Slot Machine Myths

Common Superstitions & Misconceptions About Slots

With the overwhelming amount of information out there about slots, there are bound to be some that are incorrect, wrong or just straight out slot myths. Here are some of the more common myths about slot machines. The myth is listed first, the a short explanation.

Slot machines have a set pattern or sequence of spins that can be determined through careful and intense study. This just cannot be true. Slot machines are based on random number generators which generate millions of combinations of numbers a minute. And they are random! There is no pattern that a human can track, and even if we had a computer that could, it would require months or years of data and you still couldn't possibly push the button at the split millisecond that would be required to hit a set of spins if you knew it was coming.

Someone just sat down where I left and hit a big jackpot. If I would have just stayed a bit longer, it would have been mine. For this to be true, you would have had to push the spin button or pull the handle at exactly the same split micro second that the other player did. Any change in timing yields a different result.

I have played this machine for 5 (or 8 or 20) straight days and haven't hit the jackpot. It has to be ready to hit any time now. The sad fact is that the odds of hitting the jackpot are exactly the same on the first spin and the fifteen thousandth spin. Slot machines are never due. Remember that all of the percentages are based on millions of spins, and for a player to even reach 500,000 spins at 500 spins an hour he or she would have to play for 1,000 hours. And even that is no guarantee of a jackpot.

That slot machine just paid out a big jackpot. I'm not going to play it because it has to make up for the big win. - Remember that slot machines are designed to average a certain payout percentage over millions of spins. The short term means nothing so a machine that just paid out a jackpot has the exact same odds before and after the jackpot.

I've always heard slot machines pay more often if I only bet one coin at a time. The mechanism that runs the slot reels, whether they are real or videos, has no idea how many coins you put into the machine. It will produce the same spin whether you play one or max coins.

Casinos control when jackpots will be hit. Once again, the random number generator in the slot machine determines when the jackpot will be hit. The casino has no way to control this in any way.

I have a better chance to hit a jackpot when the casino is busy. While it is true that more jackpots are hit while the casino is crowded and busy, the reason for this is that more people are playing. It has nothing to do with anything else. For example, let's say a machine hits one time out of every 1,000 spins. If the machine gets 200 spins when the casino is slow and 800 when it is busy, which time will it more likely be hit?

You can continue with the rest of the slots myths on the More Slots Myths page. You might also be interested in our article on slot machine strategy and our page of slots tips.