Casino Slot Machine Secrets Exposed – Do You Know The Reality?
10 minutes
Last Updated: March 24, 2022
Casino slot machines are by far the most popular type of game you can find in any casino. As they are luck-based and don’t require any extensive knowledge, anyone can play them without much learning.
But, precisely because these games completely revolve around luck, many of their aspects are covered in mystery.
Most players aren’t aware of the most common slot machine secrets casinos want to keep confidential.
On this page, we’ll expose the biggest casino slot machine secrets and share with you a few tricks to winning on real money slots along the way.
Read on to learn the most significant and controversial slot secrets.
Every Slot Is Carefully Placed
Let’s start with a simple secret that won’t ruffle too many feathers. Every casino carefully plans every corner of its venue and places games in an arrangement that would make the house the most money.
In line with this, every slot game is placed based on its profitability, overall player traffic patterns, and other metrics that the casino analyzes.
All of this results in the most profitable games, for the casino, of course, being placed at center stage.
In other words, the slot machines that bring in the most money for the casino are always featured in a visible area and are easy to find.
Needless to say, such slots are often unfavorable for the players, and you should always try to avoid them.
This doesn’t only apply to land-based casinos and slot machines in them. Online casinos have the same strategy.
The online slot games that are featured at the top of the library or advertised all over the online casino site are usually the ones that are most profitable for the casino. As such, you should avoid them and pick a different slot by yourself.
The Slot Machine Payout Tickets Aren’t for Your Convenience
This might not be one of the biggest casino slot machine secrets exposed on this page, but it definitely is worth knowing.
Nowadays, most slot machines don’t really pay you in cash when you want to cash out and walk away. Instead, you receive a payout ticket.
You then have to take this payout ticket to the cage or a machine to exchange it for cash.
The widely accepted belief is that the casinos implement this system to keep you safe from getting robbed and make it easier for you to carry your winnings while in the casino.
However, as with some other secrets that we’ve exposed on this page, the real reason is that it maximizes the casino's profits.
How is this? When playing with tickets, you don’t have the same feeling as when playing with money.
So, many players usually use these tickets on other games right after they cash out from the slot machine.
To avoid making this mistake, it’s best to exchange your money right away, at least the amount you want to make sure you go home with.
That way, you won’t accidentally play through your winnings and use up all of the tickets before getting any real cash.
Simple Slots Often Pay Better
This is one of the biggest secrets that casinos want to keep private. We all know that slot machines are intentionally designed to be colorful and loud in order to make you immersed and happy when playing.
But, what most casino slot machine players don’t know is that the machines with the best graphics and most detailed animations often pay the least money.
Every casino is in the business of making money. With that in mind, slots with great graphics, many reels, and fancy designs cost more to obtain and are more expensive to maintain than slot machines with simple graphics.
Plus, these advanced slot machines often take up more floor space than classic slots. To ensure the same profit margin, casinos lower the payout rate of such slot machines.
So, while you might be enjoying the detailed graphics more, you’re also spending much more money and getting less in return than you would be when playing a simpler slot machine.
With that in mind, there’s nothing wrong with putting your money in a video slot machine and experiencing the immersion.
However, if you’re looking for the best value for every bet you place, we recommend sticking to classic slot machines. They might not be as polished, but they almost certainly will pay out better.
Slots Are Completely Random
Every slot machine player has searched the Internet for the best slot machine winning strategies at some point in their gambling career.
The truth is that there’s no such thing, and casinos don’t want you to be aware of this.
Even though each slot machine has a payout rate that determines its long-term payouts, every result that it produces in the short term is entirely random.
To put it differently, every spin is entirely independent of the previous one. There’s no way to predict the result of a future spin based on the outcome of the previous one.
So, whether you win or lose big, the next spin can produce exactly the same result. Of course, this evens out in the long run but makes no difference from session to session.
The reason why casinos don’t want players to know this secret is because it would impact the way they gamble.
For example, many players think they can catch a “cold” slot when it finally pays out after a series of losses.
But, as this has no basis in reality, knowing this would make many gamblers change their betting strategy.
To expand on this, it’s essential to know that most slot machines don’t involve any skill. Although some slot machines feature a stop button, even this feature doesn’t actually affect the outcome.
Unlike some other casino games (blackjack, for example), slot machines are purely based on luck. There’s no skill or strategy you can employ to increase your winning chances.
Slots Are Intentionally Fast
Slot machines are some of the fastest games you can play in a casino. And, this isn’t by coincidence.
Besides wanting to retain you for long gambling sessions, casinos wish your gambling sessions always to be as fast-paced as possible.
The logic behind this is simple. The more bets you make per hour, the more money you will lose, so the casino’s profits will be higher.
This is one of the biggest reasons that propelled the transition from traditional slots with arms to modern slot machines with buttons.
Having buttons instead of levers makes the gameplay significantly faster and enables casinos to make more money.
Knowing this secret, make sure you bet on every round when you’re ready and not rush your spins. A difference of a few seconds per spin may not seem like much, but it amounts to a significant number of extra spins in the grand scheme of things.
So, avoid slot machines with especially fast gameplay and take your time, especially if you’re just playing for entertainment and not profits.
A Win Is Sometimes a Loss
This is one of the casino slot machine secrets many players don’t know about. It is very unfortunate, as knowing that a win on a slot machine is not always a win could help many players save their bankroll for another day.
What do we mean by this? The explanation is very simple, and you’ll easily realize the truth behind this if you’ve ever played in a casino.
It’s no secret that slot machines are loud, vibrant, and colorful. Moreover, many of them often play animations after every single win, hyping you up and encouraging you to keep playing and hoping for a big win.
However, as these machines jingle and play animations after every win, you could get one even after you net a win that’s smaller than your initial bet.
This is a bit of an underhanded trick casinos play on their customers to trick the ones who aren’t paying attention.
And, while regulators are trying to put a stop to this, currently, you can’t rely on anyone but yourself if you want to avoid this.
The best way to do so is not to blindly accept the wins and get fooled by the animations. Check every time how much money you’ve won compared to how much you’ve wagered to ensure you’ve really made a profit.
Progressive Slots Cover Many Casinos
More experienced slot machine players probably know this secret, but many beginners are often surprised when they hear it.
This is that those progressive jackpot slot machines that headline every casino’s offer and offer wins that sometimes go into tens of millions of dollars aren’t exclusive to the casino you’re playing at.
The truth is that every casino player wagering on the same progressive slot game in any other casino has the same chances of triggering the main jackpot as you do.
Of course, casinos don’t want players to know this, as they want you to think that only you and the few others playing beside you have the chance to win.
While, in fact, this is completely opposite, as there are actually thousands of players wagering on the same slot at the same time you are.
This is possible because progressive slot machines work uniquely. Every progressive slot takes a small percentage of your wager and puts it into the main progressive jackpot pool.
So, while the potential jackpot amount is often staggering, the chances of actually winning such a prize are almost non-existing.
You Should Always Bet the Max Amount
While there are no foolproof secrets to winning on slot machines, this one comes as close to it as any other on this page.
Experienced slot machine players generally recommend betting the maximum amount allowed by the slot machine.
While this seems like a good tactic only for those that want to blow through their bankroll quickly, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
For many slot machines, you need to bet the maximum amount to activate all of the in-game bonuses be in play for the main jackpot, or get the best Return to Player.
Often, casinos don’t mention this transparently, which only leads to missed opportunities for players who bet a lot but don’t go up to the maximum limit.
This is especially crucial to remember if you’re playing for profit and not just for fun. That said, you also need to consider that betting the maximum amount every spin requires a larger bankroll.
So, if you’re betting on a tight bankroll, this might not be the most applicable strategy in your case.
The House Always Wins
Lastly, we want to finish with one crucial “known secret” that many players choose to ignore and that the casinos happily exploit. This is that it's impossible to be a winning slot player in the long run.
Don’t get this wrong, anyone can win money playing slot machines. Many gamblers manage to win life-changing amounts by hitting a lucky jackpot on a slot machine.
However, what we’re talking about is that you can’t win if you continue playing slots for months or years.
Every slot machine is precisely manufactured and programmed to pay out a predetermined percentage of the money it takes in. This is called RTP, or Return to Player percentage.
If you’re playing in a land-based casino, the RTP for a slot machine can be anywhere from 90% down to 70%, or even lower in some cases.
Moreover, in some land-based casinos, you can’t even have a way of finding out the RTP and have to play blindly if you want to wager on a particular slot.
The situation is better with online casinos, as strict regulation binds them to be transparent about such data. Plus, the RTP is much better in online casinos, generally ranging between 95% and 97%.
Unfortunately, many players aren’t still aware of this, which costs them a lot of money over time. With that in mind, slot machines are a poor choice if you’re aiming for consistent profits over time.
