by Tom Blair
Columnist

The casino slot machines have changed and some of you want to get hints again on winning at casinos. Well, I can help you improve your winnings, but I can’t guarantee you’ll walk out a winner every time.

Most of you know I won as much as 1.2 million dollars on a progressive machine. I have won $3,000 4 different times, $5,000 a couple times and several $500 to $1,000 jackpots. MOST of my wins have been on the first or second play on a machine. I never stay with one machine for a long period of time, I have a rule: If it’ll pay, I will stay, if it won’t, I don’t. The odds of winning a big jackpot are very slim.

Some of the first mechanical slots had 3 reels with 10 symbols on each reel. Simple right? That created 1,000 combinations. If there were blanks between, there could be many MORE combinations. The number of “stops” on each reel, the number of reels and additional “features” may make a jackpot long in coming.

Some of the newer computer slots may have 5 reels instead of 3 and if each reel has only 32 stops a complete cycle may be 33 MILLION times before you hit the “big” one. It could take over a hundred years for a jackpot depending on how much it is played. Besides, just about all of the slots are nothing big computers and even if they have reels they are controlled by computers and chips.

So they make sure it pays out many smaller pots and more frequently otherwise we wouldn’t play them. Remember, if you ride a bus or limo to a casino, they are going to keep you there for at least 4 hours cause even if you do win over time, you will loose.

If a slot machine starts showing more 7’s or more triple bars or it “appears” to be getting closer to “something” forget it! It’s called “near miss programming.” There is no way of knowing whats next unless you have filmed the entire sequence of the machine from the beginning to the end of its cycle. And it could change. Keep in mind I am talking about the video (or computer) slot machines that are taking over the casinos.

One machine may take 262,144 plays to complete one cycle to hit the jackpot. If it’s a 3 dollar play per machine, you would have to spend $786,432 to hit the big one. Of course there may be several other smaller jackpots in between. Don’t worry about the machine paying differently by putting in different amounts. The computer slot machines are on a “cycle.” Whatever is going to come up will come up, makes no difference if you put in one quarter or $10.00. If its ready to come up with 3 white 7’s, that’s what will come up.

ALWAYS spend the maximum if you can afford it. If it’s a 3-quarter machine, play 3 quarters, otherwise you won’t get the “big” amount if you DO hit the jackpot. The 2-dollar machine that I won 1.2 million dollars on had hit the 3 megabucks jackpot 5 or 6 times before I hit it, but the previous players were only putting in $1 instead of $2. The more reels and features a machine has, the “longer” between complete cycles and big jackpots.

The new slots are like video games that entertain you and let you win a lot of small amounts. Put in a dollar, win forty cents. They call them penny machines, but to win the big jackpot you may have to feed it 4, 5 or even ten dollars a play to be eligible to win the jackpot.

Stay away from those penny machines with tons of features that eat up 500 or 600 pennies a play (unless you’re prepared to spend a lot of money.) That $6 would have given you 3 plays at 2 dollar machines and you’d probably have a better chance at winning more money.

Look at what the jackpots are on a machine! I see people throwing $3 at a time into a machine with the highest payout possible only $1,000 for the main jackpot, while a $2 machine next to it may have a $10,000 possible jackpot.

Sometimes when you go into a casino you are lucky, most of the time you’re not. That’s the way it is. To sum it up: Spend only what you can afford to spend, set a limit for yourself and play for fun. Don’t play to become rich, don’t stay with a “looser” machine and if you’re loosing… QUIT!

Tom “RoadRunner” Blair

Road742@aol.com

Tom “Road” Blair

Website: www.tomroadblair.com