• Slot machines are programmed to have “hot streaks” and “cold streaks”.

Casinos will often tell you that slot machines use a computer to generate random numbers, and these determine the outcomes of the game. When players press the 'Play' button, the machines computer generates what is known as a RNG, a gaming term that is an abbreviation for 'random number generator'. The slot machines really give out random combinations This implies that a long losing streak after somebody leaves might extremely well continue for rather a long time, just to be cancelled in the future (and by later on, this might indicate days or weeks) by a substantial payment with only small gains in between.

• Slot machines are programmed so each individual spin is random.

Slot machines can go on hot streaks and pay out consistently for a period of time, and also cold streaks where they barely pay out at all. However, they are not programmed thisway.

Each spin is entirely random, and such streaks are simply a result of a short-term deviation from what is statistically likely. Anything can happen in the short term, just as you may see a runof 10 blacks in a row at a roulette table, but in the long run the results will always equate roughly to the expected payout rate.

• Slot machines that haven’t paid out for a while are due to pay out soon.

• The chances of winning for each individual spin are always the same.

This is really just an extension of the previous myth. A slot machine will always pay out eventually, but there is no way of telling when that will happen because of their random nature.

Again, it is important to recognize that each individual spin is entirely random. There is no point at which a machine suddenly becomes “due” to spin a winning combination.

• A machine that has just paid out a jackpot won’t pay out again for ages.

• The chances of winning for each individual spin are not connected to previous spins.

You can probably see a theme developing here, and it will continue throughout the whole article. Many slot machine myths are related to some kind of theory that the chances of winning aresomehow influenced by things that actually have no effect whatsoever.

We’ll say it again – every single spin of a slot machine is a random event. There is actually no reason at all why a slot machine wouldn’t pay out another big win withinminutes of paying a jackpot.

• You can’t do anything to improve your chances of winning when playing slot games.

• You can improve your chances of winning at slot games.

This might seem to somehow contradict what we’ve already said about slot machines being random. However, while it’s true that you can’t do anything at all to affect the outcome of any givenspin of a machine, there are a couple of things you can do to improve your overall chances of winning when playing slots.

First of all, not all slot machines pay out at the same rate. Slots can have a payout rate as low as 85% or as high as 98%. You always have a chance of winning regardless of the payout rate,but the higher the rate the higher your overall return is likely to be in the long run.

Secondly, you can increase the overall value you get from your slots play by using a player’s card at land-based casinos and by taking advantage of the bonuses and rewards available at onlinecasinos.

This won’t directly affect your chances of any given spin being a winner, but it can effectively give you extra money to play with. This extra money then gives you additional chances to get awinning spin.

Readers ask if quick reflexes are the key to winning

By John Grochowski

I keep a list of questions that I’m most often asked about slot machines. You could probably tick off some of them: “Are games programmed to go cold after a big win?” “Do you get less payback when you use your rewards card?” And the big one, “Can you tell me how to win?”

Are Slot Machines Really Random

Those have been standards ever since I started writing about casinos and casino games 20 years ago. But recently, another question has been shooting up the charts. I have it all the way up at No. 2 on the readers’ hit parade:

“I’ve noticed on a lot of video slot games that if I hit the button a second time while the reels are spinning, they stop right away. I was wondering if I could use this to my advantage. If I see the bonus triggers or the jackpot symbols at the top, should I quickly hit the button again and try to stop the reels?”

I had that thought myself the first time I accidentally double-hit a button and saw the reels click to an immediate halt. Could this be an answer to the chart-topping question, “how to win on the slots?”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In nearly all slot games that allow you to stop the reels, there is no skill or timing involved on your part. The random number generator has already determined your outcome when you hit the button to spin the reels, and you’re going to get the same result regardless of whether you stop the reels early, or let them halt in their own time.

When you play a slot machine, the game isn’t actually being played out on the reels, whether it uses “real” reels or video reels. It’s being played internally, on the game’s random number generator. The reels are just a player-friendly interface, and are told where to stop by the RNG. If there’s a malfunction and the reel display doesn’t match the numbers generated, it’s the RNG that counts. Large jackpots can be denied—and have been denied—if a check shows the random numbers on the internal computer chip don’t match the winning symbols on the reels.

But this is extremely rare. The engineering is good enough that almost all the time, the RNG and reel display are going to match up. This doesn’t change if you double-hit the bet button. If the RNG has spit out a random number that tells the first reel to stop on a single bar, then you’re going to get a single bar—regardless of whether you hit the button a second time for a “quick stop,” or just let them take their own sweet time.

Slot Machines Free Play

There are rare exceptions. When I’ve answered similar questions in the past, I’ve mentioned IGT’s Reel Edge games. In their original incarnation, Reel Edge games enabled players to touch and stop the reels one at a time. There was actual skill involved. Your timing in stopping the reels determined the outcome. The reels spun very, very fast, so it was going take a keen eye and sharp reflexes to get better than random results, but it was possible.

I gave it a try, and found my reflexes just weren’t fast enough to generate more than my normal share of winners. In the original three-reel Blood Life game, I identified a green 7 as the easiest symbol to pick out as it whizzed by. I touched each reel individually as I saw a green 7 reach the top of the slot window, and managed to stop 7s on all three reels. Alas, I failed to land them all on the same payline. Some younger folks with quicker reactions may have been able to do better.

I don’t know if any of the first generation of Reel Edge games remain on casino floors. They were never widespread, and I don’t get lists from casinos or manufacturers telling me what games are available in any given casino. The new generation of Reel Edge puts the skill-based portions of the games in the bonus events.

Blood Life’s updated video incarnation, Blood Life Legends, allows you to test your skill with a joystick to guide a bat through the ups, downs, twists and turns of a cave as you try to collect gems for bonuses. There is actual skill involved, but it’s not the reel-stopping experience readers have been asking about.

On most slot games, even in the bonus events you’re getting an illusion of skill rather than actual skill. And when it comes to stopping the reels, it’s the random number generator, not your reflexes, that determines the results.

What about my readers’ other top questions?

To answer another—no, games are not programmed to go cold after big wins. Results remain as random as humans can program a computer to be. As long as the RNG keeps doing its thing, any big jackpot, any hot streak, and any cold streak eventually fade away into statistical insignificance, and the machine comes very close to its expected payback percentage.

No, you don’t get less payback when you use your rewards card. The player rewards system doesn’t interact with the RNG.

And no, with rare exceptions, there is no way to beat the slots except by being in the right place at the right time. There have been opportunities for small profit on games with banked bonuses such as the old WMS game Piggy Bankin’, where the sharpies would start to play only when there were enough coins in the bank to give the player an edge.

Are Slot Machines Completely Random

Such games are not common. Just as with stopping the reels early, your results are up to chance and the RNG.