hi and welcome to our series of educational videos
that are designed to make you a smarter gambler my name is Steve Bourie
and I'm the author of the American casino guide which is the number one
bestselling book in the US on the subject of casino gambling and travel
any the only book that comes with more than one thousand dollars in casino coupons
if you want to know more about me or my book be sure to visit my website at americancasinoguide.com
In this video I'll be speaking with gambling expert Michael Shackleford
who is also known as The Wizard of odds and I asked him all about slot machines
we videotaped this interview with Mike in Las Vegas in September 2010
and am sure that it will help to answer many of the questions that you have
about slot machines. How do slot machines at work?
The way slot machines work whether they be
physical reels or a video slot is the moment the player
presses the spin button random numbers will be picked
from a certain range and they will be mapped to positions on the reel
strips
one random number for each reel
the game will score whatever the player got and pay the player
so each wheel is independent and the outcome is determined
the moment the player hits that spin button. Does it matter if you push the spin
button
or pull the handle? Absolutely not whether it be
pulling the handle or pressing the button the moment you do either one of those
is when the machine picks it's random numbers
which determine what you will win Is there such a thing as a loose
or a tight slot machine? There is a difference between
a loose machine and a tight machine according to
the the prompt chip which is the computer chip that the
slot machine manager decides to put in that machine
one slot manager may decide to set his slots at 92 percent and another
one at 90 percent
however the players are not going to know what chip is in that machine and
you hear players complain all the time
this machine is a cold machine
the reason that player is complaining is probably because he just had bad luck
it takes millions of spins for a slot machine
to start to approach the the theoretical percentage that it's supposed to pay
in the short run anything can happen as with any form a gambling
Is there any way to tell if a casino has tight or loose
slots? Nine years ago I did a survey of all of Las Vegas and tested how
loose they set their slot machines and
a few rule sof thumb that I can give you and there are plenty of exceptions to
this
rule one is that the nicer the casino
the tighter the slots and rule number two
the further away you get from the strip
the looser the slots Can someone in the back room
just flip a switch to change the payback percentage on a slot machine
while you are playing it? There's a common myth
that some guy in a back office somewhere can flip the switch
and change the slot machine from being loose to tight that
absolutely is a myth with most slot machines
if you want to change the theoretical return percentage
you have to get a key open it up change the chip
do some paperwork here in Nevada you would have to
fax a form to the Gaming Control Board
telling them that you made this change because they can do surprise inspections
at any time
and make sure that the returns on the machines are set to what you say they're
set to
an exception to what I just said is what's called server-based slot machines
is a not very common yet but some casinos are using them
now with server-based slot machines
the return percentage can be changed from a distance
by say the slot manager
at his desk However there are regulations in
place to prevent abuses of this
as I understand it the
the machine cannot be changed
unless it hasn't been played for at least four minutes if I'm not mistaken
Is it a good idea to always bet maximum coins?
It depends on the game With slot machines
if you're playing a progressive game and you have to make a max coin bet to
hit the progressive
indeed you should bet maximum coins
If there's obviously a big incentive
to play max coins, for example one coin in
jackpot pays 1000, two pays 2000
but 3 pays10,000
that is a big economy of scale for betting three coins you should do it
however if there is just a small incentive
or no incentives at all to bet max coins I would recommend
not doing so The way a slot managers set their machines
the higher the denomination the higher the return percentage
so if you want to get the best return out of a slot machine
I recommend playing the highest denomination you're comfortable with
and then the fewest coins possible
if you play machine for 30 minutes and then leave, someone then plays and hits a
jackpot
would you have won if you had stayed?
It's a common myth that players will complain
that after they left at machine that somebody else came down, played it
and stole their jackpot For example
I was playing this machine for eight hours
I took a break to have lunch or go to the bathroom somebody sat down and met
my machine
and hit that jackpot that should have been mine
and it's a absolutely
unjustified accusation to make
every single time you play a slot machine the results are independent
of anything that's happened in the past The odds are absolutely the same on
every single spin much like say craps or roulette
If a machine just hit a jackpot, is it a bad idea to continue to play that
machine?
Another myth about slot machines is that once it hits a jackpot you should leave
it alone because it's gonna be cold for awhile
to get back in balance Absolutely not true
the odds are the same every single time you play it
even if the last 5 spins all hit jackpots the odds are still gonna be
the same on the very next spin and your probability of getting that jackpot is the
same
as the exact same looking machine next to it that hasn't hit the jackpot in
five years
Is the pay back percentage on a machine changed in anyway
when someone uses their player's club card?
The return that a slot machine is set to pay is the same regardless of
whether or not a player puts in a player's card It's a common myth
that putting in a player card will cause the machine to pay less
Absolutely not true makes no difference whatsoever
in terms of how much the machine is gonna pay
Is a slot machine ever due to hit?
Absolutely not as I've said before
every time you play it the odds are the same and
independent of the past. There's a common myth
that the machines pay in cycles and
or at the machines have some sort of a gravity to the return percentage and
if it hasn't hit for a while then the odds are going to
improve of hitting the jackpot absolutely false
The odds of hitting a jackpot are the same every single spin and it doesn't
matter when the last jackpot hit
What is your best advice for slot players?
My best advice for slot players
is to switch to video poker Slot machines
are a lousy bet you run a lot of money through the machines per hour
it's the most probably the most expensive form of gambling in the casino
If video poker interests you whatsoever
I would highly recommend studying video poker and looking for the good pay
tables do a little bit of homework
and your money will last much much longer in video poker than slot machines
How can people learn more about you and your work? i\If you want to improve your
odds in any casino game I welcome you to visit my website wizardofodds.com
it'll show you the correct strategy to at least a hundred different casino
games or you can buy my book gambling 102
which will show you how to play the most common casino games
Don't forget that you can see more of our educational gaming videos on our
YouTube channel
just go to youtube.com/americancasinoguide