How Slot Machines Work and How to Win

The first thing we need to talk about is how slot machines work. Every machine has a computer chip inside, it called a random number generator or RNG and that chip is making mathematical calculations very quickly, about a thousand times a second, to determine which combination of symbols should appear in the reals, then when you push the spin button or pull the handle that causes the chip to stop at that exact instant and choose a combination to display on the real. This means when you see the reel spinning, the actual result of what will appear in those pay lines has already been chosen by the RNG, so in reality a slot machine wouldn't even need the spinning reels to show you whether you won or lost, but it's certainly a lot more exciting to see those spinning reels. When a casino orders a casinoslot machine, the manufacturer will have a choice of computer chips that put into the machine, which control the percentage of how much that machine is set to pay back to the public. The range of the payouts on these chips will vary depending on the machine and the manufacturer, but it's usually pretty standard in the industry to offer chips paying out from a low of about 85 percent to a high of about 98%. So how did the casinos decide which machine should pay back around 85 percent and which ones should pay back around 98 percent? The answer is that it's done by denomination - the higher the denomination of the machine, the more it's set to pay back. If you play a penny machine, you can be pretty sure that it's set on the low end of the scale to pay back around 87 and 90 percent, and if you play a twenty-five dollar machine the payback on that machine is going to be on the high end around 95 to 98 percent.

Okay, so now you know how the slot machine works and you know how casinos decide what they should pay back to the public but the big question is how do you win on a slot machine? Well, the answer to that is very simple you get lucky, keep in mind that the slot machine is basically just a computer that is programmed to randomly payout less money than it takes in and unlike video poker where there is a skill involved and how you play your car, there's no skill involved with a slot machine, it's all luck. Therefore, when you play a slot machine, you are hoping that you can get lucky and stop that random number generator on a winning combination, so if you ever see an ad for someone selling a system to beat slot machines, don't believe it. There is no system for winning on slot machines and if there was a winning system don't you think someone would keep that information to themselves rather than sell it to you for 10 or 15 dollars.

Now, let's address some common questions that people have about slot machines. Our slot machine set to payout at set intervals, or once they've collected a certain amount of money?

No, the outcome of each play and the machine is completely random and there is no predetermined point at which machine is set to pay out.

If a one dollar slot has a chip inside that is set to pay back at a rate of 93%, does this mean that if I put $100 through that machine I'll have 93 dollars left when I'm done?

No, the 93 percent is a long-term number and actually represents the results after several million pulls in that machine. Some days, the casino will lose money in that machine, but on most days it will make money and the longer the machine is played, the more likely the result will be that the machine will have an average payout of 93 percent.

If  I play a slot machine and it's not paying out, does that mean it's due to hit soon?

No, every play in a slot machine is an independent event, which means that its past performance can't be used to determine its future performance.