Slots Hero

I was just in a casino last weekend and noticed a lot of pop culture slot machines everywhere. There was Sex and The City, Wheel of Fortune, and even Happy Days. But one slot machine that I am really looking forward to seeing is the Michael Jackson Slot Machine.

I was reading an article at cnn today about this new, very exciting slot machine that will start showing up in most casinos by early 2012.

It is a slot machine unlike any other slot machine, just like he was a performing unlike any other performer. The machine was tested in late October and received rave reviews.

Bally Technologies manufactured it and has decided that the target market will be the MTV music video age group, although David Schwartz, University of Nevada Gaming Analyst says it will most likely appeal to all age groups.

Schwartz also comments that he has never played a game as interactive and exciting as this one, and hopes that slot machines in the future will follow in its path.

The game is equipped with a vibrating chair and surround sound going around the whole machine. It also has four high definition screens for betting, and watching the King of Pop moonwalk across all screens.  There is also a periodical break for his many music videos to play.

This game is the epitome of entertainment and is sure to be a huge hit in the casino, and eventually in your computer screen at your favorite online casino while playing online casino games for real money.

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Okay so we are carrying over more slot machine theory from this morning, but like I said, online slots cannot have all the lime light. Sometimes they have to share. And should you be a regular online slots player who someday finds themselves in a land casino, you will go in with some knowledge on your side.

This morning I talked about some of the places that popular slots myth has cold slot machines being placed. The underlying point is that there is a strategy used when deciding where hot and cold slot machines are placed.

And this is true. Bet you did not see that coming, but it is true. Each and every land casino has a VP of slot machines. That is the person who chooses where each slot machine is placed. And they do make their placement decisions based on a strategy. Unfortunately each VP has their own idea and strategy on placement, but there is one thing in common with them all:

These slot machine VPs have heard the same placement rumors about hot and cold machines that you have.

So they know that most players expect hot machines to be near the entrance and for cold ones to be near the table games and show waiting areas. They know where most players expect to find hot slot machines and cold machines. And while there might be some marketing and strategic justification for putting some hot machines near the entrance, player should not assume that all slot machine placements will be the same nor that placement will follow the myths. That is why they are called myths.

Keep this in mind when you go to visit a land casino. Remember that those VP of slot machines know the same rumors that you and other slots players know and will make their machine placements accordingly.

I suppose this is one of the benefits of playing online slots. There really does not seem to be a strategic way of how players see the online slots offered. …Or is there. Check back tomorrow morning.

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This is a myth about slots games that pretty much is for those who enjoy the trip to the land casinos to play on the slot machines. This is not to say that online slots are any less worthy of our attention, but now and then we have to have online slots share the limelight with their land-based counter parts.

There are a lot of slot machine myths about where cold slots are placed on the casino floor. Now you can see why this particular myth is not of too much concern for online slots players. However, I could talk about what it could mean if the online slots lineup is not listed alphabetically. Think about that one…

But for now we are going to look at some of the myths about where cold slot machines are placed. If you recall yesterday’s slots post, you will remember that a cold slots game is one that does not seem to be paying out either at all or in very small infrequent intervals. Casinos make lots of money on these slot machines. So naturally they are strategically placed.

One of the slots myths is that cold, or tight, slot machines are placed by the table games. The reason for this is that players coming off the table will play any coins they have. And since the machine is cold it will simply relieve them of their coins before sending them on their way.

Another slot machine placement myth for cold slots has them being placed near the waiting areas for shows or restaurants. This is because patrons waiting to go in or to be seated will kill the time waiting by playing a few coins. Again, the slot machine will relieve them of their coins. But it is unlikely that they will seek another playing area since they are waiting to enter the show or to be seated.

Now wait for this afternoon when I discuss a major point to keep in mind with about the placement of slot machines—cold or hot.

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There is a new place to look for Doug.

International Game Technology is the company giving Hangover fans that new place: the new Hangover slots game, which recently debuted to time with the release of the Hangover II sequel. However there is only one place to find the slots game right now, and that is at Caesar’s Palace.

Caesar’s Entertainment was one of the key filming locations for the first Hangover movie. As a result they have an exclusive agreement with IGT in regard to the new slots game. Caesar’s will be the only casino to offer the Hangover slots game for the first several months. Of all of the Caesar’s Palace casinos, only 37 will be offering the new slots game for the time being, including Las Vegas. A total of 150 of the slot machines will be dispersed among the 37 Caesar’s casinos.

As far as the slots game itself goes, it offers players four different bonus games: hitting Alan with the stun gun; taking a trip to the wedding chapel, finding the right Doug (as opposed to the drug dealing Doug), and collecting poker chips for Mr. Chow.

Speaking of Mr. Chow, he will pop up from time to time on the reels giving players his own anecdotes with quotes from the first movie. I am kind of hoping that includes his Too-da-loo fashion of saying good bye.

The Hangover slots game is expected to do well. IGT is known for the movie and TV themed slots games. Sex and the City is their highest ranked slots game to date, although it is possible that Hangover may knock it down to second.

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There has been some ranting and general grumbling about how the overall payback in land casinos has dropped the last couple of years, especially in Atlantic City. I have news for you: the overall payback has been falling for ten years, long before the economy took a nose dive.

How in the world did that happen you wonder? For starters, take a look at what is on the casino floor in terms of slot machines. Ten years ago there were more high denomination slot machines than there are now. Likewise, there were fewer penny and nickel slot machines. If you look at the casino floor today you will notice that the number of high denomination machines has decreased and the number of low denomination machines has increased.

That shift in the number of each kind of slot machines does impact the overall payback of a casino. Higher denomination machines do have a higher payback and low denomination machines have a smaller payback by comparison.

Back when there were more higher denomination machines on the floor, the payback percentage was higher. But when players started drifting to the lights and sounds of a penny and nickel slots games, and the number of lower denomination machines increased, the payback dropped.

It comes down to basic math. When calculating an average, the more lower numbers in the calculation, the lower the average will be. Now apply that to the increase in low denomination machines; the more lower denomination machines with lower paybacks, the more the overall, or average payback, will be.

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We are going to dispense with online slots this afternoon. After all next to no one is releasing new online slots games this month for whatever reason. Besides the topic I want to discuss right now requires a long time period for the sake of comparison.

When you are out and about on the casino floor you are bound to hear some grumbling about how slot machines just are not paying out like they used to. Generally speaking these are the older slots players—not to say they are old, I am a fan of only being as old as you feel. This is not out of some sense of bring frugal or the like; the better explanation is that these slots players have been around the casino for awhile and they have noticed a change in the overall payout of slot machines.

And they would be right. It is not their imagination.

And no, the answer is not some conspiracy on the casinos of the world at large to universally change their payout percentages or something like that. Nor does it have to do with the advent and upswing in online slots. Actually the reason lies with slots players in general.

Over the last decade or two there has been a shift in how slots players wager, in the denominations they wager with. It used to be that slots players would give no thought to wagering a quarter or even a dollar per payline.

Not anymore. Now slots players are mostly prone to wagering a penny or nickel per payline. Unless of course they are wagering on a progressive slot machine.

Here is where the shift comes into play in regards to overall payout: the higher the wager, the more a slot machine winds up paying out, the better the payback. With slots players lowering their overall wagers, the overall payback of falls as well. It is just math and a trend, not a conspiracy.

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Since online software developers seem to lack an interest in launching new online slots games, we are going to go back and talk about a slot machine myth.

This is a slot machine myth that I had heard of before but forgot about.

How often has it happened to you that you are sitting in a casino at a slot machine? You then get up either to find a drink, take a break, something. When you get back someone else is sitting at the slot machine you were just playing at. So you sit down a couple machines down from them.

Both you and this other player are just sitting there, spinning the reels on your slot machines, when the other player hits the jackpot. On the slot machine you just left.

Immediately you start berating yourself for getting up and leaving that machine. It was just about to hit and you got up and left. You also immediately start thinking that if you had not gotten up you would be the player dancing around the casino floor happy as a pig in mud because you would have hit the jackpot.

Well I am sorry to burst your downer bubble, but it does not work that way. The odds on you winning the jackpot were the same as the other player. There was no countdown happening or anything like that. Each spin has the same odds to be the jackpot win.

Even if you were to have stayed at that same slot machine, there is no guarantee that you would have hit the jackpot. It is all chance. That is what it comes down to.

So when the slot machine you were playing on a bit ago hits, do not beat yourself up for not knowing that it was going to hit. How could you? It is all chance no matter how you spin it.

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There is a fairly recent development in slot machines within the last couple of years that helps move slots game from being a solitary game to being something of a social game similar to table games.

The things with table games is that they offer a certain camaraderie of playing at a table game that I think comes from a feeling of ‘Us vs. the Dealer.’ Slot machines lack that feeling simply because the nature of the game is solitary. But that is finally changing.

You have heard about progressive jackpots on slot machine. Several machines will all be linked together so that all players on those machines are spinning away for the big uber mega large jackpot.

That same sort of technology is being used to make slots a less solitary gambling adventure.

For starters several slot machines can be linked together with a progressive jackpot. Only this is no ordinary progressive jackpot. At a random time a bonus game will be triggered and all of the linked slots machines will pull their players into the bonus game. All players must help out in order to complete the bonus game.

Once the bonus game is completed and done and over with, the progressive jackpot is then split among the slots players. The amount of the progressive jackpot that each player receives is based on how much they are wagering on each spin. The more wagered, the more of the progressive jackpot received.

This is one step being taken in the slot machine industry to help give slot machines and slot players the feeling of camaraderie enjoyed by those at the table games.

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If you thought winning a slots jackpot in the US and filling out tax paperwork on it was bad, be thankful you are not from another country.

It is not unusual for brick and mortar casinos to have guests who are not residents of the United States, especially visitors to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Well perhaps not too much to Atlantic City of late from what I hear. But Las Vegas is getting a lot of visitors from foreign nationals. Right now baccarat is really big with the Chinese high rollers who will fly over to Vegas to play.

Naturally there are foreign nationals who play the slot machines. Some will win jackpots from the slot machines and some will not. But for those who do there is the matter of the Internal Revenue Service and tax.

Just because a slots player is a citizen in another country does not mean that the IRS will let them take their money without giving the US government a cut. The idea is that some of that money was contributed by US players. Also winning is also ‘earning’ in the US. And earning means paying no matter what country you are from.

For any player, US citizen or not, winning a slot machine jackpot of $1,200 or more means claiming it with the IRS. Players who are foreign nationals there is a particular tax form to be filled out: Form 1040NR. The NR means non-resident.

And if you thought filling out tax forms was hard enough as a US citizen think again. Those that fill out 1040NRs need professional help to fill them out owing to the complicated nature of the form. Because if it is not filled out right, the IRS will come after your US money from your slot machine jackpot.

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Every now and again brick and mortar casinos will give away free play coupons. Usually it is to commemorate a special event at the casino, such as its anniversary, or to mark a special occasion in the world at large, such as the Royal Wedding that happened this morning.

Often the purpose of free play coupons, certificates or tickets is to bring in players to the casino. After all, who does not like a casino to give them free money to play with? Sometimes online casinos will do something similar, although their version is a free virtual chip; upon accepting the free chip the amount of the virtual chip is then added to the bonus portion of the online slots player’s bankroll, at which point bonus terms and conditions apply in the form of a wager requirement.

And the wager requirement on a virtual free chip in online casinos brings up one of the drawbacks of the free play tickets given by brick and mortar casinos: its limitations.

Typically the amount of the free play ticket must be wagered on one slot machine only. When the free play ticket is inserted into the player’s chosen slot machine, the entire free play balance is transferred to the machine. Players then wager until the free play amount is gone.

But once a free play ticket is inserted in a slot machine there is no leaving that machine until the free play balance is gone. If a player gets up to go to another slot machine or to visit the buffet they prophet the any unplayed balance of their free play ticket, and the next person who sits down gets the remainder.

The lesson here is that playing with a free play ticket is fine, just do not get up and leave the free play balance behind you—stay until it is gone.

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