When playing slot machines, making smart financial decisions is of utmost importance. Whether playing in a land-based casino or on an online slot machine, there are tips and tricks you can use to increase your odds of success. But first it’s essential that you understand how they operate; this guide provides an overview of various types of slot machines as well as their payouts.
Before computers could take over gambling, slot machines provided ample opportunity for cheating and trickery. Cheats could range from simple to elaborate; usually consisting of placing something out-of-place inside. One simple and successful strategy was covering up the coin tray with paper towels to hide from its sensors; this worked until casinos improved their sensor technology.
One of the more innovative methods of slot machine cheating involved using magnets to alter the timing of reels. This approach was popular during mechanical slots’ popularity and used by John Kane and Andre Nesto, among others, as a means of increasing their chances of winning. Unfortunately, however, computerized machines soon rendered this tactic obsolete.
Tieing a string around coins prior to depositing them in slot machines was another popular tactic utilized by scammers such as Tommy Glenn Carmichael to extract more cash than was available from slot machines. He did this using an apparatus similar to monkey paws that allowed him to successfully milk casinos for years afterward.
Ronald Dale Harris, a software engineer in the 1990s, discovered how to crack open slot machine source code and alter them for his benefit – this constituted a serious breach of security that resulted in heavy fines against him. Although such attempts at manipulation are no longer practical today, this gives you an idea of just how far people will go to gain an edge at slots machines.
There are still people looking for ways to beat slot machines ethically. Most don’t intend to cheat but may have cognitive bias and think their system has worked before based on past successes. Due to this danger, learning how to cheat a slot machine can quickly lead to addiction and result in big wins. A far better option would be learning legal strategies that increase your odds of winning more consistently and reduce cognitive biases such as confirmation biases. Furthermore, avoid slot games with low return to player percentages (RTP), which don’t provide as many potential wins.