Concise information about the games people play in casinos is always helpful, so here goes:
• You probably know the feeling. You walk away from a slot machine after losing some money, then glance over your shoulder and watch the very next person who sits down hit a jackpot. That money should have been yours you think. Well, as the line from the old song goes, it ain’t necessarily so. Even when a slot machine isn’t being played, it is still processing combinations until one is revealed when somebody makes a bet. Everyone’s chances of hitting a jackpot are always the same during any given window of playing time. In the time it took you to get up and somebody else to sit down, thousands of combinations were presented. Jackpots are always possible but they are never waiting to happen.
• When you play slot machines, do you watch with anticipation as the reels stop one by one until a decision is reached? One jackpot symbol, two jackpot symbols, then nothing, with that third symbol that’ll trigger a big hit hanging enticingly above the pay-line. Is the machine teasing you? Not really. The reels on traditional spinning reel and video slots do not spin independently of one another. The outcome of the symbols on the pay line or the grid of symbols on a video slot is predetermined the instant you initiate a play. The drama of watching the reels is an illusion that is created to simulate a game-playing experience; and to make slot play more fun and entertaining.
• Have you ever thought of blackjack in terms of football, that is, both an offensive and a defensive game? It’s true. You’re on offense when you double down on 11 against a dealer’s six. For the player it’s first and goal in an attempt to capitalize on a favorable situation. However, you go on defense when you split eights against a dealer’s 10. How so? A pair of eights gives you 16, a treacherous hand. Splitting those eights means you’re gambling to turn one bad hand into two good ones in hopes of sacking the dealer at the price of doubling your bet. Sometimes it pays off, other times it doesn’t. But it’s always the correct play.
• Slot machine play is fertile ground for misinformation. For example, have you ever noticed that periodic two second delay when the machine won’t allow you to make a bet? I’ve heard people say the machine is somehow re-cycling into a winning or losing mode or perhaps it’s a tip that a jackpot is on the way. That’s all a myth. The delay isn’t a signal. It takes place when the machine’s internal electronic meters are being updated. The meters have no connection with the random number generator and therefore have no significance for the player or anything at all to do with winning or losing. A slot’s programmed percentage payback is always constant.
