I spent an evening a few years ago with a buddy watching him hand twenty-dollar bills into a machine at the rate of a vending machine salesman and he believed the game was “about to hit” because it had been fifteen minutes since it paid. It did not hit. That’s not a story about bad luck. It’s a story about lack of knowledge regarding how slots work; and therefore, why most of the advice given out about beating slot machines is either incorrect or worthless. No special pattern exists, no best time of day to play exists, no magical machine sits waiting to pay out in a casino. What makes one novice have a great night versus one who spends his rent money in 90 minutes is boring, unexciting self-discipline. These are the things that create movement; and none of these involve a method for beating the house edge; because there is no such method. There never will be.
The Bankroll Basics: A Novice’s Foundation for Smart Slot Play
It matters if you’re willing to lose or willing to spend. Because if you sit down thinking you’ll leave with more than you came in with, then you’ll make terrible decisions as soon as the numbers start to go against you. And the numbers will. This is how the math of slots works. The number should originate from money that is expendable, i.e., money that cannot be used for rent, food, electricity, etc. One logical and reasonable rule of thumb for determining the amount to bet per spin is to determine a percent of your planned session bankroll that you wish to allocate to individual bets. For example, if you’ve allocated $100 to a session, your individual bets could be in the range of 1%-5% of that session bankroll. In other words, if you bet $2-10 per pull (bet), you’re giving yourself sufficient opportunities to actually experience the game’s highs and lows during the course of your session as opposed to leaving in four minutes due to several poor draws.
The lower percent of your session bankroll that you bet per pull (the tighter bet size), the longer you will remain in play and provide yourself additional opportunities to hit on volatile games. Separating your total gaming budget into portions per session is worthwhile as well. Instead of allocating $300 for a weekend getaway and putting all $300 on the table your first night, break it into three sessions of $100 each. Doing this provides two benefits: protection from losing your entire bankroll in one sitting due to one bad stretch of draws, and providing yourself with predetermined stopping points. Once you begin a session and the machine begins to feel “hot”, finding the discipline to stop is much more challenging than having pre-determined stopping points.
Stop-loss and take-profit limits are the remaining pieces of this puzzle. Stop-loss refers to the point at which you’ve lost enough that you get up and walk away. Take-profit refers to a predetermined target at which you’ll stop playing regardless of your bankroll status, taking your winnings with you. I’ve seen people turn a $150 win into a $40 loss within 20 minutes because they never established a stop-win number prior to beginning play. Not establishing a number at which you’ll stop playing means you’re allowing the house another opportunity to take money that belongs to you. And please never try chasing losses.
Game Selection: RTP, Volatility, Demo Play
All slots aren’t created equal, and understanding what you’re actually playing before you put money into it is perhaps the most underappreciated piece of advice concerning smart slot play. RTP, or Return To Player, represents the percentage of all wagers made on a slot machine that it’s intended to pay back over an extremely long period of time. RTP information (or at least discoverable) for most online slots. If a slot machine has an RTP rating of 96%, it is expected to pay back approximately 96 cents for every dollar wagered over an extremely large number of plays across all players.
While RTP does not guarantee the performance of any particular session, it’s far better for beginners to search for slots with RTP ratings of 96% or greater versus those with RTP ratings in the mid-90s or high-80s, as some slots truly do have those types of RTP ratings. A couple of percent may seem insignificant until you consider how many times it compounds throughout hundreds of pulls. A high-volatility slot machine will pay out less frequently but offer larger payouts when it does pay out, typically accompanied by prolonged periods without paying out anything significant. Neither volatility type is inherently superior. Ultimately, the choice between volatility levels depends upon what type of gaming experience you prefer and what type of swing your bankroll can afford. A player utilizing a $50 session budget on a high-volatility slot with 5% bet sizing may experience thirty or forty consecutive pulls without experiencing anything significant occurring on the machine; however, this is entirely typical behavior for a game of that volatility type.
Therefore, if experiencing declining balances during long stretches without receiving any significant payouts causes you undue stress, then low-to-medium volatility slot machines will likely fit your needs better as a beginner. Prior to placing real money in any game, open the paytable. This seems elementary yet countless players fail to review it; and it contains vital information regarding symbol payout values, bonus round triggering mechanisms, whether multipliers exist within the game, and ultimately, what the maximum possible win value is. Bonus rules differ dramatically among games.
Some games will award bonuses based on landing three scatters anywhere on the reels; whereas other games specify that certain reel positions are required. Some games allow players to purchase entry into the bonus round for a fixed multiple of their bet amount; thus creating an added layer of risk/return associated therewith. Viewing this information prior to playing for two minutes prevents misunderstandings about the game. Additionally, demo mode allows players to test drive games and view volatility firsthand. Players will gain insight into how bonus rounds operate and become familiarized with the overall pace of the game. All without spending any real money. I’d rather spend twenty minutes testing three separate games in demo mode and select one I enjoy versus throwing my real money behind the first attractive-looking game I encounter in a lobby.
Play Style: Pace, Breaks & Discipline
You can’t control what game you play; but you can certainly influence how you play it. First and foremost, I advise all novices to disable auto-spin – or at least utilize it sparingly. While it is convenient, it eliminates pauses between spins that allow you to visually assess your current bankroll status and determine if you are deviating from your initial strategy (which will occur).
Manual spinning forces a slower betting pace; thereby creating more instances where you can recognize when you are straying from your original plan. Taking ten-minute breaks every twenty-five or thirty minutes during play also serves as a mechanism for resetting your frame-of-reference and assist in adhering to the limitations established prior to initiating play. Establishing a strict time limit for your session (in addition to limiting funds available) creates another barrier toward reckless decision-making brought on by fatigue.
Emotional betting is probably the greatest detractor from achieving nearly every other positive attribute listed herein. Emotional betting manifests itself as increasing your bet size immediately after suffering a loss so that you can “catch up quickly”; or as increasing your bet size immediately after winning because you now feel “invincible”. Both mental states arise from similar emotions; and neither account for the fact that each spin is an isolated event unto itself. Maintaining your stake amounts at whatever levels were comfortable/sustainable when you initiated play – and avoiding adjustments based solely on recent emotional experiences – requires developing a difficult skillset; and is generally one that will develop more slowly than other aspects of smart slot play.
Recording your session results (even merely recording what game(s) were played, how long you played, and where your final bankroll stood) assists greatly with recognizing when you are developing negative habits; because it transforms vague feelings (such as “slot machines never work out for me”) into recognizable patterns that can be studied/learned from. Reviewing recorded logs subsequent to experiencing a tough stretch tends to prove more beneficial than reviewing them after enjoying success; because this is generally where the actual errors will reveal themselves.
Common Myths Surrounding Slots
That machine hasn’t paid in an hour; therefore it’s “due”…and conversely, that machine just paid out a jackpot…therefore it’s “cold”. Both statements represent variations on the same theme – namely, that a slot machine retains memory of previous actions taken upon it. Machines do not retain memory; nor do RNG systems. Whether it is directly related or indirectly related – an RNG system has absolutely no recollection whatsoever of what occurred on any preceding spin(s); nor does it care.
The myth surrounding “hot/cold” machines continues due to humans’ propensity for recognizing patterns in seemingly random events. As previously stated – over short samples, streaks appear frequently in randomness; therefore, it follows naturally that streaks will appear frequently in randomness over short samples; but streaks appearing over short samples do NOT indicate any inherent characteristic of the machine itself.
Casinos do not design their machines to run hot/cold on any predictable schedule; nor do casinos design their machines to respond differently based on various superstitious rituals/betting strategies applied by players.
What’s actually true; and what’s worth realizing instead – lies within the differences between short-term variation vs long term mathematical expectations. Regardless of how many sessions are played over; almost anything can occur over those sessions; including being up/down/wildly-up-or-down/etc.; none of which inform us as to much. Conversely – over tens-of-thousands-of-spins – long term mathematical expectations (i.e., RTP/House Edge) assert themselves, and regardless of how skilled or careful an individual gambles – House Edge always asserts itself.
