Shared Knowledge

"Slot Machines: How to Win Jackpots"

1 January 2018

Summary: $$$$$'s.  Either get on a machine that has been played for a long time without a jackpot win or pick a machine and stick with it.

Background:

Only play for jackpots and only play high dollar, 3 wheel, slots.

Have been playing slots for 20+ years.

Have won multiple jackpots with largest $125,000.

You can win jackpots at state regulated casinos but all bets are off on cruise ships and American Indian Tribes Casino.

Have never worked for a slot machine manufacturer or ever serviced a slot machine.

How Slot Machines Work:

1. Slot machines are computers running a very sophisticated program (but a lot dumber than your cell phone.)

2. Slot machines are not truly random but are random enough that "luck" and "persistence" is involved to win a jackpot.

3. If you think of other forms of legal gambling, horse racing comes to mind first. A horse race is where 8 - 12 or more horses line up and you place a bet on the one you think is going to win the race (win) come in either of the 2 two places (place) or maybe come in one of the top 3 places (show). In horse racing, you get to pick the horse and how you bet on it.

4. Slot machines are like horse racing except the machine randomly picks your choice for winner.

5. Slot machines do not pick your choice of a "winner" from a field of 1000's of "horses" or every possible combination on all wheels, it picks from a smaller field.

6. What makes up the field of horses or the payoff of a spin, is programmed based on the difference between the amount of money the machine has collected since the beginning of time and the amount of money it has paid out since the beginning of time.

7. "Money paid out" includes any all small amounts even though you simply might play these credits back into the machine.

8. Ok, so the slot machine picks a horse for you and that horse has a payout associated with it.

9. A very basic concept of slot machines is one of "session". If a slot machine has not been played for 30 minutes or an hour or some other casino-defined period of time, the slot machine program runs a special subprogram with the purpose of trying to get you to stay and play and also "charge" you a buy-in, like buying into a poker game hand.

10. Again, the slot is going to define a "field of horse" of some number, say 16, and assign a payout amount to each horse. Then when you spin, the slot randomly picks a horse for you and you get any payoff that was assigned to that horse.

11. Most horses have no payoff at all as you are aware of.

12. In the beginning of play, the slot machine will put 1 or even more, horses in the race with some sort of payout. Sometimes, the slot will pick one of these and you will get some payout and encourage you to continue to play.

13. However, if a machines has not been paid hard for some period of time, after it runs the special "new session, new player" program, it settles into its normal mode of operation where the amount of money paid into the machine, minus the money paid out determines the number of horses in the field and the payout assigned to each horse. Again, actual selection from the field is random but the field could have 20 horses with only 1 having any payout value or the field could be 6 horses with 3 having payout values.

14. The key point here is that as the machine is played and that amount of money grows between money paid into it and money paid out of it grows, the slot constantly adjusts the number of horses and the assigned payout value of each horse.

15. When the difference gets great enough between money in and money out, the slot begins to assign jackpot values to at least one of the horses in the field that you spin and randomly get.

16. Over time, not only does the machine begin to put less horses in the field but begins to give more horses payout valves.

17. So, how do you win jackpots? The machine has to have a lot of play or money in, during what it considers a "session" to be, like for an hour or more. And then you must either stick with the same machine until it reduces the field of horses and assigns jackpot values to enough horses that your spin and slot machine random selection gives you what you want.

18. 1 or multiple credits? If a machine is not paying out on a single credit, it is not going to payout because of 2 or 3 credits. Again, payout value assigned to horse in a specific spin or race is determined by difference between money in and money paid out.

19. If a machine begins to payout more frequently, but in small amounts, then perhaps, increase number of credits per spin.

20. Every slot machine is set up differently as to number of horses in initial spins or "races" and how quickly it reduces field size and how it assigns payout values to horse in your spin, race.

21. Finally, the slot may have everything set for you to win a jackpot: limited number of horses and several having jackpot assigned values, BUT the spin selection is random and mathematically, the slot could easily pick a non-paying horse out of a field of 6, over and over and over again.

22. So in the end, "luck" and money. Have to have enough money to work the slot machine through its defined program of size of race horse field and values assigned to horses.

23. It is is my perception but only perception, that the field size of a race or spin (4, 8, 16, etc horses) only changes every 8 or 10 spins, which means, it is worth spinning a few more times after you hit a jackpot. If machine has not changed field size, you could get lucky again.