Slots
Myths and the Facts
by
John Grochowski
This lesson sorts out Slots Myths and the facts for curious
slot players.
Slots Myths
develop
when you ask, "I might win more at the slot machines by
playing only one coin at a
time?" or "I have a a sizable win and
this machine
has to turn cold to make up the difference."
Have you ever felt that you could go happily end an online
gaming session or leave a casino if only the Web master or shift
manager would
push the jackpot button for you?
You're not alone. Even slot players who understand how the
games work sometimes wonder if there's a little something they
could do,
a little adjustment they could make, that would change their luck.
Those feelings have led to a mythology surrounding slot
machines that rivals
Mt.
Olympus.
Let's bust a few slots myths:
SLOTS MYTH:
Slot machines that haven't hit in a while are
"due."
FACT:
Slot machines are never "due" to pay off.
The combinations you see on the reels are determined by a program
called a
"random number generator." It continuously spits out numbers that
correspond to reel combinations, and it is as close to random as humans
can
program a computer to be.
What that means is that previous results have no effect on
your next spin. If a machine is programmed so that the top jackpot will
hit an
average of once per 10,000 spins, and you've gone 9,999 spins without
hitting
it, your chances of hitting the jackpot on the next spin are still 1 in
10,000.
If you've just hit the jackpot, your
chances of repeating on
the next spin also remain 1 in 10,000. Your chances of winning on
future spins
don't rise and fall with your past results. The odds remain the same.
SLOTS MYTH:
After a jackpot, machines must turn cold to make
up
the payout.
FACT:
Players believe machines turn cold after jackpots. But
the casinos are in this for the long haul, and they know the machines
continue
to pay at a normal rate after a big hit. Jackpots just blend into the
background of millions of spins of the reels.
Let's say we're betting three coins at a time at a machine
with a top jackpot of 10,000 coins, and that the machine is programmed
to pay
95 percent in the long run. We hit the jackpot on our first pull. How
low must
the payback be over the next 999,999 spins to bring the overall
percentage back
to 95 percent for 1 million reel spins?
Would you believe a drop to 94.7 percent would do it? After
a big jackpot, results remain random. There are cold streaks after
jackpots,
and there are hot streaks, too.
Find
the jackpot of diamonds. Starting at $5,000, this
Jackpot has paid up to $500,000. every few weeks.
SLOTS MYTH:
More winning combinations hit when the player
bets
only one coin.
FACT:
The random number generator doesn't know how many
coins you've wagered.
It's on a separate computer chip from the coin-counting
program. The percentage of winning combinations will be the same,
regardless of
how many coins you wager.
There's a little selective memory at work here. Many players
have experienced cold streaks betting maximum coins, then switched to
one coin
and hit a winner or two.
"Aha," they say, "I win more when I bet one
coin." But players who start by betting one coin usually don't start
betting more in a losing streak. That leaves fewer opportunities for
someone to
say, "Aha, I win more when I bet the max."
In the long run, everything--winning combinations, losers,
cold streaks and hot streaks shows up in the same proportions,
regardless of
how many coins you bet.
SLOTS MYTH:
Casino operators can hit a "jackpot button"
to reward loyal players.
FACT:
Operators will do a lot of things for a loyal customer.
They'll schmooze you, feed you and put you up for the night. They won't
give
you a jackpot. There is no such thing as an operator-controlled jackpot
button.
Operators leave it to the random number generator to determine jackpot
winners.
They’re happy to leave the job of determining winners to pure
chance and the
random number generator.
Whether online or offline, the operator doesn’t know who’s
going to hit the jackpot until the RNG says so. Neither do the players.
And that’s just as it should be.
Play
your Favorite Slots--
Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, 5X Pay, Double Diamond, Price is Right,
Jeopardy, Deal or No Deal, Unicorn and Texas Tea.
Slots
Myths is followed by the story of the Slots Bet
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