Slot Machines at Casino

Slot Machines Handling

Pay close attention to the pay particulars of "7s" machines; they can be tricky. We were in a online casino one day and a woman started yelling, "1 got three blue sevens! I got three blue sevens!" We looked over and sure enough, there they were, three blue 7s lined up on the pay line. However, there were no lights flashing, no bells ringing, no credits racking up, no money coming out of the machine. The woman cried, “Where’s my jackpot?" Upon closer inspection, we saw that with less than-max coins played, payoffs were limited to bars and cherries only; to get paid for 7s you had to have three coins in. The woman had played two coins, so when her three blue 7s came up, instead of winning a $1,000 jackpot, she got nothing.
As it turned out, the woman didn't have to wait long for her redemption. Brad explained to her that she had to play three coins to get paid for that hand, and then the weirdest thing happened. The woman plunked in three coins and you could've knocked us over with a feather-the three blue 7s came up again! All I could think was that there must be a gambling god someplace that sometimes takes pity on poor gamblers.

Small Pots or Long Shots?

Another good thing to know about a slot machine before you play it is whether it's a "frequent-pay" or a "big-jackpot" machine. If you're playing Quarter mania, for example, you only have to play two quarters to win a $1 million or $2 million jackpot. But because a lot of money has to go into the machine to build up the big prize, Quarter mania pays out fewer smaller jackpots. This means that unless you're one of the chosen few (very few!) who hit the headline-making pot of gold, you figure to lose at a faster rate than on machines with lower top-end prizes.
Conversely, some quarter machines have a top jackpot of only $100 or $200 or $500. The top jackpot is low, so you'll get smaller jackpots along the way, and stay in the game longer.
Some people like to hear the coins drop into the tray or see the credits rack up more frequently. Other people are playing for that lifestyle changing jackpot, like Cool Millions where you're paid $1 million on the spot, or the other "linked progressives" like Megabucks, Fabulous Fifties, Quarter mania, and Nevada Nickels where you're paid umpteen thousands of dollars for the next 20 or 25 years. Which one you go after-the small but frequent payouts or the mother of all jackpots-is entirely your choice, but you need to be aware of how it will affect your playing sessions. The rule of thumb is: the larger the high end jackpot, the less often you will have small wins.

Slot Machine Odds

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is, Dhow do I know which slot machine will give me the best odds?" Unlike video poker (as you'll see in the next chapter), determining slot machine odds is not an exact science. Far from it. Back in the" good old days" when slot machines were mechanical, you could count the number of symbols on each reel and calculate the payback percentages. Nowadays, most slot machines are computerized, allowing each casino to set the paybacks at whatever percentages they want to. It no longer has anything to do with the number of reels and the number of sym. obis that you see on each reel.
Most people don't know this, but the reels themselves are just the physical manifestation, the expression, of what's called a "random number generator." Frank Colette, a prolific gambling writer, calls it " the in the machine," which is an interesting way to.