How To Play Slot Machines Effectively

May 27, 2018  The developers effectively managed to optimise the game for mobile devices such that one can play Cinderella Win Time slot machine online on a tablet or smartphone. How to Experience this Fairy Tale. When you visit a casino and decide to play Cinderella Win Time, do not expect to see a fairy converting a pumpkin into a chariot. Instead, you.

Readers ask if quick reflexes are the key to winning

By John Grochowski

I keep a list of questions that I’m most often asked about slot machines. You could probably tick off some of them: “Are games programmed to go cold after a big win?” “Do you get less payback when you use your rewards card?” And the big one, “Can you tell me how to win?”

Those have been standards ever since I started writing about casinos and casino games 20 years ago. But recently, another question has been shooting up the charts. I have it all the way up at No. 2 on the readers’ hit parade:

“I’ve noticed on a lot of video slot games that if I hit the button a second time while the reels are spinning, they stop right away. I was wondering if I could use this to my advantage. If I see the bonus triggers or the jackpot symbols at the top, should I quickly hit the button again and try to stop the reels?”

I had that thought myself the first time I accidentally double-hit a button and saw the reels click to an immediate halt. Could this be an answer to the chart-topping question, “how to win on the slots?”

Slot

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In nearly all slot games that allow you to stop the reels, there is no skill or timing involved on your part. The random number generator has already determined your outcome when you hit the button to spin the reels, and you’re going to get the same result regardless of whether you stop the reels early, or let them halt in their own time.

When you play a slot machine, the game isn’t actually being played out on the reels, whether it uses “real” reels or video reels. It’s being played internally, on the game’s random number generator. The reels are just a player-friendly interface, and are told where to stop by the RNG. If there’s a malfunction and the reel display doesn’t match the numbers generated, it’s the RNG that counts. Large jackpots can be denied—and have been denied—if a check shows the random numbers on the internal computer chip don’t match the winning symbols on the reels.

But this is extremely rare. The engineering is good enough that almost all the time, the RNG and reel display are going to match up. This doesn’t change if you double-hit the bet button. If the RNG has spit out a random number that tells the first reel to stop on a single bar, then you’re going to get a single bar—regardless of whether you hit the button a second time for a “quick stop,” or just let them take their own sweet time.

There are rare exceptions. When I’ve answered similar questions in the past, I’ve mentioned IGT’s Reel Edge games. In their original incarnation, Reel Edge games enabled players to touch and stop the reels one at a time. There was actual skill involved. Your timing in stopping the reels determined the outcome. The reels spun very, very fast, so it was going take a keen eye and sharp reflexes to get better than random results, but it was possible.

I gave it a try, and found my reflexes just weren’t fast enough to generate more than my normal share of winners. In the original three-reel Blood Life game, I identified a green 7 as the easiest symbol to pick out as it whizzed by. I touched each reel individually as I saw a green 7 reach the top of the slot window, and managed to stop 7s on all three reels. Alas, I failed to land them all on the same payline. Some younger folks with quicker reactions may have been able to do better.

I don’t know if any of the first generation of Reel Edge games remain on casino floors. They were never widespread, and I don’t get lists from casinos or manufacturers telling me what games are available in any given casino. The new generation of Reel Edge puts the skill-based portions of the games in the bonus events.

Blood Life’s updated video incarnation, Blood Life Legends, allows you to test your skill with a joystick to guide a bat through the ups, downs, twists and turns of a cave as you try to collect gems for bonuses. There is actual skill involved, but it’s not the reel-stopping experience readers have been asking about.

On most slot games, even in the bonus events you’re getting an illusion of skill rather than actual skill. And when it comes to stopping the reels, it’s the random number generator, not your reflexes, that determines the results.

What about my readers’ other top questions?

To answer another—no, games are not programmed to go cold after big wins. Results remain as random as humans can program a computer to be. As long as the RNG keeps doing its thing, any big jackpot, any hot streak, and any cold streak eventually fade away into statistical insignificance, and the machine comes very close to its expected payback percentage.

No, you don’t get less payback when you use your rewards card. The player rewards system doesn’t interact with the RNG.

And no, with rare exceptions, there is no way to beat the slots except by being in the right place at the right time. There have been opportunities for small profit on games with banked bonuses such as the old WMS game Piggy Bankin’, where the sharpies would start to play only when there were enough coins in the bank to give the player an edge.

Such games are not common. Just as with stopping the reels early, your results are up to chance and the RNG.

Slot game is based totally on a Random Number Generator, therefore there can be no powerful strategy in beating slot machines. There are still some things you can do to increase your possible odds of winning and to reduce losses.

There are lots of various strategies that can be applied in online and land casinos. The main idea is that you can influence only one thing in slots - the amount of money you bet. So, all these strategies are in fact betting ones. All the rest of the silly recommendations are just slots myths.

How to play slot machines at casinos

The basic points of every successful slot strategy we are going to discuss are:

  • 1. Bankroll management
  • 2. Slots payback percentage
  • 3. Slot machine locations

Bankroll Management

Do not play slots with money you cannot afford to lose and always remember that the casino has a slight mathematical edge over you. This is probably the most important strategy for any gambling game. Decide on your bankroll for the game and never cross the limit no matter how much you want to win back all you've lost.

The Bankroll is the amount of gambling dollars you are ready and can afford to wager or lose when playing casino games online or offline.

Also, it is very important to learn 'stretching' your money over time. This means that you must set up stakes for each game you are going to play out of your overall bankroll and stick to these limits.

If you visit a casino several times a week you must at least decide what sum you can afford for each day and not put in more money from other sources when you are out of the limited stake.

Time of playmin
Bet$
Paylines

To help you figure out the bankroll for this or that slot game we have created a special bankroll calculator. You just input the data which includes the period of time you are going to play (Time of play), the maximum coin-denomination used in the game per line (Bet), and how many paylines you bet on (Paylines). The calculator will generate the minimum bankroll you need for the game.

Probably, one of the best ways to stretch your gambling money, stay in the game longer and win more often is always to look for slot machines with the highest paybacks.

Slots Paybacks

Slots payback or the return is the amount of money the slot machine pays out as wins from the total number of credits wagered by the players. The payback is always shown as a percentage. Most slot machines are programmed to return 82-98% of the wagered money, however if you play slots online you can expect better paybacks than in land casinos. Most casinos reveal their slots payback percentages and if you can get this information choose only those slot machines that pay out the best and are known as 'loose' slots.

As a rule, the higher the coin-denomination of the slot machine the higher the payback. Thus, high-roller slots pay out more than nickel machines. Of course, this is not always true for all types of slot games, especially online slots. Here are examples of the most widespread slots and their average paybacks.

DenominationPayback
$5 and higher99-94%
$196-92%
$0.595-91%
$0.2594-88%
0.05$89-83%

The payback percentages vary from casino to casino and that is why it may be difficult to find the best machine on the gambling hall. One of the wisest tips here is to avoid playing slots in airports, bars, gas stations, motels as they usually pay out not more than 80% and even down to 50%! Such slots are also called 'tight' machines and they are the main source of profit for most establishments.

Slot Machine Locations

It is believed that casino managers develop a strategy on how to locate slot machines in the gambling hall in order to attract players and still get good profit. Really, if you play the slots several times at the same casino and can't win or don't even notice lucky people winning jackpots, you will decide to change casino. That is why the casino owners try to balance the number of high-paying and low-paying slots.

So, slot machines with the highest payback of about 99% are located deep in the slots rows, however in such positions so that they are visible for most players from different angles. This rule works for the progressive slot machines as well. Meanwhile high-paying slots alternate with those that provide low payback percentage.

If you don't want to lose all the time, don't play at slot machines close to the doorways, elevators and areas with the table games. Rather go to play slots close to the coffee shops and places where there are already many people.

You can read about different strategies on how slot machines are located in casinos in slots books published by experienced players and slots experts.

Best Time To Play Slots

NB! Don't trust most ads that advertise you to try the best-paying slot machines with amazing paybacks over 100%! In most cases this is just trick aimed to draw the players' attention to new slots or those machines that in fact are very 'tight'.

Best Time To Play Slot Machines

Alternative Slots Strategies

Free Slot Machines To Play

Most experienced players develop their own strategies that mostly deal with the betting amounts. All such strategies and techniques state that the players must bet a specific number of coins (determined beforehand) for each spin during the game and thus minimize the loss. As you understand, such recommendations help to structure the game and again manage the bankroll. A good example of alternative slots strategies may be the umbrella strategy, play and run slots strategy or chicken strategy.

How To Use Slot Machines

If you still don't feel confident at slots, remember that there are other ways to save up money for gambling or win large without spending much, such as slots clubswith numerous comps and regular tournaments.