Slots Hero

A little while back I wrote a post explaining what a par sheet for a slot machine is and what it says and what its information means. But it seems that there might have been a bit of a misconception about what the information means and what it means in practical terms.

First a quick review. A par sheet is a set of sheets with performance specifications about a specific slot machine. These sheets help casino staff know whether a slot machine is performing within the range that it is supposed to. But these sheets, while revealing odds information, do not impact the actually playing of the slot machine.

One of the details on a par sheet is the machine’s payout percentage. This is used by casino staff to know if the machine is paying out as it should. For example if a par sheet says that a slot machine is supposed to have a payout percentage of 95% and it is paying out at 80% something is wrong with the internal workings of the machine. And it needs to be removed from the floor for repair.

Another detail offered on a par sheet is the odds on hitting the jackpot. A par sheet can say that there is a 20,000:1 chance of a slots player hitting the jackpot. What slots players need to understand is that this does not mean that if you spin the reels of this slot machine 20,000 times that you will win the jackpot.

The reason for this is because of the Random Number Generator (RNG). Each spin is independent of the last. For each spin the RNG will pick a combination for the outcome of that spin. The RNG does not count up to 20,000 and award a jackpot; that would undermine the randomness of its purpose.

What the par sheet is saying that out of all the combinations there are 20,000:1 odds. It is just an odds statement, not a secret to how to beat the machine.

Even if you get a chance to see the par sheet of a slot machine only regard it as interesting information. Do not regard it as the key to beating the machine. True it will give you a better insight into a slot machine—for example if one machine has a better odds on hitting its jackpot then another slot machine, then it makes sense to play the one with the better jackpot odds.

But do not believe that those papers will reveal the secret nature of your favorite slot machine. Remember that they are only performance guidelines for casino staff to use to tell if a slot machine is performing as it should.

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What do slots machines promise?

Casinos would like you to believe that these darling machines promise you riches fast. They want you to think that with one more spin of the reels your dreams of the easy life will be fulfilled. Just one more spin. And another. Okay, one more. And one more.

You get the idea.

Slot machines and slots games present just such an image—that the good life is almost within your grasp. And that it is easy to take a nickel and make thousands or millions.

And it is that image that casinos bank on. Literally.

Casinos will build up the idea that slots are the ticket to getting rich quick. Players who have this in mind are the most susceptible to planting themselves in front of a slot machine for hours at a time. They play with that ‘one more spin, one more spin’ dream in the front of their minds.

But what we all need to remember is that slots are just a form of entertainment. Every single slots game is a game of chance. There is no strategy that any of us can apply to these games to win.

But casinos are more than willing to allow us to think that there is something out there to encourage us to keep playing. Since more and more slots players are understanding that there is no strategy to slots, no matter how badly we would like one, they build up the get rich quick idea.

Slots players, for the sake of their bank accounts, need to banish the get rich quick gleam from their thoughts of slots games.

Slots are only forms of entertainment. They are not an easy means to getting rich. As long as we keep slots as a form of entertainment in our minds, the casinos are powerless to planting and keeping us in front of the banks of machines, pouring out all of our money.

Think of slots as a cheap way to have fun—you can play for hours on pennies and nickels—but leave it at that. Doing so will keep your money in your pocket and not the casinos’ pockets.

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For those of us who have played and keep playing slot machines in land-based casinos—or boat casinos—we have all encountered slot machines we love and slot machines we wished had never been made. I am referring to the hot and cold machines.

When a slots player is talking about a cold slot machine he is talking about a machine that just does not pay out no matter how much money you put in. You might get a few small payouts, but for the most part you are only losing money.

Then there are the slot machines we all love—the hot ones. A hot slot machine is one that pays out pretty often and in fairly good amounts. These are the slot machines that you can make money on. You will still lose some money but you are likely to walk away with some extra money in your pocket.

When we slots players find a hot slot machine we are loathe to give it up. We will play it for long periods of time, only leaving when we have to. And when we return to the casino we head straight for that same slot machine, hoping that no one else has planted themselves in front of it. And if someone is already there, we hope that they do not play through all the ‘hotness’ of the machine.

But then the day comes that we walk in and head straight for our favorite slot machine only to discover it is gone. We will not believe our eyes. We will think it is a mistake. And we will look around to make sure we are in the right area.

But we are in the right area. The machine is gone.

Naturally our first thought is that the casino has figured out how much the slot machine is paying out. We will think that they have gotten rid of it. I mean, these slot machines have computers and those computers report to the casino. So the casino knows that machine is paying out and has taken it away because they really hate having to pay out money.

As much as this makes sense in your head, this is not the case. The casino has not removed the slot machine because it pays out too much. They have not taken it ‘out back’ to tinker with it to make it pay out less. What they have done is moved the machine to a different location.

Retail stores do it all the time. In the attempt to keep the casino looking fresh and to encourage movement around the casino, machines can and will be moved around.

So the next time that hot slot machine has disappeared on you, take a walk around the floor and see if it has been moved to another location.

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