There’s something about the start of a new year that makes us want to wipe the slate clean and begin a fresh outlook on life. We set goals, resolve to break bad habits and replace them with good ones. If you’re a recreational casino gambling fan, eliminating bad habits or even reinforcing good ones can apply to you as well. Let’s take a look:
1. Resolve to stop being a passive player
It’s easy to walk into a casino, sit down in front of the first open machine you see and start feeding it currency. But even though slot play is based 99.99 percent on luck, there’s still a tiny fraction of cerebral input that you can employ to try to gain an advantage.
One such way is to make it a point to walk around and observe people playing the machines. If you frequent a particular casino, you’ll in all likelihood be able to pick up on trends. You may notice a particular machine that “seems to hit all the time”. It may just be coincidence or it may be the machine’s internal computer circuit is programmed at a higher “hit” frequency or a higher percentage payback.
On occasion during my casino travels, I’ve observed and even played machines which seem to give me more winning action than others.
Now it may be that the small windows of time during which I’m able to “scout” the machine make my observation pure coincidence. Then again, its internal circuit board just may be programmed to pay more liberally. Only the manufacturer and the casino brain trust know for sure and they’re not telling!
2. Resolve to take advantage of voucher slot technology
The cashless system makes it possible for slot players to collect tickets with modest wins and hopefully have them add up to a nice little score when it’s time to go home. For example, if you buy into a nickel machine for twenty dollars and in a short period of time you’ve seen your money double or even triple, the voucher system makes it easy to capitalize on your good fortune and move on to another machine.
3. Resolve to not be greedy
It’s an easy thing to say but so hard to do. If you want to be a successful player, however, you must get used to it. Chasing jackpots or not being satisfied with modest gains have been the ruin of many a slot player. As this columnist has cautioned so many times before, it’s hard to win. When you do, you owe it to yourself to be content. It’s o.k. to play with a portion of your winnings, but by all means make it a point to preserve some of your good fortune and walk out the door with it.
4. Resolve to play at a leisurely pace
Quite frankly, this is the strongest weapon you possess. The speed with which you play has no effect on your chances of winning. All you are doing when you play fast is giving the casino an opportunity to extract a bigger share of your bankroll.
5. Resolve to refuse to allow the games to manipulate you
Many of the new multi-line video slots are extremely entertaining. Low denomination games are fun to play but they are the stingiest as far as theoretical payback is concerned. Collectively, they make a ton of money for the casinos. What’s more, the multi-line, multi-coin features entice you to increase your risk from a few coins to several dollars per play. That can really eat up your bankroll in a hurry.
Play to be entertained, sure, but play responsibly and always be aware of the edge that is against you. The casino’s advantage far outweighs the luck factor.
