Las Vegas Slot Machine Strategies

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Myths and truths of slot machines.

1. Casinos put their winningest machines close to the door.
Myth. They sprinkle them throughout the casino. They want people to see winners all over the casino, not just by the door or the buffet where people tend to play and run. A customer that wins mid casino, stays and talks about it is just as valuable if not more.

2. Play max credit. Some truth, some myth. Ok there are some machines where you will want to do this. Any slot with a progressive jackpot that can only be won with max coins in should be played max or not at all. Also, any machine with any sort of extra bonus payout such as 1,2,3.5 should always be played max coins in. Some machines with bonus mini games or extra lines that only come up with max in should also always be played max coins. All others it does not matter.

3. Oh darn, that guy won on my machine, if I'd have just kept playing, that win was mine.
Myth. The RNG is continuously operating and generating even when the machine is idle. The chances that you would have spun it at the exact same nanosecond under the exact same conditions with the rng generating exactly the same thing as he did are remote.

4. Don't play at the Airport. Truth. The Airport has the worst odds. Also convenience stores, independent restaurants and the like and operations under say 20 machines

5. Casinos can cheat and change winning percentages on the fly and make you lose.
Myth. Even on the new remote machines being tested, once you have spun, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do can change the outcome as it has already been determined at the moment you spun.

6. Progressives have lower odds of winning than non progressives.
Truth. Someone has to pay for the risk of huge payouts from time to time. That someone is you and you pay with a slightly lower overall payout percentage.

7. Payouts at places like M, and the Boulder strip and downtown are better than the strip.
Truth but with caveats.
There is slightly less consumer friendly odds on the strip in general, but depending upon the game type and such, that may not hold true for every machine and the difference is slight.

8. Higher denomination machines have better odds.
Truth. But they pay like they play, not necessarily like they're labelled.

 

[kandb]

I like the slots and have playing for years. I live in NJ and go to Atlantic City, NY casinos and TBH, I think the amount and frequency they payout has drastically decreased over the last 30 years. I really feel they used to pay out more often and better. A few friends of mine feel the same way. Any truth to this? Sometimes I think by the casino's giving away cars and such, it takes away from the machines hitting. Wonder if that is the reason?

 

[bcla]

3. Oh darn, that guy won on my machine, if I'd have just kept playing, that win was mine.
Myth. The RNG is continuously operating and generating even when the machine is idle. The chances that you would have spun it at the exact same nanosecond under the exact same conditions with the rng generating exactly the same thing as he did are remote.

4. Don't play at the Airport. Truth. The Airport has the worst odds. Also convenience stores, independent restaurants and the like and operations under say 20 machines

5. Casinos can cheat and change winning percentages on the fly and make you lose.
Myth. Even on the new remote machines being tested, once you have spun, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do can change the outcome as it has already been determined at the moment you spun.

Sure. However, it really depends on the current clock speeds. With an old machine running at 25 MHz that's literally cycling through 25 million pseudo-random numbers per second. Have fun trying to time that. Even with more modern machines it's a billion per second. Of course it's not possible for every possible outcome to be possible within a second or even over a few seconds. But it is sufficiently random for the gambling regulators.

I believe in Nevada there's a legal requirement that the average theoretical payout is at least 80%. Gaming officials can come in at any time and ask that a particular machine be taken out of service for testing. They can always test the source code to see how the odds are set.

 

[_19disnA]

I believe in Nevada there's a legal requirement that the average theoretical payout is at least 80%. Gaming officials can come in at any time and ask that a particular machine be taken out of service for testing. They can always test the source code to see how the odds are set.

That is my understanding as well. The Nevada gaming commission is very strict and rightly so. There always has to be the possibility of a machine hitting a jackpot, no matter how slight to be legal.

I think the amount and frequency they payout has drastically decreased over the last 30 years. I really feel they used to pay out more often and better.

I agree with that also. Now that there are more places to gamble then just Nevada or Atlantic City, I certainly think machines are paying out less. It seems they used to pay out more to gain visitors, but now that most casinos are always full, that is no longer as big of an issue, so they payout less. A given amount of money used to last much longer then it does now.

The MGM & Caesar's properties in Vegas have also recently added that $40/day room fee and now charge ~$20/day for parking which also says that attendance isn't their main concern.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I like the slots and have playing for years. I live in NJ and go to Atlantic City, NY casinos and TBH, I think the amount and frequency they payout has drastically decreased over the last 30 years. I really feel they used to pay out more often and better. A few friends of mine feel the same way. Any truth to this? Sometimes I think by the casino's giving away cars and such, it takes away from the machines hitting. Wonder if that is the reason?

As more and more progressive type machines are coming into play well the high payouts of the progressive jackpots mean that other type payouts diminish. So your total payout on a progressive machine is going to be is lower than a non progressive of the same. And the progressive machines that generate mega millions in jackpots are going to be the lowest. Somebody has to pay for these higher jackpots on the progressive machines. .And that someone is all the other gamblers that don't win them. Of course the gambler has to decide whether he wants a shot at the progressive jackpot or if he wants a higher overall payout percentage and much smaller jackpots.

Edit. The Megabucks machine is a special bad breed. Unlike in house progressives, that just build their jackpot from the bank of machines right there, the Megabucks machine gives you a chance at a statewide megabucks jackpot in exchange for a payout less than penny machines. Oh and if you win the megabucks, just like in powerball, if you take a lump sum, you get less.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I just looked up Vegas numbers on payouts.

The strip was the worst in every category. Downtown a little better. Neither on the strip nor downtown even better. Not surprising.

Notice in general the higher the pay in to the machine, the better the payback. But this is not universal. Nickel beat pennies in all places, but quarters on the strip went down from nickels. I suspect many a nickel machine on the strip is one of those that says 5 cents but you really put in 2, 4, or even 6 dollars a spin. Dollars did better than quarters everywhere but the boulder strip and North Las Vegas But not by much. Of course then we have our friends the megabucks machines.

1¢ Slot Machines
The Strip – 88.49%
Downtown – 88.93%
Boulder Strip – 90.57%
N. Las Vegas – 90.82%

5¢ Slot Machines
The Strip – 91.88%
Downtown – 93.39%
Boulder Strip – 96.01%
N. Las Vegas – 95.47%

25¢ Slot Machines
The Strip – 89.97%
Downtown – 94.41%
Boulder Strip – 96.56%
N. Las Vegas – 96.45%

Dollar
The Strip – 92.63%
Downtown – 94.76%
Boulder Strip – 95.90%
N. Las Vegas – 95.79%

Megabucks dollar.
The Strip – 86.81%
Downtown – 86.95%
Boulder Strip – 87.22%
N. Las Vegas – 87.83%

All Slot Machines

The Strip – 92.00%
Downtown – 92.78%
Boulder Strip – 94.37%
N. Las Vegas – 93.56%

 

[_19disnA]

^^ And all of those are the LONG TERM payout percentages. Most people gamble for a few minutes/hours so those mean less. You might hit a jackpot or lose the money you put in the machine. They do seem to be raising the minimums on many of the slots so where you used to be able to bet $.25 or $.50 each spin has gone up quite a bit. Again, it just depends on how long you plan to gamble and how much money you can afford to lose.

My favorite is watching others when I play roulette. The numbers are RANDOM and the fact #12 came up on the prior spin has NO bearing on what the next spin will be. There is no skill involved in playing roulette, but funny to watch those who think they have 'figured out' something who apparently have no grasp of probability/statistics.