{"id":224992,"date":"2024-04-12T08:02:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T13:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=224992"},"modified":"2024-04-22T09:55:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T14:55:14","slug":"vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/","title":{"rendered":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Slot Machines Can Be ‘Due’"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d now publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0<\/em>Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on Aug. 5, 2022<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

One of the most enduring myths of the casino floor is that a slot machine is more likely to hit a jackpot when it hasn\u2019t hit for a while because it\u2019s \u201cdue.\u201d Watch any busy bank of slots and you\u2019re likely to see gamblers playing musical stools, attempting to get a feel for which machine is next to pay off big.<\/p>\n

\"A
A gambler plays an IGT slot machine. A persistent casino myth suggests that slots that haven’t paid off in a long time are ‘due.’\u00a0 (Image: Barron’s)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNothing could be farther from the truth,\u201d Anthony F. Lucas, a professor of casino management at UNLV and former gaming industry operations analyst, told Casino.org.<\/em> \u201cEvery possible jackpot has the same programmed chance of occurring on every spin. There is absolutely no cumulative memory of previous spins or any kind of elimination of possible outcomes on any single spin.\u201d<\/p>\n

411 on the 7-7-7<\/h2>\n

Every slot machine in every US casino is a video game, referred to as a virtual reel, whose results are controlled by a microprocessor. That microprocessor contains a random number generator algorithm that determines each spin outcome.<\/p>\n

\n

That algorithm is fixed by the slot machine manufacturer so that no operator can alter it to pay out on a whim. Introduced in 1986 by slot-maker International Gaming Technology, this tech is now ubiquitous. Even slots that appear old-fashioned employ it. That\u2019s because all slot machines are legally required to maintain auditing data that the old-fashioned mechanical machines couldn\u2019t track.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Slot outcomes aren’t technically<\/em> random, according to Lucas, because some symbols have less of a chance of appearing than others. \u201cBut they\u2019re randomized<\/em>,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe probabilities are static. They never change. Your odds of hitting a jackpot on any one spin are always the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, as illogical as it seems, playing a machine only one spin after it has paid a million-dollar jackpot to someone else gives you the exact same odds <\/em>of hitting a million-dollar jackpot as that lucky player before you had.<\/p>\n

Most people just can\u2019t seem to accept this psychologically,\u201d Lucas said. In fact, this faulty logic has proven disadvantageous to some slot operators in the past. For example, if a regular player enters a bar in Nevada, which is limited by law to 15 machines, and sees a progressive jackpot set to its lowest value, say $10K, they will know it has just been reset because of a recent jackpot. And they will be more likely to leave that bar to play somewhere where they think the machines favor a jackpot more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cTo combat this perception, many neighborhood bars use hidden meters,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cThey divert a little piece of every coin to a meter that no one can see. So if the progressive jackpot hits at $14,000, it will reset to something like $12,510 instead of $10,000, courtesy of this secret sum it\u2019s accumulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wheel of Deception<\/h2>\n

Because players who believe they\u2019re somehow able to obtain some sort of lucky advantage are likely to play more, slot manufacturers help operators take advantage of this flaw in human logic in every way they can. In fact, the entire experience of playing a video slot machine is an illusion in which the symbols fall into place in front of the player in real time like they once did on electro-mechanical machines.<\/p>\n

But all the symbols you will see come up were already locked in when you hit the spin button,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cThe random number generator is always running, even when the game isn\u2019t playing. Hitting the spin button stops it and instantaneously determines the symbols that will appear. The symbols spinning and stopping on the video screen is just a fa\u00e7ade.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So pull the slot lever instead of hitting the button all you want. According to Lucas, this will have as much effect on the outcome as repeatedly pressing an elevator call button, \u201cYet you often see people touching the screen and performing a variety of antics to try to influence the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Even the virtual wheel is designed to deceive players into thinking that winning is more likely than it is. Lucas explained: \u201cYou think, \u2018Well, that wheel has got about 20 stops or so on it. And there are three reels. So if there’s one jackpot symbol on each reel, that’s 20 to the third power. So I should have a one-in-8,000 chance of hitting the jackpot, right?'”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWrong.<\/em> Because on a virtual reel, instead of having 20 stops, slot manufacturers can make it 50 or 100, giving them considerable leeway in determining the likelihood of the jackpot as long as each spin provides the same randomized chance of hitting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The One Way Slots Are<\/em> Rigged<\/h2>\n

The one way slot machines are<\/em> rigged is by always giving the house an average monetary advantage in the long term, Lucas said. \u201cAlthough I wouldn\u2019t use the term rigged,<\/em> that\u2019s too harsh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

By Nevada law, a casino\u2019s advantage cannot exceed 25%. But in most cases, according to Lucas, it\u2019s between 4% and 10% on reel slots. A house advantage of 10% means that the operator will retain a \u201cvig\u201d of $10 of every $100 wagered, on average, over the long term. These percentages are fixed at the factory and offered to operators as options on every machine sold.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Operators are motivated not to reveal which of their slots pays more or pay out more often since no one would ever play the other machines. And, according to a study led by Lucas and published in the journal International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management <\/em>in 2019, even regular slot players can\u2019t tell the difference anyway.<\/p>\n

Lucas\u2019 team compared two identical slot games, one with a high house advantage and one with a low one. The reason the players couldn\u2019t detect a difference, according to Lucas, is that the player-level outcomes on the two games were too similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short term, anything can happen, and it does,\u201d Lucas explained, adding that the results were supported by six additional academic peer-reviewed studies. Simply put, gamblers don’t have enough time, money, or experimental discipline to detect considerable long-run differences in the house advantages of reel games.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people were quite angry when the research first came out,” Lucas said. “You wouldn’t believe some of the nasty emails I received from people who said they could tell the difference. I think the results made them feel like one of their core beliefs was challenged.”<\/p>\n

Playing the slots, like all gambling, is an experience that lends itself to mystical thinking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it rewards that kind of thinking,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cIt goes to the psychology of the gambler in general. Casinos sell two things, hope and variance in the game. You put a dollar in and you could easily win $100,000. That\u2019s the variance and the hope coming together.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, of course, it\u2019s rarely the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday on Casino.org. <\/em>Click here<\/a> to read previously busted Vegas myths.\u00a0 Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d now publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on Aug. 5, 2022. One of the most enduring myths of the casino floor is that a slot machine is more likely to hit a jackpot when it hasn\u2019t hit for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":202994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,73288,81896,81886,88494,69293],"tags":[82194,13363,13628,82196,23,82193,81959,82111,81890,82195],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Slot Machines Can Be 'Due' - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d now publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Slot Machines Can Be 'Due' - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d now publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-12T13:02:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-22T14:55:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IGT.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/\",\"name\":\"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Slot Machines Can Be 'Due' - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IGT.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-12T13:02:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-22T14:55:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\"},\"description\":\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d now publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-slot-machines-can-be-due\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IGT.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IGT.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853,\"caption\":\"A gambler plays an IGT slot machine. 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