Why do people play slots?

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Ah...Sabertooth. With SUPER NUDGING STACKED WILDS.
Also, I love the fact that there is a Dodo in this game, which only existed on the island of Mauritius and certainly isn't an "ice age" creature. And what is that little rat thing in the bottom left corner?

Looks like a chinchilla, native to the icy climbs of the Andes Mountains...

Quote: OhDannyBoy

You take the average sum of all the possible values of the function/equation that drives the slot machine. Let's take a very simple (and completely made up) example of a RNG that generates 2 decimal places of numbers*. The range of values potentially generated as inputs to this function would be [00-99]. For the sake of argument, the input numbers are independent and have no sequence ...

Thanks OhDannyBoy.
So are you saying that the 97% return on a slot machine is determined by taking all of the possible combinations that could be spun, and adding up the amount of money that would have been spent on those spins, and the return would have been 97% of the amount wagered?

If that is true, then a slot that returns 97% doesn't necessarily mean it will return 97%. It could be way more or way less ?

This might get long but maybe it will help some people understand the draw of slots, warning YMMV.
The best answer I can give is because they are super fun and you can hit something big. I primarily play poker in the poker room at the casino, occasionally some pai gow and I also put in my fair share of slot sessions. With the exception of playing poker against other players, I understand that entering the casino floor I am not likely to win, the percentage points between perfect basic strategy blackjack and the slots I play is negligible. I'll trade the few dollars an hour in EV or whatever for my chance to hit something. The amount of time I can play on $X at a slot is about the same as you at a BJ table. It's a budgeting thing, if you by in for $500 at a BJ table your length of play will depend on the size of your bets, same as me on a slot machine.

A fun thing I like to do is take my free slot play and go to the high limit slot room. I would say my average bet per spin on slots is 1-2$ on the video slots. Couple of fun recent stories.

One of the other benefits you get as a degenerate slot player is that the amount of free play given out I think more than makes up for the better EV of BJ or whatever your table game of choice is, I have no proof of this but I think its correct. Casinos do give out match play etc, however I think they give out more in free slot play plus with Match Play coupons you need to bet your own money along with the match play, free slot play I don't have to bet a dime of my own money.

My usual MO with free slot play is to take it to the high limit room, its not very hard to hit for a few hundred bucks on a high limit machine. (note on how free play works, it gives you credits in the machine but only lets you cash out the winnings, if you cash out too early it cashes out the winnings but leaves the other credits in the machine. So for example, if it's $5 a pull and you have a $100 in free play, you spin and hit for $3 and hit the cashout button, it would print a ticket for $3 and leave $95 in the machine, so the strategy is to play your free spins, anytime you win you hit cashout and it gives you what you have won so far, usually when i do this in the high limit area i get back slightly less than what the free play was for, as expected, but occasionally hit something decent.

5 Months ago I was in Philly and went to Sugarhouse casino. For new players depending on how much you pumped into the machines you got free slot play back that night and it went up exponentially. A lady friend and I went and after a few hours of spinning slots I was up about $200 and had earned $180 in free slot play.

I took my free play as usual to the high limit area, put it into a $15 a spin Quick Hit Machine, 1st spin i win $20, cash it out, 2nd spin i miss, third spin i get the bonus game for 25 free spins with a 3x multiplier, during the bonus i retrigger it for another 25 free spins. Hit for $2200 and change.

2 nights ago, i took my free play in my local casino to a similar Quick Hits machine that is $15 a pull and hit 7 QH symbols for $2500 ish.

Lifetime I am probably down on slots but this year I am running on the positive side of variance, Since the start of the year I have hit $2500, $2200, $1800 and $1300, 3 out of 4 times it was on free play from the casino.

Hitting these types of wins occasionally is what I enjoy and here's why. Gambling the same money on table games and slots the usual outcome is to win or lose a few hundred dollars, nothing crazy, if I win its usually a little extra walking around money, if i lose its nothing damaging. With slots though I have a chance to hit something decent that I can put in the bank, buy that sweet tv, a down payment on a car etc. I feel that my chance of a nice score is greater at a slot then a table game, yeah I have had my share of nice craps wins, turning a few hundred into 2k+ a few times, but in craps if you are betting where you can go on a nice run your risk of losing it real fast is pretty high as well.

Slots is similar to scouting BJ games, some casinos offer better BJ games then others, with slots there are a wide variety of options of what to play, there are few positive EV opportunities when it comes to slots but by knowing how the machines and options work you can at least reduce your expected loss. or increase your potential win. I can also choose my level of variance somewhat, if you play a machine or research it enough you can learn which machines are more volatile. For example 2 different machines could have the same % return rate but do it differently. If a machine pays back 90% it could payout 45 times at $2 or 2 times at $45, if you want to play longer you might choose machine 1. If you want to increase your chance of hitting a few nice spins but increase your ROR faster you might play machine 2.

As discussed in another thread, what I see all the time but don't understand is when someone is playing a machine with some type of rolling JP or progressive and next to them is the exact same game but with higher JPs. Its not brain surgery to realize for the same money you should play the same machine with the higher Jackpot yet I see people do this all the time. It is rare for JPs to get high enough for it to be +EV or whatever but at least properly scouting machines will increase your win if you are to hit one.

One example, a few years back the Borgata in AC was offering 5x slot dollars for a period of time, the girlfriend and i in a 2 week period racked up over a $1000 in free play by condensing a few of our planned trips into that timeframe.

I'm sure many people will disagree with this but I would even argue that with the amount of Free Play and comps given to me as a slot player and taking advantage of their free play promotions that slots have a better return then table games(not including poker room poker and AP BJ play), I have no proof of this but I'm pretty sure this is true.

Rubix, I do the same thing with my free play! The most I've hit is $1000, but I've hit a lot of $200-$750. Of course I've also hit $0 uncountable numbers of times.

Thursdays in October Borgata is giving 3x dollars on slot play.

New Study: Slot players are mostly female homeowners 55 or older.

More than 60 percent of those surveyed favored small and frequent payouts over larger, sporadic payouts;
52 percent of the respondents played video poker, while about 24 percent played video blackjack;
Only 33 percent like machines with progressive jackpots, but of those who did, an overwhelming 70 percent said their favorite game was Wheel of Fortune;
Only 18.9 percent said having a themed game was important. Among those who liked themed games, 23.8 percent would choose a board game, 60.8 percent would choose a game show theme, and 56.8 percent liked action movie themes (respondents could choose more than one category);
The most popular video poker games were “Jacks or Better” (31.8 percent), followed by “Deuces Wild” (21 percent) and “Double Double Bonus” (16.9 percent).

OSU Study

Quote: FleaStiff

The most popular video poker games were “Jacks or Better” (31.8 percent), followed by “Deuces Wild” (21 percent) and “Double Double Bonus” (16.9 percent).

Poor sampling imo. No way JoB is double the popularity of DDB.

Quote: tringlomane

Poor sampling imo. No way JoB is double the popularity of DDB.

Could be... or it could be one of those "on demand" slap dash jobs of "research" for some faction involved in the recent Oregon battle between the Ain't Named Dotty parlors, the Injuns and the Canadian Let's Have A Grange casino big money boys.

I didn't post the link for its quality, only its recency.

Perhaps I'll email her but it seems that this Professor teaches hotel management or something like that.

Quote: RaleighCraps

So are you saying that the 97% return on a slot machine is determined by taking all of the possible combinations that could be spun, and adding up the amount of money that would have been spent on those spins, and the return would have been 97% of the amount wagered?

If that is true, then a slot that returns 97% doesn't necessarily mean it will return 97%. It could be way more or way less ?

The answer to the first part is yes, but you multiply each combination's payout by the probability of it appearing and then add those numbers up.

The answer to the second part is also yes - otherwise, every spin would pay out 97 cents for each dollar put in. Even if you were to say, "97% return for every (for example) 1000 spins," then, if you think about it, the jackpot would have to hit at exact 1000-spin intervals. Otherwise, let's say that it's a $1 machine with a $500 non-progressive jackpot; in 1000 spins, it has to pay out $970, so in the set of 1000 spins that begins with a jackpot, you had a $500 payout followed by 999 spins with a combined $470 payout. If the next spin isn't also a $500 payout, then the total for the most recent 1000 spins would be less than $970, so it would be less than 97%. For that matter, if any of the 999 spins following a $500 payout is also a $500 payout, then the total for the most recent 1000 spins is more than $970.

Quote: FleaStiff

Could be... or it could be one of those "on demand" slap dash jobs of "research" for some faction involved in the recent Oregon battle between the Ain't Named Dotty parlors, the Injuns and the Canadian Let's Have A Grange casino big money boys.

I didn't post the link for its quality, only its recency.

Perhaps I'll email her but it seems that this Professor teaches hotel management or something like that.

I wouldn't expect good sampling from someone in Hotel Management. Or it could be that Oregon video poker players are completely different than my personal experience. :)

Quote: tringlomane

Poor sampling imo. No way JoB is double the popularity of DDB.

The author has suggested that you read the full article rather than basing your comments on the ultra-short news item. In general, that might be good advice however I second your impression about a professor of hotel management versus a professor of mathematics or statistics or even sociology.

I followed a link on the professor's home page at OSU-Cascades to the major journal publisher so those who might be interested can read the entire article but I have my doubts as to it being worth it. As I said, I posted this item for its recency, not its stellar quality.

Quote: FleaStiff

The author has suggested that you read the full article rather than basing your comments on the ultra-short news item. In general, that might be good advice however I second your impression about a professor of hotel management versus a professor of mathematics or statistics or even sociology.

I followed a link on the professor's home page at OSU-Cascades to the major journal publisher so those who might be interested can read the entire article but I have my doubts as to it being worth it. As I said, I posted this item for its recency, not its stellar quality.

If I had access to significant academic databases currently, I'd bother to read it, but unfortunately I do not.