1. How To Win On Slot Machines Tips
2. Best Slot Machines To Win On
3. Can You Win Playing Slot Machines Jackpot
4. Can You Win Playing Slot Machines Jackpots
5. Can You Win Playing Slot Machines Play
6. Big Wins At Slot Machines
7. How To Win Playing Slot

Many people have their own special tips and tricks when it comes to winning while playing a slot.

Slot machines are the most popular games in the casino, although they’re not as popular as they used to be. In some casinos, 80% of the profits are generated by the one-armed bandits. The question on everyone’s mind seems to be the same: how do you win on slot machines?

I wish I had a magical formula I could see you that would ensure you’d walk away from the slots a winner. Unfortunately, I don’t have one. Luckily, neither does anyone else.

Slot machines are entirely random, and they’re programmed to pay out less than the odds of winning, so in the long run, slots are good for nothing more than eating up your gambling bankroll. If you still want to play slots after understanding that, well, good for you. That’s not a problem.

There are some things you can do to improve the odds, though. That’s what I’ll focus on in the rest of this post—actual, practical things you can do to improve your odds of winning on slot machines.

1. Understand the Theoretical Cost of Playing Slot Machines

The savviest gamblers understand the math behind gambling games better than most people. If you grok the way slots work better than other people, you’ll be able to make better informed decisions about what to play and how.

The first concept to understand about slot machines is that each outcome has a probability attached to it. When you multiply those outcomes by the probability of achieving them and add them all up, you get the mathematically expected return for the game.

Here’s an absurd example that illustrates the point well:

You’re playing a slot machine that costs $1 per spin. 50% of the time, you’ll get a combination of symbols that will result in $1 in winnings. The other 50% of the time, you’ll get a combination that results in no winnings at all.

But to keep things interesting, slot machine designers have multiple combinations with multiple prize amounts. When you do all the math, such a game has a theoretical payback percentage—the percentage of each bet that the game returns in winnings.

These payback percentages vary wildly from game to game, from casino to casino, and from location to location. In competitive areas like the Strip in Las Vegas, slot machines might have a payback percentage of 96% on average. In non-competitive places like the airport, these games might have a payback percentage closer to 75%.

For the purposes of this post, I’m just going to assume that the average slot machine has a payback percentage of 88%. That’s the equivalent of a 12% house edge.

To calculate how much money you can expect to lose playing such a slot machine, you simply multiply the amount of money you’re betting per spin by the number of spins you’re making per hour. Then you multiply that by the house edge, and that’s your hourly expected loss.

So if you’re playing a dollar slot machine and betting $3 per spin, and you’re making 600 spins per hour, you’re putting $1800 per hour into action.

The casino expects to win, on average—in the long run–$216 per hour.

That doesn’t compare favorably with other casino games, by the way. Contrast that with blackjack. Let’s say you’re playing blackjack with perfect basic strategy, and you’re getting in 100 hands per hour. And let’s also say you’re betting $5 per hand. That’s $500 per hour you’re putting into action.

If you’re using perfect basic strategy, the house edge in blackjack is probably 1%. Your expected hourly loss is $5 per hour.

That’s a big difference.

One might almost assume from this that the best way to win at slot machines is to refuse to play them at all.

2. Understand What’s So Attractive about Slot Machines

Most gamblers understand on some level, even if it’s almost unconsciously, that slot machines are a lousy bet.

But they’re still the most popular game in the casino.

How does that happen?

I can guess at some of the reasons slots are so popular. Some of these reasons are easy to understand, too. Remember how I pointed out that you’d only lose $5/hour playing blackjack if you use perfect basic strategy?

Memorizing and implementing basic strategy in blackjack requires work and effort. Some gamblers don’t want to put in any effort toward that sort of thing. They’d prefer to play a game that’s easy to understand and easy to play. And nothing could be easier than mindlessly pressing the spin button on a slot machine.

Also, when you play slot machines, you usually have the opportunity to win a prize of 1000 units or so on a single spin. (A “unit” is the amount you’re betting. If you’re betting a dollar, then a lot of slot machines will have a jackpot of $1000.) Many gamblers like the idea of winning a big prize.

Compare that again to blackjack. You go to all that effort to learn basic strategy, and the biggest prize you can win is 150% of your initial bet. It might be a little higher than that if you get to split your hand or double down. But realistically, most of the time, you’re only going to win a single unit or 2 on a hand of blackjack.

Finally, slot machines are designed for the express purpose of keeping gamblers interested. The companies which design these machines spend countless dollars researching which images, color schemes, and sound effects are going to be most attractive to gamblers. Wheel of Fortune slot machines are no accident. They’re the most popular game for a reason.

If your goal is to play an easy game where you have a shot at a big jackpot, slots might be the right game for you. You just want to decide beforehand if the trade-off is worth it.

3. Improving Your Chances of Winning and Reducing Your Potential Losses Are Both Realistic, Worthy Goals

Let’s talk about how you can make playing slot machines less expensive in the long run.

The first and easiest way to reduce the amount of money you lose playing slots is to slow way down. The biggest factor determining your hourly expected loss is the number of spins you make per hour.

Really fast slots players can make 1200 spins per hour. Average slots players probably get in 600 spins per hour.

But if you go slow, you can probably get down to 300 spins per hour.

In the example I gave earlier, we predicted you’d lose $216 on average per hour. If you were to slow down and only place 300 spins per hour, that number would drop to $108 per hour.

Maybe that doesn’t increase your probability of being a big winner, but if you really want to maximize your probability of winning, you have to switch to a different game entirely—one where you can get an edge. That’s impossible with slots. To get an edge, you need to be able to count cards in blackjack or play expert level poker. There are other ways, too, but they’re an order of magnitude of difference from slot machine play.

You can also reduce your expected losses by playing for less money. There’s a big difference between making 300 spins per hour at $3 per spin and making 300 spins per hour at 75 cents per spin. Your total hourly action drops from $900 per hour to $225 per hour.

4. Use Some Practical Tips for Improving Your Chances

That 12% house edge that I keep mentioning is just for illustrative purposes. The truth is, most slot machines have different payout percentages. Your goal should be to find a slot machine with a higher payback percentage rather than a lower payback percentage.

One easy way to compare slot machines is to look at the size of the jackpot. The bigger the top prize is, the lower the payback percentage is. This is especially true when you start looking at progressive slot machine jackpots.

The probability of winning one of those huge $10 million+ jackpots is comparable to winning the lottery, which is to say that the odds are astronomical. Since a portion of the overall payback percentage for that game is attributable to that jackpot, which you’ll probably never win, your practical payback percentage is much lower.

So if you’re choosing between 2 slot machines, choose the one with the smaller jackpot.

Here’s another trick:

Play the highest denomination machine you can afford. The higher the denomination, the better the payback percentage is. That’s a general rule of thumb, but it’s not bad strategy.

And since a lot of lower denomination slot machines push the multiple lines/multiple coins play so hard, you might be betting the same amount per spin anyway. If you’re playing a penny slot machine and betting on 5 lines with 5 coins per line, you’re betting 25 cents per spin.

You’d probably have better odds playing a quarter machine for one payline and one coin per spin.

And it should go without saying that the location where you’re playing has more to do with the payback percentage than almost any other factor.

But I’m not talking about whether the machine is near the restaurant or on the end of a bank of machines or something like that. I’m talking about the location of the casino itself.

The biggest payback percentages on slots in the United States are at the Las Vegas Strip casinos. That’s because that’s the most competitive marketplace there is.

On the other hand, if you’re at the airport in Las Vegas, well… those are the only games in town, right?

They don’t have any real competition, and they know you’re just killing time and playing on a lark, so they don’t need to provide a competitive payback percentage to get your business.

This is also true of bars and gas stations, etc. They’re not competing with other gambling businesses. They’re just looking to make a quick buck while you’re stranded there doing whatever kind of business you need done.

5. Don’t Pay ANY Attention to Silly Slot Machine Systems Being Sold by So-Called Experts

One of the most cringe-worthy gambling books I’ve ever read was John Patrick’s Slots. It’s a collection of 2 or 3 dozen slot machine systems that are supposed to increase your probability of being a winner at slots.

Most of his advice has to do with switching machines when you’re “running cold.” He has a limit for the number of “naked pulls” you’ll accept. (I think it was 7.)

A naked pull is a spin of the reels where you don’t win anything. If you get 7 naked spins in a row, that’s supposed to be a sign that the machine is cold and you should switch to another game.

He also has some general guidelines for session bankrolls. He suggests that you have a win goal and a loss limit for each session, something like 20% of your bankroll for that session. So if you sit down at a game with $100, and you get down to $80, it’s time to quit and switch machines. Same thing if you get up to $120. Quit and switch machines.

You’ll also find people selling books about slots that are supposedly written by “slot machine technicians” who can help you predict when a machine is getting ready to pay out. One of these clues is supposedly the “zig zag” method. The idea is that you find a slot machine where 2 out of 3 winnings symbols are visible at the same time. Such a machine is supposedly close to paying out.

This is just nonsense, too. Every spin of the reels is an independent event, and what happened on previous spins has no bearing on what’s going to happen on subsequent spins.

6. Join the Players’ Club

I have mixed feelings about the players’ club. On one hand, I’m not crazy about sharing my personal information with the casino. They’re going to use that information to advertise to me. I understand why that makes sense for them, but it makes less sense for me.

But from a purely mathematical perspective, it makes sense to join the slots club and always play with the card inserted into the machine. The casino measures how much time you spend on the machines and rewards you with rebates and comps accordingly.

Don’t buy into the myth that playing slots with the card inserted interferes with your ability to win. That’s just silly. The casinos don’t need to cheat in this way. The games already have a mathematical edge, and the rebates and comps are programmed in such a way that the casino is still hugely profitable.

But even though the comps are much smaller than the amount of money you’re expected to lose, it’s still money that you shouldn’t walk away from. After all, there’s no difference between playing with the card inserted and not inserting the card.

You should milk those comps for everything they’re worth.

Conclusion

How do you win on slot machines?

The short answer is simple enough:

Get lucky.

Slot machine games are entirely random, so there’s no way to get an edge over these games. Anyone who tries to tell you different is hoping you’ll buy something from them. And what they’re selling is worthless.

The best you can do is hope to lower the casino’s edge over you. You can also adjust the way you play so that you minimize the amount of money you lose.

But forget about finding some foolproof way to beat the slot machines. People selling that information are the modern equivalent of snake oil salesmen.

You can find stories about people gambling for a living. Many people play poker for a living, and it’s easy to see why. Poker doesn’t have a built in house edge; it has what amounts to a seat charge in the form of rake. Poker players aren’t trying to win the house money, they compete for other player’s money. This is different than most other forms of gambling.

You can also read about blackjack players that have learned how to count cards or find sloppy dealers that flash the value of down cards. Some of these players are able to play blackjack for a living. A small percentage of sports bettors, horse track bettors, and dog track bettors are also able to make enough money to gamble for a living.

But it’s rare to find people who can gamble for a living who play other casino games. Bob Dancer claims that he was able to play video poker for a living several years back, but even if his claim is true, many things have changed since then. It’s harder to find full pay video poker machines and casinos pay lower comp rates for video poker play.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that and I’m not trying to say that he didn’t make money playing. But I don’t know if anyone is making a living playing video poker today. It’s possible, but if there are players doing it, there aren’t very many.

A few authors claim to make money playing craps using dice control. This has always struck me as a way to sell books and training courses, but just like Dancer’s claim in video poker, I suppose a few people can use dice control. Also just like video poker, if people are successful at dice control, there aren’t very many of them.

Games like slots, roulette, baccarat, and other table games don’t have stories about gamblers playing them for a living. Does the lack of stories mean that these games are impossible to beat?

Slots are the most popular form of gambling in casinos. People love to play slots. This brings me to the reason for this article.

The Hard Truth

Before you continue, consider exactly what making a living means. Some people live on $25,000 a year, while others seem to need $50,000 or $100,000 a year. Many factors come into play when determining how much someone needs to live.

Some of the factors include:

• Where you live
• How many people you have to support, like a spouse and children
• How frugal your lifestyle is
• How much debt you have

For the purposes of this article I’m going to use $52,000 a year as the threshold for making a living. This works out to $1,000 a week. You can use any number that you want, but unless you live in an expensive area, most people can survive on this amount.

Another issue that must be considered when you think about playing slots for a living is the lack of health insurance and other benefits. Professional gamblers have to find health care and they don’t get paid time off. Health care is a serious expense for many people and it can be dangerous not to have some type of coverage.

Many young people don’t worry about the lack of health care coverage, but as you get older it often becomes a real concern. If you have to pay for health insurance it can take a big chunk out of your income. Keep this in mind when you determine how much you need to make to play slots for a living.

The hard truth is playing slots for a living is almost impossible unless you’re already wealthy and have enough money that you can afford to lose in the long run. It’s much more likely that you’re going to lose $1,000 a week than win $1,000 week playing slots.

While most slots players lose in the long run, it’s not 100% impossible to play slots for a living. But such a small percentage of players make money that the truth is that you should probably forget the idea.

Each machine is programmed to pay back a certain percentage of every dollar wagers and keep the rest for the casino. These numbers are called different names, but I call them pay back percentage and the house edge.

A slot machine’s pay back percentage is the amount of all bets returned to the player through wins on the machine. If a slot machine has a 95% pay back percentage that means that on average it gives back $95 out of every $100 wagered to the player.

If you consider this from the other angle you get the house edge. When the slot machine pays back $95 out of $100, it keeps the other $5 for profit. In other words, a machine that pays back $95 out of every $100 wagered has a 5% house edge.

When you add the house edge percentage and the pay back percentage together, they always equal 100%. This means that if you know one number you can subtract it from 100 to get the other number.

You can use these numbers to predict how much money you should win or lose over a set period of time, based on how much you bet per hour. Because the house edge is in the casino’s favor, it means that if you can’t figure out how to overcome the edge or get lucky, you’re going to lose in the long run.

Most slot machines have a payback percentage between 90 and 98%. This means the house edge is between 2 and 10%. With a house edge, it means that you lose between 2 and 10% of every dollar you run through the machine.

Here’s an example:

• You play on a slot machine that has a 98% pay back percentage, which means it has a 2% house edge. Your bet size is $2 per spin and you make 400 spins per hour. You can figure out your average loss rate, or what you can expect to lose on average per hour, by using this formula.
• Amount bet per spin times spins per hour times the house edge.
• $2 X 400 X 2% = $16

This means that if you play for 10 hours your expected loss is $160. You simply multiply the expected hourly loss times the number of hours you plan to play and you get the average expected loss.

Slots are run by computers, which use a program based on math. These programs, unless the programmers made a mistake, make sure that the underlying math principles always come true. It might take millions of spins, but the programs guarantees that the machine produces the programmed profit percentage for the casino.

How To Win On Slot Machines Tips

The house edge and pay back percentage are long term things. This means that these percentages are realized over a long period of time. In the short term the house edge and pay back percentages vary, sometimes a great deal. But eventually the short term variance evens out and produces the correct results.

Most players can’t, and this is why it’s almost impossible to play slots for a living.

If you still want to try to play slots for a living, the following sections have additional information you need to know. Just keep in mind that even if you use every trick and strategy in your power, you still might lose money in the long run.

Finding the Pay Back Percentage of Slots

You just learned about pay back percentage and the house edge and how these things guarantee the casino a profit. So the next question is how do you find out the house edge and pay back for slot machines?

Most casino games are designed in a way that it’s fairly easy to determine the house edge and pay back percentage, or you can easily find the numbers with a quick internet search. But slots are different. The programs that run the machines have so many variables that unless you have access to the program it’s impossible to determine the house edge and pay back percentage.

Another problem is that some machines offer different pay back percentages from the manufacturer, so each casino can order their machines with the percentage they want. You can find out more about finding slot machine pay back percentages here, but the news isn’t good.

The following sections include everything I know that can help you improve your chances to win. Four of them are strategies that you can put into action yourself, and the other one is based on hope. Sadly, hope isn’t much of a strategy, but it fits in perfectly with how most people gamble. They put their money out and hope to win.

Online Bonuses

Online casinos often offer bonuses for slots players when they make a deposit. You can get 100% or more of your deposit matched with bonus money you can use to play slots. This sounds like a great way to overcome the house edge, and if the money was free it would be.

While bonus money looks like it’s free, when you read the conditions and terms associated with the bonus you find out that it’s not a simple as the casino giving you free money.

Every online slots bonus comes with rules and regulations about how you can use it, what you have to do before you can cash out your money, and if you get to keep any bonus amount when you meet the terms of the offer.

The terms vary from online casino to online casino, so it’s important to read them before you make your deposit. Some bonuses are deducted from your balance when you make a cash out request, while others can be cashed out eventually.

When you accept an online slots bonus you have to meet certain requirements. These are usually called play through requirements. A play through requirement means that you have to play the bonus amount, and sometimes the deposit amount as well, a certain number of times to clear the bonus. The requirement is usually shown as a multiple, like 25X or 50X. This means you have to make wagers totaling 25 times or 50 times the bonus, and sometimes the deposit amount.

Best Slot Machines To Win On

Here’s an example:

• You sign up at an online casino that offers a 100% sign up bonus on deposits up to $250. You make a $250 deposit and get a $250 bonus. This gives you a total bankroll of $500. The terms and conditions state that you have to play the deposit and bonus amount 50 times before you can cash out.
• The total of the bonus and your deposit is $500, so you multiply this by 50 to find the total amount you have to bet. 50 X $500 = $25,000, so you have to make $25,000 worth of bets before cashing out. The best can be any size as long as the total amount reaches the limit.

You can use a trick at this point to get an idea of the possibility of clearing the bonus and having money left over. You can multiply the total amount you have to wager times the house edge to find the expected loss.

Using this example, if you play on a slot machine with a 5% house edge, your expected loss is $1,250. This means that usually you’re going to run out of money before you clear the bonus. The only ways to change this are to play on a machine with a lower house edge, or find bonuses that have lower play through requirements.

You also need to make sure you understand the difference between cashable bonuses and the ones that are deducted from your balance. A bonus that can’t be cashed out when you meet the playing requirements makes it unlikely you can beat the house edge.

Here’s an example if you play a slot machine with a 2% house edge, using the same bonus numbers in the last example.

$25,000 X 2% = $500. This means that your expected loss is the same as your total bankroll of $500. Even if you get lucky and don’t lose all $500, the odds of you having more than your deposit of $250 left after clearing the bonus is slim.

You should defiantly use online slots bonuses if you want to play slots. Even a bonus that’s not cashable gives you extra money to gamble with. It also gives you extra chances to hit a big jackpot, which is the only way most slots players have of getting ahead.

Slots Tournaments

Slots tournaments aren’t run at all casinos, but some casino run them from time to time, and a few run them on a regular basis. A slots tournament offers a minimum amount of play for a set entry fee and awards prizes for the top finishers.

Some casinos offer slots tournaments as a reward for a set amount of play and/or connected to their slots club program. If you can earn a free entry into a slots tournament, anything you win helps overcome the house edge on your normal slots play.

When you’re looking for a slots tournament that has an entry fee, you should look for ones that have a guaranteed prize pool. If you can find tournaments that don’t get enough entrants to cover the prize pool you can play with an edge. It won’t greatly improve your chances of finishing in the money, but when the entry fees don’t cover the prize pool it’s profitable to play.

Here’s an example:

• The casino offers a slots tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000. The entry fee is $10 and they only get 80 people to sign up. If you divide the prize pool by the number of entrants you get the average value of playing.
• In this case, the average is $12.50. Any time the average return for playing is higher than the entry fee you’re playing with an edge.

You still have to finish in the money to win some money, but if you play in enough of these types of situations you come out ahead eventually.

Playing Slots for Comps and Promotions

Every time you play slots you should be earning comps. Sign up for the slots club at your local casino and look for online casinos that have a rewards program. The casinos don’t give back enough in comps to overcome the normal house edge, but every penny you get back in comps helps lower your cost to play.

Casinos also run promotions from time to time. You might be able to find free slots play vouchers and match play coupons in the local paper or on the web site of the casino where you’re planning to ply. Promotions and coupons are a great way offset the built in house edge of the slot machines.

Getting Lucky

I hate to say it, but the only way most people can play slots for a living is to get lucky. If you’re lucky enough to hit a big jackpot sometime in your life, and are smart with the money, you can afford to play slots full time.

The only slot machines I play are the ones that offer either a progressive jackpot or ones that have a set top jackpot prize of $100,000 or higher. I know I can’t overcome the long term house edge without a big win, so I don’t waste my time on machines that can’t make a big deposit into my bank.

Getting lucky isn’t a strategy, but if you don’t put yourself in position where you have the chance to be lucky you don’t even have reason to hope. If you want to play slots for a living focus on slots with big jackpot possibilities.

Progressive Jackpots

Can You Win Playing Slot Machines Jackpot

The only way to truly play slots with an edge over the house is to play a progressive jackpot slot machine where the top prize has grown so high that it overcomes the edge. The problem with this is the same as I discussed earlier. If you don’t know the house edge you can’t determine how high the progressive jackpot has to climb before it makes the play profitable.

If you don’t know the house edge, simply play the slots that have the highest jackpots. Most casinos, both online and off, have at least one slots game with a jackpot over $1,000,000.

Can You Win Playing Slot Machines Jackpots

If you can’t find one with a jackpot over $1 million, look for the highest one you can find. A $500,000 jackpot win might not set you up financially for life, but it’s enough to help out quite a bit.

Can You Win Playing Slot Machines Play

Conclusion

Big Wins At Slot Machines

Playing slots for a living is a dream of many gamblers. But the truth is that it’s almost impossible to succeed. The house edge locks in a long term profit for the casinos, so very few people win.

How To Win Playing Slot

You can use the tips and strategies on this page to give yourself the best chance to overcome the house edge, but if you want to gamble for a living your best bet is to stop playing slots and pick a different game.