Notes

THE BEST Guide to Slots and Slot Machines.THE FUNDAMENTALS of Collecting Casino Chips
Some of the blog posts I?m most pleased with here are the people in my ?ultimate guides? series. So far I?ve written ultimate guides to United States lottery games, greyhound racing, and Atlantic City casinos.

Today, though, I?m writing about something even bigger?the king of casino gambling games.

Today?s post may be the ultimate guide to slots and slots.

My goal with this particular post is to share everything you may need to know to play slots intelligently in a casino.

Here are the topics covered in this post:

The history of the games
Differences in gameplay from one country to another
How to play slots in Atlantic City, NEVADA, Reno, or anywhere else
The way the payback percentage, probability and odds work
Which different kinds of games are available
The most used games
How slot machine tournaments work
Which of these games are best for the discerning gambler?
Questions and answers
The History of SLOTS
In the event that you?ve read anything about antique slot machines or around the invention of these games, you?ve heard of Charles Fey. He was a mechanic living in SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA. In 1887, he invented a casino game with 3 spinning reels. Each of these reels had 5 symbols in it:

Diamonds
Hearts
Horseshoes
Liberty Bell
Spades
The Liberty Bell
You?ll notice a playing card theme here, but you?ll also notice horseshoes?symbols of good luck. And the Liberty Bell is the symbol that this prototypical slot machine game gets its name. The game originally required an attendant to pay off wins, but he continued working on and improving the machines. Eventually (by 1898), you could play a Liberty Bell slot machine game and win a whopping 50 cents from the machine directly.

A Tradition of Outsmarting regulations
The games were quickly made illegal because of their gambling nature. But entrepreneurs are creative, and Fey (along with other imitators) got around these restrictions by paying down winnings in candy. That's where we get the ubiquitous fruit and bar symbols seen still on these games today. The fruit symbols used to represent the flavor of the candy won. The bar symbols represented sticks of nicotine gum.

In a few ways, history keeps repeating itself. I live in Texas, and you?ll find slot machines called ?8-liners? through the entire state. I?ve seen them in bars, in gasoline stations, and in ?game rooms?. Since slots are (strictly speaking) illegal in Texas, these games don?t pay back in cash.

Instead, you get points which you can use toward prizes. I spent some time in a game room in a small town in Texas where you could literally profit these points for canned goods like corn. They also had a cheap set of gardening tools available.

I?ve also played 8-liners in bars where in the event that you won you had to visit the owner of the bar on Friday to get ?an envelope?. This envelope had your cash winnings inside it. But God forbid you require an envelope if the dog owner didn?t know who you were.

These are just examples from my personal connection with clever entrepreneurs skirting anti-gambling laws to continue to offer slot machine games to their customers. In that respect, things have changed little since the 1890s.

In fact, these gambling machines changed very little for many years, although they did become fixtures in the casinos. For years, these games were considered a distraction for the wives of the ?real? gamblers?the men who were playing blackjack, craps, and poker. They were found in the places in the casino where in fact the management thought they?d be more likely to attract the eye of these women.

Bally Technologies, Money Honey, and New Electro-Mechanical Games
Things started to change on the market in the 1960s with the introduction of the initial electro-mechanical slots. Bally Technologies invented a casino game called Money Honey, which incorporated a combination of electronic components. These gizmos enabled the designers to simply accept multi-coin bets. These games also ran faster.

Faster games with higher payouts increased the popularity of such machines, but they didn?t dominate the casino floors immediately. This has been a gradual process that hasn?t stopped. But the invention of electro-mechanical machines like Money Honey was the first step in that direction.

Video Slots Like Fortune Coin and Megabucks Change Everything
The industry became popular with the invention of video slots in 1979. The importance of the developments manufactured in the 1980s can?t be overstated. The initial of these was called Fortune Coin, and it was soon acquired by IGT, the biggest manufacturer of casino games on the globe. Contrary to popular belief, it had been initially distrusted by gamblers. They assumed that a game powered by computer animation would inevitably be rigged and impossible to win.

By 1986, these computerized games made it possible to link multiple games to the same ever-increasing jackpot. These games are now called progressive slots, and the first?and still most famous?exemplory case of these games is named MegaBucks. The jackpot for this network of games regularly surpasses $10 million.

These larger jackpots became available because of the lack of restrictions on number of symbols on each reel. With a mechanical slot machine, you?re limited to probably 20 symbols per reel max. And since this type of game is mechanical, it?s hard to adjust the probability of a symbol approaching. Each stop had an equal chance of happening.

But with a computerized game, you can program one symbol to come up once every 20 spins and another ahead up once every 40 spins. The games now use PARs sheets to delineate those probabilities. The designers and the casinos know very well what the odds are on these games. The public doesn?t have access to this information, though.

Over the last 30-40 years, slots have become the most popular game in the casino. Only a decade ago, you?d often start to see the following factoid on the net:

65%-70% of a casino?s revenue originates from the gambling machines.

But that?s changed. I read a book recently which claimed that in most casinos, slots make up 80% or more of this casino?s revenue.

This can be a seismic shift in gambling practices in a casino.

The Internet Changes Everything Again
In the 1990s, the web became a thing. It didn?t take miss gambling entrepreneurs to understand you could use similar computer technology to offer the same forms of games over the Internet. THE NET also allowed these operators to provide their games to players in areas where gambling was illegal. (Remember?that?s a tradition in the industry.)

The thinking is that an offshore casino is regulated by the laws where it?s located. If gambling online is legal in Costa Rica, for instance, it?s legal for someone in Texas to gamble online there. Their contention is that the wagering is taking place where in fact the server in Costa Rica is.

The federal government in the United States takes a less enlightened stance on this idea. They?ve managed to get clear that offshore companies offering gambling games to United States players are breaking the law. They?re less close-minded about if the players are breaking the laws.

The Future
As Criswell points out in the fantastic Ed Wood movie Plan 9 from SPACE, we?re all thinking about the near future, because that?s where we?re likely to spend the rest of our lives. But who knows what the near future holds for slot machine gambling?

It?s clear if you ask me that we?ll continue steadily to see innovations which make these games a lot more compelling and addictive. The legal climate in the United States seems to be trending toward legalization. Just in my lifetime, I?ve seen gambling become something that people had to fly to Nevada or to New Jersey to do. Now I can just drive an hour north to the Winstar Casino to spin the reels and try my luck.

Slot machines are likely to continue to become more interactive and profitable for the casinos. Eventually, I?m likely to predict that they?ll become too interactive and addictive. At that time, the federal government might start restricting gambling on a legal basis again. The pendulum seems to swing backwards and forwards with such things, at the very least in the USA.

The majority of the research because of this section was done using Wikipedia.

How to Play SLOTS at Casinos in Atlantic City, NEVADA, Reno, or SOMEWHERE ELSE
Slot machines will be the easiest games in the casino to play.

You insert money, push a button or pull a lever, watch the spinning reels, pay attention to the sounds, and collect your winnings (if any).

In fact, slots are so easy to play that it almost seems silly to write a guide on the subject.

But like any gambling activity, playing slots has subtleties that aren?t apparent.

In practical terms, here?s what you ought to know about playing these games.

When you?re considering one of these games, you?ll observe that it looks a lot like a traditional coin-operated video game in an arcade. Only most slot machines have a lever privately.

And in fact, most modern slots have more in common with video gaming than anything else. 50 years ago slots were mechanical and powered by springs and gears, but modern slots are powered by computer programs and video screens.

Once you?re facing the device, you?ll see the name of the game and its logo at the very top. Underneath which are the spinning reels that define the overall game. On many modern games, these spinning reels are animated.

If it?s an old-school machine with actual physical spinning reels, a pay table will undoubtedly be printed on the glass above or even to the side of the spinning reels. This pay table shows the possible winning combinations of symbols and just how much they pay if you hit them.

On newer machines with animation, you can access the pay table via the controls on the screen. (The controls and the pay table are both section of the animation, usually, even though some machines have physical controls on the console.)

Most slot machine games still have a lever privately, but it?s simply for show. When slot machines were purely mechanical affairs, you?d utilize the lever to start out the reels spinning. Now you have the option of pushing a button on the console to start out the reels spinning. There?s no advantage to using either option, although you?ll play slower if you are using the lever instead of the button.

Beneath the spinning reels is where you put your cash in to the machine. Some modern machines only have bill changers, however, many still also accept change in a coin slot. Once you input your money, the device updates electronically and displays how many credits you have.

Beneath where you input the money is a metal tray called a hopper. In the old days, this is where your winnings would spill out. These were paid in coins, and casinos used to have big plastic buckets located throughout to use to place your coins in.

Most modern slot machines work with a ticket in/ticket out system now. You cash these tickets in at the cage in the cashier area, just like you would cash in clay casino chips. The bill changer on modern slots will also read your tickets?it is possible to insert them just like cash.

The ticket in/ticket out system includes a lot of advantages for the casinos, the biggest being breakage. That?s only a fancy word to spell it out tickets that don?t get claimed. Many gamblers don?t want to waste time standing in line at the cage to cash in a ticket that may only be worth a couple bucks.

The casino gets to keep this money if the players don?t claim it.

And several bucks per person matters a whole lot when you?re dealing with thousands of people each day.

The specific mechanics of playing are simple, though. You insert your cash, choose how much you need to wager per spin, and wait to see what your outcomes are. Once you?re prepared to cash out, you push the button to cash out and take your ticket.

Some games do pay more if you play max coins, but others don?t. Browse the pay table to discover beforehand. If the overall game has higher jackpots for playing max coins, you?ll probably wish to accomplish so. When you can?t afford to, you need to move to a lesser denomination machine.

These games are played just as no matter where the casino is. Slots in NEVADA play just like the games in Atlantic City. The games in Reno are the same, too. The insides might work differently in one locale to another, but that difference is more-or-less opaque to the ball player. I?ll write more concerning the different varieties of innards slots have within the next section.

I referred frequently to this article when I researched this section.

World Slot Machines
These games aren?t just played in america. They?re popular far away, too. In fact, in a few countries (ahem, Australia), they?re practically a national pastime.

But most countries call them by another name.

In England, they?re called ?fruit machines?.

In Australia, they?re called ?pokies? (short for ?poker machines?).

In Norway, they?re called ?kronespill?.

In Scotland, they?re called ?puggys?.

In Canada (and frequently in the U.S.) they?re called ?slots?.

Each of them feature spinning reels. That is, in fact, the defining facet of such a game.

However they also feature different gameplay options and variations depending on where you live.

Fruit machines, for example, differ slightly from regular slot machines. In fact, they resemble the 8-liners within bars in Texas. They resemble video poker machines, in a sense. That?s since they almost always give you the option to hold some symbols and take another spin on some of the reels. This doesn?t imply that skill helps at all. The results remain randomly controlled by way of a random number generator, no level of so-called strategy will enhance your odds.

Pokies, however, usually include a massive amount of pay-lines and a lot of bonus features like scatters, wild symbols, and bonus games. The most recent innovation in pokies will be the games with 243 ways or 512 methods to win. These basically eliminate the concept of pay-lines entirely. Any winning combination from left to right results in a win.

I should point out to that one of the largest and most popular gambling destinations in the world now could be Macau. But slot machines aren?t a big draw there. Actually, baccarat occupies the position in the casinos there that slots hold within the U.S. Over 80% of a Macau?s casino revenue is generated from baccarat, not slots. That?s a significant cultural difference, to be certain.

I consulted this site when researching this section of the post.

SLOT MACHINE GAME Games and Variations
The original slot machines developed at the turn of the final century were mechanical devices with actual metal reels inside them. Once you pulled the lever, the springs set those reels to spinning. Symbols were printed on leading of the reels, and when they lined up, you have paid off.

For example, you may put a penny into such a machine, pull the lever, and see three cherries fall into line over the center of the reels. That line over the center of the reels is named a pay line.

Modern slot machines often have multiple lines, but you pay to activate each line. Old-school games had only three reels and something payline.

Such games still exist, but they?re no longer powered by springs and reel stops. Their email address details are determined by a computer program called a random number generator. They are called classic slots. They might seem boring in comparison to a few of the newer, flashier, and glitzier games.

But they usually provide best odds in the casino (at the very least as far as slots go).

Newer slot machines also often feature five reels instead of three. To accomplish all these extra reels and pay lines, the slot machine game manufacturers use animation and computer programs. Five reel slots and multi-line slots are often video slots. That just identifies what the game appears like.

These games often include all types of bonus features and games. Many of these bonus games have even skill elements. Others are completely random.

A good example of a game with a bonus feature is Wheel of Fortune slots. In the event that you?ve spent any moment in an American casino, you?ve seen and heard this game. It?s based on the popular game show. If you get certain combinations of symbols on the screen, you get to spin the wheel.

Of all Wheel of Fortune games, the wheel is smaller and is situated on top of the machine. I?ve seen versions which are huge and allow multiple visitors to sit around the wheel itself. Most players love getting to spin the wheel.

And of course, you get a bonus payout predicated on where the wheel lands.

These games often also include wild symbols. In the event that you play poker, you?re probably acquainted with the idea of a wild card. It?s only a card that can replacement for a card that could create a winning hand.

A wild symbol on a slot machine game works in the same way. It substitutes for a reel symbol that you would need to have to accomplish a winning combination.

Modern slots also often include scatter symbols. These are symbols which don?t must be on any specific pay line to achieve a winning combination. Irrespective of where they appear on the screen, if the right number and type of scatter symbols arrive, you get paid off.

Slot machines differ from most other gambling games. You can easily list the number of poker variations or blackjack variations about the same page. But slots can be found in a staggering array. That?s because dozens of manufacturers create new games constantly.

In fact, you will find several methods to categorize these games. Below are a few of these ways:

Legally, slot machines could be categorized by how their algorithms work. These categorizations are Class II and Class III. They matter because they affect which kinds of games the casino can legally offer. In states which allow tribal casinos, the restriction is frequently that they can only offer Class II slots. These games derive from a bingo algorithm. All the games are networked as well as a central computer that is constantly running bingo games. The payouts are based on the bingo results, and the spinning reels are simply for show. Class III slot machines, alternatively, have individual random number generators inside each machine.

Progressive slot machines have jackpots that grow constantly when you play. You?ll see a jackpot ticker near the top of this type of machine which lets you know what the very best jackpot is. Flat top slot machines, alternatively, have a set top jackpot.

Traditional slot machines have 3 reels and usually 1-3 pay-lines. These games look mechanical, even though the results remain powered by way of a computer program called a random number generator. Video slots will often have 5 reels (or even more) and at least 5 pay-lines. They cost more to play because you pay to activate each pay-line. But you have more opportunities to access least small wins.

Video slot machines are usually the games with all the current bonus features like bonus games, scatter symbols, and wild symbols. All these bells and whistles result in lower payout percentages for the player, though. You have a choice. Play the fancier, more fun game. Or play the more boring game which gives you a better chance to win.

I leave it to you to decide which of those options is better for you.

I used several pages to research this section, including this one which one. You?ll also look for a page with a more comprehensive treatment of this subject right here on this site.

THE MOST USED Slots Games
I read a book about gambling once that compared the popularity of slot machines with a quote from the Beatles. At one point, they claimed to become more popular than Jesus.

And when slots are that popular, specific games occupy high positions of popularity within the category. This section of the post talks about the most used games and how they got there.

Wheel of Fortune slots are the undisputed kings of the gambling machine sections of casinos in america. I read a book about slots recently that claimed that IGT, the overall game?s manufacturer, were so eager to duplicate this game?s success that they surveyed the players to determine why it had been so popular.

They got a variety of answer, needless to say. But one answer was common.

A lot of people who loved Wheel of Fortune slots said that the overall game reminded them of watching the overall game show on TV with their grandmother when they were young.

How can you beat that as a formula for success?

In fact, Wheel of Fortune isn?t just a single slot machine game anymore. It?s a brand. Several different games utilize the branding, and each of them has different gameplay features. Each of them have two things in keeping, though:

The sights and sounds related to the game show.
The spinning wheel bonus game.
Wheel of Fortune isn?t the only real game to borrow elements from the popular game show. You?ll find a lot of them scattered throughout the casinos: THE PURCHASE PRICE Is Right, Jeopardy, The $20,000 Pyramid, Deal or No Deal, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire have all spawned slot machine games.

The Simpsons slots are like this, too. It?s more about branding than specific gameplay features. Multiple slot machine games share the branding, sound effects, characters, and iconography. The newest version is a big flashy monstrosity of a casino game. The TV show has been on the air for over 27 years now.

Notice a trend yet? Tapping into existing intellectual properties and brands is a smart move for game manufacturers and casinos. People love familiarity. You?ll find that most of the hottest gaming machines tap into this tendency.

And The Simpsons isn?t the only cartoon to spawn its gambling game. The Pink Panther has been popular for years. South Park slots may also be hugely popular. At one time, using a cartoon as the basis for one of the games was controversial. The regulators felt such as this was a way of enticing under-age gamblers. But most modern cartoons aren?t even aimed at children.

Elvis slots are a big deal, too. Just like the other games I?ve listed, a number of different machines share this branding. You can find slot machine games featuring skinny Elvis, fat Elvis, and Elvis singing different songs. (?Burning Love? is really a favorite.)

He?s essentially the most iconic singer to have a popular slot machine game, but other singers are in on the action, too. Dolly Parton slots are popular. Cher has her own slot machine, too. You can also find slots based on Hee-Haw, a country western music themed variety show that was on the air for decades.

In short, whatever summons nostalgia among the right demographic is really a potential theme for a favorite gambling machine. The popular the brand and intellectual property, the more popular the game.

Slot Machine Tournaments and How They Work
A slot machine tournament is an opportunity for one to compete keenly against other gamblers. It?s also an opportunity to get a good little bit of action without spending a lot of money.

Here?s how most slot machine game tournaments work:

You pay an entry fee. For that, you get a certain amount of credits on a slot machine. Another players do likewise.

When the tournament starts, the casino sets a timer, and you also get to make as much spins as you possibly can before among the following happens:

You run out of credits.
The timer runs out.
When the timer runs out, the player with credits may be the winner.

Usually thus giving you an opportunity to get a large payout for a low buy-in. A number of these tournaments are offered as freerolls by the casino to attract new customers.

I researched a number of the information because of this section by using this page.

Probability and SLOTS ? The way the Payback Percentage Works
All casino games have this in common?they pay off less than the chances of winning. For example, if you place a bet that pays off at 10 to 1 1, it is possible to bet that the odds of winning are worse than 10 to 1 1. The casinos come in business to produce a profit. This mathematical edge is how they do it.

Here?s a particular example of how that may work with a simple slot machine game:

You?re playing a game with 3 reels and an individual payline. Each reel has 8 symbols onto it. The probability of obtaining a specific symbol on a specific reel is 1/8. The probability of getting that symbol on all 3 reels is 1/8 X 1/8 X 1/8, or 1/512. This means that the chances of winning are 511 to at least one 1. If that bet takes care of at 500 to 1 1, the casino expects to win money in the long run.

Let?s assume you?re playing for $100 per spin. You lose $51,100 on your own losing spins. Nevertheless, you win $50,000 on your own winning spin. Your loss is $1100 on the 512 spins, which means you lose an average of $2.14 per spin.

This implies the casino has an edge of 2.14% on this bet, and the payback percentage (the amount they expect to pay back on every bet) is 97.86%.

Of course, modern slot machines are more complicated than this. They often have significantly more than 8 symbols on each reel. They might have 15 and even 20 symbols.

And since they?re not mechanical but computerized, they can weigh the probabilities of some symbols approaching differently than others. Some symbols might appear an average of once every 40 spins, while some might come up an average of once every 10 spins.

These numbers are all dependant on the designer and the PARs sheet for the game. However the casino and the maker know the precise expected payback percentage for every slot machine on the floor.

In fact, in nearly every case, the gamblers don?t have the info needed to calculate what the payback percentage is for a specific game.

This makes the slot machine the only real game in the casino where it?s impossible for a new player to know what type of house edge he?s facing.

I used some information presented on Gamblers Bookcase when researching this section.

Which Slots Games Are Best for the Smart Player
The very best slots games for the smart players are no slots games at all. These games always have a house edge that may?t be overcome. If you play these games long enough, you?ll lose all your money.

So some games can be viewed as less worse than others, though. The low the house edge, the better. Concurrently, if a game has a low payback percentage but isn?t fun, it?s most likely not worth playing, either.

What?s a good slot machine player to accomplish?

Here are some tips about which games, in general, provide best odds. I also offer some personal observations about how exactly useful each tip is.

Flat top games are much better than progressive games. If you don't?re determined to win an enormous life-changing jackpot, you?re better off choosing the games that have a fixed top prize. (These are called flat top slots.) Progressive jackpots, however, offer worse odds overall, just because a tiny percentage of each of your bets goes toward increasing how big is that jackpot.
The games with the lowest jackpots probably offer better odds. This probably seems counter-intuitive. In the end, when you have two slots games that cost $1 per spin to play, wouldn?t the overall game with the higher jackpot offer the better odds? The short answer is not any. You take two factors into consideration when determine a gambling game?s odds: 1) the payoff and 2) the chances of winning. On a slot machine, the larger the most notable prize, the less likely you are to win it.
Higher denomination games usually offer better odds than lower denomination games. The reason for this is simple. A casino game that you play for a nickel can be more profitable for a casino than a penny game with an even higher payback percentage. Let?s say the penny game has a payback percentage of 90%. That means the casino wins 10% (normally) of the money put through the game. At 600 spins per hour at a cent a spin, that?s $6.00 per hour in action, and 60 cents each hour in expected profit. Let?s say the nickel game has a payback percentage of 95%. That means the casino wins typically 5% of 600 spins at 5 cents each. That?s $1.50 each hour. The nickel game gives you MUCH better odds of winning, but the casino still makes more profit per hour. The casino WANTS one to play the higher denomination machines.
Max coin doesn?t matter so much. On some gambling machines, it creates a difference, but this isn?t carved in stone. Actually, it?s just as common that it doesn?t matter at all. This is among the major differences between most video poker games and most slot machines. You should ALWAYS bet max coin at video poker due to the increased payout for the most notable jackpot. This is not true of most slots games. Check the pay table on the overall game you?re considering to know for sure.
You can also find plenty of bad advice about how to choose the best slots games. Here are a few examples of advice that isn?t accurate:

If anyone lets you know Where in fact the highest-paying games are, just smile knowingly and ignore them. 22 years back, Frank Scoblete published a book called Break the One-Armed Bandits. The advice he gives for the reason that tome is to search for games on the ends of the aisles. The theory is that the casinos want to attract players to the games, so that?s where they put the loosest machines. That?s not how it works, though?at least, not in real life. Most casinos with identical games have games with identical payback percentages. The ones that don?t place their games randomly through the entire floor of the gambling machine area.
There?s nothing that you can do to improve your likelihood of winning. This is true in a way, because if you play long enough, you?ll probably lose. But you can choose games which offer better odds in the short term than others. For example, avoiding progressive slots in favor of flat top slots improves your chances of winning. Choosing traditional 3-reel slots with an individual payline improves your likelihood of winning in comparison to choosing 5-reel slots with twelve or more paylines.
Games get hot or cold. The idea behind this is that a game is either because of pay out or that it?s cold and on a cycle of losing spins. That is a good example of the gambler?s fallacy doing his thing. The idea is you could take advantage of an absolute streak or perhaps a losing streak, however the reality is that each spin of the reels can be an independent event. The outcomes of previous spins have nothing in connection with the result of your next spin. Yes, you will notice winning and losing streaks. Nevertheless, you?ll only see them in retrospect. And there?s no way to predict if they?ll begin or end. There?s no chance to benefit from what?s already happened.
Most of the information regarding improving your likelihood of winning at slots was bought at Michael Bluejay?s excellent page on the subject.

Slots Questions, Answered
Per my rigorously scientific (not) research on Google and Bing, they are many of the most commonly asked questions about slots and slot machines. Lots of people seem to need to know the answers to these questions. I?ve answered them succinctly and included links to other resources that answer them in greater detail.

Which slot machine strategies are winning strategies?
Okay, which means this one might not be a word-for-word question lots of people ask, but it is the one that reaches the point most people care about. How can you win at slots? Is there a smart way to play?

The short answer is that none of the slot machine strategies you?ll read about online are winning strategies. Slot machines?and every other casino game, for example?have an unassailable house edge. Mathematically speaking, nothing you do can improve your odds of winning.

The best that you can do is make an effort to choose games with a low house edge. You?ll at least get more entertainment for the money.

But if you play long enough, no matter what strategies you utilize, you?ll eventually lose all of your money.

You will find comprehensive information about slot machine strategy in this page on this site.

Can you play slot machines for free?
Yes, it is possible to play slot machines for free, but not at traditional brick-and-mortar casinos. Free slot machine game games are available at most online casinos. These businesses want you to try free versions of these games, hoping that you?ll upgrade to playing for real money.

You can even buy software and download apps which have free slot machine game games.

I?ve never seen the idea in playing such a game. In the end, aren?t you merely pushing a button and watching a meaningless animation?

The only thing that gives a slot machine game any meaning at all is the money which you have at risk, isn?t it?

The only reason I could see for playing a free of charge game is to try out the casino software to see if you believe you?ll desire to play the real money games there.

You will find detailed reviews of casinos offering free slots here on this site.

Are slots addictive?
Some people are from the school of thought that says you can?t be dependent on slot machines because you?re not ingesting anything into your body. Slots aren?t like drugs or alcohol. How will you become dependent on them?

Those people are wrong.

Addiction is more complicated than that. Gambling game designers do their best to make these games addictive.

Once you learn anything about behavioral psychology or how the brain reacts to video games and gambling games, it doesn?t take you long to understand that slot machines are addictive.

Does this mean you?ll become a mindless slave to these games if you play them?

Not necessarily.

Addiction is more difficult than that, too.

The best thing that you can do is look for warning signs your gambling has gotten out of control. The most important warning sign is a insufficient joy in the experience.

If you?re compelled to play these games but don?t enjoy them, you may have an addiction.

Get help.

Read an in depth guide to gambling addiction generally here on this website.

Can you buy and/or own your own slot machine?
The answer to the depends on where you live. In some states, slot machine ownership is completely illegal. In others, you?re permitted to own such games if they?re old enough to qualify as antiques. How old such games must be varies based on state law. However in all states, you must have a gambling license to own such a game and provide real cash play to customer on it.

You can find a far more detailed question and answer section elsewhere on this site.

Do casinos change the odds of winning on a machine that?s gotten hot or cold?
The random number generators on a slot machine are programmed to pay off at a certain percentage on the life of the game. However in the short run, anything can occur. Casinos understand why. They don?t have to re-program these games. They just let them run until the long-term expectation kicks in.

I am hoping you found this definitive guide to slots and slot machine helpful.

Can you do me a favor now?

Leave a comment below and i want to know what you imagine of this guide to slot machines.

What did I leave out that I should have included?

What questions do you have that I didn?t cover?

Did you see any mistakes?

I?d be grateful for the feedback, and I?ll update this guide accordingly.When I took the plunge, and decided to hit the tournament circuit a few years back, I was like every other poker player who thought that they had what it takes.

I put in my time studying online, and I patiently applied those skills in the live setting, all while hoping to catch that elusive ?good run? at the right time. And at the risk of tooting my own horn, I did much better than the common amateur turned aspiring poker pro. Made a few final tables, pocketed decent prize money, and also had a chance to win a World Group of Poker Circuit ring before losing a long, heads-up match.

Alas, it was not meant to be in the end. I came across that what truly separates the professionals from ordinary people isn?t knowledge of the overall game, but dedication to the grind. I just didn?t own it in me, and following a year or so spent traveling from casino to casino, I tucked my tail and returned to the ?real world.?

And when I did so, I realized that I?d acquired a new hobby on the way ? collecting casino chips.

I?m not talking about the chips I tried to win at the tournament tables, as taking those home is really a crime punishable by property-wide bans if caught. No, I began pocketing the standard casino chips used at in cash poker or in table games like blackjack and craps.

Whenever I entered a casino for the very first time, I finished up playing cash game poker or hitting the table game pit, and invariably I?d keep a single $1 chip as my very own before leaving town. Initially, I was simply seeking a memento from the new experience. Eventually, though, I realized that every casino used slightly different, and singularly unique, chip designs.

And from there, I was hooked.

These chips are yours once you purchase them from the cashier?s cage ? or better yet, win them ? at the tables. Indeed, casinos tend to be more than happy to let you collect chips as a souvenir. The house has already collected cash in exchange, sufficient reason for the chip safely saved in your shoebox somewhere, they do not have to settle up.

Based on a listing of my burgeoning chip collection, I?ve visited at least 60 casinos within my travels. Those include megaresorts just like the Bellagio on the NEVADA Strip to a dusty little cardroom called Bucky?s in Prescott, Arizona. A few of my chips aren?t even issued by way of a proper casino, as most of the ?underground? card clubs and private games etch their branding on a stock chip.

In any event, this collection provides me with a window back in its history, and a tangible link with my many poker memories. One look at any of them instantly reminds me of a place and time ? a smoky room at Harrah?s Cherokee casino in NEW YORK, a huge bad beat jackpot hit at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, or a bachelor party at Atlantic City?s crown jewel, the Borgata.

In light of the enjoyment I?ve found collecting chips, I?d like to introduce readers to this fun new hobby. I?ll begin with a basic rundown of my approach to collecting, before offering you a few handy ideas to take full advantage of your casino chips.

Red, White, and Blue
The first facet of your collecting style to select concerns the denomination of every chip.

Every casino runs on the standard system of chip denominations, beginning with the $1 unit. These ?singles? are nearly always colored in white or blue shades, and they?re obviously the least expensive way to get in the game.

Chips also come in $5 units, and these are invariably colored red. Beyond that, you might find $10 chips at a few casinos, especially in the poker room, but these aren?t always available. And moving up the ladder, you?ll find $25 chips (usually green), and $100 chips (usually black) to play with.

Personally, I collect the humble $1 chips purely as a cost-cutting mechanism. Remember, you?ll have to pay the cash equivalent to get yourself a chip from the cashier?s cage ? and the money spent essentially becomes a sunk cost. Put simply, as soon as you part ways with cash in exchange for a collectable chip, you won?t be seeing those funds again.

Sticking with the $1 chips keeps my accounting simple and easy too. When I count my casino chip stash and see 60 of them, I understand I?ve spent just $60 on a spare time activity that has spanned many years. Upgrading to $5 chips multiplies the expense of collecting in kind, and I?m not sure I?d enjoy spending $300 on the same hobby.

Deciding which chip denomination to base your collection around is a matter of personal preference, and based on your financial situation, you might would rather up the ante with $5 or $25 chips.

I love the variety within $1 chips, however, as these are generally updated with new designs over time.
Many casinos even interest the collectors out there with specially themed $1 chip designs. You?ll find chips commemorating the vacation season, the venue?s headlining show, or a casino?s 20-year anniversary in business.

For the most part, these specially designed chips are limited by the $1 denomination, while $5 chips and up stick to a stock design. I love grabbing a handful of white or blue $1 chips and examining their various themed designs, before selecting the one which speaks if you ask me most.

Set the Ground Rules
This aspect of chip collecting is purely optional, but I find it offers a little bit of structure to the whole thing.

Basically, my ground rules for adding a new chip to the collection revolve around actual play. Simply stepping foot in the new casino isn?t enough to warrant adding that venue?s chip to my collection. Instead, I must place a minumum of one wager somewhere on the floor to make it ?count.?

Originally, I began collecting chips from any casino where I played poker, but that constraint became more trouble than it was worth. I realized many casinos don?t even provide a poker room, and regarding NEVADA mainstays like Monte Carlo, the Luxor, and Hard Rock, venues have closed their poker rooms down in recent years.

With this in mind, I expanded my ground rules to add any kind of bet. Typically, if the area is really a poker-free zone, I?ll hit the blackjack tables and try to grind out an absolute session. I also dabble in craps and roulette when I?m in the mood for pure gambling. In any case, I always make sure to get change for a $5 chip, before keeping two $1 chips (the cleanest of the bunch) off aside.

If the session goes poorly and I lose my stake, I've two $1 chips left in hand ? someone to toke the dealer with, and one to bring home with me.

With regards to the situation, however, I?ve been known to slap a $10 bill down on the roulette table felt and bet $9 on single number wagers. If lady luck smiles on me that day, I hit the buffet with my $30 or so in profit. And when she?s not in the mood, I still have a lone $1 chip to pocket and polish later on.

Keep ?Em Clean
Why would I polish my casino chips, you ask?

In a 2009 op-ed penned for PokerNews, tournament reporter and author Paul McGuire posed a simple question: can touching poker chips make you sick?

McGuire had reasonable to ask too. As a roving tournament blogger, assigned to interact with poker players for 14 hours per day during the World Group of Poker in Las Vegas, he was on the front lines of poker?s germ warfare.

Within the op-ed, McGuire asked his local physician, Dr. Charles Stillman, whether contact with poker chips might increase his odds of contracting an illness.

?You can get sick from poker chips. It?s actually been studied across multiple casinos.
The most typical infection is Staph (Staphylococcus aureus). The true scary one is MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) because it?s just that ? resistant to the primary antibiotic used to take care of it.?

One of many studies Dr. Stillman mentioned was conducted in 2007 by biologist Brian Hedlund and his research team at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV). Commissioned by Bluff magazine, Dr. Hedlund?s study involved analyzing chips obtained from five casinos on The Strip.

In accordance with Hedlund?s findings, an individual casino chip is home to thousands of microorganisms, like the staph and MRSA germs.

Now, before you abandon the idea of collecting casino chips altogether, you should realize a large number of germs aren?t all that a lot of a threat. At this very moment, your own hands carry more microorganisms than the average casino chip.

As both doctors mentioned, the usual accumulation of germs entirely on a casino chip isn?t nearly enough to compromise a wholesome person?s immune system. Unless you suffer from immunodeficiency issues of some kind, handling casino chips is perfectly safe.

Even so, I always take the time to wash my hands after sourcing my latest chip. I?m not discussing a deep scrub with Purell or some other antiseptic, only a simple wash with warm water and soap. It?s better to be safe than sorry, in the end.

So when I get my chips home for the first time, I also apply a splash of rubbing alcohol with a wet cloth to finish the cleaning process. I really do this to remove the last traces of germs, first and foremost, which are evident in the black smudges that often accumulate in the contours of a chip.

But even though the chip was scanned with a microscope and found to be germ-free, I?d still give it a good wipe down before adding it to my display, simply to add an element of shine. Casino chips are employed and abused throughout their time on the tables, and a small amount of elbow grease goes a long way in restoring their natural luster.

You need to be careful when cleaning chips affixed with logo stickers. Major casinos usually choose laser etching or some type of permanent printing, but smaller operations often opt for stock chips and a simple sticker instead. If that?s the case, go as light since you can with the cleaning and prevent directly contacting the sticker with water or rubbing alcohol.

Show Your Stuff
At this point you have a pile of casino chips, and clean ones at that, spread out or stacked on your own desk somewhere. Where should they go next?

That?s another matter of personal preference, but also for my money, the very best bet is really a display case frame that can be hung from your wall.

You can check out the eBay page for ?casino chip display? to get a better idea of why. As you can plainly see, these chip displays come in all shapes and sizes, but most use a simple square design with circular cutouts where your chips go.

Once you have enough chips to fill about half of the display ? the normal frame holds about 100 of them ? feel free to insert them and hang finished . already. Chip collecting isn?t a completist hobby by any stretch of the imagination, which means you don?t need every space in the frame to be occupied before putting it on display. And indeed, seeing those empty spaces staring back at you offers a certain sense of motivation to help keep adding new chips as time goes by.

For my own chip collection, I try to arrange them predicated on geography. All of my chips from the Las Vegas Strip are grouped together, while those from Downtown / Fremont Street have their own row. The ?Off-Strip? joints like South Point and Gold Coast get their own group, as do other regions like Atlantic City and Los Angeles.

Any chips obtained from an underground card club or private game obtain own row as well.

And as an Arizonan, I devote a separate section in the display to my hometown casinos.

That?s just my own approach to installation of the chips, and I?m sure you?ll come up with a pattern or design that fits your personality. That?s all part of the fun that comes with collecting.

To assist you find some inspiration on that front, check out some of the more well-designed casino chip displays floating around out there today.

Blast from days gone by
One of the most interesting aspects of casino chip collecting may be the sheer scope of variety you?ll find.

Per the latest statistics compiled by the American Gaming Association (AGA), america is home to 510 commercial casinos. Just a decade ago, however, that number stood at 455 ? meaning 55 new casinos have opened up in the last decade alone.

And the ones?re just the commercial casinos, actually. When you add another 470 tribal casinos operated on Native American reservations, you?ll find nearly 1,000 venues on the map ? and that?s just the American market. When the international casino industry is factored in to the equation, collectors literally have a large number of options to select from.

But what about the casinos which have come and gone?
The old Dunes on The Strip was imploded in 1994, replaced by the extravagant Bellagio. The Sands gave way to the Venetian, the Hacienda became Mandalay Bay, and the Aladdin was transformed into Planet Hollywood.

While the buildings could be gone right now, these old casinos once had an incredible number of visitors streaming through the doors every year. And when those guests headed home, casino chips invariably traveled from LAS VEGAS all over the world.

Today, a thriving market for historical casino chips are available online, where collectors look to find their own personal ULTIMATE GOAL. Maybe it?s the casino your parents spent their honeymoon at, or the old card room where you once cut your teeth learning the game. Whatever the case may be, plenty of collectors on the market specialize in sourcing difficult to find historical chips.

As you can see by perusing the eBay page for ?old Vegas chips?, historical casino chips have huge variations when it comes to price, appearance, condition, and even their use.

For just $5, you can purchase a vintage ?steak chip? issued by the Golden Nugget in the past when. Emblazoned on the chip is really a message reading ?please present to line cook,? and I suppose these were handed out to friendly faces by floormen. With a steak chip at hand, a lucky player could sit down at the Golden Nugget restaurant, flick their token to the line cook, and revel in a juicy steak dinner free of charge.

While I don?t collect historical chips myself ? not yet anyhow ? I could certainly appreciate the sentimental value these old tokens hold. Little stories from the golden era of casino gambling, just like the steak chip therefore many others, are gradually being lost because the older venues are imploded. With a casino chip that could be 50 yrs . old in your collection, you?ll always have a web link to those stories close at hand.

Keep Free from Collecting Catastrophe
Up to now, I?ve centered on how to proceed as a casino chip collector, so let?s finish things off with a few words of warning.

Casinos are notorious for his or her tight security controls, and as the old saying goes, the ?eye in the sky? is definitely watching. I?ve already explained that pocketing a casino chip and taking it home with you is perfectly legal, and also encouraged by the home, so why worry about cameras?

It?s all about context in this instance.

If you?re playing in a cash poker game, the home rules will more often than not add a provision about keeping all chips in play on the table. In poker parlance, pocketing chips while still in the overall game is called ?going south,? and both floor staff and fellow players won?t be happy if they catch you violating the rule.

Going south is prohibited for several reasons, however the main one involves game integrity. If a player just doubled their $100 stack through you, it stands to reason they ought to have at least $200 in play on the next hand. If they opt to go south with two of the green $25 chips, however, they?ll only have $150 in play so that you can win back. That?s nearly fair, which is why casinos frown on removing chips from a live poker game.

Now, if you?re removing a lone $1 chip from the table, nobody should offer you any guff. That deduction doesn?t affect the overall game dynamics in any way, and indeed, players are permitted to use in-game chips to tip cocktail servers or the dealer.

Even so, I always advise new collectors coming from the poker world to exercise caution and common sense. Just wait until the game breaks and you also?re accumulating your stacks to snag that sweet $1 chip, and you also?ll avoid any possible drama.

And for tournament players, those chips are property of the casino at all times, and removing even the smallest T25 chip could be grounds for immediate disqualification. This exact situation occurred in 2015 during a major tourney in Italy, and although the ball player was simply joking with a friend, he was 86?d from the final table.

This rule is true for table games too, though it?s not enforced in the same strict manner. Once you?re playing blackjack or craps, you?ll be moving chips to and from the table quite frequently, also to be honest, the dealer, stickman, and pit boss have more important things to watch for when monitoring a table.

Once more though, it?s far better simply avoid any implication of cheating or malfeasance by keeping your chips clearly visible while still in the overall game.

Collecting casino chips can be a fun and rewarding hobby. Follow the guidelines in the basics of collecting casino chips listed above and you could quickly get started and steer clear of most of the potential challenges.
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