Readers ask if quick reflexes are the key to winning

1. Advantage Player Slot Machines
2. Professional Slot Machine Player
3. Do Players Cards Affect Slot Machines Without
4. Do Players Cards Affect Slot Machines For Sale

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. In some jurisdictions, where only pull tabs are legal, the outcome can be displayed to the player on a video monitor, in the form of a slot or video poker machine. However, in Nevada, that is not how slots work. Each play is completely independent of the past.

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?”

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.

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.

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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.

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

The simple card you have to sign up for every time you go to a new casino with promises of 'Tier Credits' or points which get you treated better next time you go to the casino. We are of course talking about the casino player card, or loyalty card, that has come to be an expected sight in the casino.

But is the card really worth it? Do you really get better comps for playing with it? Or can playing with it mess up your odds in the slot machine and steal your jackpots? All these questions and more are answered below...

Basically the casino uses the players card to track your play through the casino. As simple as that.

Professional Slot Machine Player

How it works: Slot Machines

Do Players Cards Affect Slot Machines Without

In slot machines this is as simple as when you sit down you put your card in and from then on the casino can see what machine you're playing, average bet, and how long you're there. Everything is done in the computer and instantly updated on your profile. This is how you can earn points in real time and, in many casinos, redeem those points for free play or 'comps' on meals and spa treatments.

How it works: Table Games

For table games, the process of earning points with your players card is a little more old school. When you sit down at a table and cash in, you hand your players card to the dealer who will then call over a pit boss who will take note of your players card number and keep an eye on your play. They are taking notes on your average bet and time played. This system is a little more skewed to human error, so any time you play for an extended period MAKE SURE you ask to be rated by giving your card to the dealer. Then whenever you notice the pitboss checking the table make sure you have a high bet out.

Do Players Cards Affect Slot Machines For Sale

A couple quick tips to maximize your comps when playing the tables:

1. Buy in for as much as you can (even if you don't intend to play that amount) - depending on the casino, a higher buy in at the table can trigger higher offers in the mail and better comps because they think you have the 'potential' to be a very valuable customer.
2. Start your sessions with a high bet - when you hand your players card to the pit boss and he begins logging your play, he will enter how much you bought in for and what your average bet is. So it is a good idea to start out with a high bet which you can then lower when the pit boss walks away. This helps to maximize your 'average bet' in the system and ensure you receive the most comps possible.
3. The last tip is to Tip the dealer (and the pit boss!) - when you win, it's good karma to tip the dealer, but did you know that adding an additional chip in front of the chip you are giving to the dealer signifies a tip to the pit boss? Put out the two bets and make sure that the pit boss knows you're putting one out there for him. Also, it's a wise move to be tipping the pit boss when you have a big bet out so that he notices and increases your average bet rating!

The whole players card system can sometimes seem a little 'Big Brother' (we get it), but in the long run, this tracking is a good thing! The casino uses this data to rate you as a player and then send you offers that you qualify for based on that tracked play. The more money through the slots, the higher your average bet and the longer you play, the more offers the casino will send to bring you back. But the only way the casino knows who you are and how much you play is through that players card - so use it!