Move over, you monsters. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman are merely minor real-world myths that can’t hold an RNG to the myriad reel-world myths that have developed about slot machines. Here is a slew of the myths coupled with their truths — to disabuse any of you who are true believers in this falseness.

The Myth: There will be no more jackpots after a big one has been hit so the machine can make sure it meets payback percentage.

The Truth: The hitting of the jackpot is not determined by a recent hitting of the jackpot. The machine does not say to itself, “Oh, that player just hit a jackpot. I better stop all future jackpots until I make back the money!†The statistics of the machine include jackpot hits, and should randomness hit a second jackpot right after another jackpot, that is no big deal. The reason people think the machines tighten up after a jackpot is simple: Jackpots are long shots, and hitting them in close succession is highly improbable, yes, but not impossible.

The Myth: Older slot machines are much tighter than newer machines, because players in the past were far stupider than they are today.

The Truth: The old Las Vegas probably had looser machines than it does today, because it was far less expensive to operate a casino in those days. Table games brought in so much more money that casinos didn’t have to worry about charging for rooms and meals. Comps were far more generous. Were players stupider than they are now? I doubt that, too. The casinos cater to a wide range of human intelligence — from ploppies to geniuses. It just seems like many of the players are stupid because of the gambling decisions they make.

The Myth: Slot-machine symbols each have an equal chance of being hit.

The Truth: No. The RNG determines what comes up, and the symbols do not have an equal chance of coming up; some come up more, and some come up less.

The Myth: Someone just hit a jackpot on the machine you just left. If you had stayed, you would have hit that jackpot instead of that rat who replaced you.

The Truth: Since the RNG is working in tenths of seconds, where it picks this or that sequence of numbers, which relate to the symbols you see, even a split-second difference in hitting the play button between you and that rodent will change what combinations come up. So between you getting up and that rat sitting down, the RNG has gone through thousands of symbols. In short, the rat didn’t steal your cheese.

The Myth: Casinos can loosen or tighten the slot machines by flipping a switch, which is either inside the cover or in back of the machine. If you can locate the switch in the back, you can make the machine get much hotter.

The Truth: Slot machines work on computer chips, and these chips are put in the machines at the factory. They are expensive to replace and require all sorts of paperwork in most jurisdictions to do this. So it isn’t just flipping a switch. When slot-machine companies sell their products to casinos, they offer the casinos various payback percentages, and the casinos pick which ones they want.

The Myth: The IRS is everywhere hunting people down to take their money. If you use a player’s club card, the IRS is sent all the information about how much you’ve won on the machines. That is a prime reason not to use a player’s club card when you play on the machines.

The Truth: The slot club card doesn’t report anything to the IRS. However, if you win $1,200 or more in a single spin, then the casino will report that amount to the IRS. It doesn’t mater whether you used a player’s card or not. Now, the casino does not report smaller wins to the government agency. Players must do this themselves, and I am sure there must be a couple of players out there who would actually do such a thing. By the way, in some countries, gambling wins are not taxable. It used to be this way in the United States, but no more.

The Myth: The more I play a machine, the more likely I am to win.

The Truth: Just the opposite. This myth only looks at the idea that with more decisions being played, the better the player’s chances for hitting a jackpot. This is true — to an extent. Keep in mind that each individual decision is random. Yes, the statistics of the game show how often a jackpot is supposed to hit, but those statistics can’t tell us when the jackpot will hit. Unfortunately, with more decisions, the more the house edge is grinding and hammering away at your money. While doing hundreds of thousands of spins might allow you to hit a jackpot, the fact is that your overall losses will not be changed by such a hit. This fact is inescapable: The longer you play, the better the chance that you will be behind. The longer you play, the better the chance that the casino will be ahead — whether you hit a jackpot or not. The only exception to this rule is the advantage-play slot machines where the more you play, the better your chances are of being ahead.

For more free slots tips, visit www.southerngaming.com/slots 

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Frank Scoblete’s newest books are “Slots Conquest: How to Beat the Slot Machine†featuring advantage-play slots that give the players the edge; “Casino Craps: Shoot to Win†that comes with a DVD showing unedited controlled throws; “Cutting Edge Craps: Advanced Strategies for Serious Playersâ€; and “Beat Blackjack Now: The Easiest Way to Get the Edge.†All books are available at bookstores, from Amazon.com or by calling 1-800-944-0406. If you would like a free month’s subscription to Frank Scoblete’s private site and/or a free brochure, e-mail fscobe@optonline.net or call 1-800-944-0406.

The casino slot machine that is termed a “Linked Progressive†is because they:

A) Tie together the number of times the player hits specific combinations with the size of the top jackpot.

B) Double the jackpot when two or more players hit the jackpot within the same 24-hour period.

C) Electronically link several machines so the jackpot increases on all whenever one or more are played.

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Myth: When top jackpot symbols start showing up in the window, but off the payline, a big jackpot is on the way.

John G. Says: False. Having jackpot symbols turn up off the payline decidedly does not mean a big hit’s on the way. It is just another losing spin. Smart players take it that way. No matter how pretty they look in the window, losing spins have no effect on upcoming plays. A while back a television report accused slot manufactures of programming machines so that winning symbols turned up frequently in the slot window but off the payline in order to sucker players into thinking a winner was coming. Now, it is possible that some programs do result in jackpot symbols showing up more frequently just above and just below the payline than the player would expect, but that can be a natural outgrowth of programming that allows bigger jackpots than the physical reels would support. But, regardless of how or why it is done, it does not matter how often jackpot symbols turn up off the payline. I repeat: it does not matter. The TV report was much ado about very little. The only symbols that matter are those that land on the payline. If they land anywhere else, in or out of the player’s view, it’s just another losing spin. Ignore the losers and move on.

Myth: Casinos rig machines to pay a higher percentage on the weekends rather than on weekdays and at night rather than during the day.

John G. Says: I once had a reader write to me to complain that casinos loosen the machines in the daytime so the idle rich get all the jackpots, then tighten them at night so that the good stuff isn’t available to working people. It just isn’t so. The flip side is a complaint I once received from a senior citizen, claiming that machines were tight in the daytime when retirees make up a large percentage of customers, and looser at night for the younger folk after work. Casinos do not rig machines to pay a higher percentage in the daytime than at night or higher at night than in the daytime. Nor is the operation simple enough to routinely do such a thing if the operator wanted to. In many gaming states, the computer chip holding the random number generator must be sealed by evidence tape. If the casino decides to change the payback percentage by changing the chip, a gaming board agent must be present to watch the evidence tape being broken and the chip sealed with new evidence tape. Just as casinos do not change the payback percentages from day to night, they do not change them from weekdays to weekends. If it seems you see more jackpots hit on the weekends, just remember that more people are playing, meaning there are more random chances for a jackpot to turn up.

Myth: Look for machines not in use in which cherries on the middle reel sit on the payline. They will pay off within the next few pulls.

John G. Says: False. This is an oddball myth I read in a financial newsletter that is actually a pretty good newsletter, with some excellent tips. This however was not one of them. It is not true that cherries sitting on the payline of the middle reel mean that a win is coming up. The random number generator runs continuously, even when nobody is playing the machine. One pull has no influence on the next. And the combination that shows on the reels as you approach the screen has absolutely no effect on what is to come.

Myth: Each slot machine has a sequence of results that can be worked out if the customer plays long enough.

John G. Says: False. There is no discernable pattern to slot machine results. Results are as random as humans can program a computer to be. Even if there was, no one can observe long enough to map out a pattern. How long would you have to play, for instance, to find a pattern for megabuck, with its multimillion dollar jackpots? Any non-random sequence would have to be billions of numbers long, given that the Nevada Megabucks system sometimes goes years at a time without paying off the top jackpot, even with its dozens of casinos throughout the state participating. A slot player brought this up at a seminar I once gave. She said that, for several spins in a row, she and the player next to her had the exact same reel combinations. She’d wondered if just for a few spins they were in sync, that they had reached the same place in the machine’s pattern. What was at work here was simply random chance, one of the oddball things that happens when you’re dealing with such impossible large numbers as the number of times handles are pulled or buttons pushed on slot machines. Players send the reel spinning more than a trillion times a month, and given enough trials, anything that is possible to happen eventually will. That includes two people on adjacent machines having the same results for several spins. If the question is, “Will this happen to me today,†it’s an extreme long shot. If the question is, “Will this happen to someone at sometime,†it’s a certainty.

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This is an excerpt out of The Slot Machine Answer Book by John Grochowski. The book reveals the answers to questions that every slot enthusiast is seeking such as “Is a machine ever “due†to hit?â€, “Can the casinos decide who wins?†and “Is there any way to gain an advantage over the slots?†The book can be found on Amazon.com, major bookstores and bonusbooks.com. Grochowski is a regular columnist for Southern Gaming and also has weekly columns on casino games in newspapers and on web-sites world wide. For more information, visit his web-site at CasinoAnswerMan.com.

Having played in dozens of slot tournaments, as an invited comp guest or via a paid entry, I am regularly asked questions about tournament strategy. Is there a strategy at all? Not really, but there are ways to play that involve emotion and physicality.
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