How To Beat Casino Slots

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How To Beat Casino Slots

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How To Win At Slots: Tips To Improve Your Chances Of Winning

Well-designed slots are theoretically unbeatable. Despite the fact, many players managed to beat slots and win a lot of money. Read their stories here. Slot machines are the loudest and most colorful attractions in a casino. With their fun themes and large jackpot values, they’re designed to pull you in and drain you of your money in small increments. Though slot machines always favor the house, you can use a few tricks to help you beat the odds.

Progressive Jackpot Slot Pros

By Arnold Snyder
(From Casino Player, August 1995)
© 1995 Arnold Snyder

Professional gamblers beat slots either by limiting their slot play to progressive jackpot slots at which the jackpot has gotten big enough to give a player advantage, or by using slot play to milk various kinds of loss rebates and free money offers, in both online and brick-and-mortar casinos. Usually professional slot players combine both methods—that is, they wait until the jackpot is close to giving a player advantage, and take advantage of casino points and comps as well.

In order to use the first method in slot games other than video poker, you have to record the results of enough spins on a slot game to determine the frequency of each type of payout and the percentage of your bet that goes into the jackpot. From this you can determine the house edge on the game. This all takes some work and a good understanding of the math involved..

Professional gamblers tend to either be good at math, or rich enough to hire someone who is. And they tend to be very dedicated about playing at casinos that give the most back for their play, through good points programs and comps.

How to Beat Slots: Tips for Recreational Players

A recreational gambler who enjoys playing slots, and expects to play slots regularly over a period of many years, would probably do better over the long term playing only progressive jackpot slots on which the jackpot was significantly larger than the average level at which it goes off.

Just be aware that you can't know for sure where a player advantage starts unless you go through the process of mathematically analyzing the game. And no matter how big the jackpot gets, it doesn't guarantee that you will win the jackpot, or even that the jackpot will go off while you're in town. There are no short-term win guarantees in gambling, not even for professional gamblers.

All a player advantage means is that, if you limit your play to such situations, and you put in enough hours, you will likely make more money in the long run than you put in. But the long run can mean a very long time, and if you play only a few hours a year, you may not get in enough hours in an entire lifetime to get ahead.

So no matter how big the jackpot gets, you should play only an amount that you can afford to lose without it affecting your lifestyle.

Also, slot pros don't like to play for too small an advantage, so they'll usually wait until the jackpot is significantly bigger than the minimum level necessary to turn the advantage to the player. On the other hand, if they know they'll be getting valuable points and comps for their play, they can play for a slightly smaller jackpot and still have a player advantage overall.

Pros generally prefer to play jackpots with a smaller average jackpot size than a gigantic average jackpot size. For example, a slot with an average jackpot payoff of $3,000 or $10,000 is considered a better bet than a slot with an average jackpot payoff of $1 million, because the variance on the games with the smaller average jackpots will be a lot lower. (That means a pro will require less of a bankroll to make sure he won't go broke chasing the jackpot.)

But professional slot players typically have very large bankrolls to play on—much larger than the average Las Vegas recreational player, who may bring a few hundred dollars in mad money to Vegas to try her luck. Slot pros who find a game where the progressive jackpot gives a player advantage are generally prepared to put in whatever money and hours it takes to keep playing until the jackpot goes off. And if that player is not the person to win that jackpot, he'll stiill have plenty of bankroll left to go after the next jackpot, whenever a player advantage occurs. He won't be broke.

Again, the reason the pros need such a big bankroll is because even when you're playing a progressive jackpot slot with a decent player advantage, you can't guarantee you'll win that jackpot. All a player advantage means is that you can know you'll win over the long run if you put in enough play.

For more information on how professional gamblers beat slots, read Million Dollar Slots by Peter Liston, an accountant turned high school teacher turned professional slot player.

The Casino Perspective on Players Who Know How to Beat Slots

Question from a Player: As a semipro card counter for about two years, mostly in Las Vegas, I have finally given it up for . . . the slots! The heat and the harassment associated with card counting finally wore me down. I’ve hooked up with a pretty well-financed video poker team. The money is steady and the heat is nil. It’s boring, but you can’t have everything.

What I don’t understand is this: Why is there no heat? Some of my teammates, to be honest, are downright rude when we go in to take over a bank of slot machines. Getting rid of the “tourists” is one of my least favorite parts of this job. I’m just a “worker ant” on this team, but I’d like to start running my own slot teams in the future. My technical question is this: Is there a mathematical formula for figuring out how much each “tourist” on a bank costs you in win expectation?

Answer: In the May issue of Casino Journal, Anthony Cabot, in his “Gaming Law” column, addresses the problem of professional slot teams from the casino perspective. He compares the problems casinos have with slot pros to the problems they have with blackjack pros, and reveals why the casinos seem to have such a high tolerance level for slot teams, who are virtually never barred.

Apparently, there is a gaming regulation in Nevada that implies that casinos are holding “in trust” for “the public” any progressive slot jackpot on any game that has a progressive slot jackpot, until a member of “the public” wins that jackpot. The specific wording of this regulation makes the casinos hesitant to exclude any member of “the public” from playing their progressive slots. The casinos fear the possibility of a lawsuit from some member of that all-inclusive public for whom their slot jackpot is being held in trust.

Cabot’s article is very enlightening. Don’t think that the casinos are unaware that many slot pros are “rude” to their regular customers. The casinos are very vexed with this problem. In my opinion, if slot pros continue to chase tourists away from the machines, it’s just a matter of time until the powers that be rewrite the regulations. The casinos have an enormous amount of political clout in Nevada, especially when it comes to keeping the tourists happy.

A big part of this problem arises from two misconceptions that pervade the slot world — one slot players’ misconception, and one casino operators’ misconception.

One: Many slot pros believe that it is more advantageous to take over all slot machines on a given bank in order to “lock up” the inevitable jackpot. This is false.

Two: Many casino operators believe that they do not profit from slot pros, since the pros only play on slot machines where the players have the advantage. This is also false.

To deal with the second misconception first: The casinos profit from slot pros the same way they do from their other slot customers. The slot pros’ advantage comes solely from the jackpot that is being held “in trust.” Technically, that is not even money that belongs to the casino. It is money the casino has already “lost.” It simply has not yet been determined which player has won that money.

While a slot pro is playing, the casino continues to “rake” the pot, and takes a profit from every pro’s dollar that is played. For a standard 8-5 jacks or better progressive, any time a professional slot team takes over a bank of these machines, regardless of how many machines are on the bank, and regardless of what the jackpot is at the time of takeover, the casino will profit, on average, $2,200 on quarter slots, or $8,800 on dollar slots, directly from the slot team’s play.

When a slot team moves in on a progressive dollar bank, they are virtually “paying” the casino $8,800.00 to “buy” the jackpot (which the casino doesn’t really even “own” anymore). Since the amount of money the slot pros are willing to pay the casino to buy the jackpot is money that those savvy players would not otherwise play in the casino at all, this money is all gravy to the casinos.

This profit to the casino will definitely be diminished by the number of non-pros who are pushed out of the casino by the slot team's “rudeness.” However, if these non-pros do not leave the casino, but simply move to other slot machines or games within the casino, there is no loss to the house of any of this profit from the slot team’s play.

As for the “cost” of “tourists” to a slot team — there is none. Whether or not the slot team takes over all machines on a bank or any portion of them, they will “pay” the same amount for that jackpot — $2,200 on quarter machines, or $8,800 on the dollars.

In fact, on video poker machines it is actually more advantageous to a slot team for tourists to continue pumping the jackpot up while team members shoot for it, because the tourists will continue to increase the slot jackpot total at no cost to the team, and at the same time the pros are still favorites by a long shot to win the jackpot, because most tourists play so poorly that they are far less likely to hit the jackpot.

The real problem in many slot departments these days is a supply-and-demand problem; specifically, there is a greater demand for progressive slot machines than the casinos are supplying. The overabundant slot pros are fighting for the profitable slot jackpot opportunities that arise, aggressively squeezing the “tourists” off the banks of machines they want to play. If there were enough progressive slot banks available to keep the pros busy, the casinos would maximize their profits by courting these pros with comps!

If I owned a casino in Las Vegas, I’d advertise “All Progressives All the Time!” And I’d put in unusual video poker machines to confuse the amateurs as much as possible, so that the video poker jackpots would get pumped up as high as possible as often as possible. I’d want the pros stalking my aisles ready to jump on any bank as soon as the profit opportunity hit an acceptable level.

I’d maintain a very cordial relationship with the professional slot players, with the understanding that these pros would not offend or pressure my regular customers. If the pros understood that they paid the same amount per jackpot whether or not they monopolized a bank, and if there were enough profitable jackpots to go around, “tourists” would be welcomed by the pros to continue pumping up those already profitable jackpots to even more profitable levels.

The sad situation described by Anthony Cabot is more a result of ignorance on both sides of this battle than any other factor. The casinos are sitting on a virtual gold mine with their progressive slots. They should be “milking” the pros for the real value these players represent, not resenting a gaming regulation that the casinos perceive to be tying their hands. ♠

The easiest way for normal slot players to win at slots is to play at online casinos with free money from the casino. See Arnold Snyder's How to Beat Internet Casinos and Poker Rooms.
For more information on how professional gamblers beat slots, video poker, roulette, keno and a wide variety of casino games, see the Blackjack Forum Library.

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Here’s another classic casino cheat that many casino portals are listing. They will give a long explanation about why casino cheats or slot cheats do not work. And then tell you “there is only one big secret to beating the casino, and that is by taking advantage of the casino bonuses we have selected on our website”.

Obviously this is a little bit misleading. This is encouraging full reliance on casino bonuses. But there is a growing feeling within the industry that the current casino bonus model is flawed (which I will go into more detail on later). Personally I only rarely actually use a casino bonus. I don’t personally have an issue with high wagering requirements as I will know within the first 10-20% of wagering whether or not I’m going to blow out or whether I’ll get a good profit. And the wagering requirements are only there as a cash out point for me, when I am winning. I don’t mind disciplined grinding and that’s what it takes to beat the casino bonus. But most of the time I’ll just play at my favourite handful of casinos without a bonus so I can cash out at any point and am not ties to a maximum spin stake.

Online casino bonus – The flaws

The casino bonus system is “flawed” due to the the often overly high wagering requirements, due to the strict rules in place about bet size, due to some games being barred and due to some casinos being overly harsh in enforcing vague “bonus abuse” rules to confiscate winnings.

Online casino bonus – The history

The reason for the current stringent rules is due to massive amounts of abuse of the old system in the early 2000’s. The play-through rules were much lower back in those days and players would sign up to every casino they could find, play ultra low risk strategy to run through the wagering and be pretty much guaranteed to cash out a profit every time. Obviously the casinos took a big hit on this and things had to change.

The future of the online casino bonus

There is much debate about what can be done to improve the casino bonus system, to make it fair to both casino and player. There are also a number of casinos who are trying different things out, trying to find a top new casino bonus system:

21 Prive Casino & G’Day Casino

21 Prive and G’Day both offer a 100% match welcome bonus up to infinity. So in theory you can deposit ten million quid and they’ll match it.

No bonus casino doesn’t offer a welcome bonus. Instead they offer wager free cashback on all losses, all the time, to quote them:

“No Bonus Casino which does exactly what it says on the tin:
You always play with your own money and if you are not lucky enough to win a cashback of 10% is coming up. Currently we are building the “My Cashback” system that enables you to redeem your cashback when you prefer while at this moment the cashback are credited every morning between 10AM and 12PM (CET). We believe that by giving the customer more control over their cashback this will increase the quality of our primary service.

Next to Net Ent you can play Amatic games – might be lesser known for you but Amatic used to be focussed on landbased casinos and recently made the transision to online. The games are very popular in Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe, Russia and South America. But our portfolio will expand very soon. All Amatic games have a fixed RTP of 96% and the majority of the games are high variance.

The loyalty program basically adds another 1% in cashback. This doesnt sound like a lot but every now and than we increase the amounts of points you receive upon a deposit by x10.

Withdrawals are processed every morning from Monday to Friday.

The reason why we have launched No Bonus Casino is because we believe there is an increasing demand for casinos that focus on cashbacks and who offer a user friendly interface and great service. Players all over the world have been and are punished by complicated bonus terms and conditions or they just dont view a bonus as something positive due to wagering requirements. The majority of the online casinos (visible for a player from the outside) offer these kind of players no bonuses or compensations. We do, with always 10% cashback.

Personally I’m a player who does not play with bonuses. That is also the reason why I believe No Bonus Casino is such a great product. It’s very unfortunate that due to a massive player base of abusers in the online casino landscape, the casinos had to implement terms and conditions to protect themselves from these kind of players. The regular player is getting punished for this and that is very sad.

It’s not only due to the players but also due to the market that has become extremely competitive. New casinos are launched almost every day and as a result the player value for an individual online casino will decrease heavily. Therefore the gross margin becomes less and as a casino you prefer to receive as much money as possible and as less money going out. Terms and conditions that a casino can apply towards an individual account enables them to let the gross margin grow.

It’s a competitive market and at the moment this doesn’t improve the quality of the services provided by online casinos. I’m confident that regulations and sites like CM, POGG, Slots Guide and AG will improve the quality of the online casinos in the longrun.

Towards the future I’m sure that the welcome bonuses will remain as an incentive for new players. But regular promotions will decrease and the comps will be used towards the most loyal players.”

Conclusion

How To Win At Slots: Tips To Improve Your Chances Of Winning

Casino bonuses are here to stay and I think most casinos are not going to change things around quickly. There is a lot of money on the line and they have been burned once. But who knows, trends do occur and maybe the cashback bonus is the model that will eventually pick up the traction to become the norm?