Slot Machines

Ok, I know that playing Slot Machines is basically like walking into the casino and handing them your money then walking out.

My question is: I have been to book stores to buy Blackjack books, and have seen like 4 or 5 Slot Machine Books!!! How to win, strategies, etc...

What the hell could thee books possibly tell you?!?!

There are good books that help you play slots and there are many books that are rip-offs. You'd be surprised what a novice can learn by reading a well written book on slots.
Learning about slot clubs,double point days,which machines you must play max coins on,which you shouldn't play max coins on,how to read a pay table,how to get comps,ect,ect can be learned by reading a book or by experiance. The book is cheaper.

It depends on your definition of a slot machine. If it includes video blackjack and video poker (the latter being the topic of most books on slots) you may find some surprises in there. There are groups (gangs???) of video poker players who will literally run off anyone playing a machine in an area they want to play. Normally 8 to 10 in a crew, each playing two machines. All with the casinos' blessing, of course, because of the amount of money they pump through the machines. Serious business.
Good Luck

I don't if they're still playing, but I know in the early 90s there were a couple of teams in Vegas that specialized in playing progressive slots. I don't know what their results were, but they played for quite some time so I bet it was profitable.

If that sort of thing interests you, you need to see one of my other sites:
http://www.slotcharts.com

Slot teams are alive and well, at least as of my last Vegas visit about two months ago. Most stick with the video poker machines, because of "profitable payoffs" (return greater than 100%) on royal flushes. The object is to play strict strategy that is always optimized for royal flushes, because that is the only result that gets the big profit.

Team jobs are readily available to anyone who can think fast, follow instructions, and stay focused for a few hours. Aside from being good mental training for serious blackjack, it might provide an opportunity for a "free" vacation in Vegas. Most pay about $15 an hour, with team leaders making more.
Good Luck

Great Site!!!

Are they accepting resumes?

-Sonny-

Wow what an interesting site!

Now, with your scoring system, is there any way to convert that score or use it to calculate player advantage? A progressive could be at a high point and still not be a very good bet.

For video poker, it's done already, at
http://www.slotcharts.com/video-poker.php

For slots, it is much more difficult, but I believe it can be done. On the occasions where I gathered enough data to estimate payout frequency, my calculations were yielding reasonable results. It is a time-consuming process, and it would be very easy for a payout change to happen on the casino side that would immediately invalidate the results. And, it would be difficult to detect that change without doing all the work over again.

For that reason, I've never seriously pursued that project. I may revisit the idea in the future though.

As you said, the problem with slots is that they can change the chip for land-based casinos or change the software for online casinos.

I have played progressives, and for land based casinos, if you can see the meter movements (coin in, coin out, attendant hand pays, progressive meter itself), you can calculate the house advantage. The only problem is that the lowest house advantage typically occurs when everyone is playing max coins. Nonetheless you get a good sense of the meter movement. You would then take daily sample of meters and jackpots that were hit. Based on this process, you can figure out the cycle time for the progressive jackpot.

I don't play online, but if I did, I would ask you to modify slotcharts to incorporate lower progressives, e.g. those progressives under $1,000 and require $0.50 or less to qualify for the jackpot. I believe this is an area a well-bankrolled AP can do really well.