John,
Do slot machines
just sit there running random combinations constantly when idle or just
when been played? I have always been curious as to is this random win
programed at the say 803 pull of machine or maybe it is just the 488
minute the machine has sat there. For instance, if I had sat at a machine
and played slower maybe had been there when random combination clicked
in or maybe had I played 6 more pulls would I have hit?
Also you used to
have better luck at $5 machines, seemed like they were looser. Now everybody
plays them like dollars and $10 machines like they used to the $5 and
they aren't as loose now. Do you think the $25 and $100 machines are
looser now? Do you think it is better to play maximum coin on a $25
or one coin on a $100 machine?
Also I have read
machines are looser close to change cages and ATM machines in almost
every book but there is difference of opinion on machines next to tables.
Some say they are loose so table players will hear wins and be enticed
to get off tables others said they are tighter because they know table
players will drop in coins as they come and go from tables. Which is
it?
Thanks for your
column, really enjoy it. Do you have a book published with advice for
slot players?
Thanks,
Nedra
Dear Nedra,
Modern slot machines
generate new random combinations even when they're idle. Wins are not
programmed to occur on a certain pull or after a certain number of minutes.
There's no way to predict when a hit will occur. You might have had
better luck had you played more slowly simply because the machine would
have polled the RNG to get the results of your spins at different times.
You might have hit something had you played six more pulls. There's
no way to know for sure.
I haven't done any
research on this, but I don't think there's been any significant, industry-wide
change in the paybacks of the higher-denomination machines. As for whether
it's better to play max coin on a $25 machine or one coin on a $100
machine, the answer depends on how many coins is max coins. As a general
rule, we'd expect to have a higher payback on the $100 machine, so you're
better off playing $100 per spin on the $100 machine than $100 per spin
on the $25 machine.
But if max coin
is less than $100 per spin on the $25 machine, then you're better off
playing $50 or $75 per spin on it. The reason is because even though
the payback is higher on the $100 machine, it's not sufficiently higher
to offset the greater risk of $100 per spin as opposed to $50 or $75
per spin.
Finally, I think
the machine placement advice is outdated. It is true that every slot
director will have his or her own slot floor philosophy, today's slot
directors order roughly the same payback percentage for each of their
machines in a particular denomination.
Slot directors may
have ordered different percentages and played placement games when slots
weren't as entertaining as they are today and when they had only a few
hundred slots to manage. Now that they have a few thousand slots to
deal with, they don't have the time to micromanage them.
I do have a book
out (Thanks for asking!). It's called The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing
Slots.
Best of luck in
and out of the casinos,
John
