Ask the Slot Expert: Slot trouble down under

I have a question for you. I play the 'slots' or poker machines as we call them in Australia a lot. I play a particular machine I like at a particular club I like.

Over the years, these machines have been good and bad to me, but we used to get 'free spins' quite often, not that they all paid a lot, but they were there. There are six machines in the line where I play.

Lately -- say the last six months these machines have all decided that free spins were not going to come so often any more. Going through say $200 at 50 cents a pop, you may be lucky to get 3 or 4 free spins -- that are all empty -- hardly any pays at all.

Before -- it was a different story.

Are you going to tell me that all of these machines are in cahoots with each other and have decided no free spins -- no pays. This is at least six months or so -- everyone is complaining, and generally throughout the club and other clubs people are complaining that they lose their money without even a fair go.

Something has changed and these machines do not have a mind of their own.

I am not going to tell you that the machines are in cahoots. But there might be something that they have in common.

I get many letters from players who suspect that something has changed on their favorite machines because they aren't paying as well as they have in the past. Almost all of the time, these players are just having a run of bad luck. You yourself said that your machines had been good and bad to you.

I think your situation is a different, though. Not only do you say that many other players have the same complaint, you also say that this situation has been going on for months. I think it's very possible that this is not just a run of bad luck. I think it's possible that your club has changed the payback programs on its machines to make the free spins less likely and less generous.

You could try describing what you have noticed to someone at the club and asking him or her if something has changed on the machines.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.