Q and A on advantage-play slots

(On the letter below I had Jerry “Stickman” who did the studies of the advantage-play slots give me a hand. I made it a question/answer format.)

Hi Frank:

I bought your book Slots Conquest: How to Beat the Slot Machines for my wife. I read the chapters on advantage slot play and have some questions.

Question: In it you give minimum bankroll requirements for when the machine is in a positive mode. For example for the Double Diamond Mine and Triple Diamond Mine your bankroll requirement is 80 units or $20 for quarter machines. Does this 80-unit bankroll mean that I will hit the bonus within 80 units or less?

Answer: The 80-unit bankroll is required to last through lean times in the slot machine. Combined with other wins you will get as you play, the 80 units are enough to virtually guarantee you will make it to a bonus payout. It is still possible in extremely rare instances that the 80 units may not last.

Question: On page 152 you say: "Obviously, you will not win every time you play a slot machine when it is in a positive player mode.” Is this because when you win the bonus it might be less than the bankroll requirements you give? Or are there other reasons why you will lose?

Answer: Yes, you are correct. The bonus may not cover all of your betting up to the time of the win.

Question: Going back to the Double Diamond Mine and Triple Diamond Mine. It says there are three shafts that hold diamonds. Where are these shafts located on the slot machines?

Answer: They are located on the face of the slot machine on the upper right portion of the back glass.

Question: Yesterday I was at a casino in Indiana. I spent three hours looking for these shafts or some of the other machines in your book. I couldn't find any. I don't know if they don't have any or if I wasn't looking in the correct place. I was looking where the symbols are and on the side of them, and above and below them. I can go to any of the boats in my area. I bought the slot book for my wife because I am tired of her losing most of her check on the slots each week for about the last 20 years. I thought it might help her a little.

Answer: Not all casinos or venues will have these machines. This is mentioned in the book. Sometimes a casino will add these machines and sometimes they will remove them. It all depends on the action the machines bring in. These machines do make money for the casinos since they only go into positive mode a small percentage of the time. There are other machines in the book that are close to full-pay if you use the methods discussed in the chapters on advantage-play machines but, again, chances are your wife will not have an edge on them. However, the less she plays as she looks for these machines, the better it will be for her bankroll.

Question: I have one more question on another subject. I think I read someplace in one of your articles that you can get an advantage at pai gow poker. I looked on your Golden Touch Craps website and didn't see any books by you on pai gow. Do you sell a book on pai gow?

Answer: We are working on that starting this spring.

Thank you,
Ed