27 Ways to win! With 27 ways to win, and only 3 reels, chances are you will hit something each spin. Not always will it actually be a profit, but the more money you can recycle, the better your chance of being on the machine long enough to win a higher amount. More ways to win equals a better shot at a Jackpot. And certainly more time on device. 

Multiple Bet Choices. Depending on your level of play you can chose your risk on these games. Play $0.25 (1 times) $0.50 (2 times) $0.75 (3 times) $1.25 (5 times) & the Max Bet of $2.50 (10 times). The more you are willing to risk, the higher the game will actually pay you when you hit something great. There is nothing wrong with low rolling on this type of game. Since that same .25 bet will win you all of the features as the 2.50 bet. Just for less money. You want better odds? This type of game offers that. Since we all know that (usually) the higher the denomination the better the payback. You can switch this from pennies to 2 pennies. Some of these games will let you jump to nickles dimes or quarters as well.

Bonus Game. This game does have a bonus game, so it will keep you engaged the longer your slot session gets. But even in the Bonus Game the awards are not life changing. That means it comes up quite frequently. Same principle, the games with huge payouts in the bonus game on lower bets have to have a way to justify those higher amounts. They do so by paying you less in the base game or making the bonus very hard to get. So a slot like this means you can win just as much money in the Bonus game as you do in the base game! No hold-over dough!

I’ve actually done very well on this game from Atlantic City to Indiana to Las Vegas. Slow and steady wins the race. And even when I don’t get a chance to actually cash out a winner, I know I sat and played on that game long enough to reap the rewards of the slot clubs. And that is how you win. You lost $100.00 on this machine, but got $1,000 in play off of it. That should be enough for a casino to send you a free room on your next visit. You took your chance at winning some money, had some fun playing in a casino and earned yourself a free room. So what did you really lose?

If you are a high roller that can afford to play High Limit Slots, which are historically the best paying in a casino, you can skip the next bit. But if you are medium to low roller like me, read on!

Play High Limit from time to time. Everyone hears the stories about someone walking into the High Limit room and hitting for a massive payday. It happens all the time. The only difference is, they had the Bankroll to bet $50.00 a spin. But you can fluke into a winning. Try a couple of spins and if you crap out, high tail it on out of there.

Don’t chase on one of these machines, they will chew you up fast! And in realty, you are only getting about 10% better odds versus their penny counter parts. Sure 10% is great. That means $10.00 less in losses per $100.00 gambled. But your risk of ruin is much higher. Win big or go home early.

So if you are up a little, try a $1.00 machine. Play a $20.00 through and see what happens. If the game doesn’t have a bonus round, or another reason to have to play Max Bet, play 1 credit. You still get the same higher payback percentage, but you are only risking 1 credit.

So what I like to do is find a higher denomination with multi-lines that ensure I at least win my money back every few spins. Just like in pennies, the more lines the better your odds of recycling some money through.

What am I looking at?

5 lines and 1 credit per line. You are still risking $5.00 a spin but you will at least get a push every few spins (mixed bars). And at the $5.00 level you should be racking up club points in no time.

Bonus  Game. It does have a bonus game and it can actually pay well.  To keep the house advantage, this is either a champ of a bonus or a chump of a bonus. You get 10 free games and each line hit is worth double what it normally would pay. Sometimes your $5.00 bet will land you $500.00 in the bonus game. Other times you will get a slap in the face and $20.00. I’ve been on both sides of this in the past. You can also re-trigger for more games while you are in the bonus. And since these symbols pop up pretty frequently it’s a very doable bonus.

Jackpot. With a top award of $10,000 on Max bet there is no massive progressive to feed, so you have a good chance of taking this one down. If your odds are 1 in 50MIL to hit the big one playing Megabucks. Your odds here might be 1 in 50,000 or better. In other words, much more likely. 

In game multipliers. This is where the value comes in. You have the decent slow and steady payback of the base game. The good, if not unspectacular Bonus game. But also that “any time” chance of getting a decent multiplier on every spin. You might spend hours on a penny machine hoping to hit $300.00 on a great screen. But on this type of game it will pop up quite frequently. Should you chose to stick and move and cash out that big hit when it shows up, or play this won money back through the machine and hope for an even bigger one. That’s on you. I’m a coward and I stick and move all the time. I hate giving back my short term wins.

And most importantly, the actual base game symbols are what trigger the Bonus Game. It might not seem like much, but by actually taking out the Bonus Symbols from the reels, there are now more paying symbols that you can actually hit on.

There is nothing worse than having to get 3 bonus symbols to pop up on a game like this to trigger the Bonus round, only to have those same symbols actually block you from winning combinations in the base game when you don’t get all 3 on a line. So symbols that say "Free Games" are only good for the bonus trigger, while this game they are normal pay symbols that do double duty. So they never block you from a line hit! I cant tell you how many times I have played a 5 line Top Dollar game and gotten Double Diamond Double Diamond Bonus symbol. That will win you a big fat nothing. In this game the same set up will win your a line hit X 4. No more frustrations.

If you are a drinker, you can often find the above game in many high limit rooms. That means the drinks are fast and strong. I’ve spent 30 minutes on a quarter game on the normal casino floor waiting for my free drink to show up. And that free drink costs me $100.00 in slot losses. Playing this type of game in here, means a better chance at actually scoring free drinks! You'll get much more attention and faster service when you play in the grown-ups area.

In closing...

Pretty much any game can make or break you. If you hit big on any machine, don’t think it's “loose” and expect it to be a cash cow. Take the money and run! You beat the house! It’s not hard to win money in Vegas. It’s hard to keep the money you won!

So how do I normally score in Las Vegas? I play the above types of games. If I’m losing on dollars I’ll switch to the same version on quarters. Sometimes I win money, other times I lose. But by limiting my play mostly to games that I stand a solid chance of winning on, I always ensure that I get the most out of my bankroll and play through as much money as I can afford to maximize my comps. And those comps can quickly offset your loses.

Sure, I might have lost $1,500.00 on these greedy machines over 3 nights. But I also played through $15,000.00 of coin. And that type of play got me my room free, my meals free and got me into a couple of attractions like Shark Reef or the art museum at Bellagio for free! So instead of spending my money to pay for my vacation, I gambled my way into getting it covered.

Here is an easy breakdown of a Thurs-Sun Vegas stay for a non-gambler, based on a 4 day 3 night trip (average).

Room at a decent joint $150 X 3 + Resort Fee X 3 plus taxes X 3 = $550.00

Parking (if you drive) $20.00 a day ($10 each resort for 4 hours X 2 resorts) x 4 = $80.00

Food $55.00 per day (1 buffet or decent meal + 2 quick service meals) x 4 = $220.00

Shows and attractions $75.00 per day X 4 = $300.00

Boozy Drinks $40.00 per day x 4 = $160.00

Spas, shopping, club hopping ETC (time fillers) $50.00 per day x 4 = $200

Totals: $1,510.00. No bounce back comps or chance to offset this money. You spent it, its gone.

Here is an easy breakdown of a Thurs-Sun Vegas stay for a gambler (that plays right), based on a 4 day 3 night trip (average). Note: It might take a few trips to earn a better club card.

Room at a decent joint $0 X 3 + Resort Fee waived plus taxes on $0.00 = $0.00

Parking (if you drive) Waived with the better players club card you earned by gambling = $0.00

Food per day (1 buffet or decent meal + 2 quick service meals) comped with the resort credit you might have had with your comped stay or by using the points you earned on your card while gambling = $0.00

Shows and attractions free by being a player. If you earned Platinum with MGM, the Bellagio art center is free, so is Shark Reef & Siegfried & Roy's habitat. If you are staying with Total Rewards, and earned Diamond, you have some free show tickets or a trip on the High Roller at no charge  = $0.00

Boozy Drinks $0.00 You know to order your drinks for free while playing = $0.00

Spas, shopping, club hopping ETC (time fillers) $0.00 per day. You are gambling, not doing this stuff to fill time = $0.00

Projected Gambling losses $1,500.00

Totals: $1,500.00. Not only is that 10 bucks cheaper for your trip, you'll probably score a room upgrade with your better players club card, skip the lines at most places you want to eat. Enjoy free valet or maybe even some free grub in the players club lounges around town.

But most importantly, you might actually win AND get all of that free stuff. You had the balls to risk your money to cover your vacation and it paid off. You took the casinos money and took advantage of this hospitality. Win win. The non-gamblers took zero risks so they would never end up with a free vacation.

The above is obviously in a vacuum. Hey Grid, I don't park my car so take 80 bucks off my total. And weekend rates where I stay are just $110 per + fees/taxes. OK that's $200.00 off for you. But the gambler got $200 in free play with their stay. Right back to even.

I haven’t paid for a room in years. I always stay for free at some of the finer properties in town (Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Mirage etc) almost everything I eat comes from the comp money I earn, and with cheap flights, Las Vacations actually save me money versus vacationing elsewhere.

 I go to Las Vegas 2-3 times year.  Even when I lose my bankroll, it’s still cheaper than a vacation to Disney World! Zero chance the Mouse will comp you anything. So that money is lost the minute you book. In Vegas, when I come home with all the money I started with, or even some extra AND everything I did on the trip was still comped, that’s a double win. So play smart, narrow their edge over you and only play the higher risk games when you are up and you will be pleasantly surprised just how much more you get out of your stay.

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