How to Play Slot Machines: Part 1

It has not been that long since the average slot-machine player was considered a second-class citizen by bricks-and-mortar casinos. Jackpots used to be small, around $30, payout rates were appalling, and slot-machine gamblers were not privy to the same benefits as other gamblers, such as complimentary bonuses, loyalty schemes, free drinks, free accommodation, etc, commonly given to other casino players. However, over the past 15 years the gambling industry has changed, today more than 70% of all gambling revenue comes from the trusty slot machine customer, and in some cases, the rate of revenue can be as high as 80%- the slot machine gambler is now in a prime position to pack a punch at the casino.

Normally, when a person enters a casino for the first time, they head straight for the slot machines, this is because they are so easy to play, and it is a good way of becoming familiar with what can at first appear, to be an intimidating environment, especially to the inexperienced gambler. Slot machines are simple, you just put in a few coins and press a few buttons. Because new players may find it difficult to play the table games, being as they are, interactions with both skilled players and well-trained croupiers or dealers, it is easy to be intimidated, and thus easier to get accustomed to the atmosphere of a bricks-and-mortar casino. But there is another advantage to playing the slot machines, rather than the table games, and that is the jackpots on offer, progressive jackpots can bring the lucky winner life-changing sums of money.

This article will therefore serve as an introduction in the world of the slot machine, teaching you all you need to know about how slot machines work, plus provide you with various basic strategies that you can easily put into practice and which may even help you win more money. Starting at the very beginning, we explain how to play slot machines:

HOW TO PLAY SLOT MACHINES:

By far the most popular type of slot machine are the smaller denomination games, those that take a dollar or a quarter, to make one spin, although the video slots that gamblers can play with as little as two cents are also extremely popular. The majority of slot machines take at least three coins at a time as the denomination of play, but the video-slots can take up to 500 credits at a time, giving the gambler masses of opportunity to win, but also costing them a lot of money too.

Most slot machines have what is called a ‘currency adapter’, this means that you can put in money and this is then reclassified in the form of credits, so $1 may buy 10 credits, for example. With machines that have spinning reels then in order to begin, you need to press the button that says ‘play one credit’ until you reach the amount that you wish to play with on any one spin. Then you must press the button marked ‘spin reels’, or with some machines you may have to pull a handle, this will start the reels spinning after they have spun the machine will tell you if you have had a win. You also have the option of pressing the ‘play max credits’ button instead of the previous two, at which point the machine will set the reels spinning and play as many of your credits as it is able to do, the maximum number of credits should be written somewhere, and could be up to 500.

With video slot machines, you need to tell the machine how many pay-lines you wish to play, a pay-line indicates which patterns on the reels are winning combinations, they can look really convoluted and appear to zigzag in any old pattern, but the symbols will always link in a rational way, regardless of how complicated it may look. Multiple pay-line slot machines are different from the traditional slots, the  ones you find in bars and pubs, because these latter types usually only have one pay-line, the three symbols that are located in the middle, going from left to right, the iconic three cherries for example.

So, on video slot machines you press one button to select the number of lines you wish to play with, then you must press a second button to tell the machine how many credits to play on each of the pay-lines. The most common type of video slot is the 9 pay-line slot, which you can opt to play between 1 and 5 credits per line, so if you choose the maximum number of pay-lines (9) and the maximum number of credits (5) you will end up wagering 45 credits, that is 5 credits per line. Other types of video slot that you may come into contact with are the 5, 15, 20, 25 and, occasionally, 50 pay-line which accept up to 25 credits per line- the maximum cost for one spin can therefore be 1250 credits, if each credit is worth $0.02 then you could be paying $25 for one spin, and some people do, indeed there are some hardened gamblers who will pay thousands of dollars jut for one spin!

The majority of slot machines will have the primary pay-line painted on the glass in front of the spinning reel; some will have three lines painted, and some five. The symbols that are located on each pay-line once the reels have stopped spinning determine whether the player has won, and how much. The commonest symbols are still the old-school ones, the cherries, bars and sevens are all examples of symbols you are likely to encounter.

Examples of possible pay-outs include: a single cherry, which may pay out 2 credits, bars might pay out 10 credits for any three in a row, 30 for three single bars and 60 for three double bars, the sevens in the right configuration usually trigger the jackpot.

With a video slot machine, the spinning reels are not actual mechanical devices as they are with the traditional slot machines, but rather computer generated images that look like spinning reels. Most of these machines have at least 5 pay-lines, but many will have more, and the numbers of new video slot machines with many pay-lines, such as 50, are becoming more and more numerous as the gamblers demand more and more madness.

Additionally, video slot machines have a great feature, known as the ‘scatter pay’. Certain pre-defined symbols, which you will be able to see on the machines pay-out tables, will trigger a scatter pay if two or more appear on the screen, they do not even have to be in any particular pattern, just as long as they are present the player will get the scatter bonus. Sometimes a scatter bonuses will act as pay-out multipliers, so the symbol might read 3x, in which case the amount you win is multiplied by 3, at other times the scatter bonus may trigger a bonus feature, these are completely different to the slot machine game, they may involve selecting boxes which then open to reveal the prize won, for example, players do not have to pay to participate in the bonus feature, which are usually very good and win the player a lot of money. Other types of bonus features that may be present on a video slot machine include, free spins, where the player is awarded a number of free spins on the reel. These bonus rounds make the video slot machines even more attractive to players, and do not be surprised to find that once you have discovered them you will not be able to move on to another game for a while, they really draw you in and you can pass hours of entertainment without even noticing the time slip by.

When players are lucky enough to win on a spin, then the winnings are added to the credit metre. If players want to get their hands on the money, they just need to press the ‘cash out’ button, and in a bricks-and-mortars casino, more often than not, a printed bar-coded ticket will be issues, which players can redeem for money from the casino staff.

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