Internet slot machines

An amazing amount of misinformation can be found on the Internet. Some of it is published by people who just don’t know any better. Some of it is published by people who are just interested in making a quick buck off the suckers out there.

Your goal is to know better and not be a sucker. Playing slot machines can be a perfectly legitimate way of spending your time in a casino. It’s a lot of fun, and casinos are all about entertainment.

But thinking that you’re going to win because of some goofy slot machine myths you found on the Internet is going to lead to disappointment, not fun. Understanding how the games actually work is the first step in dispelling those myths and becoming an educated player.

Understand this one point clearly from the beginning, and you’ll be way ahead of most of the so-called slots experts on the Internet: slot machine results are random. Your chances of winning at a slot machine game are random, and there’s nothing you can do to affect the outcome on any specific game.

Here are some specific myths we’ve seen touted on the Internet, along with an explanation of why each one is misinformation.

1. Some times of day are better than others. This isn’t true. Casinos aren’t able to reprogram the payout percentages on the games that easily or that quickly. You’ll also find sites that claim that some days of the week are better than others, or that the payouts improve during convention dates, or on special occasions. In any case, it’s not true. Time of day, day of the week, and special events in town are all irrelevant to your chances of winning.

2. Pulling the lever is more likely to generate a win than pushing the spin button. This might slow down your play a little bit, but it won’t increase your chances of winning. It might decrease the average amount you lose per hour, but the effect is negligible. Suppose you’re playing 400 spins per hour by pressing the button, but by using the lever instead, you’ve reduced that to 350 spins per hour. If you’re playing a really loose dollar machine with a payback percentage of 97%, you can expect (mathematically) to lose $12 per hour by pushing the button, but you’ll only lose (on average, mathematically), $10.50 per hour by pulling the lever. That’s not because you’ve changed the odds of winning, though—it’s because you’ve made fewer bets per hour.