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The rules for slots are one of the simplest set of rules for any casino game. There ARE no real rules. All the player has to do is drop coins in the slot and pull the handle or push the spin button.
The mission of the game is to match preselected symbols on the pay line, (or paylines, depending on the machine being played, there can be up to 5 pay lines on some machines), to earn credits.
Slot machines can be found in many denominations from 5 cents to $5 being the most popular, although there are also machines that accept $100 tokens.
This is one of my favourite games to play at the casino because of the anticipation that the next spin will be a winning one, then I can be like the other players around me and send the lights flashing and bells ringing.
It is a popular game for beginners because it is just them against the machine. They don't have to worry about rules and regulations, or being laughed at by the other players for making a bad play, all they have to do is try to hit the jackpot by matching the highest paying symbols on one of the pay lines.
Here's some advice to play the slot machines,
1. Always load up a progressive machine. The progressives don't
pay as often or as many of the small winning combinations that simple
machines do, so you are actually playing for the jackpot only. In that
case, you have to load them up in order to get the jackpot. Read the
payout table!
2. Pay attention to the sound of the casino. Notice which slot
machines are hitting and which aren't. oftentimes there will seem to
be "hot" carousels and cold ones. Follow like sheep to the
hot ones.
3. Play the progressives with the highest jackpots. It makes
sense to seek the greatest reward if you're willing to take the progressive
risk. As the change person for help in locating top jackpots.
4. Stake out a seemingly hot carousel and spend an evening (between
dinner and second show time) watching how the machines do. Once
you've seen enough, go to sleep. Then come back in the very early hours
of the morning and hit the ones that have been played hard but haven't
hit yet!
5. Resist the temptation to move up the pay scale when you're losing.
Because slots have the worst odds, increasing your level of play can
be the worst bet in the house! If you must keep playing, get off the
progressives and find some simple nonprogressive (flat top) machines.
6. When you finally hit a jackpot¡ just sit there. Take a deep
breath. Don't mistakenly pull the handle again or touch a button. Most
jackpots, especially those that are $1,000 or more, are paid by an attendant
who will come over to verify your win and pay you off in cash.
There is one way to almost guarantee yourself a good time, satiate
your appetite for slots, and possibly even come out ahead , .
Most modern slot
machines are designed to look and feel like the old mechanical models,
but they work on a complete different principle. The outcome of each
pull is actually controlled by a central computer inside the machine,
not by the motion of the reels.
The computer uses step
motors to turn each reel and stop it at the predetermined point. Step
motors are driven by short digital pulses of electricity controlled by
the computer, rather than the fluctuating electrical current that drives
an ordinary electric motor. These pulses move the motor a set increment,
or step, with great precision.
But even though the
computer tells the reels where to stop, the games are not pre-programmed
to pay out at a certain time. A random number generator at the heart of
the computer ensures that each pull has an equal shot at hitting the
jackpot.
Whenever the slot
machine is turned on, the random number generator is spitting out whole
numbers (typically between 1 and several billion) hundreds of times a
second. The instant you pull the arm back or press the button, the
computer records the next few numbers from the random number generator.
Then it feeds these numbers through a simple program to determine where
the reels should stop.
.
You pull the handle or
press the button, and the computer records the next three numbers from
the random number generator. The first number is used to determine the
position of the first reel, the second number is used for the second
reel and the third number is used for the third reel. For this example,
let's say the first number is 123,456,789.
To determine the
position of the first reel, the computer divides the first random number
by a set value. Typically, slot machines divide by 32, 64,128, 256 or
512. In this example, we'll say the computer divides by 64.
When the computer
divides the random number by the set value, it records the remainder of
the quotient. In our example, it finds that 64 goes into 123,456,789 a
total of 1,929,012 times with a remainder of 21.
Obviously, the
remainder can't be more than 64 or less than 0, so there are only 64
possible end results of this calculation. The 64 possible values act as
stops on a large virtual reel.
Each of the 64 stops
on the virtual reel corresponds to one of the 22 stops on the actual
reel. The computer consults a table that tells it how far to move the
actual reel for a particular value on the virtual reel. Since there are
far more virtual stops than actual stops, some of the actual stops will
be linked to more than one virtual stop.
Computer systems have made slot machines a lot more adaptable, players
can simply press a button to play a game, rather than pull the handle.
For the manufacturers
and slot proprietors, one of the main advantages of the computer system
is that they can easily configure how often the machine pays out (how
loose or tight it is)
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