Top 10 SLOT MYTHS

From: Strictly Slots

No matter how much information is published about how slot machines work, these bits of misinformation persist
by Frank Legato

Slot machines have reached the outcomes of their individual spins in pretty much the same way for more than 20 years. In the early 1980s, Inga Telnaus invented the “virtual reel” system, which created a computerized method for slot machines to reach their outcomes. Numbers would henceforth be plugged into a slot machine’s program, each number corresponding to an individual reel result.

For high-paying symbols like a “7” or a doubling wild symbol, there would be a few numbers, or even only one number, corresponding in the program. A random number generator program would cycle through sets of those numbers corresponding to reel results, generating more than a hundred potential results per second. One set of numbers would be frozen when the spin button was touched.

That’s your reel result—picked with the randomness of one instant in time, but from a universe of numbers that already has influenced the law of averages toward lower payouts—creating the ever-present house edge. The way slots decide outcomes has not changed. The other thing that has not changed is the group of common misperceptions about slot machines that have persisted since the days of mechanical slot machines, and before. We’ve decided to pick the top 10.

These are the 10 myths that won’t go away. No matter how many books on slots are published, no matter how many experts write slot columns or run Q&A websites, players still believe these myths.

10 The bonus is always predetermined.

Myth: This myth involves the type of video bonus round that has the player choose from several objects on a screen to reveal hidden bonus amounts. Players have always assumed that the ultimate bonus awarded to the player is predetermined—that it will be the same regardless of which objects the player selects.

Truth: The truth is that the award in this style of bonus feature is not predetermined. When the triggering symbols appear on the reels, the RNG picks one of several pre-programmed collections of possible bonus awards. The theoretical payback percentage of the machine is based on the average in a range of possible bonus awards, and each screen includes several possible awards within that range. It’s up to the player to find the best of that collection. It does matter which one you pick.

9 How I play can affect the jackpot.

Myth: Many players believe that pushing the button or pulling the handle in a certain manner—using “body English,” or alternating between buttons and sot handles, etc.—will affect the spin of the reels or the outcome of the spin.

Truth: It does not matter how fast or slow you push that button. It does not matter whether you push the button or pull the handle. In fact, pushing the button and pulling the handle do the same thing—the handle is just for show these days. All it does is land on its own spin button. Either way, an instant signal is sent to the computer to select the number generated at that particular nanosecond as the reel result.

8 The attendant changed the payback.

Myth: We see this related in letters all the time. People are playing along, getting steady hits on a slot, and a slot attendant must open the door for some reason to do maintenance, to clear a jam, or whatever. Players are convinced that attendants sometimes do something to change the payback percentage of the machine and make them stop winning.

Truth: Slot attendants do not change the payback percentage on slot machines during routine maintenance. In the slot machines currently out on the floor in all commercial casino jurisdictions, changing the payback means changing out the game chip. In all commercial jurisdictions, it is illegal to change out a payback percentage chip without a regulatory official present.

7 This machine is due.

Myth: An attendant or other employee can tell you when some machines are “due” for a jackpot. Sometimes, you can tell by the machine’s behavior.

Truth: No one can tell you with accuracy when a slot machine is “due” to hit a jackpot. There are some cases in which the law of averages comes into play—such as a progressive jackpot in place a long time that is larger than it ever has been. However, even in these cases, nothing is for certain. Past performance is no indication of a slot’s future outcomes.

6 The loose machines are on the aisle.

Myth: Casinos place the loosest games (i.e., those with the highest payback percentages) on the aisles, so people can be seen winning.

Truth: This was how slot managers did it in the old days, so the myth actually has a basis in fact. However, that was when we were dealing with slot floors of a few hundred machines, rather than a few thousand. In today’s casino, slot managers purchase payback percentage programs according to company policy. If that policy says quarter machines should pay in the neighborhood of 92 percent, then the manager will purchase all his quarter-denomination programs at or around 92 percent. The truth is that these days, the payback percentage will be fairly consistent within any one denomination.

5 The symbols will tell me the odds.

Myth: Many people believe that the odds of a slot machine can be calculated by counting the symbols on the reels and plugging them into a mathematical formula involving the payback for each winning combination.

Truth: Before virtual reels, yes. You could calculate odds on the old electro-mechanical machines in this manner because what you saw was what you got. However, in the virtual reel system, several numbers will b assigned to the same reel spots. In other words, that one single bar may represent five “virtual” single bars in the program. What looks like a 22-stop (“stops” refer to a spot on the reel, either symbol or blank) game may actually be a 200-stop game or more—a simulation of giant reel strips, each with scores of single bars. This makes it impossible to calculate odds in the old way.

4 My slot card affects the payout.

Myth: Many think that inserting a player’s club card in the slot reader will make the game pay out less. Others think it will cause payouts to increase because the casino recognizes a “frequent player.”

Truth: The slot club card has absolutely no effect on the slot game program, including the payback percentage and hit frequencies. The card reader is on the face of the machine, far removed from the circuit board containing the game chip. It is there for the sole purpose of recording play—wins and losses—for the purpose of rewarding loyal players. That’s it. There is no reason not to use it.

3 If I wager more, I’ll get more jackpots.

Myth: It is a common belief that betting higher coin levels will result in a higher payback percentage.

Truth: The number of coins you wager per spin has no effect on the game’s payback percentage or hit frequency. It will, obviously, raise the amount of the jackpot proportionately, and “buy-a-pay” games are unique in that second or third coins are required to activate some winning combinations. Other than that, the machine does not care how much you wager. Multiline progressives do require that you wager enough to activate all the paylines. However, even on those games, the payback percentage and hit frequency are constant once all the lines are covered.

2 He stole my jackpot.

Myth: This is one of the most widely believed myths—the notion that if you are playing one machine for a while and get up, only to have the next player sit down and hit a jackpot, that the second player “stole your jackpot.”

Truth: You would not have gotten that jackpot. The RNG is cycling through hundreds of possible combinations every second. Because of the time it took for you to get up and another player to sit down, the RNG would have selected a completely different result had you remained seated.

1 The payout switch.

Myth: Yes, it is the number-one slot myth, the granddaddy of them all. It is the notion that casinos have a “payout switch,” and can instantly change payout percentages on the floor if a player is winning too much.

Truth: It does not happen. The machines out on the floor right now require a physical change of the game chip to change the percentage, and normally, that requires a regulatory official to be present. Even the central-server-based systems being tested now will require a machine to be idle for a period before a game program can be switched remotely. However, as far as the games in your casino right now, a “payout switch” is physically impossible.

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