Slot machine video from casino expert Steve Bourie that teaches you the insider secrets to winning at slot machines and how a slot machine really works. The cost of delivering a fruit or slot machine can be very expensive depending on how far away the seller is based from your own home, so do keep that in mind when you are thinking of buying gaming machines that way. Simply Download a Slot App. You may find that it is too much fuss and hassle to actually set about sourcing a slot machine to buy.
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You can find as many objects to collect as you can find collectors, but some of the most interesting collectibles are slot machines. You can buy them used, but the legality of owning a gambling machine varies from state to state. This page takes a look at some of the issues involved in buying a used slot machine to start or expand a collection of your own.
Where Do You Live?
The first thing you should understand is that no matter where you live, if you’re using a slot machine to offer gambling to other people, you need a license. In some states, gambling is completely prohibited. Chances are you’re an individual collector and don’t have a gambling license, so don’t let people gamble on your games unless you have a high risk tolerance for illegal behavior.
In some states, even collectors aren’t allowed to own a used slot machine. These states include Alabama, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Ownership of slot machines, used or otherwise, is illegal in those states.
Other states have no legal restrictions on slot machine ownership as long as you’re not using them to run a gambling business. These states include: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The other states have specific guidelines based on the age of the machine. For example, in California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming, it’s legal to own a slot machine as long as it’s at least 25 years old. Other states have higher or lower age limits—in Florida you can own a slot machine as long as it’s 20 years or older, but in Massachusetts, it has to be at least 30 years old. And still other states base it on what year the machine was built; in Illinois and Iowa, for example, it’s only legal to own slot machines that were constructed before 1950.
To the best of my knowledge, this information is complete and accurate, but before buying your own used coin-op slot machine, you should check with local legal authorities to make sure you have the most up to date information. You should always obey the laws in whatever jurisdiction you reside.
What Kind of Dealer Are You Dealing With?
You’ll find plenty of people selling used slot machines on the Internet. Many of these are third-party sellers. That means they don’t offer slot machines directly; instead, they just take your order and then buy the slot machine from someone else and have it shipped to you. You’ll often notice that these third party dealers use stock images or pictures that were stolen from direct dealers’ websites.
It’s better to deal with a direct dealer when you can. These dealers will often offer a warranty on the machines they sell. They’ll also be able to help you over the phone if you’re having a problem operating your game. Third party dealers aren’t able to offer you this level of service.
One way to be sure you’re dealing with an actual dealer instead of a third party is to ask them if you’re able to visit their showroom or warehouse. Third party dealers, for obvious reasons, don’t have showrooms or warehouses.
What Kinds of Used Slot Machines CAN I Buy?
Most dealers offer reconditioned machines that have been retired from use in Las Vegas style casinos. Many of these are the same IGT (International Game Technology) manufactured games that you’re used to seeing in the casino, only older and more primitive. Most dealers also provide replacement parts and repair services.
One thing to look for when considering buying a machine from a dealer is whether or not they use real glass or plexiglass. Real glass is superior as plexiglass fades over time. You can expect to pay a little more for a machine with real glass, but it’s worth the extra cost. If you’ve ever seen a faded plexiglass screen on a used slot machine, you’ll know what I mean.
Many of these games can be set up to enjoy on “free play” mode. You don’t have to insert any kind of money in order to play these games. You can even modify these games to pay out tickets.
Examples of some of the popular and well-known games available for sale on the Internet include titles like Cleopatra, Double Diamond, Munsters, Red, White, and Blue, Sizzling Senves, Tabasca, Texas Tea, and Wild Cherry slots. Many other titles are available besides these, but you’ll recognize a lot of these brand names as still being available (albeit in newer models) in casinos today.
How Much Should I Spend?
Used slot machines are collectibles, and they’re priced accordingly. Shipping is usually going to be expensive, too. You can probably expect to pay at least $600 for a good machine and $200 for shipping. Video slots will cost twice that or more, and you’ll sometimes have the option of upgrading to a new LCD monitor when buying a video slot machine. Those are expensive, too–$400 or $500.
Other upgrades you can pay for include stereo sound packages, coin in coin out functionality, and/or backlit reels (on mechanical or electro-mechanical machines). These upgrades generally cost between $100 and $200 each.
Of course, these prices apply to relatively newer slot machines. Older antique slot machines can cost more or less. I’ve seen slot machines from the 1930s and 1940s that were beautifully refurbished for sale for as little as $325. Some of these older machines are barely recognizable as slot machines, but they make beautiful, conversation-worthy collections.
Conclusion
Buying a used slot machine can be a fun way to start a new hobby of collecting gaming machines, but do some research first. You want to make sure that it’s legal to do so before you get started. You also need to do some research into dealers before spending any money. Avoid third-party dealers, and find a direct dealer with a warehouse who offers warranties and telephone customer support.
Introduction to Choosing Slot Machines
Once a specific casino has been determined to currently be the best of any available, choosing slot machines becomes the next step towards making a profit at slots.
Remember, statistics supplied to state gaming commissions show that the odds of winning are, on average, somewhere around 90%. By assessing all available casinos, then selecting the best possible, you’ve already improved your odds of winning – perhaps by several percentage points.
Whatever your gambling goals are, we’ll talk about those in the next step Identifying Gambling Goals. For now, we need to consider choosing slot machines that will most likely improve our overall odds even more.
So, we’ve walked into our best casino to choose slot machines with the highest odds of winning we can find. How do we select a good slot machine? Most people don’t – they dive right in without much of a plan. Well, we have a plan.
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Why? Because everybody says it’s all about luck. If you pick wrong, “Well,” they say, “better luck next time.” Remember, casino employees are trained to say things like that. If you’d won a jackpot instead, you can believe they would have said, “You’re lucky! I’ll see you later when you win another jackpot!”
Slot attendants have a job to do, and it most certainly isn’t to get you to leave when you should. And, it’s difficult to not to influenced by such comments. But, try not to be.
In the following sections, I’ll briefly explain the following aspects of choosing slot machines:
- How odds are set within a slot machine
- Choosing denomination and maximum credits based on bankroll
- Basics of reading a slot machine’s paytable
- A simple way to use paytables to pick the best machines, and avoid the worst
Two Separate Odds of Winning
The odds of winning for a slot machine is a limited number of settings from the manufacturer. Besides understanding limited settings are available, it may help to understand that slot machines have two odds of winning to determine:
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- If a player will or will not win anything
- How much that win will be, i.e., the jackpot amount
Why is understanding these two types of odds significant when choosing slot machines? Because winning slot machines come in all jackpot sizes. You’re still winning if you’re getting enough small jackpots that your bankroll isn’t shrinking. Even if it is slowly depleting, the bankroll can last quite a bit longer, so that’s also a winning slot machine.
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Winning many jackpots this way is bankroll cycling. It may not seem very satisfactory, but whether it does or not depends entirely on what your gambling goals are. One type of gambling goal, earning maximum complimentary gifts, is most often achieved via bankroll cycling.
Another point about setting slot machine odds is, how often they change? Of course, it depends on the age of the casino, as discussed in the previous step Assessing Casinos for Success, or if it’s been renovated lately.
In my experience, older-style casinos change their slot machine odds every 7-10 days. Newer-style casinos can change their slot machine odds whenever the machine has been idle for 15 minutes or more, without a players club card inserted or the machine temporarily locked by a slot attendant.
Matching Bankrolls to Denomination/Credits
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Only you can decide how much bankroll you want to risk gambling. I highly recommend bringing only as much money you can safely afford to lose comfortably.
Bankrolls quite literally determine which slot machines you can play. But, there’s more to it than understanding a $100 bankroll lets you play a 1-credit, $100-denomination exactly once, with very, very little chance of winning.
Whatever bankroll you have limits which slot machines can be played and how much it can be played. Slot machines have denominations ($0.01, $0.25, $1, $5, $10, etc.) and the maximum credits that can be placed in a single bet.
Slot machines typically must run for a while before wins become more likely. Yes, wins can occur at the first press of a button. They can also happen within the first few bets, where casinos offer a taste. But, usually, they need to run for a while.
About 100-120 bets is the right amount to be prepared to play to determine if you’re sitting at a winning (or breakeven) slot machine. Yes, be careful initially, perhaps making as few as 20 bets, to determine if it happens to be a “bad” machine. Trust your instincts!
If it is a poorly performing machine, a “tight” slot machine, it won’t pay out anything at all. Quick decisions are necessary here, so limited betting gives a clue to its performance, yet still leaves enough to gamble with on another machine if it isn’t – assuming you stop playing it as soon as you notice it’s not performing well enough.
So, again, you determine how much bankroll you can afford to spend. Now, take that number and divide it by 120 bets. If your bankroll is $60, then that’s 50 cents per bet. In such a way, the right choice is a 2-credit, quarter-denomination slot machine. Or, a 50-credit, penny-denomination slot machine.
Always remember to play maximum credits for the highest odds of winning. Meaning, your casino may not have a 2-maximum-credit quarter or 50-maximum-credit penny machines. But, perhaps they have a 1-maximum-credit quarter or less-than-50-maximum-credits penny machines. Such slot machines would provide more than 120 bets of play, which is going in the right direction!
Reading a Slot Machine’s Paytable
When choosing a slot machine to play, a crucial aspect of winning is to review its paytable before playing. Frankly, the casino industry gains an advantage over players that don’t read slot machine paytables.
Located somewhere on a slot machine is one or more tables showing the number of credits won if specific combinations of reel symbols appear in the pay line after the player makes a bet. Below is a relatively generic example of a paytable.
The figure shows reel combinations along with their jackpot depending on the number of credits bet. Paytables don’t typically explain how much credits
Not every reel combination and its associated jackpot are usually shown in a paytable. Other reel combinations not shown in the top rows are also presented in the paytable area. Slot machines with WILD symbols can represent it with a myriad of other possible reel symbols.
A final element of paytable example provided is specific information on winning reel combinations, which can include an indication of how the slot machine operates during play. The bottom row of symbol explains that that slot machine has reel symbols which will move after the reels stop momentarily.
Such additional features may not activate until the maximum credits are bet. It can sometimes be difficult, or impossible, to determine this. Most slot machines with bonus rounds will provide at least some information about it within its paytable.
Developing a habit of reviewing and studying a slot machine’s paytable can help improve your ability to judge the financial risks involved with playing that slot machine.
How to Avoid the Worst Slot Machines
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The best way to improve the odds of winning via slot machine gambling is to stop making “sucker bets”. In less colorful language, avoid playing slot machines with terrible odds of winning.
First and foremost, understand when choosing slot machines that there are indeed terrible slot machines at a casino. By merely avoiding them whenever possible, on average, your long-term gambling return will improve. Each time we raise our odds like this, we’re pushing closer to achieving our gambling goals. So, let’s make sure we do that, shall we?
Calculate this “Goodness Ratio” as follows:
- When choosing slot machines, as discussed above, find the paytable with the denomination and maximum credits that best matches your available bankroll.
- Take a close look at the paytable. What is the maximum possible jackpot when maximum credits are bet?
- If the top jackpot is displayed in currency, divide it by both the denomination of the machine and the maximum credits
- If the top jackpot is displayed in credits, divide it by only the maximum credits
This “Goodness Ratio” tells us how worthwhile a specific slot machine is to play relative to others. By using this approach, any slot machine can be compared to any other slot machine.
Example: In the paytable above, the maximum jackpot is 2,400 credits with three maximum credits. Therefore, its Goodness Ratio is 2,400 / 3 = 800.
Repeat this calculation for slot machines of interest. While this Goodness Ratio will be similar for many slot machines, it can be startling to find “sucker bet” slot machines that might not otherwise be avoided.
Summary for Choosing Slot Machines
After a casino has been chosen, it’s time to select candidate slot machines most likely to result in a relatively high-value win. The size of your available bankroll, whatever it is, is an essential factor in this selection process. The bankroll size needs to be matched to the slot machine’s denomination and the number of maximum credits.
Here, we’ve also discussed how slot machines calculated odds twice: once to determine if you’ve won, and again to determine how much you’ve won. Another critical aspect discussed to improve a player’s performance was the basics of reading a slot machine’s paytable.
Finally, we talked about the “goodness” ratio to help select candidate slot machines and, perhaps critically important when improving our odds of winning, knowing precisely which slot machines must be avoided.
Next Steps
The next step on your journey to improving slots performance is Identifying Gambling Goals. Enjoy!
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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
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