Slots have been around are casinos for a number of years now and are easily one of the most popular amusements for casino players. The recent popularity has seen them develop into a huge online powerhouse, but essentially they are the same entity where you are playing live or online.
The slot machine has always been able to pull in the punters due to the massive jackpots on offer for a relatively small input. This coupled with the ease of which they are able to be maintained and ran makes it an obvious choice for not only casino’s but any establishment that can manage to obtain a license.
Over the years, the slot machine as we know it had evolved massively. The use of buttons or even a lever system has been replaced with state of the art touch screen displays, making them look a lot more appealing to the latest breed of punters. The way in which money is taken has also changed from inserting coins to being able to use debit cards and even electronic tokens received from the casino. Even the pay-out feature now more often than not will give you a slip of which you take to the cashier rather than dispensing money itself. That being said, the concept of matching pay lines and differentiating between the numbers of reels has remained, and will likely stay for many years to come.
How to Play Slot Machines
Playing a slot machine is very simple and it’s this exact reason why it’s become so popular. Basically all you need to do is insert your money into the machine and click spin to get going. From there to win you will need to random number generator to match up a series of symbols or pictures before any pay-out is made. However, the modern day slot can be a lot more complicated than that with the inclusion of 3-reel, 5-reel and progressive jackpot machines, of which we will look more into now.
3-Reel Slots
3 reel slots simply slot machines that have 3 reels of pictures or symbols on screen. They have a limited amount of variations due to the 3 reel but still allow for a high number of pay-outs. In fact, these slot machines are becoming a little less popular in casinos and have been starting to get replaced by the 5-reel machines.
5-Reel Slots
The 5-reel machines have 5 reels of symbols or pictures on screen and allow for a much larger number of combinations and generally pay-outs. These machines tend to be a little more expensive but often will include a much larger jackpot than say a 3-reel machine. The popularity of these machines is continuing to grow in both land and online casinos.
Progressive Machines
The progressive machines are easily the most lucrative out of the three as their jackpots work on a system which includes how much money has continued to be put into the machine. How it generally works is the slot takes a percentage of everything put into the machine and accumulating that amount for its jackpot. The more money put in, the more the jackpot will continue to rise. It’s not uncommon for these machines to carry jackpots in excess of 7 figures comparing that to jackpots on 3 or 5-reel machines being much lower. The lure of that big pay day is quickly making progressive slots one of the most popular on the market.
It’s worth noting that slots are completely random! It doesn’t matter what kind of slot you are playing, the amount of time it’s been since the jackpot has been won or how active a certain machine has been, the random number generator installed in all slot machines has no pattern. This is actually a requirement by Gambling regulations and to make sure they are completely random.
Slots Tips & Strategy
So, with the paragraph above being fresh in our mind, it will be easy to think how it can be possible to have a tips and strategy section. But there are ways in which you can maximise your expectation at a slot machine, even if long term you are going to struggle to be a winner.
The first thing to do is check out the pay back percentages on each slot. These will likely be a constant throughout each casino, but that constant may vary depending on which casino you are in. These will likely hover around the 91% mark, but they can vary from as little as 85% up to 95% depending on where the casino is based. Granted unless you are in a city like Vegas, selection of casinos is probably going to be few and far between.
Don’t get to drawn into the progressive slot machines pay-outs. The casino is taking money every time you simply put money into the machine for its jackpot. Whilst the million pound pay day is extremely lucrative, the chances of you winning are very, very slim. This means that essentially you are paying for the right to play that slot machine.
Whilst lower jackpot machines are obviously not going to be as appealing as a say a high roller progressive, the chance of you winning some money will be much higher. As the amount the casino will have to pay-out will be much less, they are happy to increase the winning percentage on these machines in an attempt to entice punters to use them more.
Finally we just want to end with a couple of myths that some people have regarding slot machines:
- Just because a large jackpot has been won on one machine doesn’t mean the chances of that jackpot hitting on the next spin won’t happen. The numbers are constantly spinning and at total random, so you have just as much chance landing the jackpot on next hand as you were on the previous hand.
- Conversely to the above point, a machine that hasn’t had the jackpot hit for a long time isn’t going to be ‘due’ to land anytime soon. The odds of landing will always remain constant.
- The placement of machines in casinos may as well be totally random. One won’t be as likely to hit as the other, it’s based more on which will catch the punters eye the best and thus get them playing at that slot.