Ask the Slot Expert: More reasons slot players may play rapidly

Question: This is concerning your column on October 2nd about distracted play.

The only things I have seen similar to what was described by your questioner (banging the machine rapidly) was either one of two things.

When a jackpot was reaching a high level in a linked bank of machines, the player would think that the jackpot would hit soon so that it was in their best interest to have more chances to be the person that would benefit.

Similarly, there are many individual machines that randomly pay out either a minor or major jackpot and the machine states that the jackpot will pay before it reaches a maximum amount. People will look for machines as the payout appears closer to the max and jump on them, hoping the random jackpot will hit while they are playing. (In these cases since it is a payoff on an individual meter, the speed isn't as important except that they may want to jump to another "close to the limit" machine).

Answer: A quick recap: A reader saw a number of players playing slot machines rapidly and not paying attention to their machines and wondered why people would do that.

There are two aspects to what the reader saw: playing rapidly and playing distractedly. And playing both rapidly and distractedly. (Oops, I guess that's three.)

Another example of a jackpot reaching a high level is when a video poker progressive on linked machines is high enough to make the paytable positive. I can imagine the vp pros occupying the seats playing as quickly as possible trying to ensure that they're the first one to hit the royal and collect the progressive.

For that matter, pros play as quickly as possible anyway. When you have the advantage, the more hands you can play per hour, the more money you can make per hour.

The opposite is also true. When the house has the advantage, the more quickly you play, the more you can lose per hour. Hence the advice from gambling writers that no one follows: play slowly.

I had to insert the phrase "on linked machines" a few paragraphs above. As you point out, if your machine isn't linked, if you aren't competing against other players to be the first to do something, it doesn't matter how quickly you play. Speed of play only affects how long it takes for you to win what you're seeking.

I thought of another instance in which I played rapidly. About five years ago, I played a machine with a bonus game in which you raised the power level in a Tesla Coil-like graphic to increase your bonus amount. You raised the power level by hitting the Spin button.

I had the -- perhaps mistaken -- impression from the help screens that there was some skill involved. The power level would gradually decrease, so you had to hit the Spin button quickly enough to maintain the power level and then a little bit faster to raise it.

I attracted a lot of attention when I wailed away on the Spin button during the bonus. I also hit the button at a reasonable pace during some rounds. I don't remember whether speed seemed to make a difference to the amount I won.

I can't remember what machine it was or who made it. I haven't been able to find info about it online. This instance, the one I described in the first column, and slot tournaments are the only times I've gone to town on the Spin button.

This isn't really distracted playing, but sometimes I'll close my eyes before hitting the Deal button. Say I have four cards to a royal or three deuces. I'll hold the appropriate cards, close my eyes, and hit Deal. I'll use the sounds the machine makes to figure out whether I got the big hand.

I've never had a pleasant surprise the times I've done this. I sometimes get a pleasant surprise by holding one or two deuces and then completing the set.

Once I was playing next to Henry Tamburin. He had a four-card royal. I told him that he should close his eyes before hitting Deal.

"Does that work?" he asked.

"Yeah, about one in 47 times," I said.

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