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Cash in on Your Slot Credits!

18 December 2002

Sound money management is an ongoing issue for recreational gaming enthusiasts. It revolves not only around the amount of money you gamble and the loss limits that individual gamblers establish for themselves, but also the amount of money you win and what you decide to keep.

Building up playing credits on slot and video poker machines carries seeds of destruction for players who wish to employ smart money management. When you are playing with electronically metered credits instead of cold, hard cash or even metal tokens, it is easy for the money you’ve won to lose its value.

That’s why it is extremely important to be aware of exactly how much money you have in the machine in credits. The increase in the number of nickel and dime multi-line video slot games makes keeping track of exactly what we’ve won kind of difficult. If you’re like me, sometimes you have to take pause and figure out what those credits really add up to in money.

Dollar units are a no-brainer. Each earned playing credit equals one dollar. Fifty-cent machines are also pretty easy. Just take the number of credits on the machine, divide by two, and the result is the whole dollar equivalent. Similarly with quarter machines, just divide the number of credits by four. Four hundred credits on a quarter machine are equal to $100.

Dime machines, and nickel machines to a greater degree, get me confused. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when you’re playing them to make sure you know what you’ve won and have the good gambling sense to cash them out and have the casino "show you the money"!

Nickel machines: 20 credits = $1.00, 100 credits = $5.00, 200 credits = $10.00, 1,000 credits = $50.00, and 2,000 credits = $100.00

Dime machines: 20 credits = $2.00, 100 credits = $10.00, 200 credits = $20.00, 1,000 credits = $100.00, and 2,000 credits = $200.00.

Some casinos make it easy to keep track of your winnings and give you the opportunity to take the money and run. If you win a substantial amount during a bonus round on multi-line video slots, the machine will go in lock-down mode and require a "hand pay" from a slot services representative. Take advantage of this option and preserve a percentage of the winnings.

One technique that I advocate is to break your session bankroll into twenty-dollar bills and play them one at a time instead of inserting multiple bills or larger denomination bills into the currency validator in the machine.

Any time you win a substantial amount of money during the course of play, hit the cash-out button and collect the coins in a bucket. This is a great rule of thumb when playing quarter video poker. If you catch four-of-a-kind and win 250 coins, 400 coins, 800 coins, or even 2,000 coins, depending on the game you’re playing, cash out, put the bucket aside, and start playing with another twenty.

Leaving those credits on the machine makes it SO easy to keep on playing 'em down until you’ve squandered away your good fortune. Winning is hard and those four-of-a-kinds are few and far between!

CASINO NEWS: Here’s proof that casino management listens to feedback from customers: Harrah’s Hotel & Casino in East Chicago, Indiana, recently upgraded its video poker product in response to player requests for more quarter machines. An additional 35 "Game King" video poker machines featuring 9/6 Double Bonus Poker have been placed on the casino floor.

This raises the number of video poker units at Harrah’s East Chicago from 61 machines to 95 machines, an increase of over fifty percent. A majority of the new machines are on the second level in the room opposite the table games area. Double Bonus Poker with a 9/6 pay table (nine coins for one for a full house, six coins for one for a flush) returns 97.8 percent to players over the long run with expert play.

Sure, they aren’t "full pay" 10/7 machines which feature 100.7 percent return with expert play or even 9/7 machines that offer 99.1 percent, but it’s a step in the right direction and generally a much better bet for thrifty gamblers than traditional quarter denomination reel and video slots. Thanks Harrah’s!

John G. Brokopp

John G. Brokopp's gaming column appears in Chicago Sun Times (Chicago, Illinois), The Times (Northwest Indiana), The Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa), The Courier News (Elgin, Illinois), The Gazette (Southwest Suburban Chicago) and Senior Wire (Denver, CO). He's also a regular contributor to The Colorado Gambler, Midwest Gaming & Travel, Casino Player and Strictly Slots. John possesses 28 years of experience as a professional handicapper, publicist, freelance writer, and casino gaming correspondent. He is also the author of two very popular books, The Insider’s Guide to Internet Gambling and Thrifty Gambling.

Books by John G. Brokopp:

> More Books By John G. Brokopp

John G. Brokopp
John G. Brokopp's gaming column appears in Chicago Sun Times (Chicago, Illinois), The Times (Northwest Indiana), The Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa), The Courier News (Elgin, Illinois), The Gazette (Southwest Suburban Chicago) and Senior Wire (Denver, CO). He's also a regular contributor to The Colorado Gambler, Midwest Gaming & Travel, Casino Player and Strictly Slots. John possesses 28 years of experience as a professional handicapper, publicist, freelance writer, and casino gaming correspondent. He is also the author of two very popular books, The Insider’s Guide to Internet Gambling and Thrifty Gambling.

Books by John G. Brokopp:

> More Books By John G. Brokopp