How to play slots
Slot Machine
Know Your Enemy
Winner
It's important to know what type of machine you are going to play. There are three major types in use, multiplier, buy-a-pay and progressive, so read the glass before you start.
The multiplier. Multiplier payouts are proportionate for each coin played, with exception to the top jackpot. If the machine accepts up to three coins at a time and you play one coin, three bars pay out ten, whilst two coins pay out twenty and three thirty. However, three 7's may pay 500 for one coin, 1000 for two, and could jump to 10,000 when all three coins are played.
Read the glass before you play to see if the maximum coins should be played.
Buy-a-pay. Always play the maximum on these machines, where each coin 'buys' a set of symbols. The first coin may only allow the player to win on a cherry combination, the second activate a bar payout and the third coin wins on sevens.
If you hit a jackpt with only one coin played, sadly, you'll get nothing back.
Progressive. Again, always play the maximum on a progressive machine. This is how that afore-mentioned 39 million dollars was won. A player who eventually lines up the jackpot symbols gets a percentage of each coin played by other electronically linked machines, adding to the jackpot.
If your budget, (and it's a good idea to play within a budget) won't allow maximum coin play, make your play on a multiplier machine, where the the final coin jackpot jump is low. Or move to a machine that you can play your maximum, and stay within your budget.
If you really can't manage your budget on a one dollar-a-shot machine, go down market to a quarter machine, or even lower.
Video slots are different. Here you bet multiple coins per line, up to 25 coins each, at a maximum of five dollars.
Most players bet less than maximum, but are sure to cover all the lines with as low as one coin per line. This gives the chance of being eligible for the bonus rounds, which is where the fun is to be had.
If the maximum bet is required though, and your budget won't let it roll that high, move on.
Money management is the most important part of playing any casino game.
If you get carried away, even a quarter machine player can easilly rack up 600 pulls in an hour, (or 300 dollars), as much as a blackjack card player would bet in a similar time frame.
Some of that money in a casino giving 93% paybacks will be recycled from small payouts, and your loss on 300 dollars will be around 21 dollars.
One way to diminish your losses is to divide your play time into segments per dollar.
Say you start with 100 dollars, then play with 20 dollars for half an hour and use a quarter machine as dollar machines will clean out 100 dollars in minutes.
If you're on a winning streak, keep to 20 dollars and pocket the rest. On the other hand, if your original 20 has gone before the half hour is up, close the session, take a walk or visit the bar before resuming play.
And don't at any point dip into what you may have won. Start a new session with a new 20 dollar budget.
It might seem a rigid way of doing things, but players who just keep pumping in money hoping the machine will eventually payout, are always losers, because overall the percentages guarantee that the casino wins.
At least if you pocket each payout, however small, you'll walk out a winner more frequently.
There is more to slot machines than meets the eye, but play with discipline and learn each type as you go. Then maybe, just maybe, a million dollar jackpot could be yours.