Page 14 - February 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Video or Reel Slot Machines—How Many Coins Should You Play?
Pby Bill Burton
layers often ask how many coins they should play in a slot machine. is is a personal
decision based on the amount of money you have brought to the casino. e only
hard and fast rule to follow is “Always play maximum coins in a progressive machine.” If you don’t play the maximum bet and you hit the winning symbols, you will not win the top jackpot. So always play maximum coins on a progressive slot. But what about other types of slot machines? First you have to decide the type of slot machine you want to play. You have the choice of a video slot or a reel slot machine.
may decide to just play one coin per line instead of the maximum. Since you know that your chances of hitting the big one are slim, you may get more entertainment out of playing just one coin per line and stretching your casino bankroll.
So it boils down to a decision to play maximum coins to try to hit the big jackpot, or just to play one coin for entertainment. ere really is no reason to play 2 though 9 coins on a 10-coin per line machine unless you are well ahead, and in that case you may as well just play the maximum for a few spins and hope for the jackpot.
e other alternative would be to drop down in the denomination of machine that you play, from a nickel to a penny slot, perhaps.
e choice is yours. Whether you decide to play video or reel slots with one coin or the maximum, remember that playing slots is meant to be entertainment. If you get lucky and win, then good for you! But never play more than you can a ord to lose.
Until next time, remember: “Luck comes and goes... Knowledge Stays Forever!”
Bill Burton is the Casino Gambling Guide and columnist for the Internet portal About.com. He also writes for several national gambling publications. He is the author of Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold’em available for $15 postage paid. Send checks to Bill Burton, P.O. Box 310299, Newington, CT 06131-0299 or online at www.billburton.com. Bill Burton’s website is located at: http://casinogambling.about.com
e new video slots are fun and exciting, and slot makers make sure they are very entertaining. Slot makers have also been adding pay lines and increasing the number of coins you can bet per line to increase the amount bet on each spin. ere is a reason for this. Video slots, especially those with fancy bonus rounds take a little more time per spin than the reel slot machines. While the video reels are spinning or the bonus round is playing, players are not putting money into the machine. Compare this with the reel-type machines that take three coins and spin rather quickly.
Most of the new video slot machines have a minimum of nine lines and you can play any number of coins from one to ten on each line. e standard on the most new machines is ve coins per line, which means a maximum bet would be 45 coins.
e amount for a maximum bet would be $2.25 for a nickel machine. If you want to play just a single
coin on each of the nine lines it would be 45 cents on a nickel slot. It can cost you a lot more money to play video slots than a standard reel machine.
One thing to take into consideration when deciding whether to play video slots or reel slots is the return on a single spin. On a reel-spinning machine when you have a hit, you get at least your money back for that spin. is may not be the case with a video slot. You might have one line that is a winner and pays three coins, but you might lose on the other eight lines. It may cost you nine coins for the spin and you may only get three so you are out six coins.
Consider, also, that the big jackpots on most slot machines are paid only if you are playing maximum coins. On a reel machine it may be 3 or 4 coins. On a video slot it is more likely to be 45 or even 90 coins. Since most of the jackpots on the video slots don’t fall into the “life changing” amounts as a game like MegaBucksTM or the other progressive machines, you
Page 14 February 2004
Column: Bill Burton About Gambling