The Slot Expert's Guide to Winning at Slots and Video Poker

You can hear me give my slot and video poker tips live on The Good Times Show, hosted by Rudi Schiffer with Frank Scoblete, which is broadcast live from Memphis on WHBQ over the air on 560AM and over the Internet on Yahoo! Broadcast on Saturday morning from 8-10 CT.

I was in Atlantic City for a few days this past week and I didn't do something I usually do and I paid the price for my laziness. Here's what happened.

I keep track of how much I win or lose playing each slot machine for tax purposes and just so I know whether I'm ahead or behind for the day, for the trip, for the year, at that casino, and overall. When I sit down at a machine, I write on an index card or in a notebook the name of the machine, the denomination, how many slot club points I have, and how much money I put into the machine. At the end, I note how much I cashed out and how many slot club points I earned for the session and the total number of points I now have.

Well, I got a bit lazy this trip and I only tracked wins and losses as I bounced from machine to machine. I didn't write down the slot club points I earned on each machine. I do know, however, that I played one machine for an hour or so and earned 61 points on it alone. At the end of the day, I checked my point total and it was only 65. I'm sure I earned more points than that, but I didn't have complete evidence to give the slot club to prove I was missing points.

I've not had points credited to me before, in spite of the safeguards that are in most slot club systems to prevent this from happening. For instance, the slot club readers have battery backups. Even if they can't communicate with the main slot club computer, they're supposed to retain the player's playing information for about 30 days in case they are hooked up to the network again.

This week's tip: Keep track of your slot club points as you play.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@home.com.

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