Online Slots Odds

If you plan to play slots and you want to win slots, you must first understand slot machine odds and probabilities.  But before we get into how land slots and internet slots work, let's clarify how they don't work.

To start, there is no such thing as a "hot" or "cold" machine.  A machine that hasn’t paid a jackpot since the turn of the millennium is not "due" to hit.  By contrast, a machine that recently paid a jackpot doesn't go cold. 

Slot machine odds are governed by a statistical principle called The Law of Independent Trials.  Without getting too much into higher mathematics, this means that the results of previous plays have no effect on the next play.

Also, video slot machine odds are not significantly different from those of mechanical reel slots.  Today, even mechanical reel slots have a computer "brain" known as the Random Number Generator, wherein the computer assigns a random number to each reel based on the millisecond (1/1000th of a second) that the player sends the signal to the machine. 

This number can be between 1 and 32 or 1 and 64, depending on the machine, with a different number for each reel.  The computer assigns most of these numbers to "blank" spots on the reel, while it maps other numbers to the various symbols (e.g. cherries, bars, 7s).  The reels spin until they arrive on the assigned space for that value. 

This means that with land casino and online casino slots, the difference between your reels landing on an empty space and a jackpot combination can be less than the time it takes to blink!

Understanding Slot Machine Odds

If you've recently played internet slots, you've seen casinos proclaiming jackpots in the thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps even in the millions of dollars.  You also may have seen claims of "98% Payout Guaranteed".  The first promises a bigger jackpot, but the second claims to pay a higher portion of your initial investment.  Which one is the best slots choice?

If you're the type of player who dreams of hitting that multi-million dollar jackpot, then you'll want to play the "progressive" online casino slots machine.  The name "progressive" comes from the fact that the casino takes a fraction of every bet and adds it to the jackpot.  In most cases, an entire row or several rows of machines will be involved in building the jackpot. 

Many affiliated online casinos link their online casino slots in large progressive games.  To build the jackpot, the slot machine odds on these games are higher than on their smaller payouts, so you won't get your smaller wins as often as you would on ordinary machines.  Those who hope to win the progressive jackpot must bet "Max Coins" or "Max Credits" on each spin.  By playing only one or two coins a spin, you're cheating yourself out of a potentially huge payday.

On the other hand, as for the "98% Payout" claims,  they deliver as promised, but with certain caveats.  In land casinos, the high payout percentage is often limited to certain machines in that particular bank.  Also, the payout percentage is guaranteed over the life of the machine, which can be well over a hundred thousand spins!  Even in the rare case that the machine stays on the floor that long, the player would have to drop a considerable number of coins to achieve that payout level.

Now you have the information you need to play slots.  Now, put it to use and see if you win slots!