There is one golden rule to follow when deciding to play a slot machine; do not play a game if you are unfamiliar with the rules. So, no matter how easy playing the slots seems, it is important to learn the rules first. Every player should carefully consider the options provided and decide on a strategy before playing a certain slot machine.
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.
Some video slot machines have up to 25+ lines that can be played at once. However, many physical slot machines have somewhere between 3-5 lines, and classic models only have a single line. More Lines, More Chances to Win. In general, the more lines you play, the more chances you have to win. But the more lines you play to, the more each spin is. Video slots play for fun to redeem the Free Night Award e-certificate, better known as Sideshow Bob. Cash casino mobile lobby probability is the true likelihood that something will or will not happen, when a bonus feature is struck on this slot.
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.
A slot machine is loose when it pays out a lot of money. It also needs to do this often to be considered loose. You’ll see some writers say that a loose slot machine is one with a high payback percentage, but that’s not enough to qualify as loose. It also needs to have low volatility.
What’s the difference?
The payback percentage is a function of how much the prizes pay compared to how often they hit. I could create a slot machine that pays off only one prize every million spins and that pays off 1.2 million coins when it does.
That machine would provide the player with an edge, a payback percentage of over 100%, but it still wouldn’t be a “loose” machine. In fact, it would be one of the tightest machines in the casino, because it only hits on average once every million spins.
That’s what volatility means when you’re playing slots. The more often a game hits a winning combination, the less volatile the game is. Most slot machine games have a hit ratio of around 30% or so now, which means that you’ll see some kind of win about 1/3 of the time.
The size of the wins is small enough that the game still makes a profit for the casino.
Your goal should be to find the loosest slot machines you can.
The Best You Can Do Is Estimate
The math behind slot machines and other gambling games is based on long-term results, not short-term results. You can make some guesses about the settings for a game based on short-term results, but they’re not necessarily accurate.
Here’s one way you could measure the hit ratio for a slot machine game, though:
You could track how many spins you make, and also track how many of those spins resulted in a win. That would provide you with the actual hit ratio for that session.
For example, if you made 300 spins on a slot machine over the course of half an hour, and you saw 100 winning spins, you had a hit ratio of 33.3%.
If you only saw 50 winning spins, your hit ratio would only be 16.67%.
The game with the 33.3% hit ratio is probably “looser” than the game with the 16.67% hit ratio.
The Concept of Naked Pulls
Years ago I read a book about strategy when playing slot machines by John Patrick. It’s a terrible book, and I don’t recommend it.
But he did offer one concept that I thought was interesting:
The naked pulls concept.
A naked pull is one in which you get no winnings at all.
Patrick’s advice is to quit playing a slot machine once you’ve had a certain number of naked pulls in a row. I don’t remember if the number he suggested was 7 or 9, but it was something like that.
Here’s the thing, though:
A slot machine could have a hit ratio of 50% and still see 7 or 9 losing pulls in a row. It won’t happen often, but it will still happen several times a day just because of random variance.
Slot machines aren’t set on times or cycles. They have a random number generator which determines how often a winning symbol gets hit, but it doesn’t have a memory of what happened on previous spins.
Every spin of the reels on a slot machine is an independent event. This means that it isn’t affected by the previous spin.
Some of the time, if you walk away from a machine that has had several losing spins in a row, you’ll have avoided a tight machine.
Other times, you’ll just be walking away from a loose machine for no reason other than short-term variance.
What’s More Important? Hit Ratio or Payback Percentage?
Deciding which of these 2 factors is more important is more about your temperament as a gambler than anything else.
If you’re impatient and don’t want to lose a lot of money fast, you should look for a game that seems to have a high hit ratio. I’ve played slot machines in land-based casinos which hit 40% of the time while I was there. I didn’t walk away with a lot of winnings, because the sizes of the prizes were low.
But I didn’t lose a lot of money, either.
You could find a game with a hit ratio of only 20% that has a payback percentage that’s 5% higher than a similar machine with a 40% hit ratio.
You can’t really rank these 2 factors in importance, because they fall into a relatively narrow range.
Most slot machines have a hit ratio in the 20% to 35% range, and their payback percentages fall in the 75% to 95% range.
The payback percentage has the bigger range, but it’s impossible to calculate with any degree of statistical confidence.
How Would You Calculate a Payback Percentage for a Slot Machine Based on Your Actual Results?
The math behind calculating a payback percentage isn’t hard. You just calculate how much money you’ve wagered in a machine and how much you have left when you’re done. The amount you’ve lost is divided by the amount you’ve wagered to give you the actual payback percentage for that session.
I did this as an experiment not long ago. I played a slot machine for $1.25 per spin over the course of 400 spins. It’s easy to see how much I wagered in that scenario – it was $500.
When I finished playing, I had lost $100, which meant that I’d gotten $400 back in winnings from the game.
This means I lost 20% of what I wagered, which would be the game’s “hold.”
The payback percentage was 80%.
What does that say about how loose or tight the game is?
Not much.
How Do You Play Slots
When you’re calculating things like payback percentage and house edge, you’re calculating statistical events.
And if you’ve read much of what I’ve written about probability and gambling, you already know that in the short run, anything can happen.
If I’d finished that session with $600 and a net win of $100, I’d have seen a payback percentage of 120%, and I can promise you one thing:
That’s NOT the long-term expected payback percentage for that slot machine.
It can be a fun exercise to keep up with your actual payback percentage over time. If nothing else, it slows down the number of bets per hour you’re making, which will have the indirect effect of reducing your average hourly losses.
Some Tips for Finding Loose Slot Machines
The problem with offering tips for finding loose slot machines is that many of them are based on pure conjecture.
For years, everyone suggested that you play the slot machines closest to the walkways in the casino. The premise was that some slot machine technician had suggested the managers put the loosest machines there so they could attract more gamblers.
This is a myth that has since been dispelled.
Another piece of advice you’ll often see is that you should play flat-top slot machines instead of progressives. In this case, I lean toward believing this one. You could play a progressive slot machine where the jackpot is high enough that you could have an edge over the casino, but it would still be tighter than a game with a 1000-coin jackpot.
Here’s why:
In other words, if you’re not likely to hit the jackpot in your lifetime, it might as well not exist when calculating how loose or tight the game is.
You’ll also see people advise you to play for higher stakes. The idea is that the payback percentage goes up as the denominations go up.
This is likely true, too, but you still shouldn’t play for stakes you’re not comfortable with.
Conclusion
Best Slot Machines To Win On
The best possible advice I could give you about finding a loose slot machine is this:
Give it up.
How To Know Which Slot Machines To Play At The Casino
It’s virtually impossible to accomplish this goal.
Also, almost any other game in the casino will cost you less money in the long run than the slot machines will.
How To Play Slots Game
But if you are going to play, at least try to play the games with the flat top jackpots for the highest denomination you can easily afford.