Slot Machine Myths and Rumors
Slot machines are not without their myths. Stories and legends abound of amazing victories through sheer chance, planning or obsession: but just how many of these are true? How many people have beaten the machine and why? If you're planning on beating the machine yourself, take a gander at a few examples and see whether your tactics are fact or fiction.
Megabucks, aside from being an old wrestling tag team and a series of lotteries, it is also a progressive slots game in Nevada. The set up is similar to a lottery - if the big pot isn't won, then it progressively gets bigger until somebody wins the big jackpot. Hearsay has it that a young man named Kirk Tolman, once won this amazing slots lottery for a whopping seven point nine million dollars. Or he would have, had he not mistakenly inserted two coins instead of the required three for the megabucks game. A consolation prize of ten thousand dollars was offered, but if this story has any truth to it, one has to wonder if it was in any way consoling to a man whose distractedness cost him over seven million dollars.
More slots myths abound, such as the tempting myth that slot machines have a set pattern or sequence that lets you can determine with observation or study, similar to the way roulette wheels sometimes tilt to one side. As a casino is, at the end of the day, a business. To give odds in the favor of the players is just bad business - lying to your players is also bad business. The slot machine is a random outcome generator, like the roulette wheel. Like the roulette wheel, the casinos keep a close eye on slot machines - if they do start to develop a tendency, you can be sure the casino would immediately do something about it.
Another myth, which borders on addiction, is that because you've been playing the same slot machine that it becomes more likely to payout. Often this thought occurs after an extremely long time spent at the same machine. All percentages are exactly that - percentages or chances, NOT guarantees, the same way that if you flip a coin ten times it won't necessarily land five times for heads and tails.
If a player leaves his machine and someone immediately hits on it, the thought that they would have won had they continued would likely cross their minds. This probably stems from the idea that they would have done the exact same thing as the newcomer - this is likely false. Random number generators, the basis of the slots machine, run even if there are no players. Staying at the machine would not have necessarily let you win, as you would have need to press the button at the exact same nano-second as the newcomer, the odds of which are astronomical.
At the end of the day, if tactics is what you want, perhaps poker or blackjack would be better. Those are two examples of games that require a level of skill to win consistently at. Slot machines are just that - machines. No action of yours can tilt the odds closer or further away. Perhaps, some day, someone will find a way to rage against the machine - but until then, if you want to play smart, play somewhere else.