Here at AE Player™, you can imagine how much we hear about slot machines day in and day out. We hear tips about which ones are best, how to tell if you’re on a hot streak, and how to win every time. However, a lot of these ideas are based purely on superstition and not so much on facts. We thought we’d help some of our newer slot players (or even our existing slot players!) and educate them about what is fact and what is fiction about slot machines.
Many of our slot machine players believe that slot machine manufacturers program their machines to have pre-determined “hot streaks” or “cold streaks”. Hot streaks are when machines seem to win more often than not, and cold streaks are when machines seem to lose more often than not. In reality, every spin on a slot machine is programmed to be random. While it may feel like a machine is on a “hot streak” it’s actually just a run of unusually good luck, so enjoy it while you can!
This is another commonly held belief of slot machine players. The idea behind this is that if you see a machine that has not been paying out big (or at all), your best bet is to keep playing on it because it is due for a big hit soon. While that would be a great gambling strategy, unfortunately it is just not true. Every individual spin on a slot machine is randomized, so any spins before or after it do not have any effect on the current spin. You are just as likely to win big on a machine twice in a row as you are on a machine that hasn’t paid out recently.
This is another classic slot machine myth and it’s been around for decades. Some people fervently believe that certain characteristics of the money you use can affect the way a slot machine runs. For some believers, it depends on the temperature of the coins and they will religiously warm up or cool down coins superstitiously. For machines that take bills, some players will only use crisp new bills to increase their chances of winning. In reality, there is no difference in how a machine plays based on what you put into it. The coin/bill receptors are not built to recognize temperature or crispness of a bill.
This is one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories that slot machine players have. According to this theory, gambling locations (whether it be casinos or Illinois video gaming establishments) can tightly control the payout rates for individual slot machines. This is simply not feasible for most gambling locations. Slot machine payouts are pre-determined by a computer chip that is implanted in the machine while it is being manufactured. While it’s not impossible for a gambling location owner to change the payout rates, they would have to go through mountains of paperwork and could not be done with a flip of a switch.
Have you heard any crazy slot machine myths or conspiracies theories? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources:
https://www.liveabout.com/slot-machine-myths-and-misconceptions-537730
https://www.gamblingsites.com/slots/myths/