• Posts Tagged ‘odds’

    Overcoming the House with Slots- Part 2

    Saturday, January 15th, 2011

    In the world of gambling you have to be smart about the odds. Some games naturally come with bigger odds in your favor then others. The good thing about slots is that the games are completely upfront about what their payout percentages are so you have a great guide to what games to pick. So what do you do if you desperately want to test out a game that has a small payout percentage? It’s not to say you should never try it, but when you do, be smart. Limit how much you are going to put into the machine before you leave. Make the amount line up with your overall bankroll total. If you have a total of $200 to wager and want to test out five games, then you have just $40 to wager on every game you want to try. If you want to wager on a game with a lower payout percentage, you may want to lessen that wager limit to $20. This way you won’t be losing all of your money. Then you can take your additional $20 and put it into another game that has a higher payout percentage. This is one of the best ways you are going to find to manage your own money. You can still try games with lower payout percentages, but be wise about how much you put into them.

    Another good strategy is to be mindful of how much money you are going to put into every game. This is called the “loss limit”. How much will you reasonably spend on ever game? How much can you afford? How long to you want to play? These questions all come into play when it is up to you to set a loss limit. If you have a big bankroll, but limited time, then you can extend that limit higher. If you have a big bankroll, and a longer amount of time, then you want to bring it down so you have enough money to spend over time. If you have a limited bankroll, then obviously you want to monitor that loss limit closely as you wager on slots games.

    Overcoming the House with Slots- Part 1

    Saturday, January 15th, 2011

    Any good gambler has wondered more than a few times which games are going to pay them out the most. If you are new to gaming, you may not have thought about it, but odds are very important in the world of slots gaming. You most likely have heard of the saying, “The House always wins”, well this is true thanks to calculatable odds. Think about how a casino operates. It has a wide range of games and they are all bringing in money regularly. A larger casino can have thousands of slots games running at any given time, along with a slew of table games—some high-dollar and some minimum-dollar. These are all working together to shore up their takes at the end of the day. Let’s say a casino has two-hundred dollar-wager slots with five paylines each. Considering that the average gamer can spin the reels upwards of one-hundred times an hour, this means that the casino is bringing in on average somewhere between $20,000 and $100,000 on them, depending on the number of paylines being activated by each gamer. Even if the casino pays out two $2,500 jackpot bonuses to two of those gamers, they are still up by between $17,500 and $97,500. This is just for two-hundred slots too. The casino most likely has many more plus it has table games going and tournaments. The take a casino brings in is huge. Even if a portion of that goes to the jackpots, that doesn’t mean much for their overall totals. At the end of the day, no matter what happens, the odds are completely in their favor to make the biggest revenue.

    So how does a gamer overcome this? You have to be smart. One of the best things you can do with slots gaming is to watch the payout percentages of every game you are working with. Most games have payout percentages anywhere between 85-99% and you want to play the games with the highest percentages. Sure it may not sound like a big deal if you are wagering on a game with a payout percentage of 95% and the game next to it has a payout percentage of 96%, but it is. That one percentage point can work in your favor if you take advantage of it.

    Part two coming next.

    Data Helps Predict Slots Performance- Part 2

    Saturday, January 15th, 2011

    The value in this information is that you can see their $2 games by far are the most lucrative and payout the most. Though they reported that most slots gamers played their penny slots, the games actually didn’t pay off that much. This is great information and insight because it lets you know what games to focus on when you are wagering. If you are in the area, make sure that you take your own shot on the $2 games. Also, look for the same type of information on the slots parlors in your own area. This could be a valuable tool to gauge what slots games to pick and which ones to ignore. In the world of slots gaming everything comes down to odds and probability. The games are random, but you can get an idea of what games mathematically should pay out more. This can be valuable because it can save you money. For example, at the Mohegan Sun if you wager on the $1-slots games, the numbers show that the games rarely pay out. If you are in it for the gaming experience and having fun, this may not be a big deal to you. On the other hand, if you are wagering wisely and want to make the biggest win possible, then you could have an issue with this.

    In the above example, it is most lucrative too to wager on the multi-denomination slots games. This is because they pay out more. You can see that the casino kept just five-percent of the revenue from them. The added bonus is that you can decide how much you want to wager on the games and modify it as you “feel” luckier, or if you have a smaller bankroll. The games have a great history of paying out, so the decision on how much to wager is completely up to you. You can also change mid-game. If you find yourself suddenly having a good streak of luck, you can increase your wagers accordingly. If you have a streak of bad luck, then you can cut back and bring your wagers down, or move to a different game altogether. This is the great thing about slots—they are flexible games that work with any bankroll. Take advantage of it and have fun—then keep an eye out for valuable information that might help you win more. It isn’t sure-fire, but it can help your odds and in slots gaming, that is what it is all about.

    Data Helps Predict Slots Performance- Part 1

    Saturday, January 15th, 2011

    One of the things you can use to your advantage right now is how casinos report their revenues to the state. If you watch big-dollar casinos you normally are going to see their reporting processes. They have to follow up with all their revenues and expenses every month. Remember that states are obligated to share a huge portion of their overall revenue streams to the state. This is why the states give them approval to operate in the first place, after all! When looking at this reporting, you can get some clear insight into how the casinos operate, and even what games are the most popular when it comes to paying out. This is invaluable information because it can give you a good idea of what games to spend your time on when you are wagering. Obviously one of the biggest draws of a gamer to the casino is to win big, so why not follow the details that are going to give you the biggest returns? The casino watches out for itself, so why shouldn’t you?

    Recently the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut reported its numbers and some valuable insight with them. The casino reported that it gave away over $673-million in December of last year. The casino kept just under eight-percent of that money and gave the rest back to the players. In addition, they gave away some information on what games pay out the most. They currently are operating over 6,400 slots games at their facilities. Here is the payout breakdown:

    • Penny slots: Gave away 89% of revenue from the games, kept 11%
    • Nickel slots: Gave away 88% of revenue from the games, kept 12%
    • $1 slots: Gave away 93% of revenue from the games, kept 7%
    • $2 slots: Gave away 98% of revenue from the games, kept 2%
    • Multi-denomination slots: Gave away 95% of revenue from the games,
    kept 5%

    This is great information to have on the Mohegan Sun. if you are in the Connecticut area you now know how their machines payout. That isn’t to say if you wager on the $2- slots you are going to win, but it is saying that you have a better shot at winning on that game than you would if you were playing a $1-slots game.

    Part two coming next.

    Be Mindful of Payout Percentages in Slots Gaming

    Thursday, January 13th, 2011

    One thing that seasoned slots gamers know how to do is search for a good game. They know that slots aren’t built alike and just because one game is next to another game, doesn’t mean that they are the same. It also means that just because games look alike, doesn’t mean they are either. It is important to do some research before you start playing a slots game at a casino. No- you don’t have to write the name of the game down and go home to research it, but you should take a few minutes at least to find out what the game offers and what the game’s payout percentage is. The payout percentage is just that—how much the game is programmed to pay out over the course of a lifetime. This number is going to be anywhere between 85% to 99%. It is important to not misinterpret this game. Some people mistakenly believe that this percentage means how much they are going to get out of the machine. This is not true! Rather, it is how much the machine is going to pay out over the course of its lifespan, which may be decades.

    Once you find out the payout, then obviously you should pick the games with the biggest ones. You want to make sure that you find games that are going to pay out to you as often as possible. Remember the very nature of gambling is set up so that you lose and the casino wins. If they can keep you wagering, then they are going to continue to take your money and make that much more for the day in revenue. Your job is to make the best decisions for yourself that are going to bring you the best returns for your gaming. You should always look for games that offer between 95 to 99% in payout. This is the best way to protect yourself. It isn’t to say that you are going to win every time you spin the reels but it gives you the best shot at not losing as much. Be sure to do a little research on slots games to maximize what you can get in payout on them as you wager.

    Understanding Slots Via Math

    Thursday, January 6th, 2011

    So maybe you weren’t a math expert in school; that doesn’t mean that you can’t come up with your own calculations and understand how they work. The world of slots gaming is all based on math. No matter what you look at the games are generated by one thing: RNG. The RNG of course is the random number generator and it is what runs the machine. The RNG picks numbers at random and then the reels line up according to what it picks. The reels then show you whay you won, or what you lost. If you have ever looked at the instructions for a game no doubt you have seen the “payout percentage.” This is a term that means how much the game is going to payout over its entire lifespan. So if you see a game that says, “Payout percentage: 93%” then that means over the lifespan of the game it is going to payout 93-cents on every dollar that people put into it. This number is calculated based on the virtual stops of a machine. A normal slot machine is going to have just one virtual stop that corresponds to its top jackpot win on the reels. If a machines uses the number thirty-two for example, to process its RNG sequence, that means that you have a one-in-thirty-two chance of getting your RNG to pull that specific winning reel. Now multiply that by three if you are playing on a three-reeled game. So now your odds of getting a win are 32×32x32, or 32,768. Of course if you are working with a five reel game that changes to five multipliers. If you are on a nine-reel game then you have nine multipliers. You can see how the odds change as you move up with paylines.

    As you start playing on games with bigger jackpot amounts, that number is going to be greater than just thirty-two though. You could find a huge payout slots game that has virtual stops of 256 or 512. That means that your odds are much slimmer that you are going to win the huge jackpot. This stands to reason though. The bigger the win, the harder it is to get.

    How to Understand Payout Percentages in Slots

    Friday, December 31st, 2010

    You don’t have to be a math major to understand the odds in wagering. You have heard the old saying, “the House always wins,” well it’s true. Just look at the numbers. Even a moderately sized casino can have hundreds of games on its casino floor. The average player spins the reels on a game one-hundred times per hour. So that means that every machine is bringing in 100-times its wager every hour. For example, if ten players are spinning at $1-per reel over one hour, that means the casino is bringing in $1,000 per hour on those ten machines. Now multiply that by twenty if the casino has 200 slots games. That leaves them earning about $20,000 per hour. That doesn’t take into account the games that require more, or if there are more customers playing at higher wager levels. overall it is easy to see how a casino cleans up. The only cost to them is if a machine hits. Even if let’s say three people wil $1,000 each, that still leaves the casino far ahead in revenue. The reality is that most of those players are going to walk away empty handed. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It comes along with the territory of gambling. It does however push players to find ways of changing the stakes and watching out for their own interests when wagering.

    To watch out for your own numbers when gambling the best thing to do is to make sure you give yourself the biggest odds possible for a win. The way to do that is to look for the biggest payout percentages on slots games. Sure the difference between 95% payout percentage and 96% payout percentage is online 1%, but does that mean you should discount it? No! Remember that the house is always going to have the upper hand in gambling, so when you can find a few percentage points here and there to help you win take them! They could be just what you need to turn the tables around and start winning big. Take your chances, but read the payout percentages and then use the ones that are most beneficial to your gaming.

    How Increased Reels Change the Odds

    Sunday, December 26th, 2010

    One major slot machine myth is that three-reel games give you a better shot at winning than five-reel games do, or vice versa. Gamers think that if you alter the number of reels, that changes the overall percentage outcome. The reality is that this is a myth. The payout percentage of a machine is the amount it pays out over its lifespan. There is nothing external that can affect that number. So if you have a three-reel game and then play a five-reel game and they both have the same payout percentage, then you are going to be working with the same potential outcome. Two machines that have 96% payout rates, have the same probability of you winning as you wager. The one thing you have to remember with gaming on video slots is that there is nothing you can do to affect what happens—whether for good or bad.

    What does change with three-reel games as opposed to five-reel games are the odds. So a three-reel game will have one probability of winning to it, and a five-reel game will have another probability. Remember that the probability of a match comes with wins divided by the total possibilities. Five-reel games have a greater number of outcomes but normally have a greater number of winning combinations to them. The greater number of winning combinations and the greater number of possibilities make games equate to the smaller versions. So it’s like comparing ½ to 2/4ths. The value is exactly the same. All you can do in the world of payout percentages is continue to wager on the games with the biggest number as the value. Make sure you know what the payout percentage of the game and are playing the maximum one you can find. There isn’t much more you can do to increase your own probability to win. Video slots are great games but you have to be ready to accept the fact that they are directed by the random number generator. This RNG mechanism is what directs the wins and the losses of every video slots game. Realize this, work with the payout percentages, but then keep on having fun. That is what video slots games are all about.

    Finding Slots with the Best Odds

    Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

    In the world of slots gaming eveything comes down to one thing: the odds. There are the overall odds and these are not in your favor. Remember the adage the “House always Wins!” This is one of the truest statements in the world of gambling. No matter what you do, what rituals you bring to the casino, what games you play, overal the casino is the one that has the greatest odds of winning. This is just how the system is built and it isn’t going to change. If it did, the gambling industry would be well on its way out! Of course that isn’t the case. Gambling is a multi-billion dollar business and expected to more than double in the coming years. The market is huge and the reason is because as long as people are wagering, the house is increasing its revenue stream. Even if it pays out to a few customers in the form of big payouts, that doesn’t negate the hundreds of other customers who have fed into that overall revenue stream. A payout one time does little to affect a casino that is operating and bringing in millions of dollars every week!

    So how do you as a gamer find games with the best odds? One of the ways is to follow casinos that traditionally have paid out big payouts. Rival Gaming for example is a software company that has brought hundreds of games to the market and many of those have a great history of paying out. Games like Gold Rush, Chicken Little and Fantastic Fruit are all big-paying games. If you want a shot at those wins, test out those games the next time you wager. The other thing you want to do is check a game’s individual payout percentage. This is a number that is printed on every machine in a casino. You may see Slots A has a payout percentage of 92% but Slots B has a payout percentage of 97%. That five-percentage points may not seem like a lot, but in the world of gambling it can mean the difference between a huge payout and losing it all. Take advantage of these smalll ways to inch up your wins. You want to be aware of what the games are and how to bring yourself to the wins as often and in as big a way as possible. That takes some focus and research, but it is well worth it in the end.

    Sorting Through Onine Gambling Games

    Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

    There are two different types of games in the gambling market—games of luck and games of strategy. Games of strategy are those games that require time to learn how to manage them. Poker for example is a game that players spend years working with. They want to come up with their own strategy and that takes time. Poker is known as a game that can be learned and taught to people. Just ask any professional poker player and most likely they are going to tell your right away how long it took them to win their first major tournaments. Most professional players spend years practicing at online free casinos or at home-based games for fun. On the other hand there are games of luck. These are the games like slots. Slots are solely games of luck and you can’t do anything to affect the overall outcome. This isn’t bad news though! Sometimes playing a good game of luck is just what a player needs. Think about it—you won’t have to worry about anything…not your next move or your next player. All you have to do is spin the reels and see where they stop.

    Don’t discount slots games as highly effective and fun in the world of gambling. There are enough options that you can find more than a few games. Plus developers are introducing new games to the market on a monthly basis. Just watch the market for a few consecutive months and you are going to see how much they have to offer. The world of gambling is highly competitive and that is great news for any gamer. It means that games are going to come quickly and you can test them out as they do. Most likely you are immediately going to find at least a few games that are favorites. The other good news is that when a game is highly successful, normally gaming companies take it back to the drawing board and add new features and bonuses to it. They work with the game to expand its overall appeal. Take time to find your favorite games and the support them. Most likely the next generation of the game is going to offer you even more gaming appeal.