Today's Slots

12 November 2023

By John Grochowski

Long, long ago, when I first played in casinos in the 1980s, I read a piece of advice to slot players that I still take to heart.

Before I share, I'll just say it's no mean feat for a piece of advice from decades ago to have value today when so much about the slots has changed. Much about '80s slots has little bearing on today's casino world.

But on to the tip. The house has a big edge on slots, the author said, and the faster you play, the more you're exposed to the edge. It advised slowing your play, and that's something I still tell players. Don't be in a rush. Take your time between spins. Watch your neighbors' bonus events. Talk to the beverage servers. Don't just reflexively hit the button as soon as the last play is complete.

The method advised in the article of yore is obsolete. It suggested players not hit the button to play off credits. You can slow your play, it said, by cashing out every time you play through your bucket of coins, then take the coins from your cash out and drop them into the slot to play again.

Nowadays, players don't go to the slots armed with buckets of coins. Few machines even have coin heads, so you couldn't drop coins into the slot even if you wanted to.

But back then, slots didn't have bill validators, so there was no sliding currency to buy credits. Some didn't even have credit meters. Coins from winning spins dropped into a tray, and if you wanted to keep playing, you had no choice but to use the slot.

There have been big changes in the slots since then, and advice about dropping coins isn't the only thing that's obsolete.

Three-reel games, usually with one payline but sometimes with three, ruled the slot floors back then. Now, they're a minor presence while video slots with dozens of paylines dominate. Back then, quarters and dollars were the dominant coin denominations, while now the largest share of the slot floor goes to penny slots -- although it is stretching the point to call a game with a 40-cent or higher minimum bet a penny slot.

When three-reel games ruled the roost, it was common to advise players to always bet maximum coins. The Trump casinos even had a coin with limbs character called "Max Coin" who urged players to bet the max for the highest returns.

Using payback percentage as the criterion, that made sense. On nearly all games, there was a big leap in the top jackpot if you bet the max. Other pays were usually proportionate to bet size, but on the top jackpot, you might see pays such as 500 with a one-coin bet, 1,000 for two, but 2,500 for three. With such a structure, payback percentages were highest for max bettors -- though it was always best for players on a budget to avoid over betting.

Few analysts would urge players to bet the max on today's games. On most games, payoffs are proportionate up and down the pay table. And max bets are bigger now. On a three-reel quarter slot that accepted up to three coins per spin, the max was 75 cents. On a 50-line penny slot that takes up to 10 coins per line, the max is $5, and can be more if there is an extra bet to activate bonus features or progressive jackpots.

Not everything has gone obsolete. Results then were determined by mapping random numbers onto reel combinations. Today's slots are the same, but the trappings are different.