For anyone who has tried to play slot machines, superstitions are a part of the game. Sure logic tells you that it is all random and you can’t count on special activities or moves to alter outcomes, but superstitions are difficult to ignore. By definition a superstition is “a belief held to try and predict and control the randomness of future events.” If you take a look at slots players at casinos, you’ll see some who only play by machines closest to the door. Or others who only play during certain hours of the day and even others who only play wearing certain clothing. There are other notions that many people have like only playing on the weekends or on a certain day of the week.

There is still another group of gamblers who try to bring numerology into the game. They believe that numerology is the key to a win on a slot machine. Many players will not play 13 lines of slots on a Tuesday or Friday. For the Chinese, the numbers 58 and 4 are considered negative. Lucky numbers in the culture are the 8 with the 3 and the 6 with the 9. There are also combinations that are considered lucky like 1388, 168 or 998.

Although these superstitions are detailed, there are also superstitions that are more vast. Like some players will win at a machine and then quickly move to another machine. Or if a player wins, they will play at that machine for a few more games and then move on. The number of superstitions out there regarding slot machines are varied.

The bottom line, however is that all slot machines, whether at land-based or online casinos, are run via a random number generator, or RNG. The machine does not “know” who is pulling the lever, so moving from game to game is not going to have any affect on the outcome. Though some people like to make the game more fun by creating a routine that they believe works, in actuality there is nothing anyone can do to change the randomness of the outcome. In the end, slots are just a fun pastime to enjoy.

There are still some people out there who believe that slot machines have brains. They believe that a machine is somehow “waiting” to payout to the right person and if they happen to “fool” the machine, that person can be them! We’ve all seen these people. They sit at a slot machine for hours waiting to make back their money. There is also another group that believes that if a machine pays out, then have to either move quickly to another machine or stay with the winning machine to extend their play. The underlying belief is that the machine “knows.” Both of these scenarios give the slot machine a decisive brain– the ability to reason and understand the payout process.

The reality is that a slot machine is run by a Random Number Generator, or RNG, that makes a completely random choice as to what symbols show up on the reels. That’s why you can sit at a slot machine for hours and have nothing, while another time you sit at the same machine and it pays you right away. It isn’t the slot machine making the decision, but rather the RNG deeply imbeded in the machine that is calling the shots.

The only deciding factor the game may have is its payout percentage. That’s how much the machine pays back versus how much is put in. That number though is preset within the machine however. It isn’t a moving number, but rather a one-time programmed number that never changes. Sure you want to play on games that have higher percentage payouts– that only makes sense– but remember that the money it is paying out is over a long period of time, say a year.  You can’t sit at a machine and expect it to pay you because it hasn’t a certain number of times.

There are also some people who think that if a slot machine pays out, then it’s going to NOT payout to recoup the money it lost. Again, this won’t happen because the machine is working on a RNG and that mechanism keeps resetting every time you hit the “spin” button.  There is no such thing as the machine “knowing” it hit out or wanting to strategically recoup its loss. The great thing about slots is that they are random. There is no rhyme or reason to their payouts, but they just payout when the numbers are right/ when the stars align/ when you get lucky. Put away the theories and just have fun!

Although some people don’t believe in superstitions, there are those who do. In particular when playing slots some people will fall back on the most primitive notions. One that comes up all the time is the following scenario:

You are sitting at a slot machine that is not particularly treating you well. You are frustrated, but convince yourself that the next reel spin “has to be” the lucky one. So you sit there longer and keep playing. And playing. And playing. Finally, you get tired and pack up your things to move to another game. No sooner have you situated yourself at another slot machine when you hear “KA-CHING!” coming from the game you just left. Some one moved in on your game the second you left and ended up capitalizing on it. You think- “What the heck?? Why does this always seem to happen to me??”

Has this ever happened? You are not alone if it has. It seems like the game was just “waiting” to payout… but not to you.  Is there any reality to the superstition that the game “just didn’t like” you? Probably not.

Slots games are built on random number generators, or RNGs. These are the inner mechanisms that dictate where the reels are going to fall. They are just what their name suggests- random. You can’t dictate when they make a win or when they pull up another loss. The RNG is constantly coming up with numbers. The only way you would have won, instead of the lucky guy to follow you, is if you managed to push the spin button at exactly the same millisecond as the player who took your seat.  Since you can’t go back in time, reality tells us that you just didn’t win.

Although it’s difficult to take sometimes, the only real stationary thing in slots play is the percentage payout. It may be 95%. That means that over a long LONG period of time the game needs to payout that much. That doesn’t mean that if you play for an hour, you’ll win 95% of the time or 95% of your money back!  It just means that over the course of a year, for example, the slot machine will have paid out 95% back to players as a whole.