Low Denomination Video Slots Strategy

By Law Gardner
8-26-06

Over the last 3 or 4 years, the trend in video slot machines has definitely gone down the path of lower denominations with higher line configurations. This trend is great for players because it gives you so many options.

If you’re a “tourist” gambler who likes to stretch a $20 a long way, you can play a 1 cent video slot machine, cover all 20 lines with a 1 credit bet per line, and the odds are that you will get about 20 minutes of good gaming entertainment – and you might even cash out up a few bucks.

If you’re a video slot pro looking to make some real money, you can play a nickel progressive with $60 bucks and have a good shot at hitting a great line win, bonus feature, or even the progressive itself!

The key to a successful approach for playing a lower denomination video slot (lower denom being a penny or nickel slot) is formulating a successful strategy – whether your goal is to be entertained, or to win a good deal of cash.

1st, it’s important to realize that video slots are set by casino operators to return a fixed percentage to the player, or RTP percentage (Return To Player percentage). The RTP is generally set to 90%. This means that statistically speaking, for every $100 put into the machine, the casino will keep $10 and give you back $90. Think about that for a moment if you will. You could save yourself a good deal of time if you simply entered a casino, handed the change girl a $100, she in turn gives you back $90, then you go home.

It’s safe to say the above scenario would only occur so many times before us smart gamblers began to feel cheated. It is interesting to point out, however, that when you play a poorly designed video slot (or play a video slot poorly for that matter), you are essentially giving the casino a 10% fee for the privilege of playing their games. What is a poorly designed game you ask? Let’s create a fictional trip to the casino in which you decide to put $100 into the latest IGT 1 cent video slot machine. Let’s further pretend that IGT had recently hired an incompetent game designer along with a novice mathematician, who subsequently teamed up to design the machine you’ve just dropped $100 into.

You decide to play 10 lines, with a 10 cent per line bet (a $1 total bet). On the 1st spin, you get 3 matching cute little baby pig symbols on line 7. The line win pays 90 cents! You’ve just won 90 cents!! You spin again and, low and behold, you get 4 matching baby chicken symbols on line 2! You’ve just won another 90 cents!! You’re on fire!!! You play another 88 games, and miraculously, you have won 90 cents on 90 consecutive games!!!! You glance down to the credit meter and your joy turns to anguish – you started with 10,000 credits, and now you have only 900, or $9!!!! “How could this be!” you pretend wonder. Obviously “it be” because the idiot game designer and mathematician designed the game with an RTP of 90% for every spin! I use this rather outlandish scenario to illustrate a point.

I mentioned earlier that casinos set video slots to return 90% to the player, That 90% setting does not mean that every spin pays back 90%, rather, the game must AVERAGE a 90% RTP over approximately 15 million games (this is an approximate figure that holds true amongst the various gaming regulatory bodies). Video slot players should definitely use this fact to their advantage.

Imagine viewing a flat, desolate desert through a wide-angled lens. The terrain is almost entirely flat – with only a slight 10% downgrade running from left to right. Now imagine looking at a steep, jagged mountain range through that same wide-angled lens. You notice the dramatic peaks, drastic changes in elevation – where the only consistency is the inconsistency of the ever-changing terrain. Yet when you view the far right side of the mountain range, you notice the elevation is exactly the same as the desert you previously viewed.

The desert represents a poorly designed video slot that methodically pays out a 90% RTP over its lifetime. This wouldn’t happen in the real world because gamblers would quickly tire of the monotonous game play.

The jagged mountain range represents the drastic peaks and valleys of the RTP in video slots today. If you take this fact to heart, then you are on your way to formulating a solid strategy for playing video slots

Understanding that a video slot need only average a 90% RTP over several millions games, gives you the following insights to form a betting strategy:

1. The vast majority of spins over the life cycle of a video slot are going to be LOSING SPINS (i.e. spins that return less then the amount bet). Armed with this fact, you should:

    i. Budget your credits bet per spin to withstand long runs of little to no credit return.
 

    ii. Cover at least 75% of the available lines, with at least 2 credits bet per line, but avoid playing max credits per line (max credits per line play will quickly diminish your gambling budget). The above recipe would work out to roughly 30 cents a spin on a 20 line, 10-credit max bet per line penny slot. Playing 75% of the available lines increases the odds of hitting a good line win or bonus feature, and the 2 bets or more per line increases the credits won for line wins or bonus features.

    iii. If you’re playing with a fixed budget and you absolutely will not spend a penny more, be prepared cut your pay lines in half if you find yourself in a lengthy losing streak.

2. Just as it’s safe to assume the majority of spins will be losing spins, it’s also safe to assume that in approximately every 40 or 50 spins, you are going to hit either a bonus feature, or a big line win (i.e. a line win that pays between 5 to 15 times the amount you bet on that spin). This fact should be worked into your slot strategy in the following ways:

    i. “Play for the bonus feature or big line win”. This means that you’re “staying alive”, or enduring the losing spins until you pop a bonus or line win. Both events will more often than not, at the very least pay you back for all of the non-winning spins. Playing with this strategy often creates great gaming sessions.
    ii. When you do indeed win a good deal of credits on bonus features or line wins, do not be afraid to bet max credits for 5 or 6 spins. Doing so increases the chances of hitting a “really big” win.

Happy gambling & please stay tuned for more video slot strategies in future articles. .

Ed Note:  Spin Palace is the best place online for all of you slot machine lovers!