Finding the Right Machine

When I travel around the United States by car, I am often amazed by what I see. For example, housing developments. A builder will purchase a large plot of land and then build dozens or scores of homes on the property.

In many cases, they all look the same. Pretty houses, all similar, standing in a row, waiting for a buyer.

And the buyers come and make their purchases. Of course the houses don't all end up looking the same. The new tenants change things. Colors, architecture. They add a room or an additional garage. And on the inside, they make the house conform to their own ideas of what constitutes beauty or uniqueness.

Anyone entering a gambling casino notices a similarity between the slot machines and the 'pretty houses all in a row.'

The slot machines are lined up, ready for customers to insert their money and try to line up the winning symbols in order to crack jackpots. All the machines may look the same, but they are not all the same on the inside.

The difference, of course, is the computer chip.

Before the computer chip was created, a person's chances of hitting a slot machine jackpot and having hundreds or even thousands of coins pouring out of the chute were actually higher than today. Of course, the jackpots were smaller. Today there are progressive slot machines that can pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on a single pull of the handle.

Today computer chips run the random number generator (RNG). It continues cycling through numbers even when the machine is not being played. The numbers correspond to the stops in the wheel and determines the winning or losing numbers you see when the reels stop.

Let's say you have been playing a machine for hours before giving it up. Five minutes after you leave the slot machine, someone hits it for the jackpot. You feel sick, thinking, 'If I only had kept playing, I would be rich!'

Wrong.

The cycling process would have continued. Even if you pause playing the machine to take a drink, this process continues, so there is no way that you would have hit the jackpot the same way the person did after you left the machine.

Being able to generate millions sof cominations is the reason slot machines can offer large paybacks. And for the record, slots account for 70 percent of a casino's profits.

Computer chips determine the payback percentage. They are pre-set at the factory. However, with today's technology, they can be reset by casino management. The resetting cannot occur while someone is playing a machine, but must be done at least four minutes after the player has left the slot machine. Slots are no longer mechanized. They are computerized.

With all this said, is there anything you can do to improve your chances of winning a slot machine jackpot? My humble opinion is that there is..

It takes a lot of observation on your part, but keep your eyes open. Some slot machines in a casino are pre-programmed to pay off more often than the other machines.

When I lived in Springfield, MO., I would take a casino bus out of Springfield to Joplin 60 miles away and play at Downstream Casino. For my $15, the bus owner would give me a ticket good for a free buffet and $15 that I could use to play certain slot machines.

I would generally play video poker, which gave me a better percentage of wins than the regular slots. However, I noticed a large dollar machine close to the poker room that seemed to be paying off at a higher percentage than the other machines. After a while, I decided to give it a try.

I would wait until I had won a couple of hundred playing poker, then I would take a $100 bill and my ticket for $15 in free play and try my luck on the dollar machine. I would limit my plays to 80 pulls of the handle. Then I would discontinue my play and return to the poker room.

The first day I did this, I won $285.

The second time I tried it, I won $400. Then each day thereafter when I play the machine I won between $200 and $800. I did this approximately 20 times. The consistency of the machine delighted and baffled me. All I can surmise is that the computer chip was pre-programmed to yield more wins than the other macines.

After a month or so, I started losing on the machine and I stopped playing it. But for a while I had found the right slot machine. I recommend you keep your eyes open and hopefully you will do the same.