This month on Around Hawaii we’ll go over the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about slot machines here at Kimo’s Vegas.
Everyone knows that slot machines build casinos. They require little maintenance, don’t call in sick and take vacations… they’re as good as money in bank.
Players are attracted to slot machines because every spin can offer a big reward. On some machines these jackpots can be (and have been) life changing experiences.
Easily the most asked question I get is; “How can you tell when a machine is gonna hit” or “How do you know when a machine is hot” etc…
I wish I knew! And anyone who promises you a guaranteed way to identify those machines (like the Zig Zag Method) is full of sliver dollars. Slot machines are programmed to pay off randomly. This makes them legal and a fair gamble. By law the machine can only keep a percentage of the total bets it takes in. In most jurisdictions that number can be no more than 25%.
The next most popular question or area of discussion is; “Should I play the maximum number of coins or not?”
This is the mother of all slot machine questions because the answer is a big fat MAYBE. What makes this answer complex is the wide variety of different types of slot machines.
Giant progressive’s slot machines like Megabucks are an absolute yes… always feed the beast “max coin”, because the amount of money the machine keeps is based on the big jackpot. If you play less than “full coin” (the maximum bet) you’ll never win the big one but will pay the same percentage as someone who will. By the way people have hit the three winning Megabucks symbols with only $1 or $2 in the machine… don’t let this happen to you.
If you’re not comfortable betting $3 a spin you have plenty of options… try playing a machine that has a two coin max or a machine that pays twice the single coin bet for two coins. You can even play a five coin quarter machine ($1.25 a spin).
Penny machines are a mixed breed. The machines “take” (how much of our money it keeps) is programmed two ways. Some machines require you to bet the max coins in order to be eligible to play certain bonus rounds. Other machines just require a minimum of one coin per line to get the best percentage. It’s always a good idea when checking out a new machine to read out the pay table.
Forgive me for stating the obvious but as a general rule of “slot machine” thumb the bigger the jackpot the smaller the other payouts and the less frequently they occur.
For more details on the different types of slot machines check out an earlier Kimo’s Vegas column called “How To Win Playing Slot Machines, Really!”
(article link)
http://www.aroundhawaii.com/lifestyle/travel/2007-02_how_to_win_playing_slot_machines_really.html
What are the Odds of hitting the Megabucks?
About 1 in 49,836,032!
What is the biggest slot machine Jackpot ever won?
$39,713,982… the 25 year old visitor hit the big one at the Luxor in March 2003 and he had invested less than $100.
How Come I never win when my slot card is in the machine?
It’s most likely a case of selective memory… the card reader is completely isolated from the rest of the machine. Inserting your card makes no difference to the Random Number Generator (RNG) the computer chip that determines the outcome of a spin.
How does the Random Number Generator Work?
Let’s say we built our own slot machine that the reels had a total of 10 possible combinations. Of these nine were losers and one is a winner. The RNG (Random Number Generator) is constantly cycling through or rotating the ten possible combinations. In reality there are tens or even hundreds of thousands of reel combinations that the RNG is randomly rotating.
Next month here on Around Hawaii we’ll talk about “How to save money while shopping in Vegas”. ‘Till then Good Luck and get more Kimo’s Vegas at http://www.midweek.com/ and at http://www.kimosvegas.com/.
