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Who doesn’t want to improve their chances of winning in the casino?

I know I do.

Jan 05, 2014  This is a video series where I give viewers tips on how to win at slot machines, or at least how to help minimize slot machine losses. These tips are for inf.

No one can teach you a method of making sure you’ll walk away from the casino a winner every time. That’s an unrealistic expectation that not even advantage gamblers have.

But you can reduce the amount you’ll lose and increase your chances of winning by making a few either/or choices. I’ve listed 7 of them below.

1 – Play European Roulette Instead of American Roulette

You measure a casino’s advantage over the player with a figure called “the house edge”. That’s a mathematically expected loss per bet expressed as a percentage.

If someone tells you that a game has a 5% house edge, that means you’re expected to lose an average of $5 every time you place a $100 bet. Of course, this is an average over thousands of hands, but as a mathematical concept, it’s a useful way of comparing casino games.

In American roulette, you face 38 different numbers on the roulette wheel. 18 of those numbers are black, 18 are red, and 2 of them are green—the 00 and the 0.

Those two green numbers are where the house gets its edge. A bet on red or black pays off at even odds, but the odds of winning aren’t even. You have 20 ways to lose and 18 ways to win.

Over time, that difference adds up to a 5.26% house edge.

A European style roulette wheel, though, only has 37 numbers. 18 are red, 18 are black, and 1 is green. The bets still have the same payouts, though.

This reduces the house edge for the game from 5.26% to 2.70%.

What does that do to your expected hourly loss?

Let’s say you’re betting $20 per spin, and you’re placing an average of 40 bets per hour. This means you’re putting an average of $800 into action per hour.

Your expected loss on an American roulette wheel is $42.08.

But on a European roulette wheel, your expected loss is only $21.60.

2 – Play Video Poker Instead of Slot Machines

When you’re talking about gambling machines, you talk less about house edge and more about payback percentage. The payback percentage is just the house edge subtracted from 100%. It’s the amount of money you mathematically expect to win back in the long run from a game.

For example, if we say that a slot machine has a payback percentage of 90%, that means you can expect to win back 90% of whatever you gamble in that machine over a long enough time.

But here’s the thing about slot machines:

They don’t list their payback percentages, and there’s no realistic way to guess. We do know that most slot machine games on the Las Vegas Strip pay back at around 92% or so.

But video poker machines, if you play them correctly and choose the games with the best pay tables, pay back much more than that. Even the worst games pay back at 95% or more.

And the best games pay back at 99% or higher.

Best of all, you can determine the payback percentage of a video poker machine based on its pay table. Any respectable video poker site (including our video poker section here), includes common pay tables with their expected payback percentage.

What’s the difference to your bankroll?

Assume you’re playing a slot machine with a 93% payback percentage. You’re making 600 spins per hour at $5 per spin. You’re putting $3000 per hour into action. The casino expects you to lose $210 per hour on that action.

If you’re playing a video poker game with a payback percentage of 99.54% for the same stakes, you’re looking at $3000 in action per hour still.

But your expected loss now is only $13.80.

3 – Master Blackjack Basic Strategy

Blackjack is one of the most popular games in the casino, but if you don’t master basic strategy, you’re probably facing a house edge of 4% or more. Master basic strategy, though, and you can reduce that to between 0.5% and 1% depending on the rules and the table conditions.

What’s basic strategy?

That’s just a fancy way of saying that every possible situation in blackjack has one mathematically best play. For example, you always split aces or 8s. That’s the mathematically best play, and if you make a different decision, the house edge goes up.

What’s the difference between a basic strategy player and someone who’s just winging it?

Let’s assume you’re playing 60 hands per hour for $20 per hand. That’s $1200 per hour in action.

If you’re making a lot of mistakes and ignoring basic strategy, your expected loss per hour is $48.

But if you’re using basic strategy and face a house edge of only 1%, your expected loss per hour is only $12.

Here’s a bonus blackjack tip, too:

Skip the tables where you only get a 6/5 payoff on a natural. That adds almost 2% to the house edge. Insist on playing 3/2 blackjack, or play something else entirely.

4 – Stick with the Simplest Bets at the Craps Table

The number of bets available at the craps table is staggering. The good news is that the bets with the best odds are the easiest bets—the ones at the edges of the table. The inside bets at the craps table come with a much higher edge.

The most basic craps bets are the pass and don’t pass bets. The pass bet is a bet that the shooter will win, and they don’t pass bet is a bet that the shooter will lose.

The shooter loses on the come out roll if she rolls a 2, 3, or 12. She wins on the come out roll if she rolls a 7 or an 11.

If she rolls any other number, a point is set, and she continues to roll the dice until she rolls the point again (winning) or rolls 7 (losing) whichever comes first.

The house edge for the pass bet is 1.41%.

The house edge for the don’t pass bet is 1.36%.

I should point out that even though they don’t pass bet is marginally better, you’ll probably have more fun betting on the pass line. Part of the fun of craps is rooting for the shooter.

I’ll use just one of the proposition bets in the middle of the table as an example of a bet to avoid. The “Any 7” bet pays off at 4 to 1, but the house edge is 16.9%.

Let’s say you’re playing for $10 per roll, and you’re playing at a table where you’re seeing 100 rolls per hour. That means you’re putting $1000 into action every hour.

If you’re betting the pass line, your expected hourly loss is $14.10.

If you’re betting “any seven”, your expected hourly loss is $169.00.

That’s a massive difference.

5 – Always Join the Slots Club

A lot of superstitious players think that if you play with the slots card inserted, your chances of winning go down.

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That’s a myth.

This tip almost doesn’t belong here, though, because it makes it sound like you’re more likely to win with the slots club card inserted, but that’s not exactly the case.

What really happens is that the casino measures how much money you’re putting into action per hour so that they can rebate some of it—maybe 0.2%.

What effect does this have on your expected hourly loss?

Let’s look at a hypothetical Jacks or Better video poker player. The house edge is only 0.46%, so if you’re playing 600 hands per hour at $5 per hand, you can expect to lose 0.46% of $3000, or $13.80.

But if you’re getting rewards of 0.2% of your play, you’re getting back $6/hour. That reduces your effective hourly loss to $7.80 per hour.

If you play at a casino which offers double rewards during certain hours, you can eliminate the house edge of even play with a slight margin over the casino.

That’s worth doing.

6 – Take Plenty of Breaks and Play Slowly

This won’t necessarily improve your chances of winning, but it will reduce your expected hourly loss.

You should think of the house edge as a tax on the money that you’re gambling. Every time you place a bet, you pay this tax. That’s not what really happens in the short run, but if you play long enough, that’s exactly what happens.

Let’s look at two slot machine players as examples.

One of them is playing 600 hands per hour at $5 per hand. She’s putting $3000 into action per hour. If the house has an edge of 7%, that player’s expected hourly loss is $210.

The other is only playing 400 hands per hour at $5 per hand. She’s taking her time and taking lots of breaks, so she’s only putting $2000 into action per hour. With the same house edge, she’s only expected to lose $140 per hour.

The slower player might even be having more fun, because she’s probably paying more attention to what she’s doing. I call that mindfulness in action on the casino floor.

7 – Learn to Play the More Complicated Games

Here’s one truism about casino games everyone should know:

The easier the game is to play, the higher the house edge.

Games like Casino War, which require no strategy and are so easy a child could understand them, are best to skip.

Games like blackjack, where strategy plays a big role in how the outcome is determined, offer much better odds.

The house edge for Casino War is 2.33%. The house edge for blackjack is between 0.5% and 1%.

This means you can expect to lose 5 times as much money playing Casino War as you would expect to lose playing blackjack.

The opposite is true of slot machines, though. The more complicated a slot machine game is—more reels, more bonus features, etc.—the higher the house edge has to be to pay for those extra features.

Your best bet with a slot machine is to find one with 3 reels and a flat dollar amount for a jackpot.

Conclusion

Casino games are designed with an unassailable mathematical house edge, but that number varies by game and according to strategy. Your goal as a casino player is to get as much entertainment for your gambling dollar as you can.

The way to do this is to choose the games with the lowest house edge. Go back through the list on this page next time you’re at the casino. This will help you choose games where you will lose money more slowly and have a better chance of walking away a winner.

Slot machines have several attractive qualities, including jackpots, bonus features, and interesting themes. Many gamblers are drawn to these benefits as a result.

However, one big downside to slots is that they seem unbeatable. Your bankroll often vanishes much faster on slot machines than with any other casino game.

You may leave the casino feeling like you never win with slot machines. The truth, though, is that slots winnings are simply misleading.

In this post, I’ll cover why it feels like you can’t win with slot machines along with the reality behind the situation.

The RTP Is Misleading

Each slot machine is programmed to offer a certain return to player (RTP). For example, a slot with 96% RTP will pay back $0.96 for each dollar wagered on average.

You definitely want to play games with high payout percentages whenever possible. But even when you’re on a game with high RTP, you may lose lots of money.

This situation leads to conspiracy theories, such as casinos changing payback whenever they feel like it or purposely lying about RTP. However, the truth is much less sinister.

Instead, slots are just extremely volatile games that offer unpredictable short-term results. Volatility refers to how consistent short-term results are in relation to the mean.

You may win far more money with a slot that has 90% payback versus one with 96% RTP because of volatility. In short, payout percentages do little to influence how much you win or lose in a given session.

Volatility is influenced by a combination of factors, including jackpot size, payout sizes, and RTP. Of these aspects, the jackpot and payout sizes play the largest roles.

You stand to win more often with games that have a combination of a small jackpot and other small prizes. These slots can afford to pay more frequently because they don’t have huge payouts available at the top.

Meanwhile, slot machines with big jackpots and other large prizes are highly volatile. They must cover occasional big wins and can’t offer frequent payouts without costing the casino money.

You Need Big Wins to Feel Like a Winner

Regardless of how volatile a slot machine is or isn’t, you need to hit big prizes to come out a winner. Otherwise, you’ll just keep bleeding out money over the course of a session.

Slot machines aren’t built to offer lots of payouts over a short time span, such as with baccarat or blackjack. Instead, they only deliver occasional prizes compared to your number of bets.

Even on a 50-line slot, you might only earn a payout on one out of every five spins. In this case, you’re winning just once out of 250 chances (5 x 50) on average.

Even during the course of a hot streak, you’re probably only going to collect several prizes every five spins. On the same 50-line slot, this frequency amounts to five to 10 wins out of 250 opportunities.

You aren’t going to nickel and dime your way to winning sessions. Instead, you’ll need at least one or more large prizes to profit from a slot outing.

Your Winnings Will Be Spread Out

As covered above, you ultimately need big payouts to win in slots. Unfortunately, these large prizes don’t come around very often.

You’ll rarely hit a sizable jackpot, if ever. You may have to spin the reels hundreds of thousands or even millions of times before collecting a huge prize.

That said, you have to accept the fact that your winnings will be spread out over many sessions. You may lose money for 10 straight sessions before you finally leave the casino a winner.

Part of this is due to the fact that slot machines are negative expectation games. Of course, all house-banked casino games carry a negative expectation to some degree.

You might win money in nine out of 20 baccarat sessions on average. But, with slots, you may only profit from two out of 20 sessions.

Again, everything goes back to volatility. Slot machines are so unpredictable that you don’t know when to expect your next successful casino trip.

Tips for Boosting Your Slots Winnings

You’re never going to have the degree of control over slots as you would with, say, Texas holdem or blackjack. Slots just don’t feature the same level of strategy as many other casino games.

However, you can take a few steps to improve your chances of winning. Here are some tips that’ll help you earn more with slot machines.

Play Less Volatile Slots

If you’re sick of losing session after session, then you should really consider playing less volatile slot machines. No slot pays out at a truly high frequency, but the less volatile ones do provide better short-term chances of winning.

The key aspects to consider are the payout sizes. Generally speaking, games with smaller jackpots and other prizes pay more often.

In contrast, you may want to avoid slot machines with huge progressive jackpots. Providers often seed these payouts with a fortune (e.g. $100k to $1 million), meaning they need a lot of money coming back.

Sometimes, a volatile slot machine will have a small jackpot but feature several bonuses that can lead to big payouts. These types of games also pay less frequently to make up for the lucrative bonus features.

Look for Games With High RTP

You aren’t guaranteed to win at a high rate just by playing slots with good RTP. However, you can definitely improve your long-term chances of winning by consistently playing slot machines with high payback.

Online slots are typically the best games for favorable payout percentages. Internet casinos don’t have as high of overhead costs, meaning their slots pay back more than those at land-based casinos.

Furthermore, you can actually find RTP for most online slot machines. The developers often make payback publicly available information, meaning you can just google something like “[slot name] RTP.”

Unfortunately, land-based slots don’t usually have publicly available payout percentages. The reason why is because casinos can order different pay schedules, meaning there’s no uniform RTP figure for a specific game.

A good rule of thumb, though, is that slot machines with higher coin denominations pay more. Penny slots may only offer 88% to 91% RTP, while a quarter game might deliver 93% to 95% payback.

Take Advantage of Comps

I want to state right away that casino comps aren’t worth as much as most gamblers think they’re worth. However, VIP rewards do help your bottom line to some degree.

You automatically generate comps at most online casinos. All you have to do is play real-money slots to begin earning loyalty rewards.

Land-based casinos, on the other hand, require you to sign up for their VIP program. Once you do so, you’ll receive a slots club card that tracks your play.

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Cashback is universally the best comp that you can get at an online or land-based gambling establishment. This perk gives you back a percentage of the amount you bet (usually 0.1%).

Other loyalty benefits differ based on whether you’re playing online or at a brick-and-mortar venue. Internet casinos offer free spins, deposit bonuses, and birthday gifts to VIPs.

Land-based casinos are much more extensive in their offerings. Their comps can include free drinks, meals, hotel stays, limo rides, nightclub bottle service, and show tickets.

Have a Stop-Win and Stop-Loss Limit

You should always have a predefined plan before stepping into the casino. Specifically, you want to have both a stop-win and stop-loss limit set for slot machines or any other game.

Both of these limits are predefined points at which you plan to quit playing for the day. The goal is to either minimize your losses or bank winnings.

Here’s an example for how each limit works:

Stop Win

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• You set a limit of $500 in winnings.
• You hit a big prize and earn $773 overall.
• You quit playing for the day.

Stop Loss

• You set a limit of $300 in losses.
• You have a rough session and quickly hit the limit.
• Even though you haven’t played long, you stop.

Stop-loss and stop-win limits don’t improve your chances of beating slot machines. But they keep you more disciplined and, in the case of stop win, help you walk out of the casino with some profits.

Conclusion

Slot machines can lead to frustrating experiences when the losses mount. Worse yet, you may have little idea on why you keep losing.

But you’ll feel better about the matter by understanding exactly why slots offer such inconsistent wins. Furthermore, you can adopt a better bankroll management plan to absorb the losses.

The first aspect to understand is that the RTP has little bearing on short-term results. You may win slightly more during a single session on games with high payback. However, RTP figures are based on average payback over the course of countless spins.

Volatility is more indicative of how much you’ll win in the short run. A really volatile slot won’t pay out as frequently as a game with lower volatility.

Regardless of how volatile a game is, you’ll still need large wins to book profits. Meanwhile, you won’t win much if you’re just earning tiny payouts here and there.

The key through all of this is to be smart about bankroll management. As long as you don’t bet more than you can afford to lose, then you’ll be fine with slot machines.