For Slot Players Only

This article is for slot players only. If you are a table game player - go away. We know what you think of slot players; that they are silly playing a game where the house has edges between five and 15 percent and where the speed of the game is such that it is just about impossible to win in the long run or the medium run or almost any run. You know that slot players are the foundation of the casino empire and that casino gambling would still be confined to Nevada if people only played table games.

We know what you think.

Okay, table-game players, now shoo! We don't need you reading this and smirking that you are so superior to the 75 percent of casino gamblers who are inveterate slot players. Go back to playing your basic strategy at blackjack with your measly one-half percent house edge or your Pass Line and Come bets at craps with your small 1.4 percent. Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!

Now, slot players, let's take a look at your passion, those infernal machines, and see if we can do something to take away the sting of outrageously bad fortune, which is just about every slot players' luck at the machines.

First of all, let me show you how much money you can expect to lose on two different types of machines. If you are a typical 25-cent player, playing three quarters for each and every spin, about how much can you expect to lose? If you spin the reels once every 5 seconds, 12 spins per minute, 720 spins per hour, you will put through the belly of the machine $540 per hour. In most casinos, the house has at least an 8 percent edge on 25-cent machines. You can therefore expect to lose an average of $43.20 per hour on 25-cent machines.

Now, dollar players usually face a smaller house edge - around 5 percent. A dollar player will put through $2160 per hour through the machines. His expected loss will be about $105 per hour.

Of course, your expected loss is just a mathematical figure. On any given night you might not lose that much, you might even win, and you might lose much more. However, the more often you play, the better the chance that your real-world expectancy and your theoretical expectancy will be pretty close together.

A 25-cent player on a given four-hour evening can expect to lose $172.80; a dollar player can expect to lose $420. If you played once a week in the casinos, the 25-cent player can expect to be down about $8,985.60 and the dollar player can expect to be down $21,840. Even though the casinos give you comps and cash back, nothing can make up for these expected losses.

But you are a slot player; you feel it in your blood. You love those machines. How can you make them take less from you and still get the thrills you desire from casino gambling?

[Just a second. Table game players who are still here, you must now go away! Scoot!]

All you 25-cent players, you are now going to become one-dollar players! As a 25-cent player you put through $540 per hour in a machine. You are going to put through less than that as a dollar player. Here's how to do it.

You will play a single one-dollar coin in machines where there is no reward for playing full coin. You've seen these machines. The jackpot line for one coin is 200 coins; for two coins, it's 400 coins; for three coins, it's 600 coins. There is no economic benefit for playing three coins - you are just putting your money against that five percent house edge three times faster! So play one coin.

You will now play a coin every 10 seconds; that's $6 per minute; that's $360 per hour. The house hit on you will be $18 per hour or $72 per four hours. If you play once a week, the damage done is a mere $3,744 - a far cry from the numbers we were talking about above.

To implement my plan will require that you take some time with your spins. The tendency of most slot players is to play faster and faster as their sessions wears on - and to play even faster than that after a few drinks. You will have to contain and control yourself. The wrong thing to think when you play the slots is that a big jackpot is just around the corner if you speed up your play. The only thing around the corner for most slot players is just more losses with faster speed.

By slowing the speed of play and by playing a one-dollar coin, you are radically reducing the house hit on your bankroll. If you are already a one-dollar player, consider using this technique in five-dollar machines. Play one coin every 10 seconds. Often five-dollar machines will have even better paybacks than one-dollar machines.

At the low end, five-cent players should consider becoming quarter players because most five-cent machines take a hefty percentage out of your funds.

All right slot players, this article was the down and dirty of slot play. Next week, we'll allow table-game players to read the article.