1. Best Slot Machines To Win On
2. How To Use Slot Machines
3. How Do I Play Slot Machines
4. How Do You Play A Slot Machine Tournament
5. How To Play Slots Machine
6. How To Play Slots

One of the biggest delights of gambling online is the mass of slot machine games available to play for real money. At CoolCat Casino, US players can get their paws wet with the most spectacular slot games that pay real rewards from the get-go. Choose a theme that suits your taste and preferences from an abundance of 3-reel and 5-reel video slots, and get the best no-deposit bonuses to use on your favorite games for even more chances to win!

Slot games

When you're done playing the machine, if you have any money left, press the Cash Out button and the machine will print a ticket, that you can redeem for cash at a ATM-like kiosk, or the casino cage. Or, you could just insert it into another slot machine and it'll work like. If you're looking for casino action, you'll find it here at Luxor Hotel & Casino right on the Las Vegas Strip. Our expansive casino floor is perfect for table games, slots, and tournaments. Join us on your next gaming vacation.

How to Play Online Slots

Playing online slots isn’t too different to playing slots in a land-based casino. Although the objective is the same, the differences are the fact that you have many more games to choose from, plus the added benefit of being able to play for extra cash, bonuses and bet multipliers. These are all reasons why more and more US players are taking to the internet to play slot games over their physical counterparts, and why it’s very possible that online slots will eventually surpass traditional slot machines in years to come.

Here is how you can sign up to play online slots for real money:

• Create a new player account by keying in a few personal details
• Enter your banking information and select your preferred payment
• Deposit any funds you want to use at the Cashier
• Redeem your one-of-a-kind welcome bonus
• Pick your favorite online slot game
• Select your bet amounts using the arrows at the bottom of the game screen
• Hit spin and watch the wins roll in!

There are hundreds of options to choose from in the CoolCat lobby, including single payline slots and games with multiple paylines and several reels. Feel free to try them all out for size and see which one fits your playing style. It’s only a matter of time before you’ll be wracking up wilds and using scatters to get you closer to the big kitty!

If you’re entirely new to playing slot games online and want to get more familiar with how they work, you’ll find a ton of information on the CoolCat blog, with guides to choosing the best-paying slots, history and facts, plus top tips to help maximize your chances of winnings online slots, and others such as live dealer games, plus the table and specialty varieties.

How to Pick Online Slots

Choosing an online slot comes down to personal preference, however, you can establish whether each one will be a good option to play or not by looking at the game’s features and paytables. This information will tell you things like the average return on a slot game, and give you an idea of the combinations needed to achieve a payout.

Select Online Slot Games Based on Your Bankroll

The best part about playing slots online is that you can play them all entirely for free first.

It doesn’t matter if you’re down on your luck in a game –you can always quit and move onto something else. But when it comes to playing for real money, this is where you have to be selective. Slots come in all sorts of shapes and sizes these days and each one features a different volatility and betting range. It’s always best to pick a game that’s in line with your finances and bankroll if you don’t want the risk of chasing losses.

Choose Slots Based on Layout

Slot machine engineering has come a long way since the days of the one-armed bandit. Now players can choose from 3-reel slots, 5-reel slots, 3D-slots, i-slots, slots with one payline, slots with hundreds of paylines — even one-of-a-kind slots that feature no reels or completely different layouts altogether. It can be hard to gauge which ones are the best if you don’t do a bit of homework beforehand. This is again why it’s always worth checking the information on the paytables and ensuring it’s one you can grasp before spending money.

Choose a Game with a Theme You Like

Developers are never short of inspiration and ideas for creating new and innovative slots. The graphics have grown to become sharper and more defined in these online games, as has the authenticity of the sound effects and animations. However, it’s the all-encompassing amount of themes they come in that has pushed online slot games to new degrees in the last few years.

From romance and fantasy, to animal themes, oceanic slots, horror-inspired themes, and slots that feature hilarious parodies of your favorite stars and celebs — online players are never short of exciting themes and diverse layouts to choose from at CoolCat casino. You’ll always be able to find a game that’s ideal for your playing style and bankroll, and which provides the standard of entertainment and motivation needed to win.

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Slots are a top favorite of ours at CoolCat, which is why you’ll always find a wealthy mixture and variety of online slot games to choose from. Whether you’re looking to play with classic 3-reel slots, get more ways to win with 5-reel slot, or play more exotic slots that have an explosion of bonus rounds, bet multipliers, and progressive jackpots to play for -- you’ll never be short of anything to play here at CoolCat. Our online slots also come with the most lucrative match bonus offers and free spins to use when you deposit a minimum deposit or more. Be sure to check out our list of exciting slot match bonuses, plus other promotions to use on your favorite table, card, and dice games!

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Types of Online Slots

Slots have evolved considerably since they came on the market. They were modeled on the classic layout seen in land-based casinos initially, but when the second screens were added, that’s when the reels and paylines transformed as well. Here are the types of slots you’ll find in online casinos today:

3-Reel Slots – These are slots that work with one single payline and three reels for matching up different combinations. Usually, 3-reel varieties don’t feature bonus rounds and tend to have very few paylines, so the payouts can be few and far between. These are classic-style slots that are perfectly suitable for beginners.

5-Reel Slots – These are the most popular types of slot now found in casinos online and offline. Most 5-reel slots come with bonus rounds, wild and countless ways to acquire free spins, and games. In addition, 5-reel slots also tend to work with more paylines, which gives players more chances to win real money.

7-Reel Slots – 7-reel slots are nowhere near as popular as the above, but they still exist at various online casinos. These games feature the same wild and scatters as seen in 3 and 5-reel slots, only there can be anywhere between 20-50 symbols to play with.

Progressive Slots – Progressive jackpots are common in 5-reel slots.

These games feature a progressive jackpot amount that
increases as more people play. The game deducts a percentage of every wager, then adds it to the total jackpot amount. On some occasions, this figure can reach into the millions, but you must bet maximum coins to be eligible to win a progressive jackpot.

3D Slots – 3D slots have been made to look as lifelike as possible, but you don’t need special glasses to play them. They are much less popular than 3-reel and 5-reel slots.

Video Slots – Video slots are basically the definition of online slots. These are all slots that work with computerized displays instead of the traditional mechanical reels used to power land-based slot machines.

Free Slots – All online slots can be played for free, but players aren’t able to win any real money or use any bonus offers on these games. They are best for practicing a slot game before playing for real money rewards.

How Do Online Slots Work?

Instead of levers and pulleys, all modern-day online slots work with software known as Random Number Generators, AKA RNGs. These are the powerful algorithms that ensure every result that occurs in a slot or casino game is always a unique event. Online slots also work with reels and paylines, where players must match up specific combinations in order to achieve a winning payout or unlock an exciting bonus feature. These kinds of features will often give the player extra chances to win free games, free spins, and other sought-after prizes.

Slot Coins – Coins are displayed as the betting values that you can choose to wager in online slots. These can range from as little as $0.05 to $5 or more, depending on the game. As an example, if you were playing a game with 20 paylines and placing bets of $0.05, this means you would be betting $1.00 a spin. Players can use the little arrows in the game screen to select the number of coins they want to bet on the paylines at the start of each game.

Paylines – Paylines are the area where the combinations of symbols appear in a formation. They also dictate how much you are capable of winning, and normally run across all different directions on the screen, including vertically, horizontally, diagonally, or in a zigzag pattern. The most common method for matching symbols is left to right, but some games and certain bonus rounds are known to have paylines that line up the opposite way. There are also All Ways paylines which must be aligned on the reels, but not consecutively across the paylines.

Maximum Bet – Selecting “Max bet” in an online slot game will increase the current amount of coins to the maximum betting range. Players who want the chance to win large sums of money opt for this feature because it’s the only way you can play for the progressive jackpot in slot games.

Scatter Symbols – The scatter symbol is categorized as one of the highest-paying symbols in slot games. Each slot will have a scatter that represents a different value and function, but usually when the symbol appears anywhere on the reels, a bonus round consisting of mini-games, free spins, or other features is triggered. If a certain number of scatters appear simultaneously, this will often retrigger certain features and give players more opportunities to pick up prizes. You can find information on what the scatter represents in slots by referring to the paytables.

Wild Symbols – Wild symbols are even more exciting because they have the power to replace all existing symbols in the game apart from scatters. Players could be one click away from a winning pattern when a wild comes into the mix, which is why they’re such an important part of the gameplay.

Multipliers – As the name implies, multipliers are features that have the ability to multiply your winnings by a set amount. This figure can range from as little as 2x to 1000x, and they normally appear during bonus rounds. Multipliers are common, although not every online slot has them. You can check a slot’s paytable to see if this feature is included.

Online Mobile Slots

Mobile gaming is the new way to play and enjoy slots for a large portion of players, on top of other casino games. Game providers have put as much effort into making sure the mobile versions of the most popular video slots to embody the same cutting-edge graphics, sounds, animations, and jackpots as the desktop versions. CoolCat also offers the top-shelf varieties of mobile slot games that players can partake in from their smart devices, and still win equally huge sums of money. Moreover, players can make use of the same lucrative bonus codes to use on the mobile versions of their favorite slots too, inclusive of free spins, and other rewards.

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Land-Based Casino Slots vs Online Slots

Online

• Online slot games are available to play 24-hours-a-day and usually have a higher payout percentage than their land-based ancestors.
• There are hundreds of more varieties of online slots compared to land-based machines. These also contain different layouts, themes, jackpot amounts, paylines, and other features.
• Bonus rounds are only found in online slots. These provide the player with more winning opportunities through free spins, free games, and large bet multipliers.
• Although some online casinos allow you to withdraw high amounts of cash at one time, it can take a number of working days for you to receive the money in your account.
• Many online slot games require you to play a certain amount of times before you can claim winnings, particularly in instances where a bonus has been used.

Land-Based

• Playing slots at land-based casinos is far more authentic and socially engaging than playing slots online.
• At land-based casinos, you can literally walk straight up to the Cashier counter and claim your winnings there and then.
• Unlike online slots that can have a myriad of different features, land-based slot machines are a lot more simplistic in layout and more traditional.
• As brick-and-mortar venues have to account for maintenance and repair costs, the payout percentages in land-based slots are much less compared to online games.
• Land-based slots work with the classic 3-reel layout and aren’t digitized; therefore, they do not feature any second-screen events or bonus rounds.

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History of Online Slots

Physical slots date as far back to 1895, when mechanic Charles Fey created the first five-drum slot machine with an automatic payout system. It became known as the Liberty Bell, and worked with traditional fruits, bells, and bars symbols, as well as poker cards to make up a winning combination on the machine’s only payline. The prizes dispensed were mere of any value; players would receive items like chewing gum, cigarettes and free drinks tokens instead of real cash.

By the time slots did eventually go online in the year 1996, the introduction of Random Number Generators became a game-changer, and it was prestigious companies like Microgaming who brought in the first video slots that worked with the sorts of features we know and recognize today. Developers began to experiment with adding more reels and paylines and seeing what different themes they could come up with to attract a wider player base.

Of course, by this point, the jackpots in these games were programmed to grow exponentially high. The probability of winning, however, remained near enough the same. High-paying symbols were also incorporated into slot games to help players have better chances of winning, along with scatters and wilds which were also capable of giving the player a further advantage.

Since these new features were introduced into the games, online slots continued to grow in popularity and demand. Now, slots are available to play 24/7 at online casinos, and they can be played from practically any smart device that can sustain an internet connection. Slots are also the most played games in casinos online and offline; generating two-thirds of the revenue produced by casinos around the world.

Why Do Americans Love Playing Slots Online?

With the U.S. being home to the gambling mecca of Vegas, along with the largest casino in the world, it’s no surprise many Americans have a hardcore passion for playing games. The problem is, not everyone has time to hit up their local casino every time they want to play slots, especially if they don’t even live close to one.

Best Slot Machines To Win On

This is why playing slots online can be a convenient option for many people because they can still have fun and win real money without the hassle and expense of visiting a real casino. Players are able to enjoy a bigger selection of games to choose from online, and the jackpots available in online slot games tend to be higher as well. Here are the other key reasons as to why so many Americans love to play online slots.

Slots are highly accessible – Unlike playing slots in land-based casinos, players are able to access slot games 24/7 at online casinos. On top of being able to gamble in complete privacy, they can also go at their own pace and practice for free.

Americans believe they can get lucky – As slots are based on chance, naturally there’s always hope that a mega win will appear on the next spin. This wishful kind of thinking is enough for players to manifest more time into online slots over other casino games.

Slots require no skill or strategy – You don’t need to be a pro to hit the jackpot in online slots. A strategy also isn’t a requirement as the outcomes in online slot games are always random.

Slots are cheap or free to play – There are no expensive buy-ins with online slots. Players can choose to wager as little as $0.01 up to $100 a game. They can also play entirely for free.

Players can use mobile slots apps – It doesn’t matter if you’re standing in a busy line or waiting patiently for a bus, the beauty of mobile gaming means it’s now possible for players to gamble whenever they want, wherever they are.

Tons of slots available nonstop – New releases of exciting slot machine games are being pumped out every month by game developers, and online casinos are continuously updating their gaming lobbies with fresh releases that Americans can play for real money.

ConclusionThere are a myriad of reasons that make playing online slots so gratifying. Whether it’s the expanse of brilliant and creative themes they come in, the opportunities to score inconceivable amounts of cash, or the fact that players can access them 24 hours a day — online slots provide an experience that’s hard to match with real slot machines and many other casino games for that matter. If you’re ready to explore the world of online slots and want fantastic bonus offers to use with them regularly, look no farther than the hundreds of online slot games available at CoolCat!

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Playing for Real Money at CoolCat Online Casino: FAQS

Just in case you’ve still got some unanswered questions when it comes to online gambling, here are the most commonly asked ones from players who gamble for real money here at CoolCat.

Absolutely. All the slot games at CoolCat Casino employ random number generators (RNG) to ensure the results are totally random. This means that you can win on each spin, even if you just had a payout on the previous spin. The RNGs are certified by trusted third-party software testers to be 100% random and fair.

Wild symbols are often called substitute symbols because they substitute for all symbols to help you make a winning combination. Scatter symbols are special symbols that have a prize value (coins or multipliers) when they appear more than once on the reels. The symbols match the slot theme and add extra excitement to the game, and often trigger feature rounds within the game. Many slot games have animated scatters and wilds to pack an extra punch.

A volatility rating is a measure of the payout size and frequency of a slot game. A slot with low volatility pays out regularly, but in lower amounts. A high volatility game means a higher risk, meaning fewer payouts at larger amounts. But for those who enjoy the thrill of the risk, the wins can be huge. Part of choosing your favorite online slot game is to try them out for free first and decide which ones are right for your playing style.

The beauty of online slots is that you can play them for free or real money – or both! Our advice is to try out all our slot games for free first, then when you find your favorites, you can play them for real money. This is the best way to have fun playing online slots while minimizing the risk to your bankroll. Once you’re confident in the way your favorite slots work, just make a deposit in your CoolCat account and start playing slots for real money. And don’t forget the cool bonuses!

For those in search of the ultimate slot reward, play our jackpot slot games for the chance to win huge amounts of cash. Just sign up for a CoolCat Casino account and choose from our extensive list of hundreds of online slot games. Some of these slots feature jackpots bursting at the seams with real money! Play progressive slots for the ultimate wins, as they increase in size every time somebody plays the game.

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Ted plays CoolCat Casino almost every day, he loves our games and he loves the wins that come with them. Ted also likes playing a variety of games from Enchanted Garden to Sweet 16 and this day was no exception.

He generally starts off betting low and steadily raising his bets according to his wins. Ted started by using code THATSMINE to try out or newest slot game Gemtopia with 30 Free Spins and a 250% No Max Bonus on his deposit.

After winning $900 in Gemtopia, Ted moved on to his personal favorite Purrfect Pets and went on to hit the many features in the game, pushing his balance up by a further $10,000. Finally, he went on to play Sweet 16 where, through the morphing feature, which raises the multiplier up to 12x for every win that is made in a row, he made a cool $45,000. Not bad for his daily dabble on CoolCat.

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Martin was on break from work at 4:10 PM last Wednesday, so he decided to play one of the newest games on CoolCat, Kung Fu Rooster.

He had some leftover balance from his previous games, so he started betting at $30 a spin. He wasn’t winning anything for the first few spins, but less than two minutes after he began playing, he won $3,000 on a single spin and triggered the feature.

Then, on a single spin in the feature, he won $22,400. Without betting anything. His total for the feature: $24,400 in 10 free games.

His break was over four minutes later, but he went back to work knowing he won $29,537.50 on Kung Fu Rooster.

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How Do I Play Slot Machines

Steve started playing Naughty or Nice at CoolCat at 8:24PM last Wednesday. He was coming off of a previous win, so he bet big from the get go.

Almost immediately, the big bets started paying off. Within the first minute of playing, he won $1,037.50.

Then, he got $812.50, $400, $1,450. All on single spins. A few minutes later, he hit his first Feature and won $1,800 on 12 Free Spins.

He soon triggered his second Feature. Again, 12 Free Games. But this time, he won $64,725.00 across the 12 Spins. Without betting a cent of his own money.

Steve played for some time longer, adding a few more wins before calling it a night. Not bad for a Wednesday night.

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Matt couldn’t sleep last Friday night, so he tried playing a few of his favorite slots at CoolCat Casino before he settled on one of our newest games, Kung Fu Rooster.

He was coming off a previous win, so he started betting at $60 a spin.

Less than a minute after he started playing, he triggered the Feature. He got 10 Free Games and won $1,225.

That was just the beginning. Back in the base game, he won $575, $550, $465 in a space of 20 Spins.

But it was the final Free Game Feature that really made Matt’s night. He triggered 20 Free Games and won a total of $21,785. That’s a good Friday night.

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Before starting her day yesterday, Amy decided to play a little Cash Bandits 2. Turns out, it was the best decision she could’ve made.

She started playing at 7:56AM less than a minute later she won $16,000 on a single spin.

Encouraged, she decided to continue playing Cash Bandits 2. Her big moment came when she triggered the Feature at 8:07. Her correct guesses in the Vault Feature got her 75 Free Games.

Without making additional bets, she won $88,110 in the Feature. Amy then had to head to work, but she was a lot happier than when she woke up.

That’s a morning well spent.

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Just yesterday, Hannah saw the newest promotion on CoolCat Casino and decided to try her luck with the CoolCat exclusive bonus code, which awarded her 40 Free Spins on Cash Bandits 2.

She started spinning her $25 bets at 5:32 PM, but her first twenty spins only brought in $155.

But then.

She triggered the Feature and won an additional 80 Free Games. She won, $100, $100 and $150 on her first three spins. And that was only the beginning. She won a total of $12,260 in the Feature.

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Apparently playing slot machines is more fun than just about anything. Old articles about the casino industry used to tout that slot machines made up 70% of a casino’s revenue, on average. More recent literature suggests that it’s even more than that—along the lines of 80%.

I live near the Winstar Casino, and I have a number of friends who visit the casino at least once a week—sometimes more—just to play slot machines there. I’m not a fan of slot machines to begin with, although I enjoyed The Big Lebowski slot machine for about an hour during my last visit with my buddies.

I thought it would be fun to write a post explain how a smart person might play slot machines. I don’t know how smart I am, so a lot of this post will just look at what I THINK a smart gambler might do. Maybe this will help inform your own decisions.

1- Smart Slot Machine Players Don’t Play with Money They Can’t Afford to Lose

You’ve probably seen the expression, “scared money always loses.”

This is true for any kind of gambling, but maybe not for the reasons you think. It’s not a supernatural occurrence based on the vibrations you’re sending out into the universe.

The fact is, slot machines are a worse bet in the casino than almost any other. The odds are against you, and in a significant way.

If you have money set aside for rent, or for a utility bill, or for a child support payment, you shouldn’t gamble it on a slot machine. Slots are negative expectation games.

In fact, you shouldn’t gamble money you can’t afford to lose on positive expectation games, either. That’s because games of chance are RANDOM. In the short term, you can lose any game, even if you have a mathematical edge over the casino or the other players.

Any money you gamble with should be earmarked as part of your entertainment budget. The healthiest way to approach gambling on slot machines is to treat it as entertainment. You’ll sometimes win money, and that’s great, but there’s no way to become a professional slot machine player.

Don’t even try.

2- Smart Slot Machine Players Keep Detailed Records

I often relate a story about how I used to work in middle management in a corporation in Dallas. I wanted to be good at my job, so I studied several management books. One of the first and most important things I learned is that performance measured is performance managed.

This means that if you’re not keeping written records managing your performance, you’re making a mistake.

Of course, slot machine players aren’t professional gamblers, and they can’t improve their performance by playing more skillfully.

But I’m convinced that smart gamblers, even recreational gamblers, benefit from mindfulness. One of the easiest ways to be mindful of something is by paying attention to it. If you’re keeping records, it’s easy to pay attention to it.

Another benefit to keeping written records of your results at the casino is for tax purposes. If you win more than $6000 on a slot machine, the casino sends a notice to the IRS to report the income. If you’ve lost $4000 prior to that at the casino, you can probably deduct that and only pay taxes on your net winnings—the winnings minus the previous losses in that calendar year.

Finally, the biggest mistake I see most slots players making is their belief that they’re winning more often than they’re losing or that they’re breaking even.

The payback percentages for the slot machines in Oklahoma can’t possibly be higher than 75% or 80%. But all my friends are convinced that they’re losing far less money than they actually are losing. Some of them, in fact, are convinced that they’re net winners.

I have one buddy, though, who gambles so much that he’s moved up to the next tier of the players club. He gets a free cabana by the pool. He knows how much he’s lost so far this year. Even though he plays a lot and loses a lot, he knows the amount.

Knowing is better than not knowing.

3- Smart Slot Machine Players Count Funny Things

Some of the best advice I’ve ever read about playing the slots is that the most important thing you can do to minimize your losses is to slow down your rate of play. The more spins you make per hour, the likelier you are to lose a lot of money per hour. You don’t even necessarily get more pleasure out of it.

I took a recovering meth addict to the casino with me once. I’ve never seen anyone play a slot machine faster. If she wasn’t making 900 bets per hour, she was coming close. I’ve also never seen anyone lose that much money that fast.

I’d had a discussion with gambling writer Michael Bluejay a week before my last visit to the casino, though. He’d mentioned that he’d read one of my posts about how important rate of play was to your predicted hourly loss. It got me thinking about making actual measurements of my own rate of play next time I was at the casino.

The average number of spins per hour that everyone quotes when talking about slot machines is 600 per hour. I decided to see how close I came to that number, so I counted off each spin as I made it. I also waited until all my winnings were credited before making the next spin.

I made 201 spins in half an hour. (I used the stopwatch function on my phone to track this.) This means I was making 400 spins per hour on average.

That’s only 2/3 of the average, so I’ll lose 2/3 of what the average player will lose spending the same amount of time on the machine.

If you really think of gambling as entertainment that you’re paying for on an hourly basis, you’ll easily see why this is a good thing. Bargain gambling is good gambling.

I also tracked how much money I lost over that time period, so I was able to do a short-term calculation of the machine’s payback percentage. I know that with only 201 trials, my number isn’t close to perfect. But it’s still fun and interesting to track such things.

From a longer-term perspective, if you’re keeping records, you know how much you’re losing, and you don’t fall into the trap that some people do of thinking they’re winning at a game they’re actually losing.

How Do You Play A Slot Machine Tournament

4- Smart Slot Machine Players Take Advantage of the Players Club

I’ve weighed the pros and cons of the players club. Most writers in this industry, by the way, make an unqualified recommendation that you always join the players club. I don’t think this should be the default choice for everyone, though.

The players club is a tool the casino uses to market to gamblers. If you’re more susceptible to advertising than the average person, you might wind up losing more money to the casino than is reasonable or expected.

Or you might just hate getting advertising in the mail.

The players club card is a credit card shaped plastic card that you insert into the machine so that the casino can reward you for your play. They give you points based on how much money you place in bets. These points aren’t related directly to your losses, either—they’re related to the amount you gamble.

If you wager $450 per hour through a slot machine with the card inserted, you’ll get points based on that amount even if you win over the course of an hour, a session, or a visit to the casino.

These points are then used to give you rewards like free food, lodging, and entertainment. The casino knows that the more you play, the more money they make in the long run. Their losses are averaged over thousands of players per day, and so are their wins. Since the slot machines pay out less than they take in, the casino has no doubt about its profit potential.

These rewards are cool and worthwhile, usually. I think, for most gamblers, especially smart ones, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks here.

But you know better than I do how important your privacy is. If you don’t want to get ads via direct mail, being a member of the players club might not be for you.

Keep this in mind, too. The casinos track your activity on the slot machines closely. This gives them aggregate information about player tendencies that they can use to push players’ psychological buttons.

How To Play Slots Machine

Suppose a casino analyzes their slot machines’ hit ratios versus time spent on machine. They learn that the average time on the machines with a hit ratio of 30% is 90 minutes per game.

But on the machines with a hit ratio of 25%, the average time spent on average on each game is only 60 minutes.

The payback percentage can be adjusted to anything the casino wants, regardless of the hit percentage. You can have a slot machine with a hit percentage of 30% with an 85% payback percentage, but you can also have a slot machine with a hit percentage of 25% with the same 85% payback percentage. All the slot machine makers need to do is adjust the payback amounts and probabilities for the various combinations of symbols.

They don’t do this in any kind of short-term way.

But the longer they collect this kind of data, the more of it they have, and they’re becoming incredibly efficient at exploiting slot machine players’ psychological tendencies.

You have to decide if it’s smart to contribute to that.

5- Smart Slot Machine Players Learn How the Machines Work Before Playing

Maybe this should have been the first bullet point, but that other stuff is SO important, too.

Any fool can put money in a slot machine, press a button, and win or lose.

But what’s fun about that if you don’t know what you’re looking at?

Here’s one of the best slot tips you’ll ever find – If you really want to have fun on a slot machine, you need to understand what you’re doing.

Let’s start with the really basic stuff:

How To Play Slots

At most casinos, you can put money into the machine in various ways:

• Cash
• Coins
• Payout tickets
• Player cards

If you’re using cash, you can use almost any denomination you can think of, from $1 on up to $100.

Most modern slot machines don’t take coins anymore, but if you can find one, you just drop the money into the slot. (That’s where the games get their name, by the way.)

The payout tickets can be used just like cash in modern slot machines. You also use them when it’s time to cash out—you just take them to one of the machines that converts them into currency. When I started, you still got your winnings in coins. Those days are long gone.

You can use your player card to put money in the machine if you’ve been awarded rebates to your card in the form of credits.

No matter which method you use, the slot machine converts your money into credits on the machine. You can see how many credits you have in the machine at any time. The total is always prominently displayed. Depending on the game’s denomination, you might have trouble converting that amount to cash in your head. But the machine will do that for you when you cash out.

Some slot machine games include their pay tables on the machine itself, but others require you to access a screen via their touch-screen. (Look for an option labeled “HELP.”) The pay table lists the symbols along with what the payouts are for the various possible combinations of those symbols. It will also include information about where the pay lines are. These are the lines along the front of the machine where the symbol combinations occur.

This screen will also explain things like the bonus games, scatter symbols, and wild symbols.

Finally, you need to know where the CASH OUT button is. Don’t just sit there and play until all your money’s gone just because you can’t find the CASH OUT button. That really is crazy.

6- Smart Players Know that Denominations Can Be Misleading

You’ll hear a lot of people talk about “penny slots,” “nickel slots,” and “quarter slots.”

This does not mean that you’re betting a penny per spin, a nickel per spin, or a quarter per spin.

Most games encourage or force you to bet multiple coins per pay line, and you usually need to bet on multiple pay lines, too.

The most recent slot machine I played on was a penny slot called Lightning Sevens. It was a penny slot, but you had to bet 5 units per line to be eligible for the jackpots. (The game had 4 progressive jackpots, too.) The game also had 25 paylines.

As a result, I was betting $1.25 per spin on a penny slot machine.

This is another reason you should pay close attention to the HELP or INFO screen. On a lot of slot machine games, you can win the top jackpot even if you’re not betting max coins. But some games have lower payouts for the lower denominations.

It’s important to know the difference.

7- Smart Players Don’t Worry about the Locations of the Machines

One of the strategies you’ll often see touted on websites and in old books about playing slot machines is to try to play the games on the edges, nearest the walkways. The theory is that the casinos put the loosest machines there to attract more players to the games.

This might have been true at one casino at one time a long time ago.

But that’s almost certainly not true in a modern casino.

Casino managers probably employ some type of methodology related to the placement of their machines, but it’s probably subtle enough and complicated enough that you’ll never be able to use that logic to your advantage.

In fact, smart slot machine players don’t really worry about any kind of slot machine strategy at all. After all, the smarter you are, the more you realize that no slot machine strategy has any kind of validity at all. These games are entirely random.

You see, it’s worthwhile to study basic strategy in blackjack. It’s even worthwhile to learn how to count cards. Your decisions matter at the blackjack table—mathematically.

But on a slot machine, all you can do is put your money into the machine and hope for the best.

I’ve seen all kinds of silly advice that’s supposed to help you become a winner at the slot machines. For example, I read one author who said that if you get more than 7 spins in a row with no winners, you should switch machines. The same author suggests setting a percentage of your “session bankroll” as a win goal and a loss limit.

You’re then supposed to quit when you’ve won that much or when you’ve lost that much.

That kind of money management strategy doesn’t really matter, though. In the long run, you’re just playing one huge, almost infinite session. Arbitrarily taking breaks during your lifetime gambling session doesn’t increase your chances of winning.

The only way to do that is to only play slots once, get lucky, quit while you’re ahead, and never play again.

That’s a smart strategy in its way, but it’s a little limiting if you enjoy playing slot machines.

8- Smart Players Avoid the Biggest Progressive Slot Machines

A progressive slot machine is one which has an ever-increasing jackpot. These come in 3 varities:

1. Standalone progressives
2. In-house progressives
3. Wide area network progressives

A standalone progressive takes any bet that’s made on that machine and applies a small percentage of it toward its jackpot, which gets larger as a result.

An in-house progressive is networked with other slot machines in the same casino. Any bet on any progressive in that in-house network increases the size of the jackpot for all those machines.

A wide area network progressive is a game that’s networked with multiple slot machines in multiple casinos. Any wager made on any machine in the network increases the size of the overall jackpot, which can increase its overall size.

Here’s why smart slot machine players tend to avoid such machines, though:

That tiny percentage that goes to fuel the jackpot comes out of the payback percentage. The full payback percentage on the machine isn’t fully realized until you’ve won it. In the case of the largest progressive jackpots, that might not happen ever.

Megabucks is the best known of the largest progressive jackpots. The jackpot starts at $10 million, and it’s not unusual for the jackpot to get as high as $20 million.

As you might guess, the probability of winning Megabucks is on a par with winning the lottery.

And we all know that smart gamblers don’t play the lottery, right?

The opposite of a progressive slot machine, by the way, is a “flat-top” machine. That’s a game where the jackpot is a flat dollar amount. It doesn’t change as the game is played.

Flat top machines generally have better payback percentages than progressive machines.

Conclusion

Let me be clear about this:

Slot machines are always a negative expectation bet. No amount of smarts or strategy can help you overcome this mathematical edge.

This doesn’t mean you can’t play slot machines like a smart person. You just need to do what a smart slot machine player does—treat the games as the entertainment devices that they are. Treat the money you wager on such machines as an entertainment expense.