Slots Hero

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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Regardless of whether you prefer to play your slots games online or in a land casino, you are bound to come across the terms hot slots and cold slots. Obviously since we are including online slots games, we are not talking about the literal temperature of the game. What we are actually talking about is how the slots game pays out

When you hear someone either in a casino or in an online forum talking about a cold slots game or a tight slots game, they mean that the slots game in question is not paying out. Either it is not paying out anything or it is making small payouts at infrequent intervals, enough so that the player feels as though he or she is losing more money than they think they should.

On the other hand, when you hear players on the slots floor or in online slots forums talk about a hot or loose slots game that means that the slots game paid out for them. Either it was making frequent smaller payouts or it was making regular larger payouts. Either way, it was paying out enough that the player felt it was doing better than regular.

The one thing to keep in mind in talks of hot and cold slots games is that there are slots myths that surround them. While it is true that a slot machine or online slots game could seem hot or cold to a player, it is not something that can be tracked; there are slots myths that tell players that a slots game will stay hot or cold for a certain number of spins before switching. This is untrue.

Also keep in mind that what one player thinks of as hot or cold may not match your own definition. Now if there are lots of players saying that a particular slots game is cold or tight then there might be some credence to what is being said. But do not base your choice to try an online slots game or slot machine based on what one person says.

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Does that sound like an oxymoron to you? Perhaps at first it is hard to imagine something retro on the Internet, but if you stop for a moment and think about some of the new online slots games released this year, especially Microgaming’s Retro Reels, the idea of the retro being found in online slots is not that far off.

Despite all of the high tech graphics capabilities out there, there is still a fondness for the classic aspect of the old school online slots. The aforementioned Retro Reels by Microgaming offer players a classic look with classic symbols such as cherries and bars. Using the classic symbols from the old slot machines of the past is only one way that the retro has found its way into online slots.

Another showing of the retro in online slots are the games that offer players three reels instead of the much more common and modern format of five reels. In some of these three reels the fewer number of reels is a concession to the retro while still offering players multiple paylines. Other retro styled online slots games with three reels only offer a single payline like the good ol’ slot machines.

What I find to be an interesting though is how long it will be before the graphical technology online slots developers use bring us full circle back to one-armed bandits. Already graphics technology has brought us rich 3D graphics and recently a real 3D online slots game. It is entirely possible for that technology to create 3D online slots games could be used to create a 3D virtual online slot machine which lets players pull the handle to spin the reels.

Regardless of whether an online slots developer actually creates such a virtual one-armed bandit, there is no denying that despite this being an age of high technology that there is a desire for the retro in our online slots games.

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Like anything that is popular, trends abound. And so it is with slots games. Some trends stay limited to online slots and other to only slot machines—such as the ones in New Jersey that offer a beverage service. But sometimes a trend will cross over and happen both online and off.

Such is the way with multi player slots games. This type of slots game first popped up in the G2E conference last year with slot machines offering the opportunity for more than one player to partake in the slot machine action. Each player had their own seat and screen, but the action was all brought together in a bonus game that carried the theme of the game, such as the Dark Knight slot machine game.

Now the trend seems to have crossed over into the online slots realm.

Within the last year Microgaming alone has released two online slots games as multiplayer games. The first is called Wheel of Wealth. And the latest, which is set to be released this month, is called No Worries.

Multiplayer slot machines are pretty straight forward. The players all sit in their own seats, play their screens until the bonus game is triggered and then they compete against each other.

Online slots that are multiplayer are a bit more complex. Obviously players are not all sitting in the same physical room. Instead a virtual room is created based on the denomination. The players in that virtual room, no more than thirty to a room, play their on their own reels accumulating points. The points translate into standings on a leader board for that room, and when a bonus game is triggered, those at the top of the leader board get a percentage of the bonus prize.

So online multi player slots are a little different than the multi player slot machines. But there seem to be more and more of them popping up, so I think that this is the next trend in slots games.

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Did you know that not all winnings from slots games are claimed?

I am not talking about the big wins, everyone makes sure to claim those. However, the smaller wins that go onto slots player’s slot machine tickets are not always claimed, and casinos in Nevada got to keep those unclaimed winnings. This allowed them to pull in millions in a year just from unclaimed wins on slots tickets. Every little bit adds up indeed.

But starting on July 1st the Nevada casinos will have to share those unclaimed wins with the state.

Assembly Bill 219 calls for a sharing of unclaimed slots wins at the casinos. When the bill was first introduced in the end of session rush by Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, it originally called for all unclaimed wins to be turned over to the state.

But the claim to 100% of the unclaimed slots winnings sparked some debate with Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association, at the front:

“Many of our members honored tickets after their expiration and the resorts would be explaining that the guest’s funds had gone to the state.” She followed this up by saying the 100% claim on Nevada’s part could be viewed as a gaming tax; if that was the case then the bill needed to be roped into the discussion on the state budget as part of a tax and revenue package.

Naturally the state backed down. The result was the 75% compromise.

Of the unclaimed slots wins, Nevada will receive 75% as a means of injecting some more money into the state’s coffers, while 25% would remain with the casinos to cover belatedly honored slots ticket claims.

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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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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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