Slots Hero

What is it about online slots that makes them a game of chance?

There are some legal tussles going on in which some lawyers are trying to get the courts to declare online poker as a game of skill, which would then make it legal. But online slots games do not get that accord.

And in all honestly, they are not games of skill. They are games of chances. But the true lover and player of online slots knows this, accepts this and still loves spinning the reels. There is a feeling of excitement in not knowing what the reels are going to stop on and whether or not you will win. This comes from the nature of the game itself.

When playing online slots, the player’s roll is to choose their paylines, choose the denomination of their coin and then choose how many coins per payline to wager. After this come clicking Spin. The player then waits until the reels stop spinning to see what they have won or not won on that spin.

Notice in that sequence that once the reels start spinning, the online slots player is only waiting for the outcome. The online slots player does not do anything to affect how the spin will result. This is what is meant by game of chance. To play and not be able to influence the outcome of a spin is a game whose results are based on chance.

There is nothing at all wrong with playing a game of chance, and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. If you enjoy playing online slots and are gambling responsibly, there is no reason to stop playing a game you like.

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Thankfully we are past the tax season. I hope that everyone claimed their winnings if it was necessary.

But it brings up the point of knowing when you have to fill out a W-2G and when you have to claim your winnings from a slots game. And you do want to know because you do not want to face an Internal Revenue Service audit because of slots winnings. And now that we have a little less than a year until next tax season, I want to tell you know as a reminder so no forgets throughout the rest of this year. I would not want a fellow slots player to forget and face an IRS audit.

Here are the rules in regards to slots winnings that require a W-2G to be filled out:

- $1,200 or more has to be won from a slots game
- If the slots games are operated by a state’s lottery, the slots games are considered video lottery terminals despite being slots games, and either $600 or more is won or the payout is a minimum of 300 xs the wager.

If you have a winning from a slots game that falls under either of those two rules, then you have to fill out the W-2G and claim your slots winnings come tax time. And really it is not a huge deal to fill out a W-2G and to claim your slots winnings. I know players may not want to claim and potentially pay taxes on their slots winnings, but that is just a part of our country’s laws. And paying those taxes, if any, is better than being audited. So hang on to your tax forms and claim your slots winnings.

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I ask this in regards to paylines on slots games. It is a common enough question from those who are just setting out playing slots games. Sometimes the question comes from those who have been spinning the reels for years but want to understand their favorite casino game more. But the question is not unique to just slot machines or just online slots.

Let’s say you are facing the decision of playing a ten payline slots game or a twenty five payline slots game; which is better?

If you went with playing the slots game with fewer paylines you cost per spin would be less. Say you only wagered a dime on each payline. The ten payline slots game would only cost you $1 per spin while the slots game with twenty five paylines would cost you $2.50 at a dime a payline. If you are wanting to keep your bankroll alive longer.

On the other hand, more paylines means more opportunities to win. Twenty five ways to win is a lot more than ten. But more paylines will burn through your bankroll faster than if you were to play a slots game with less paylines.

As for actual payouts, all payouts except for Scatters are based on how much is wagered on a payline. So regardless of whether you are playing a ten liner or a twenty five liner, as long as you are wagering the same amount you will be paid the same amount. In the above examples, if you are wagering a dime per payline, you will receive a payout based off of a dime.

Scatter payouts on the other hand are based off of the total wager per spin. So players playing a twenty five line slots game would be paid more with a Scatter payout than on a ten payline slots game.

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Playing online slots can be a lot of fun. But there are good reasons to play slots online and then there are not-so-good reasons for playing. And it comes down to expectations.

Playing online slots because you enjoy the games and excitement of finding out what the reels will land on is a good reason to play. Slots games as a form of entertainment is just dandy. Some people will take $20 or $30 bucks and spend it on a trip to the movies. Others would play a slots game. Even if the slots player loses all of their $20 or $30 does not mean that slots is a bad form of entertainment. Either way the slots player or the movie-goer are not getting their money back. They are both a form of entertainment.

And do not say it is a different matter because movies are not gambling—with the stuff Hollywood is turning out nowadays, it is a gamble whether or not a movie will be good or not.

So what are some not-so-good reasons for playing online slots?

The first one that comes to mind is easy money. A big misconception about online slots is that because the game is easy to play and because you hear tales about people winning jackpots, that anyone—yourself included—get could some easy money from playing online slots.

But the truth is that you are more likely to lose money from playing any kind of slots game, be it an online slots game or a slot machine. True, a handful of people will win jackpots and some will win some decent sized payouts, but on the whole people lose more money than they win. That is just the nature of slots games.

So if you are thinking about playing an online slots game for easy money, stop right there and walk away from the computer. But if you are thinking of playing because that game looks like fun and you have the money to spare, then by all means carry on.

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This afternoon we will take a look at the concept, or myth depending on how you look at it, of how long in between hits a slots game, either online slots or slot machines, must wait before it let’s its jackpot go again.

Are you ready for the answer?

There is no designated time that a slots game must wait before letting the jackpot it is holding go again. It could happen in the next spin, the next ten spins or the spin ten weeks from now.

I know; that is probably a disappointing answer. So many slots players are looking to find out what the secret is to a slots game’s jackpot. But in truth there is no way to determine when any slots game is going to pay up on its jackpot.

There are some slots players, and I am sure you will eventually come across one here or there, that insists on tracking the spins of a slots game. The problem with this is that a player who insists on tracking would have to sit there from when a jackpot was triggered to when it finally triggered again marking down every single spin. That is a lot of days to stay awake on a twenty-four hour watch.

And even still the number of spins counted will vary from jackpot to jackpot. It truly is a random happening. The winning player has to be lucky enough to be playing that slots game at the time the RNG happens to pull the outcome that triggers the jackpot.

The point that I am coming down to is that slots games are not predictable. So do not waste time counting spins when you could just be enjoying playing slots.

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There is a myth that abounds in the world of slots that lucky slots games exist. Considering that slots games are run by a computer that would mean that there is such a thing as a lucky computer; that sounds a lot less believable.

In truth, the results of a slot’s spin are whatever the RNG pulls from all possible outcomes. It is just random chance.

It is the slots games that payout the most or the highest that are called the lucky ones. But there are logical explanations to dispel this myth. And a dispelled myth arms slots players against putting stock in a misguided belief that could lead to wasted slots wagering.

For a slots game to payout often or in high amounts it is likely that it has a higher than average payout percentage, or a payout percentage that is higher than the slots games around it.

Remember, a slots game’s payout percentage is the amount of total wagers it pays out in a given time.

So say all the slot machines in a casino have a 92% payout percentage. Except for one. One slot machine has a 96% payout percentage. That single slot machine will either payout more often or in larger amounts. And since it is the only one in the bunch that pays out like that or in that volume, slots players could come to think that it is a lucky slot machine.

It is easy to see where the lucky slot myth comes from. But there is no supernatural force that makes one slots game luckier than the others.

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Online slots and slot machines can be a little on the tricky side when it comes to your wins. By that I mean they make it easy for you to rebet your wins.

This is different than how a player deals with their wins at a table game such as poker or blackjack. Those games are played with chips, and chips received from winning a round can be stacked off to one side. This separates the wins from the bankroll.

Slots games, on the other hand, do not have that option. Wins are added into your bankroll automatically. That is just how the game is formatted.

Back in the day when slot machines spit out coins for wins, it was possible for players to keep their winnings separate from the coins they were using to wager on the slots with.

But with slots games now in an electronic or virtual format, wins are added straight into the slots player’s bankroll. Without the ability to separate wins from one’s bankroll, it is very easy to rebet all of one’s winnings. This increases the amount of money the house wins.

The separation of wins from one’s bankroll is only left up to the player. This requires diligence on the player’s part.

Players can keep a close eye on their bankroll and their wins. Probably the easiest method is to keep a running total in one’s head of wins. This allows the player to know how much of their ‘bankroll’ is wins and how much is their actual bankroll.

Another method is to remember how much you start out with. If you started out with $100 and find yourself with $150 later, $50 is your winnings.

The trick is to know how much in your bankroll are winnings so that you do not rebet all your winnings.

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Within the last few years brick and mortar casinos have been making changes to their slot machines.

No, I am not only referring to the drinks on demand slot machines that are said to be debuting in New Jersey casinos this year. I am talking about the switch to ticketing systems to replace the use of coins in slot machines.

These new coinless systems are called ticket in ticket out (TITO) systems or EZ pay systems. Regardless of which name is used, the system eliminates the need to cart around a bucket of coins, waiting in line at the cashier cage and the time it takes the cashier to count the coins out when cashing out.

The tickets take up far less space and weigh a heck of a lot less. And as a result sometimes players forget to redeem a ticket or two.

If the player forgot to redeem a slots ticket and they play regularly at a local casino, then they can simply redeem them on their next visit. While the life of a slots ticket can vary—usually from 30 to 90 days—there is no requirement that says a slots ticket has to be turned in on the same visit.

But the time limit presents a problem if the player had been playing at a casino on vacation, like say on a trip to Vegas. Most players will not be returning to a place like Vegas within the time limit.

At this juncture players can call the casino their forgotten slot tickets came from and talk to someone in the cage. Some casinos will allow players to mail forgotten slots tickets in and receive their payment. Other casinos will not take forgotten slots tickets in the mail.

The best thing is to check your pockets before leaving a casino. But if you do find yourself in possession of a forgotten slots ticket call the issuing casino before you throw it out.

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I have to say I might be a bit biased about this online slots game, but only because it shares the same name as my site. Yes, this new-comer from Microgaming is called Slots Hero. And this really is not a typically online slots game.

True it has the appearance of an online slots game—albeit a four reel slots game rather than five—but its function and purpose are different.

For starters there are no paylines present in this slots game, and only four symbols: Cherries, Bars, Bells and Sevens. So if there are no paylines and only four symbols, how exactly does this slots game work?

At the bottom of each reel is a cut out of one of the four symbols, from left to right in the following order: Seven, Cherry, Bell, Bar. And underneath the cut outs are corresponding key board keys. This makes it possible for players to simply use keys to play this slots game.

Once the reels start to spin, players can either click or press the corresponding key. The purpose is to click or press a key when the appropriate symbol is inside the cut out. For every symbol that is ‘caught’ in its cut out, points are awarded to that symbol’s prize category.

Each symbol is worth points towards that symbol’s bonus prize:

Sevens: deposit amount
Cherries: deposit match percentage
Bells: money already in real money account
Bars: bonus money

Players can keep playing to better their score before turning in their score. And players will want to practice as there are three levels to this slots game that, once played through, will open up a bonus round. Practice is also necessary because players can only turn in their high score once to receive a bonus prize.

In that players are playing for bonus prizes rather than a high payout or jackpot, makes this online slots game unlike any other online slots game.

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Losses when playing a slots game never feel good. We know, deep down in our brains, that slots games are designed to be the cash cows of the casinos and online casinos; they are designed to take our money.

And knowing that and playing anyway, and then the losses on top of that, well, it just does not leave us with a happy feeling.

But there is a way to put those losses to use.

Any time a slots player has a single payout of $1,200 or more he or she is required to fill out a W-2G form with the casino before receiving their winnings. Same applies with online casinos, but it involves faxing forms back and forth before a withdrawal can be made.

This is the government’s way of making sure they get their share of your winnings regardless of whether you think they should or not. In fact, we are supposed to be listing gambling wins of significant size on our tax returns.

And that puts a bit of a kill joy on hitting a jackpot of any real size.

But you can take those losses from slots games and put them to use. You can claim them on your tax return and that can offset the amount of taxes you have to pay on your winnings from slots.

But in order to do so you need to keep a record. You must record the casino you are playing at, the date, the number of the slot machine you were playing along with any significant wins and losses.

Having this information will help should the IRS question the losses you claim. The casino name, date of play and slot machine number helps them to go back and verify the losses that you are telling them you had.

You can claim losses up to the amount you won playing a slots game since the amount you won is what goes on your taxes. At least those losses are good for something.

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