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Slot Machine Strategies

Last update: July 19, 2024

Summary

1. I program slot machines professionally, so I know what I'm talking about.  Beware of what you read elsewhere, where the writer is often just pulling misinformation out of his @$$.
2. The main strategy is to be very selective about which slots you play.  Some slots pay better than others.  The key is finding the better slots and avoiding the worse ones, and I'll cover how to do that below.  However, even the best slots still have a house edge, so this is not a "winning" strategy, it's a "losing less" strategy.  See my Average Loss Calculator below to see that you're likely to lose way more at slots than at other games.  To get started with other games, see my crash course in table games or my primer on video poker.
3. There is no way to make a slot more likely to hit.  Why on Earth would a manufacturer make a machine that could be manipulated like that?  And why on Earth would a casino put such a machine on its floor?
4. There are some esoteric ways to beat slots, but they're not what you think:  You can't force a slot to hit, and with rare exceptions, you can't tell when it's about to hit.  (More on slot advantage play.)

Choosing the better slots, avoiding the worse ones

Play online instead of in land casinos

Online slots are typically looser than in land casinos because online casinos don't have the enormous costs of the buildings and physical machines.  Returns in land casinos average around 91% but they're around 96% at Bovada (my advertiser).  Losing 4% vs. 9% means your money will last about twice as long.

The catch is that it takes time and effort to visit a land casino, while online slots are just a few clicks away.  If you play four times as much online than you would in a land casino, you'll wind up losing more online, even with the better odds.  So set loss limits and stick to them!  You can also play with fake money so you don't risk losing.

Play in the looser casinos

Where you play matters.  Here's a rough average of paybacks by area in Vegas:

• 93.5%: Boulder Highway
• 92.5%: North Las Vegas
• 91.8%: Strip
• 91.2%: Downtown

No, Vegas doesn't report by individual casino, only by area.  Also, they lump in the video poker paybacks with the slot machines.  VP pays better than slots in theory, but that's only with proper strategy, and most players don't play proper strategy, so the combined VP/slots figures are probably pretty accurate. (UNLV, June 2024, p. 4)

Nationwide, Reno NV is usually on the top of the list for the best paybacks in the U.S.  Most of the rest of the country has pretty lousy slot odds.  If you're in one of those areas, then either play online or graduate to a better game.

Avoid the stingiest casinos

Almost all land casinos pay worse than Bovada online, but some are especially bad:

1. The airport.  Airport slots ranked dead last in the Wizard's slot survey.  Also, if you hit a big jackpot and have to wait for a hand pay, you might have to choose between missing your flight or giving up the jackpot…a lose-lose situation.
2. The nicest casinos.  The nicer the casino, the worse the odds.  Among actual casinos in the Wizard's survey, the Venetian ranked dead last, and Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, and Caesars Palace weren't far behind.  (The Wynn wasn't included in the survey, but I expect it would be near the bottom.)  As mentioned above, skip the Strip and head to the locals casinos.
3. Grocery and convenience stores.  Their video poker is the tightest around, so the slots are almost certainly set the same way.
4. Cruise ships and ferries.  They don't have to offer good odds because there's no competition—you can't walk out and go to the casino next door.  The ships know they have a captive audience and set their odds accordingly.  The worst roulette odds I ever saw in my life were on a ferry between England and the Netherlands, which means that the slots were almost certainly the same.

Choose electro-mechanical machines over video slots

Jackpots come far more frequently on old-school slots vs. video slots.  With full-time play, an electromechanical slot hits its jackpot once every few weeks on average, while it takes literally years on a video slot.  And the more likely you are to hit the jackpot, the more likely you are to walk away a winner.

On electro-mechanical slots, choose the machines with the smallest jackpots

In general, the smaller the jackpot, the easier it is to win, increasing your chances of walking away a winner.  This doesn't work with video slots, because the jackpot odds are almost always incredibly long, and unrelated to the jackpot size.

Limit play on progressives with huge jackpots.

On the machines with huge progressive jackpots, a huge portion of each bet goes to feed the meter.  For example, on Megabucks, a whopping 10¢ of every $1 played goes to pushing the meter higher.  Excluding the jackpot, Megabucks returns only about 78% on average.  If you must play a big progressive (because you want a shot at a huge jackpot), play a two-coin machine instead of a three-coin machine, look for a $0.05 or $0.25 machine instead of a $1.00 machine, and don't play very long.

Avoid celebrity & licensed slots

A former slot director notes, "TV, movie, and celebrity themed games...cost the casino more in revenue sharing (they also cant be purchased), so the hold is always higher."(source)  A VP at a slot maker suggests that these slots pay about 2% points less than non-themed slots. (LV Sun) 

Play machines which are advertised as paying back a specific high percentage.

If you can find machines that are listed as paying a specific high percentage, then choose those.  This will almost never happen in a land casino, because casinos don't like to divulge that info, but it happens sometimes.  For example:

• Circus Circus in Vegas has a bank of machines that pay 97.4%.
• El Cortez in Vegas has some slots made by U1 which say on the screen that they pay 97.3%.
• The Hollywood Casino in Mississippi reportedly had twelve 98% machines in 2016.  (They didn't return my call to verify whether they still do.  Can any reader please verify and send me a picture?)
• The Strat and Riviera casinos had specially-labeled 98% dollar slots that I played, but that's a thing of the past.
• Over twenty years ago when I was in Reno, Fitzgeralds had a section of about 50 dollar slots whose average payback was 97.4%.  But Fitzgeralds is no more.

If you know of other casinos which list the payback of any machines, please send me a picture!

However, ignore a sign on a bank that says "Up to xx% payback."  The "up to" means that one of the machines pays that much, and the rest are crap.  Also ignore claims such as "Loosest Slots" or "High Payback" which are meaningless since they're not specific.

Some online casinos list the paybacks of their machines, such as Video Slots.  Unfortunately, they don't take U.S. players.

How much to bet

Bet the minimum amount that's still fun for you.

The more you bet, the more you'll lose.  It's that simple.  Bet as small as you can and still have fun.  Most casinos will still serve you free drinks even if you bet only a penny at a time.  But note that the tonier casinos don't let you bet just a penny at a time, their machines require a much higher minimum per spin, like maybe 40¢.

Play the highest denomination machine that's within your budget.

Higher-denomination machines usually pay better.  The trick here is to not bet more just because you're playing a bigger machine.  If you were playing 10 lines, 5 credits on a 1¢ machine (50¢/spin), instead play 2 lines, 5 credits on a 5¢ machine (50¢/spin).

Use a slot card

Get a free slot card from the Player's Club desk (every casino has one) and use it.  This doesn't increase your chances of winning, but the casino will give you free stuff and that will mitigate your losses.  You can get free play, free meals, and offers for free or deeply discounted rooms, which is real value.

Contrary to popular myth, using a slot card has zero effect on whether you win.  The card system is completely separate from the RNG that chooses where the reels stop.  I've certainly won lots of jackpots with my slot card in.

What doesn't work

"Hit & run" doesn't work

Popular strategies say to move onto another machine after a set, short period of time, or after getting some nice payouts (under the assumption that after paying generously, the machine will tighten up).  These methods are useless, because every spin is random.  Previous results have no bearing on future results.

Playing fast (or slow) doesn't work

Seriously, why would they make a slot more likely to hit just because you played at a different speed?  That would be stupid.  And remember, I've programmed these things.

Advantage play

"Advantage Play" means playing with the odds are in your favor, rather than in the casino's favor.  And there are some esoteric ways to get an advantage in slots, but they're not what you think.  For example, if you think there's something you can do to make a slot more likely to hit, dream on.  And you certainly can't tell when most slots are ready to hit.  Here are some actual AP methods:

1. Variable State Slots.  Some slots build up a small bank as you hit whatever symbol builds the bank.  The trick here is to find machines with a mostly- or completely full bank and then play them.  The problem here is that the overwhelming majority of slots aren't of this type, and you're competing with lots of other slot vultures who know the same trick, so you're unlikely to ever find slots in an about-to-pay state, and even if you do, the winnings won't be that significant.
2. Must-Hit-By Jackpots.  Some slots have a progressive (growing) jackpot that's listed as definitely being awarded at or before some level.  The trick here is to play only when the jackpot is close to that level.  The problem is the same as before:  Other vultures will likely already have beaten you to it.  Also, you'll have to know the math to even calculate at what point it becomes profitable to play. 
3. Multicarding.  This means getting friends and family to sign up for players cards and give you permission to use them, and then you use those cards to collect all the free play offers.  It's a lot of work.  And even though it seems to be legal, the casinos definitely frown on the practice, and you'll risk things like the casino hauling you into court on trumped-up trespassing charges, like they did with one AP. (WoV)

More details in my article on How to Beat Slots.

Challenge to "How to Beat Slots" system sellers

It galls me that some people prey on the gullible by selling "winning slot machine strategies" on the Internet.  It ought to be obvious that if someone really knew a way to consistently beat slot machines then they wouldn't need to sell that information for $19.95 (or whatever).  Unfortunately, some people are still duped.

For nearly twenty years I've offered a $10,000 to any system-seller who could prove that their system actually does what they say it does.  I hope to show that those systems are worthless, because no system-seller has ever dared to take me up on the challenge.

Play slots online

I suggest you play something other than slots because slot odds are so bad.  You could also play online with fake money, because then it doesn't matter if you lose.  A good casino for free-play is Bovada, since it requires no download and no registration.  (If you see a registration box, you can close it and continue without registering.)  You can play with real money too, though I hope you won't (or at least won't bet more than you can comfortably afford to lose). (advertisement)

All my slot machine articles

• Slot machine basics.  How much it costs to play, how much you can win, expected loss, why they're a bad bet, why they're popular, how you can limit your losses, speed of play
• How to play slot machines
• Slot returns.  How much they pay back.
• The Randomness Principle.  Slots don't continually get looser and tighter as they're played.  They don't have to.
• How they work. Explains the randomness principle, and runs through the math to show how a game returns a particular payback percentage.  There's a companion page on Par sheets.
• Strategies. Tips for increasing your chances of winning, and saving money.
• Slot Jackpots.  Odds of hitting the jackpot, progressive jackpots, and other jackpot topics.
• Bonus Rounds (all about them)
• How to Beat Slot Machines, aka Advantage Play (AP).  It's not what you think: it's not easy, and for the most part, not lucrative.
• Slot Machine malfunctions. How and why slot machines screw up, causing players to think they've won the jackpot when they really haven't.
• Slot Machine Myths
• Slot Machine B.S.  Wrong info that's published elsewhere.
• Biggest Jackpots.  The largest slot and table game jackpot wins in Vegas.
• Skill-Based Slots.  The scoop on the new games in which your results aren't entirely determined by chance.
• Slot Machine Simulator.  I programmed an exact replica of the Blazing 7s slot (odds-wise).  Click it to play thousands of spins in one second and see how you do.
• Slot name Generator.  Randomly creates a slot machine name using common slot words.  Hilarious!