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- How To Tell Which Slot Machine Will Hit Every
- How To Tell Which Slot Machine Will Hit Away
- How To Tell Which Slot Machine Will Hit In Golf
- Look at the payout chart on a slot machine to determine how jackpots are paid. On many slot machines, the 5-coin bet pays out a higher percentage on the top fixed jackpot. For instance, a 1-coin bet might pay $200, a 2-coin bet might pay $400, a 3-coin bet might pay $600, and a 4-coin bet might pay $800.
- Basically, when it comes to slot machines, strategy boils down to this: Know the rules, your probability of winning, and the expected payouts; dispel any myths; and quit while you’re ahead. If you win $100, cash out $50 and play with the rest, for example. After you lose a certain amount (determined by you in advance), don’t hesitate to quit.
- Real players can sense it is going to hit exactly two hits before the jackpot. In my experience, I feel this sensation even when I am not playing, so my strategy is just to walk past each slot in a given casino until I feel the “buzz”.
Slot machines often get a bad rap from gambling writers. But the truth is, slot machines are the perfect gambling activity for certain types of people. They’re easy to understand, they’re easy to play, and they offer the possibility of big winnings.
The unicorns that most gamblers are looking for in the casino, though, are the loosest slot machines. What does that mean?
This is why a slot machine can never be said to be “due” to hit a jackpot. It is also why those systems you find on the Internet will never work. One system circulating the Internet says that one can watch for “patterns” on the reels of a traditional-style slot machines for clues as to when the next spin will be a jackpot, and adjust. Slot machines aren’t just for grandma. People of all ages hit the slots and many of them win big. The key is knowing how to tell if a slot machine is ready to pay. No gambling strategy is foolproof, but we’ve compiled some slot machine tips below to help you determine if a game is ready to payout.
When a gambler describes a slot machine as “loose” or “tight,” she’s usually referring to the payback percentage for the game. Slot for free. Slots with a higher payback percentage than average are loose, while slots with a lower payback percentage than average are tight. Loose slots usually have a higher hit ratio than tight slots, too.
You’ll find plenty of inaccurate information about how to find the loosest slot machines in the casino. I try to avoid most of those inaccuracies in this post, but I do want to begin with a warning:
The probabilities involved with slot machines are “opaque.” That means you don’t have any way of knowing what the payback percentage for any particular slot machine game is. The random number generator that determines the outcomes is programmed to have each symbol come up with a certain probability, but there’s no way of knowing if that number has been set to 1/6 or 1/60. Even observing a large number of spins only provides limited insight into these probabilities.
You do know what the payouts are for the various combinations. But since that’s only half the equation, you can’t really know whether a game is loose or tight except anecdotally. I’m going to assume that anecdotal evidence has some value, but in terms of math, science, and statistics, anecdotal has no value at all.
1- Look for the Loose Slot Machines in the Locations Where Loose Slot Machines Are Found
Casino mapping is a real thing, but it’s not as simple as some gamblers would have you believe. If finding the loose slot machines were as easy as just playing the games located nearest the walkways, everyone would play those games to the exclusion of the other games.
That being said, it might be worth giving those games a try if they look like fun. They’re not more likely to be tighter than the other machines than any other game on the casino floor.
I’ve read that some areas in the casino have lower payout machines than others, and it might be wise to avoid games in those areas. These might include:
- The main slot machine floor. These games probably see the most action, so it would make sense for them to have lower payback percentages.
- Near the table games. These games see more than their fair share of action, too. The same reasoning would apply.
- Near the poker room. I’ve seen some gamblers swear that these are the worst machines in the casino. You have to wonder about a poker player who spends a lot of time playing slots, though.
Of course, there are other locations where the loosest machines might be located. Depending on whom you believe, these might include:
- Anywhere that gets more traffic than usual. For example, if a slot machine is located near the elevators, it might have higher payouts to attract play from someone who might not otherwise play.
- Anywhere that another gambler recommends. This is, of course, the classic mistake—relying on anecdotal evidence. It’s possible, though, that you might find a slot machine player who’s been paying close attention and knows where the loose machines are.
In fact, that leads me to my next point…
2- Don’t Be Afraid to Ask
The obvious person to ask about the location in the casino of the loosest slot machines is someone who works there. This isn’t a guarantee that she’ll be able to direct you to a loose machine, but she might have some insight based on her observations. Depending on how long she’s worked at the casino, she’s probably seen tens of thousands of even hundreds of thousands of gamblers over her career there. She might have noticed that a lot of them seem to be winning on slot machines in a certain location.
In fact, some casino employees even have their own favorite machines. If they play slots, they might have more insight into where the hottest machines are than you could imagine. Don’t pay much attention to the employee who tells you where last week’s big winner hit, though. That has no predictive value at all.
If you’re dealing with a cocktail waitress, it’s a good idea to tip generously. For that matter, no matter what they do at the casino, if they try to help you find a loose gambling machine, tip them. At some casinos, employees are forbidden from suggesting specific games. Sometimes you’ll find casino employees who just don’t want to be bothered with such concerns, too. Don’t be a jerk if that’s the case.
3- Don’t Play Slot Machines That AREN’T in Casinos
In towns like Las Vegas, slot machines are everywhere, in all kinds of businesses. Every bar in the city seems to have some slot machines. The airport is full of slot machines, too. You can even find slot machines in the gas stations and convenience stores.
We know one thing for certain about slot machine games in these non-casino locations:
They don’t pay out well. The payback percentage for airport slots in Las Vegas are the worst in the city. Bars aren’t much better, either. The owners and operators of these businesses figure they’re the only game in town and have a captive audience. So they set the payback percentages for those games accordingly.
Casinos, on the other hand, are competing with other casinos for the mindshare and hard-earned dollars of the casino gamblers. Since they’re in competition with the other casinos, they must offer payback percentages that are as good as their competitors’ or better.
This is one ironclad rule for finding the loosest slot machines in the casino:
ONLY play slot machines in a casino, not the slot machines in other businesses. That’s as good a starting point as any. The difference could be as significant as the difference between a 94% payback percentage and a 74% payback percentage.
Assuming you’re a conservative, low-stakes player, here’s the difference in predicted hourly loss between those 2 examples:
- Assume 400 spins per hour at $1.25 per spin, for $500 per hour in action.
- A game with a 94% payback percentage will see predicted losses of $30/hour.
- A game with a 74% payback percentage, though, will see predicted losses of $130/hour.
If that difference doesn’t seem significant to you, what are you doing playing penny slots anyway?
4- Look for the Plainest, Most Boring Games with the Fewest Paylines
Generally, the slot machines with lots of paylines have lower payout percentages. They’re able to compensate for this psychologically by having a high hit frequency. With 25 paylines, you might win something on almost every spin, even if it’s an amount lower than the amount you wagered in total.
For example, you might be playing a penny game with a max bet of 5 coins and 25 paylines. You’re betting $1.25 every time you spin the reels. Many times, 1 or 2 paylines might win, but the payout on those bets might only be 50 cents. That’s a lot compared to the nickel you bet on that individual payline, but you bet on 25 paylines, remember?
The human brain gets just as much of an endorphin rush from a “win” like that as it does a profitable win of more than your wager. The brain chemistry can’t tell the difference. That’s why it’s up to you make smart decisions about which games you play. If you can, find an old-fashioned looking slot machine with a single payline right down the middle. It should look mechanical, even though it’s powered by the same random number generator computer program as the other slot machines in the casino.
Since such games have no bonus features or bells and whistles, the casino can afford to have them pay out more than the big fancy games. I had a lot of fun on The Big Lebowski slot machines recently, but I can’t even imagine what such a big impressive game like that must cost a casino. The cost of the machine alone must be outrageous.
5- Stick with the Flat Top Slot Machines
Slot machines can be broadly lumped into 2 different categories:
- Progressives
- Flat tops
A flat top slot machine is a game with a jackpot (top prize) of a fixed amount. This amount is usually 1000 times the size of your bet, give or take.
A progressive, on the other hand, has a jackpot that grows bigger as you play. The casino is able to grow the size of the jackpot by taking a tiny percentage of each bet and applying it to the jackpot amount. That amount can be seen as coming directly off the payback percentage for the game. Even if that’s not exactly how it works, when you think of how a payback percentage works, it might as well work that way. You won’t get rich playing flat top machines, but you’ll lose less money on them in the long run.
For that matter, you probably won’t get rich playing progressive slots, either. The odds of winning the jackpot are just terrible, comparable to playing the lottery. Sure, some people win the lottery. But I can’t imagine playing a game with a house edge that large repeatedly, hundreds of times per hour.
6- Play the Highest Denomination Game You Can Afford
You’d probably be surprised to know that penny slots are often as expensive to play (or even more expensive) than dollar slots. Here’s why:
Most penny slots require you to wager 5 credits or more per spin. It’s also hard to resist betting on multiple paylines. It’s easy to find a game with 5 coin bets on each line and with 25 paylines. Before you know it, you’re betting $1.25 on every spin.
But you could switch to a dollar slot machine and probably do a lot better. For one thing, you could just bet a dollar per spin on a single payline. Now you’re betting less per spin than you were on the quarter machine. But what’s really impressive is the difference in payback percentage.
According to The American Casino Guide, the average payback percentage for penny slots on The Strip in Las Vegas is 88.49%. On the other hand, dollar slots on The Strip average 92.63%. That’s a difference of roughly 4%, but what’s the difference in your bottom line?
Suppose you play 600 spins per hour on that penny machine. You’re putting $750 in action each hour–$1.25 per spin multiplied by the 600 spins per hour. With an 88.49% payback percentage, in the long run, you’ll average $663.68 back per hour. That’s an average loss per hour of $86.33.
No play those same 600 spins on a dollar machine, betting only a dollar on each spin. That’s $600 in action multiplied by 92.63% to get an average payback amount of $44.22. You’ll lose HALF the money on the dollar slot as you would the penny slot! That’s a significant difference, and one you should take note of.
Just be careful and read the pay tables. Slot machines vary a lot from one machine to another, and you should always play enough coins to activate the biggest jackpot. If the ratios change based on playing for fewer coins, you want to avoid that game or bet max coin. You might be surprised at how many slot machines DON’T require you to place a max coin bet, too, though.
7- Try Online Slot Machines
Since online casinos don’t have all the brick and mortar expenses of land-based casinos, their games sometimes offer higher payback percentages. You must balance this with the trustworthiness of the casino, though. Some internet casinos are notoriously hard to cash out of.
Of course, if you stick with the casinos recommended on this site, you probably won’t have to worry about that. Our team of casino reviewers and researchers has thoroughly vetted the properties we list here on our site.
And if you take how competitive they are as a measure for how loose their games must be to attract customers, you’ll find that the casinos on the web are even more competitive than the casinos in Las Vegas.
8- Track Your Results and Make Some Assumptions
I recently visited a casino and tracked my results carefully on a machine. Of course, there’s nothing especially scientific about 200 spins on a machine, but you’re still operating from more data than most players if you do this.
It’s not hard to project a payback percentage, either. Start by writing down how much money you put in the machine. Then count how many spins you make on that machine. When you cash out of the machine, take a note of how much you’ve lost. You multiply the number of spins you made by how much you were betting per spin. You divide the total amount of money you lost by how many spins you made. Then you know the average loss per spin and can convert it into a payback percentage.
In my case, I was betting $1.25 per spin, so I put $250 in to action over 200 spins. I lost $50, which amounts to 25 cents per spin. 25 cents divided by $1.25 is 20%, which is the house edge. The payback percentage is the amount you get to keep—in this case, 80%. (You just subtract it from 100%.) Your goal is to find a payback percentage that’s better than average. Tracking your results this way also makes playing slot machines more interesting, because you have something to pay attention to.
There’s no scientific way to find the slot machines with the best payback percentage—the loosest slot machines. We have some ideas that are something more than guesswork, but they’re also a far cry from anything scientific.You can follow every piece of advice in this post and still lose more money at slot machines than you ever thought possible. My suggestion is to keep a careful budget for your gambling, and only play with money you can afford to lose.Gambling at a casino—especially on slot machines—should be considered an entertainment expense. Budget for it accordingly, and if you occasionally win, great. But don’t count on it.
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A slot machine is loose when it pays out a lot of money. It also needs to do this often to be considered loose. You’ll see some writers say that a loose slot machine is one with a high payback percentage, but that’s not enough to qualify as loose. It also needs to have low volatility.
What’s the difference?
The payback percentage is a function of how much the prizes pay compared to how often they hit. I could create a slot machine that pays off only one prize every million spins and that pays off 1.2 million coins when it does.
That machine would provide the player with an edge, a payback percentage of over 100%, but it still wouldn’t be a “loose” machine. In fact, it would be one of the tightest machines in the casino, because it only hits on average once every million spins.
That’s what volatility means when you’re playing slots. The more often a game hits a winning combination, the less volatile the game is. Most slot machine games have a hit ratio of around 30% or so now, which means that you’ll see some kind of win about 1/3 of the time.
The size of the wins is small enough that the game still makes a profit for the casino.
Your goal should be to find the loosest slot machines you can.
But How Do You Do That?
The Best You Can Do Is Estimate
The math behind slot machines and other gambling games is based on long-term results, not short-term results. You can make some guesses about the settings for a game based on short-term results, but they’re not necessarily accurate.
Here’s one way you could measure the hit ratio for a slot machine game, though:
You could track how many spins you make, and also track how many of those spins resulted in a win. That would provide you with the actual hit ratio for that session.
For example, if you made 300 spins on a slot machine over the course of half an hour, and you saw 100 winning spins, you had a hit ratio of 33.3%.
If you only saw 50 winning spins, your hit ratio would only be 16.67%.
The game with the 33.3% hit ratio is probably “looser” than the game with the 16.67% hit ratio.
The Concept of Naked Pulls
Years ago I read a book about strategy when playing slot machines by John Patrick. It’s a terrible book, and I don’t recommend it.
But he did offer one concept that I thought was interesting:
The naked pulls concept.
A naked pull is one in which you get no winnings at all.
Patrick’s advice is to quit playing a slot machine once you’ve had a certain number of naked pulls in a row. I don’t remember if the number he suggested was 7 or 9, but it was something like that.
Here’s the thing, though:
A slot machine could have a hit ratio of 50% and still see 7 or 9 losing pulls in a row. It won’t happen often, but it will still happen several times a day just because of random variance.
Slot machines aren’t set on times or cycles. They have a random number generator which determines how often a winning symbol gets hit, but it doesn’t have a memory of what happened on previous spins.
Every spin of the reels on a slot machine is an independent event. This means that it isn’t affected by the previous spin.
Some of the time, if you walk away from a machine that has had several losing spins in a row, you’ll have avoided a tight machine.
Other times, you’ll just be walking away from a loose machine for no reason other than short-term variance.
What’s More Important? Hit Ratio or Payback Percentage?
Deciding which of these 2 factors is more important is more about your temperament as a gambler than anything else.
How To Tell Which Slot Machine Will Hit Every
If you’re impatient and don’t want to lose a lot of money fast, you should look for a game that seems to have a high hit ratio. I’ve played slot machines in land-based casinos which hit 40% of the time while I was there. I didn’t walk away with a lot of winnings, because the sizes of the prizes were low.
But I didn’t lose a lot of money, either.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for that big score – which is likely, if you’ve chosen to play blackjack – you should probably pay less attention to volatility and more attention to the sizes of the prizes.
You could find a game with a hit ratio of only 20% that has a payback percentage that’s 5% higher than a similar machine with a 40% hit ratio.
You can’t really rank these 2 factors in importance, because they fall into a relatively narrow range. Eye of horus slot.
Most slot machines have a hit ratio in the 20% to 35% range, and their payback percentages fall in the 75% to 95% range.
The payback percentage has the bigger range, but it’s impossible to calculate with any degree of statistical confidence.
How Would You Calculate a Payback Percentage for a Slot Machine Based on Your Actual Results?
The math behind calculating a payback percentage isn’t hard. You just calculate how much money you’ve wagered in a machine and how much you have left when you’re done. The amount you’ve lost is divided by the amount you’ve wagered to give you the actual payback percentage for that session.
I did this as an experiment not long ago. I played a slot machine for $1.25 per spin over the course of 400 spins. It’s easy to see how much I wagered in that scenario – it was $500.
When I finished playing, I had lost $100, which meant that I’d gotten $400 back in winnings from the game.
This means I lost 20% of what I wagered, which would be the game’s “hold.”
The payback percentage was 80%.
What does that say about how loose or tight the game is?
How To Tell Which Slot Machine Will Hit Away
Not much.
When you’re calculating things like payback percentage and house edge, you’re calculating statistical events.
And if you’ve read much of what I’ve written about probability and gambling, you already know that in the short run, anything can happen.
If I’d finished that session with $600 and a net win of $100, I’d have seen a payback percentage of 120%, and I can promise you one thing:
That’s NOT the long-term expected payback percentage for that slot machine.
It can be a fun exercise to keep up with your actual payback percentage over time. If nothing else, it slows down the number of bets per hour you’re making, which will have the indirect effect of reducing your average hourly losses.
Some Tips for Finding Loose Slot Machines
The problem with offering tips for finding loose slot machines is that many of them are based on pure conjecture.
For years, everyone suggested that you play the slot machines closest to the walkways in the casino. The premise was that some slot machine technician had suggested the managers put the loosest machines there so they could attract more gamblers.
This is a myth that has since been dispelled.
Another piece of advice you’ll often see is that you should play flat-top slot machines instead of progressives. In this case, I lean toward believing this one. You could play a progressive slot machine where the jackpot is high enough that you could have an edge over the casino, but it would still be tighter than a game with a 1000-coin jackpot.
Here’s why:
The progressive jackpots on these machines only get hit a staggeringly low percentage of the time. If you’re only winning once every million spins, you might as well be playing a game with a low payback percentage.
In other words, if you’re not likely to hit the jackpot in your lifetime, it might as well not exist when calculating how loose or tight the game is. Drake casino no deposit bonus.
You’ll also see people advise you to play for higher stakes. The idea is that the payback percentage goes up as the denominations go up.
This is likely true, too, but you still shouldn’t play for stakes you’re not comfortable with.
Conclusion
How To Tell Which Slot Machine Will Hit In Golf
The best possible advice I could give you about finding a loose slot machine is this:
Give it up.
It’s virtually impossible to accomplish this goal.
Also, almost any other game in the casino will cost you less money in the long run than the slot machines will.
But if you are going to play, at least try to play the games with the flat top jackpots for the highest denomination you can easily afford.