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Ask the Slot Expert: I don't win on the slots anymore8 June 2022
Answer: I don't have enough data to prove it, but I have a theory that explains what you -- any many others -- have said that they have experienced. During the first century of slot machines, the main reason to play a machine was to win something. Money, usually, but sometimes mints, gum or cigars that could be traded for -- money. There was some excitement in seeing the reels stop one by one, but the main attraction was the possibility of walking away with more money in your pocket than when you started. Adding electricity to the slot machine made it possible to add entertaining features to machines, but nothing like what was possible when the computer took over running the machine. In addition to better sound, machines had reels that would spin in different directions and games could have features like Haywire (repeat) Pays and Spin-Til-U-Win. The math on all of these games followed the same philosophy: Players are playing to hit the jackpot. We're going to give the player a decent chance to hit it. As for the other payouts, some machines will favor the higher-paying combinations and hit less frequently and others will favor the lower-paying combinations and hit more frequently. Regardless of hit frequency, players are playing for profit first, and entertainment second. Around the turn of the century, there was a sea change in game design. I remember being at the gaming show around 2000 and everyone was talking about the Australian Invasion. This wasn't Men at Work, INXS, Silverchair, AC/DC, Sia, Keith Urban, Rick Springfield, Iggy Azalea, Natalie Imbruglia, and Air Supply taking over popular music on the radio, but Australian pokies taking over the slot floor. Australia had some slot machines that took multi-line machines to the next level. In addition to being able to chose the number of lines to bet on, you were also able to choose how much you wanted to bet on each line. A traditional multi-line machine only let you bet one credit per line. If I remember correctly, one of the first machines from a U.S.-based company to use the new multi-line/multi-coin model was a Pink Panther-themed video slot from IGT. I think there was a big Pink Panther banner hanging at the main entrance to the Convention Center. Almost every multi-line/multi-coin machine was a video slot, but they didn't have to be video. There were some reel-spinners that let you bet more than one coin per line. Because nearly every video slot today derives from the multi-line/multi-coin model, I'll just call them video slots from now on. The math of the video slot embodied a paradigm shift in the reason why people played slot machines. Instead of the primary motivation being to win money, people played to be entertained. No one was going to turn down a jackpot, but as slot machines became more entertaining, being entertained became more important than winning money. As a result, time on device also became more important to players. "Take my money if you must, but at least let me play a while on it." Video slots are able to pay less than a push, so they tend to have high hit frequencies. Machines pay for high hit frequencies by reducing the number of times the higher-paying combinations hit. Taking away one $200 hit pays for many $5 and $10 hits. Video slots may hit the top and mid-level jackpots that put you in the black for a session or a trip less frequently than the old traditional reel-spinning slots of the late 20th century. You're not getting as many profit-making hits because you're getting more tray money hits -- that is, hits that keep you in the game for a few more spins. To sum up, I think the video slot math model compared with the reel-spinning math model has these effects:
Of course, your mileage may vary. What you experience depends on the machines you played then and the machines you play today. I don't consider today's video slots to be penny machines. Many of them were in the beginning, but you know what casino operators found out? Some people would bet only a few pennies per spin. "We can't fill the slot floor with players betting seven cents per spin." The old video slots could also be a bit confusing with their arrays of buttons to choose the number of lines on which to bet and the number of coins to bet on each line. The solution was to remove some of the options. Most players bet all the lines, so let's remove the lines-to-play option and just have all the paylines active on each spin. Now the players only had to choose how much they wanted to bet per spin. Most machines have a minimum bet of 25 or 35 cents. A few weeks ago, I gave a Chinese-themed slot with firecrackers a shot. It's across the aisle from my favorite Quick Hit Blitz machine. I play that Quick Hit machine a lot, so I saw a lot of play on the firecracker machine. The firecrackers explode each time a bonus event is triggered. I heard a lot of explosions. The machine seemed to hit its bonus events quite frequently. This machine, like many other video slots, let you choose your "denomination." If this were a live presentation, I would say denomination and make air quotes. No matter which denomination you chose, your minimum bet was 88 credits. It's not a penny machine when the minimum bet is 88 cents. That's more like a dollar machine. It's not a 2-cent machine when the minimum bet is $1.76. That's more like a two-dollar machine. It's not a nickel machine when the minimum bet is $4.40. That's more like a five-dollar machine. It's not a dime machine when the minimum bet is $8.80 cents. That's more like a ten-dollar machine. As for seeing big bettors get big wins, please indulge me in a little snarkiness when I say, "Well, duh." The same combo that pays $50 on a $5 bet pays $500 on a $50 bet. If you're just walking by and see a $50 player hit $500, you translate that hit into how much play you would get from it. In reality, though, $5 bettor or $50 bettor, it's still a 10-for-1 payout and the hit funds 10 spins. I think 88 cents is the highest minimum bet I've seen on the main slot floor. I play many machines that have minimums of 25 to 50 cents. You have many options around $2 per spin. The biggest problem I see with a $2 bet on a video slot today, though, is that it may not be enough to enable all of the features on a machine. A bet of 75 cents or $1 or $1.25 was a max bet that enabled all the features on a traditional reel-spinning quarter machine. Today you may have to bet more than $3 per spin to enable all the features on a video slot. That said, the max bet on Quick Hit Blitz is $2 or $2.50 and that bet activates all of the progressives. There are older Quick Hit machines that have a $1.50 max bet. My advice is to look around at the different machines. Choose machines that either enable most of their features at your desired bet or that don't have features that are enabled with larger bets -- there are some machines that say that their progressives are available at all bet levels. Another option is to play traditional reel-spinners. They may not be the kings of the slot floor anymore, but just about every casino still has them. But the video slots are so much more entertaining.... Click here for the latest Covid data. Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.
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