The psychic side of slots

21 December 2012

By Frank Scoblete

While I think there may be some kinds of ESP – or at least the appearance of ESP – I am a total skeptic when it comes to finding winning slot machines based on one’s intuitive powers. For example, a hundred players can feel that tonight is the night they will win big. That they will pick just the right machine, a machine that calls to them “across a crowded room” as the lyrics from “Some Enchanted Evening” say.

These players have that “other sense” and when they go into a casino one or two might indeed have big nights. Sadly, the others might have mediocre, poor or awful nights.

The two players who have the good nights think to themselves, “I felt it. I knew it. I could sense I was going to win!” They may even feel that the hand of fate was in their corner and allowed them know in advance what the results would be.

What are the other players feeling? First, not so great; then they tend to forget they ever had that special feeling. It floats away into the ether. There are no stories about the amazing psychic experience they just had. “Jenny, you can’t believe it. I knew I was going to hit it big and guess what? I lost! Isn’t that something? I can’t wait to tell all my friends.”

How many times have you been thinking of someone and just like that (snap of the fingers here) they call you? Wow! That must mean something, right? That must be some form of ESP. Wait a second. How many thousands, perhaps millions, of times have you thought of someone and that someone didn’t call? How many times do you remember that this someone didn’t call? Probably never. What appeared to be ESP turns out to be nothing of the kind.

Still, what if a single player – time after time after time – gets that feeling about an upcoming win or which machine to play and time after time after time, that person wins? Could that be some form of real ESP? Or is that merely an outlying event – still based on probability however extreme it seems? I’ll let you decide that issue.

Here is a letter I received from a woman who clearly thinks she has some psychic something going when she plays the slots. Unlike many letters I get on this topic, the woman is a clear and competent writer and I think what she has to say will be interesting to you.

Dear Frank,

My husband and I moved to Pleasantville, New Jersey last year. My husband is a numbers man and has been a retail manager for 30 years. He enjoys gambling, especially Pai Gow, which has some nice advantages for players.

Since I am intimidated by the possibility of getting lynched by fellow players at a gaming table, I have stayed away from everything but Pai Gow. But we don't play table games much in Atlantic City because the betting is too expensive. So we stick to slots.

My husband now plays slots with me.

I firmly believe there is an intuition or “sixth sense” involved. I like to understand how things work so I have been researching slot machines today as well as what others experience in the way of a sixth sense.

When it comes to my sixth sense I have noticed that I need to be well rested, alert, and happy to pick the best machines at a casino. I fret over losing 20 dollars, which is why my husband wins more than I do. He is willing to risk more and has a very positive attitude. He is willing to stay at a machine longer than I am as well. I should keep track of our wins and losses to see if his style works better than mine. Once I become upset or stressed about losing, then I can no longer feel which machines will hit.

Over the last week I have had machines call me from across the room. These are machines that I would normally never play. My husband likes goofy machines with animals or cartoon characters and I tend to like pretty machines with fairies and such. I will actually resist playing on one of these urges if I know the machine gives poor payouts. I felt that I needed to play such a machine the other night but I was on my last 5 dollars. I played for 4 spins and then moved to the machine next to it and hit a 78 dollar bonus in 50 cents. Sometimes it seems that my intuition is not precise but local but at other times it is very direct and correct.

We have noticed timing is important as well. We do best between the hours of 7-10 p.m. and 12-4 a.m. If a casino is too busy, we can't get to the right machine, but I have walked into large and empty casinos and find I can't feel any good machines. Perhaps I am intimidated by the rows and rows of choices. I am hoping I can develop my intuition further.

We will be moving in the fall so I don't have much time to do this but it is an interesting project.

I'd love to hear more about other people's experiences.

Janice W.

So do you think Janice is on to something with her “sixth sense” or do you think she’s fooling herself?


Frank Scoblete's new is "Casino Conquest: How to Beat the Casinos at Their Own Games!" Available from Amazon.com or at your local bookstore.