Casino floors used to be filled with nickel and quarter slot machines. And casinos made healthy slots profits with these coin denominations for decades.
A slot machine has no feelings. The amount of winnings it pays are dictated by the EPROM chip and the random number generator ('RNG') inside the machine. It doesn't consider whether someone has recently won or lost - every spin of the reels is random. It's possible to influence your chances of winning at slots.
But nowadays, penny slot machines are the dominant game. These slot machines are enticing because they only require players to bet one cent on each payline.
Some might think of these games as mindless entertainment due to how you’re merely spinning the reels over and over. But I’ve actually learned some important lessons from playing penny slots.
Here are the 5 biggest lessons I learned from penny slot machines, including things I’ve applied to both gambling and real-life situations.
1. Always Understand What You’re Getting Into – Especially With Penny Slots
The name alone is what draws many players to penny slot machines. The term penny slots creates the idea that you can play for as little as one cent per spin.
But this isn’t the case at all, because most penny slots force you to play a fixed number of paylines. If you’re on a 50-line penny slot machine, then you’ll need to wager a minimum of $0.50 per turn.
This isn’t exactly what beginning gamblers have in mind when they sit down to a penny slots game. The same players are often shocked when their money quickly vanishes.
I myself fell for this the first time I played a penny slot machine. I automatically assumed that the game was going to be really cheap, but it drained my funds faster than a nickel or quarter machine.
I’m not saying that casinos are evil for putting these games on their floors. But you need to be aware of what you’re getting into with these games, just like anything else in life.
Here’s a dramatic comparison. You should always read through a contract before signing it, because failing to read a contract before signing could loop you into a bad deal. Likewise, you shouldn’t play a penny slot machine without first reading the help screen.
I realize that there’s more at stake when you sign a bad contract without reading through. But I want to stress that some penny slot machines are like bad contracts of the gambling world.
This explains how many lines you need to play along with minimum bets for specific bonus features and the jackpot.
For example, Aristocrat’s Game of Thrones slot machine requires that you make a 100-credit wager to active the Fire & Blood Bonus.
You can risk less than this on Game of Thrones. But most slots players don’t want to play a game where they don’t qualify for the best bonus features.
Some slot machines require that you play up to 300 credits, or $3 per spin for certain bonuses and/or the progressive jackpot, and $3 is hardly what players expect to wager on a penny slot machine.
Again, read the help screen to find out how much you need to bet to be eligible for every feature. This prevents you from being shocked when having to risk $1-$3 per spin to play.
The good news is that you can find cheaper penny slot machines in land-based casinos. Some of these games only require that you play 20 lines or less to qualify for everything.
2. Prepare Your Bankroll for the Worst
Continuing off the last point, many penny slots can be expensive. And this taught me both a life and gambling lesson in that you should always prepare for the worst.
Sometimes unexpected things happen that can rock you financially.
Nobody expects their heater to go out. But when it does, and the heater needs replaced, you’re staring at a $1,200 bill.
Hopefully no slot machine ever becomes this expensive for you. But on a smaller scale, you should always plan for the worst with slots.
This is especially the case with penny games that require playing 100-300 credits to unlock every feature. You’re risking between $1 and $3 per spin in this case.
Slot machines are already volatile, meaning they produce very unpredictable short-term results. Adding expensive bets on top of this volatility can create a bankroll nightmare.
How do you avoid this nightmare and plan for the worst? The best way is to do some simple bankroll calculations.
Here’s an example for a land-based penny slot machine.
- The average land-based penny slots player loses 350 bets (units) per hour
- You have a $500 bankroll
- You choose a penny slot with 50 lines ($0.50 minimum bet)
- 500 / 0.5 = 1,000 units
- 1,000 / 350 = 2.86
- You can expect your bankroll to last for 2.86 hours on this 50-line game
Keep in mind that this is only an average estimate, and you should have enough money to cover an even-worse scenario. As long as you only bring money to the casino that you’re fine with losing, then this won’t bother you.
3. Don’t Let Colorful Themes and Small Payouts Trick You
We all know that companies use clever marketing campaigns to get us to buy the products.
I accept this fact because businesses are out to increase their profit margins. And marketing is one of the best tools to make this happen.
But on the same note, I don’t want to be a slave to clever marketing and buy a bunch of things I don’t need.
Slot machines are similar in that gaming companies use colorful themes, 3D graphics, music, bonuses, and more to attract your attention. Slots makers know that their products will be placed in more casinos if they draw a large share of players.
I have no problem with people choosing slot machines based on the themes and surrounding entertainment. After all, the point of playing slots is to have fun.
But don’t get so sucked into the theme, graphics, and alluring music that you lose all sense of time and money. Instead, realize that these elements are designed to keep you playing longer than you initially planned for.
Another trick to avoid involves the numerous small payouts that modern slot machines offer.
Multiple studies have shown that a psychological effect kicks in when players receive small rewards after each spin. These frequent payouts convince players that they’re winning, even when they’re losing money overall.
Here’s an example to illustrate this phenomenon.
- You’re playing 100 lines on a penny slot ($1 bet)
- You win a $0.20 payout on one line
- While the win is nice, you’ve technically lost $0.80 overall
Stepping back, anybody can logically see that this is a losing long-term proposition. And $0.20 payouts don’t make up for the loss of $0.80.
But it’s tougher to think in these terms when you’re engrossed in a game while making span after spin. This is another area where you need to be consciously aware of what game manufacturers are doing.
While it’s great to net lots of wins in each session, you also need to keep your overall winnings and bankroll in mind.
4. Playing Lots of Lines Is Entertaining
I’ve already discussed how expensive penny slot machines can be. But one of the greatest benefits is that you can also win lots of payouts thanks to the numerous lines.
Every payline that’s in play gives you a chance to win. And while the odds of winning with each line aren’t great, it’s still fun knowing that you have 50 or more chances to win on each turn.
The same lesson can be applied to life in that people are sometimes willing to pay more for certain forms of entertainment.
One example is how you can race Ferraris and Lamborghinis around the SPEEDVEGAS track for anywhere between $50 and $80 per lap.
Driving go-karts is cheaper and also entertaining. But go-karts don’t give adults the same thrills as driving a Ferrari around a race track.
Playing penny slot machines with lots of lines doesn’t have to comparatively be so expensive either.
Instead, you can choose games with lower volatility that increase your hit frequency, or the odds of winning with each individual payline. Doing so boosts the chances that you’ll net frequent wins and better sustain your bankroll.
A small number of slot machines actually offer a volatility rating in the help screen. For example, you might see between 1 and 5 lightning bolts to indicate how much variance is involved.
Unfortunately, most penny slots don’t have volatility ratings. You have to look for specific factors in this case to determine the game’s volatility.
Here are 3 factors that can help you out.
- Jackpot size
- Number of large payouts
- Number of small payouts
Low-volatility penny slots feature a smaller jackpot, fewer large payouts, and more small prizes than the average game.
A smaller jackpot combined with fewer large prizes means that a slot machine doesn’t need to make up for the top-heavy payout structure. In turn, the game can offer more small payouts on a frequent basis.
Of course, some players are only interested in playing for big jackpots and other prizes. This is perfectly fine if you don’t mind dealing with the chance that your bankroll will quickly disappear.
But if you want to extend your entertainment on a penny slot with 100 or more lines, then look for signs of low volatility.
5. Cheaper Penny Slots Alternatives Exist
Many of the lessons that I’ve learned regarding penny slots came in land-based casinos. But one more lesson I learned comes from the world of online penny slots.
When people can’t afford a specific item or form of entertainment, they seek out companies that can provide them for a cheaper rate.
Not everybody can purchase expensive Gucci or Chanel clothing. But almost everybody can afford clothes at Walmart or on Amazon.com.
And you can look at online penny slots as the Amazon or Walmart of the gambling world.
I’m not saying that the value from online penny slot machines comes entirely from how cheap they are. In fact, a great deal of people play these games just because they’re more convenient than going to the casino.
But it should also be noted that internet penny slots are perfect for anybody who finds land-based slot machines to be too expensive.
Some online penny slots truly embody the name, because the minimum bet is $0.01 (one cent on a single line). This is what many gamblers have in mind when they first hear the words penny slots.
Other games require you to play between 20-50 fixed paylines. While this is expensive for some players, it’s still cheaper than what’s seen in land-based casinos.
On these games, I usually play anywhere from 20-30 lines at a penny apiece.
Also note that many online penny slot machines see you qualify for bonuses and the jackpot no matter how much you wager. This is good for anybody who cringes at being forced to play 100-300 lines for the features.
That said, check out online casinos if you don’t like the prospect of spending $0.50 or more on the average penny slot machine.
Conclusion
The main lesson worth noting about penny slot machines is that they’re not what the name implies. As long as you understand this fact going in, you’ll be perfectly fine with these games.
You should note that penny slots in land-based casinos have fixed payline amounts.
Brick-and-mortar casinos have more expenses to pay than online casinos. Therefore, they need to win back a greater rate from slot machine players.
Remember that casinos are businesses like anything else. And their goal is to earn enough money to make profits. That said, requiring 50+ pay lines and using entertaining themes to keep people playing doesn’t make them corrupt.
On the other hand, you want to know this all right away. By knowing this info, you’ll avoid having to learn the same lessons that I did through penny slot machines.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Slot machine odds used to be easy to calculate. When you’re dealing with three reels, ten symbols on each reel, and a limited pay table, then it’s just a simple math problem. But the rise of electromechanical slot machines and (later) video slots added some complexity to the situation.
How Probability Works
Probability has two meanings. One is the likelihood of whether or not something will happen. The other is the branch of mathematics that calculates that likelihood. To understand the odds as they relate to slot machines (or any other gambling game), you have to understand the basic math behind probability.
Don’t worry though. The math isn’t hard. Probability involves addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, all of which you learned in middle school.
The first principle of probability is that every event has a probability of between 0 and 1. If something has no chance of ever happening, then its probability is 0. If something will always happen, no matter what, then its probability is 1.
Probability is, therefore, always a fraction. It can be expressed in multiple ways, as a decimal, as a fraction, as a percentage, and as odds.
A simple example is a coin flip. The probability of getting heads when you flip a coin is 50%. That’s common sense, but how is it determined mathematically?
You simply take the total number of possible outcomes, and divide the outcome you’re trying to determine the probability of it by that number. There are two possibilities when flipping a coin, heads or tails, but only one of them is heads. That’s 1 divided by 2, which can be expressed as ½, 50%, 0.5, or 1 to 1 odds.
Odds are expressed as the number of ways something won’t happen versus the number of ways that something will happen. For example, if you’re rolling a single six-sided die, and you want to know the odds of rolling a six, you’re looking at 5 to 1 odds. There are five ways to roll something other than a six, and only one way of rolling a six.
When you want to determine the probability of multiple things happening, you use addition or multiplication, depending on whether you want to determine whether one OR the other event will occur, or whether you want to determine whether one event AND the other event will occur.
If you’re looking at an “OR” question, you add the probabilities together. If you’re looking at an “AND” question, you multiply the probabilities by each other.
So if you want to know what the probability of rolling two dice and having one or the other come up with a six, you add the probabilities together. 1/6 + 1/6 = 2/6, which is rounded down to 1/3.
If you want to know the probability of rolling two dice and having BOTH of them come up six, you multiply the probabilities. 1/6 X 1/6 = 1/36.
How Slot Machine Odds USED to Work
Early slot machines were mechanical devices. They had three metal reels that had ten possible stops each.
To calculate the odds of a single symbol appearing on a reel, you just divide the one symbol by the total number of potential outcomes. So if you had one cherry on a reel, your odds of hitting that cherry were 1/10, or 10%.
To calculate the odds of getting three cherries, you multiple 1/10 X 1/10 X 1/10 and get 1/1000, or 0.1%.
If the odds of hitting that symbol are the same as all the others, then you have 10 possible jackpots you can win, which means that your chances of winning SOMETHING are 10/1000, which is 1%.
Most people wouldn’t play a slot machine that lost 99 times out of 100, though, so slot machine designers added additional, smaller prizes for getting two symbols out of three for certain symbols. And as long as they paid out less in prizes than the odds of hitting those jackpots, then those slots are guaranteed to make a profit in the long run.
For example, if a prize for hitting three cherries was $1000, you’d be playing a break-even game, but if the prize were $750, it’s easy to see how the casino would be guaranteed a profit. The difference between the odds of winning and the payout odds is where the casino makes its money.
How Slot Machines Work Now
Modern slot machines use a computer program called a random number generator to determine the outcomes of the various spins of the reels. This creates an imaginary reel with a number of symbols limited only by the program in question.
A mechanical slot machine with 256 symbols per reel would be huge, too large to play, much less to build. But a computer can create an imaginary reel with 256 symbols per reel and take up no more space than an iPod Shuffle.
To make things even more interesting and entertaining, slot machine designers can program different probabilities for each symbol to come up. Most symbols might come up once every 256 spins, but others might come up twice as often, while still others might only come up half as often.
This enables slot machine designers and casinos to offer slot machine games with far larger jackpots than they were able to when they were limited by mechanical reels. And they’re able to offer these large jackpots and still generate a healthy profit.
How Does This Relate to Payback Percentages?
Slot Machine Odds Of Winning
The payback percentage is the amount of money that the slot machine is designed to pay out over an enormous number of spins. This number is almost always less than 100%. The difference between 100% and the payback percentage is the house edge, and that’s where the casino makes its profits.
A simple example can help illustrate how this works. Suppose you have a slot machine with three reels with ten symbols on each, and it only pays out when three cherries hit. The odds of winning that jackpot, as we determined earlier, is 1/1000.
If we set the jackpot as $900, and charge $1 per bet, the payout percentage for that game will be 90%, or $900/$1000. Of course, no one would play a slots game which only paid out once in every 1000 spins, which is why there are various smaller payouts programmed in.
There’s no way to tell what the payback percentage on a particular game is unless you have access to the par sheet for that machine. Casino management has that information, but players never have access to that info.
The Green Machine Slot Odds
The best slot machine odds are almost always found in real casinos. If you see slot machines in an airport or a bar, be aware that the payback percentages on those games is much lower than you’ll see in a real casino.