The Horseshoe Casino in the heart of blue collar Cleveland is providing nearly 2,000 jobs internally, as well as over 2,000 construction and contractor jobs. The casino itself will not be as glam and glitzy as anything in Vegas; it will be centered around other Cleveland attractions including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and their home sports teams. It will have around 2,000 slot machines, 60 specialty table games and around 30 poker tables, which will be a pretty good size Casino situated right in the middle of downtown. According to Bingo.com it is supposed to draw around 5 million tourists who will also be enjoying shopping and dining in the downtown area.

One of the determining factors for the bill to pass was the promise for even more jobs with further construction on the casino in the coming years. The main reason these casinos are being approved is because of the failing employment rate and economy in Ohio. Cleveland and Toledo are one of the poorest major cities in the US and these casinos are meant to help turn that statistic around.

This leads players to wondering if there is a difference between the two slot machines. Some believe that the $5 slot machines in the high limit room have a better payout percentage, a higher one than those on the regular casino floor.

This is one of those slots myths.

While I cannot say for sure 100%, it is unlikely that there is going to be a significant difference between the $5 slot machines in the high limit room and the $5 machines on the regular casino floor.

The reason for this is that the people in casinos that manage the slot machines, called slot directors, are the ones who order the casino’s slot machines. When they order them they tend to order slot machines with the nearly the same payout percentage as the other slot machines in that denomination.

This means that when a slot director orders $5 slot machines, in this instance, he or she will order them all with nearly the same payout percentage regardless if the slot machine’s final destination is the high limit room or the regular casino floor.

I believe this slots myth is something that is perpetuated by the casinos, perhaps not directly, but they certainly do not mind players being lured into the high limit rooms and being tempted to play other high limit casino games.

It is best to keep in mind as a bit of slots strategy that there is no significant difference between the payout percentages of the slot machines on the floor versus those in the high limit rooms.

And they would be right.

The truth is that slot machines have different long term paybacks depending on how many coins you are wagering. The more coins you are wagering per payline, the higher the long term payback will be.

For players who are lucky enough or who are ‘in’ enough with the staff at their favorite brick and mortar casino, and can get their hands on the par sheet for a slot machine, they will see that the long term payback of one machine will have different percentages for each coin level wagered.

And of course the more coins you wager the higher the long term payback will be.

But also bear in mind that just because you are wagering the maximum in coins, it does not mean that you are more guaranteed to win a jackpot.

All a long term payback is is the amount of money paid back over a period of time from the slot machine. It is not a gauge of slots odds for that slot machine.

So it seems that this idea of maximum coin wagers to have a shot at the best long term pay back percentage is a bit tricky. You have to wager more to have a shot at winning more back.

But really that should not be surprising. The more money a slot machine takes in on maximum coins wagers, the more it has to pay out to stay within the payout percentage it is programmed with.

If the slot machine is not paying out within its payout percentage then it is considered ‘not working’ and must be taken off the floor.

So really it is not surprising that the highest long term pay back goes with the maximum coin wager.

If players still want a shot a slot machine’s highest long term pay back but do not want to wager the maximum coins on a particular machine, they should consider playing a slot machine with a smaller maximum coin wager.

There are some people out there writing about slots that have no business writing about them. Unfortunately the little pieces they write wind up on those huge general information sites where unsuspecting players looking for information will find. They then build unreasonable expectations of slots games that do not really exist.

For example I found one that said that online slots were better because they had a lower house edge. They said, and I quote, “You get an incredibly low house edge. The payout percentage for online slots average 95-98%…those are incredible odds.”

This person obviously knows nothing about online slots, slots odds and payout percentages.

Payout percentages have nothing to do with slots odds.

Payout percentages are only a figure on how much money a slots game pays back out of its total intake. Meaning if a slots game takes in $100,000 in total wagers and pays out $95,000, it means that it has a payout percentage of 95%.

And while online slots games do have better payout percentages than slot machines, payout percentages do not say anything about the odds of winning a spin.

This is because there is no comment or figure in a payout percentage as to whether the winnings paid out come in the form of a small number of large payouts, which would give the slots game a larger house edge because the game does not hit as often; or whether the winnings come in the form of many smaller payouts, which would mean a lower house edge because the game is more likely to hit.

What slots players need to understand is that payout percentage has nothing to do with slots odds. Payout percentage only tells the player how much money is the game pays out in winnings. That is it.

I repeat, they have nothing to do with telling the player the house edge or what a player’s slots odds are.

Genting New York LLC, a part of the multinational organization Genting Group, is the lucky winner of the contract for the Aqueduct construction and operation.

Actually ‘lucky’ should not be the description. Genting New York LLC was backed by the state’s Lottery Division. In fact, Lottery Director Gordon Medencia actually wrote a letter to the state’s governor, David Paterson, in support of Genting, saying that they were rational in their approach to the city’s complex construction environment.

As a result of the now approved contract, the Aqueduct will be installing around 4,500 slot machines, turning the race track into a racino.

This decision to add slot machines to the Aqueduct is an attempt to bring in much needed revenue, similar to other states’ decisions to expand their current gambling offering or upgrade their race tracks. It is expected that the slot machine revenue alone will bring in around $1 million per day…eventually.

I saw eventually because the Aqueduct will not be starting out immediately with all 4,500 slot machines.

Genting has suggested only starting out with 1,600 slot machines and that only after six months approval on the contract. Their reasons were not given, but I am going to assume that this will give them adequate time to expand the race track into a racino, and to allow those nearby and patrons to adjust to the expansion.

If this initial start is what is decided upon, the remaining slot machines would follow on the heels of the first 1,600 six months after, taking the project a year in all to be completed.

This expansion comes with a thirty year license and will be the model for the future of the New York racing industry.

Another side benefit of the addition of slot machines to the New York Aqueduct is the 1,300 construction jobs and 800 permanent jobs that come along with this expansion. New York is sure to see a positive outcome from these incoming slot machines.

In order to play a slot machine, players would have to put coins into the machine and pull the handle and eventually push the Spin button.

For online slots, players could not put actual coins into their computers to play an online slots game. First they make a deposit to their player account. Once they have money in their player account, players would then click the + or – buttons to set how much they were wagering per payline.

Even though it required a deposit to a player account and was all electronic, players were still playing online slots games with coins like they would on a real slot machine.

But recently players have begun to see credits on their online slots games instead of coins. It seems the new online slots games are having players wager credits. Is there a difference?

No. Despite what online casinos would like players to believe there is not a difference between coins and credits. It is just a different name for the same thing.

When players are playing an online slots game they are well aware that they are playing with real money. After all they can see just how much they are wagering in cents right there on the interface.

By switching from coins to credits for wagering, online casinos are hoping that players will not attach the idea that credits are money, and will wager more. After all it is only credits is what they are hoping players will think, and then spin the reels some more.

For slots strategy and bankroll management, players need to keep in their minds that credits are indeed the same as money, and not forget that they are playing with real money. After all it is only money.

Not that slots games use coins anymore, but that is beside the point.

The point is that there is nothing that a player can do that will have an effect on the slots game. This is because the game is controlled by a Random Number Generator (RNG). This is a part of the slots game that is programmed by the creators with all the possible outcomes for that came. When a player hits Spin the RNG will pull one of the possible outcomes at random.

Hence, the ‘random’ in Random Number Generator.

But I never tire of hearing about the things player will do to try to have an impact on a random game anyway. I think this derives from our culture’s need to dominate and control all aspects round it.

And while the stories about blessing a slot machine with holy water, mathematically calculating a pattern of spins to make, and the trinkets and statues that players will play with to combat the RNG, there have been times when what sounds like a silly hope is actually mildly true.

Such is the case with slot machines and pacemakers.

Pacemakers are generators of electromagnetic interference (EMI). EMI is similar to radio frequency interference (RFI).

Some of the older patrons of slot machines are either concerned that their pacemakers will interfere with the workings of the slot machines and hurt their chances of winning. Others are hopeful that it will interfere in a positive way, and cause the machine to pay out.

To the relief and sadness of both parties, while RFI has been known to play with slot machines from time to time, the EMI from pacemakers will not have an effect on slot machines.

So add pacemakers to the list of things that will not work on a slot machine with holy water, tiki statues and lava rocks from a sacred volcano. The truth is that slot machines—and online slots games—are truly random and players will not be able to have an impact. So, humans, give up that compulsion to control this aspect in your lives.

And put that sacred lave rock back because chances are you have irritated some Hawaiian deity, and while that will not impact your slots odds, it just might have an impact on the bigger aspects of your life.

However, there is one thing that a slots player can control: their bankroll.

Approaching bankroll management with the idea of saving money is a good attitude to have. But then this depends on how you judge the quality of your time playing. If you judge the quality of playing based the amount of time or money you put into playing then bankroll management can be done.

Managing your slots bankroll is similar to using coupons—the more you save the more you have in your pocket.

Translation: Throwing the maximum amount of money into a slots game is not going to make you any likely to win. Slots games do not recognize the amount of money as large or small, and use that to determine the likelihood of you winning.

Winning slots is based on chance and on luck. If you just so happen to be sitting in front of the game when the RNG pulls that jackpot winning combination then congrats to you. But the amount of your wager is not a factor.

So what are some ways to manage your bankroll as your slots strategy?

First off, stick to wagering only one coin on non-linked and non-progressive slots games.

Yes, those progressive jackpot slots games offer those life changing jackpots, but they are just carrots being dangled in front of players. Casinos and online casinos make money off of players who play progressive jackpots.

This is because you have to wager the maximum amount, meaning multiple coins, in order to be eligible to win that amount. Progressive jackpot slots games are linked so there are more players, which decrease everyone’s odds of winning it. Between the maximum wagering and the thousands of players, these are cash cows for casinos and online casinos.

This is why playing only one coin should be a part of your bankroll management and your slots strategy.

More to come in Part II.

Rome is hosting an online slots tournament that covers the entire Labor Day weekend. This tournament began yesterday, September 2nd, and will run through Sunday, September 5th.

Rome has a reputation as being an online casino that does not walk the exact same line as other online casinos in the online gaming industry. And this holds true for their Labor Day online slots tournament.

I suppose you could say that this is something of a freeroll online slots tournament in so much that there is no set fee to take part in this tournament. All any interested players need to do is create an account at Rome (if they do not already have one), and then make two deposits during the tournament time frame. There is no specified amount on those deposits.

Players compete in this tournament by playing any of the online slots game in order to collect Labor Day tournament points. The top twenty players at the time the tournament closes on September 5th will be rewarded:

1st place: $30,000
2nd place: $22,000
3rd place: $15,000
4th place: $8,000
5th place: $6,000
6th place: $4,000
7th place: $2,500
8th place: $1,500
9th & 10th place: $1,000
11th – 15th places: $500
16th – 20th places: $250

Obviously the nature of this online slots tournament deems the player who plays the hardest has the best shot at first place—the more you play, the more points you earn. But considering that there is no entry fee this is not a bad tournament.

Sure, you have to make two deposits, but you were going to make them anyway right?

All in all, this is not a bad online slots tournament. Players at Rome Casino stand a chance to win for doing what they do anyway: playing the slots. And this would be an easy online slots tournament to enter.

The reason I say this is because I have heard tell of a new slots strategy: count the symbols.

The way this works is that players will count the symbols on the reels. It is believed that the number of symbols on the reels will reveal the likelihood of landing a particular winning combination.

For example if you were playing a three reel slots game with twenty symbols per reel, you would multiply 20 x 20 x 20 to equal 8,000. Then you would divide 1 into 8,000 then multiply it by 100%.

True this will tell you the odds of landing that winning combination, but it does not in any way reveal when that combination will happen. Knowing the odds of landing a particular winning combination could either depress you or just add to the trivia knowledge you possess.

But it does not give you an edge, or increase your chances of landing that combination.

And when it comes to modern day slots games—both online slots games and slot machines—this so-called slots strategy is actually useless.

Both online slots games and slot machines are video slots. This means that they do not have actual reels. The symbols are programmed into the game’s software and the RNG pulls a result for a spin when Spin is clicked or hit.

Without actual physical reels it is impossible to count the number of symbols present as the positions and visible number of symbols could change from resulting spin to resulting spin.

And without the ability to accurately count the symbols this slots strategy gives even less than it originally did back when there were actual reels.