Home         Gambling Info         Odds         Gambling Online         Ask the Wizard         Play for Fun         Blog         Radio         Video    

Reason #2 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

No-hassle practice games

Most online casinos spend more effort trying to separate you from your money than they do trying to give you a good experience. They have all kinds of popup windows, they usually make you download their software, and if they do offer play-in-browser games then you have to register an account before you can play. And if you register they start sending you emails trying to get you to deposit real money.

But Bovada is different. They have no popup windows at all, and their practice games play right in your browser, with no download, and no registration required. You don’t even have to give up your email address. It couldn’t be simpler: just one click and you’re playing the game.

I wish all online casinos showed this much respect for their players. Other casinos practically ask for your first born child to play for free. Meanwhile Bovada is patient and does not twist anybody’s arm to play for real money. You can play as long as you like for free with no obligation. The real-money games are available if that’s your preference, but if not, you can play the free practice games for as long as you like without hassle.

Visit Bovada

Ask the Wizard: Slots - Loose Machines

Slots Menu

» FAQ
» General Questions
» Cycles and other myths
» Denominations
» Internet Slots
» Loose Machines
» Payback Percentages
» Progressive Slots
» RNG Timing
» Slot Machine Innards
» Slot Strategies
» Slots in Specific Jurisdictions
» Tipping

In "how slot machines works" you mention that the Random numbers (1 to 2+ billion) are drawn in a cycle to ensure each number is chosen once per cycle. Are you saying that the slot has a 2+ billion-element table that gets filled with all the possible numbers (over time)? Is this why a slot machine will sometimes hesitate (as if it’s "thinking" for a few seconds before allowing you to initiate a play... because it’s filled the "random number table" and is re-initializing it for another round? I have always wondered about these periodic (after maybe around 30-50 pulls) "hesitations" that slot machines exhibit; because my observations are that the pay/take characteristics of a slot machine seem to change between these "hesitations". Frequently I have seen a slot that was in a "pay cycle" (for lack of better words) go suddenly cold after going through this hesitation. Conversely, I have seen cold machines suddenly start paying more after this hesitation occurs. Whatever! The exact reason for this "pause" it seems clear the machine is re-initializing or re-loading something... I just don’t know what it is.
— Scott from Leawood, USA

No, the machine does not have a huge element table of over two billion elements. The random number generators choose each number once in the cycle using mathematical algorithms and do not need to keep track of which numbers were already chosen. Regarding the pause I’m quite sure that has nothing to do with how much it is going to pay. I speculate it is doing some internal test. There is no such thing as hot and cold cycles with slot machines. If a machine is paying off well that just means you are lucky, there is nothing premeditated about it.

 

Which are the best slots to play and is it better to play 3 coins all the time or rotate from 2-3 coins.
— Gary from Geulph, Canada

Most slot machiens offer an incentive to play the maximum coins. For example 2 coins may pay 2000 on the jackpot but 3 coins will pay 5000. On a jackpot per coin basis maximum coins is usually the best bet. So if there a maximum coin incentive then it is better to always play the maximum coins. I’m afraid I can’t answer the question on which slot machines are the best to play, the casinos don’t usually tell you what their payback percent is for any given machine.

 

Could you please tell me what are some of the better paying slot machine to play? And also the placement of the machines that pay off the best? any help would be appreciated. i like slots but never win!!!!
— Denises from Lowell, USA

There is no way to tell whether a slot pays well by looking it. Probably the only one who knows is the slot manager and perhaps a few other casino executives. The kind of machine is not a major factor. While it’s "common knowledge" that casinos put higher-paying slots in the higher-traffic areas I’m skeptical that that is really the case and I intend to conduct some research into this soon.

 

Where is the best place to find loose slots in casinos, if there is any?
— Bill Giessregen Jr. from Austin, U.S.

According to my research there are no good or bad areas. Either the casinos are consistent across the same coinage or the mix up loose and tight machines apparently randomly.

 

Is there any way to spot a would-be winning slot machine?
— Dave from Yale, USA

No.

 

Are there any internet casinos with looses dueces wild and which casino has the best payouts for dueces wild. Thank you.
— Mike from Montana

Atlantic Interbet has full pay deuces wild (return of 100.77%). I think their highest coinage is 50 cents in that game.

 

While it is widely reported that casinos put their better paying machines in high traffic areas, do they also put the highest paying machine in these areas as well? I envision the following scenario: for a casino to have a sign saying payouts up to XX% (usually 97%+) only one machine needs to pay that percentage, and that machine will be tucked into a low traffic area (or frequently moved) to keep the amount of winnings on that machine low. While the machines paying significantly lower (though still better paying than the rest of the casino) say 90% are kept in the high traffic area, with the low paying 85% machines throughout the remaining areas. Is there any reason to believe this is how casinos operate? From your review of slots how often do you see different payout % for machines of the same type in the same casino? Sorry for the lengthy questions, love the site and the absence of silly cant lose strategies/advice.
— Mitch from Hopkins, USA

Based on my own research I have found that the theory about the correlation between return and slot placement to be untrue. I do believe that oversized novelty machines in high visibility areas are set lower, but that is as far as I’ll go. Most casinos are very consistent and all slots of a particular kind and coinage will be set to the same percentage. Those that do mix up loose and tight machines seem to do so randomly. You are right that if a casino advertises "Our machines pay up to 99%" then only one in the entire casino has to be set that high. However some casinos will have certain carousels or banks that they claim are all set to a certain percentage. Wherever me or my associates have seen such claims, and tested them, we found the claim to be true. So my advice to slot players is to look for particular machines that are guaranteed to pay a high return, and don’t pay any heed to the guessing games.

 

I’ve been told that a casino’s selection of video poker can be a good indication of their slot looseness. The idea behind it is supposed to be that if a casino is willing to put a lot of full play poker on their floor then they will also likely put more loose slots. Does this hold any truth or is it just a myth?
— Omer from Freemont, CA

I think that theory holds water. When I did my Las Vegas slot machine survey, I found the looseness of a casinos slots and video poker was highly correlated.

Copyright © 1998-2012 Wizard of Odds Consulting, Inc.  All rights reserved.  •  About  |  Privacy & Terms  |  Site Map  |  Links  |  Contact

The Wizard’s other sites: Wizard of Vegas  |  Wizard of Macau  |  Math Problems   •   Recommended: Vegas Click