Page 25 - Southern California Gaming Guide • April 2019

by Maya Winkler
Winning a jackpot at a casino is a wonderful thing. Winning jackpots consistently sounds fantastic and unreal, right? It must require an amazing amount of luck. At one of the casinos I visit, I’ve made friends with a few players, and our consensus is
that when you’ve won several big jackpots in a short period of time, you have to be pretty lucky. And you seem to expect to win again... and again. It’s human nature to want more. We want to win and we want to win as often as we can.
Chasing Jackpots Past
Do you play the same or same type of slot machine very time you go to your favorite casino? And do you do it because that’s where you won your last jackpot?
Are you chasing jackpots past?
Ginny says, “I tell Walter to mix it up and play
different games. Before he won those jackpots, we had a lot of fun. Now it’s like work. He comes to the casino expecting to win big, and when he doesn’t win, he’s not happy. And besides, he’s played a lot his winnings back just trying to get another big jackpot.”
“It’s all about expectations,” vip player Ginny said. “The more you win, the higher your expectations are
that you’ll win each time you play.”
Ginny’s husband, Walter, won several large jackpots
at the beginning of the year. Since then, says Ginny, Walter’s playing more and enjoying it less.
“Walter’s sure he’s going to win another big jackpot because of his earlier luck. He’s actually expecting to win. I tell him it’s not the right attitude. When he won those other jackpots he was playing totally differently. He wasn’t expecting to win at all.”
She said that the first jackpot he won was a fluke. He was playing a slot he would usually have never chosen to play. They planned to meet to go to the buffet, so he sat down next to her to play while she was finishing a bonus round on a game. And, wouldn’t you know, she said, after three pushes on the spin button, he won a $2,500 jackpot. They agreed it was sheer good luck.
“We didn’t go back to the casino to play for a few weeks because Walter said he couldn’t win twice in a row. But he was wrong. His second jackpot came during our next visit. He was lucky twice in a row! Now, for Walter, it’s all about winning instead of going to have fun and being surprised by winning. He’s expecting to win, and when it doesn’t happen, he’s upset. I say winning is a matter of chance (of course) and that he needs an attitude adjustment.”
A Slot Machine is a Slot Machine
So, what does luck have to do with it? This is not an article about using the power of positive thinking. I’m a transplanted New Englander and I’m practical by nature. And besides, a slot machine is a slot machine.
Slot machines have a random number generator. It’s a small computer within the console that constantly spews out numbers, whether anyone’s playing or not,
that when they line up, create a particular outcome (win or loss) at the particular millisecond the spin button is pressed. Once you sit down to play, your only choices are the number of credits you play and when you push that spin button. So what’s luck — or chance — got to do with it? Everything.
But here’s a distinction. Chance generally relates to the odds of something occurring, without any relative preference of it happening. Luck, either good or bad, is what we attribute to the result of chance. By analyzing chance, you can take action to increase the percentage of good outcomes and decrease those you don’t want.
Sound familiar? Like I said, I am practical. But I’ve had my share of big wins and I recognized what Ginnywassaying.There have been times that I have stopped playing at the casino for a while because I did exactly what Walter was doing:
“Chance generally relates
to the odds of something
occurring, without any relative
preference of it happening.
chasing jackpots past. There are other games
Luck, either good or bad, is in the casino with
what we attribute to the result
of chance. By analyzing chance, love slots.
you can take action to increase will you win? Attitude thepercentageofgood
It takes discipline to be a winner and stay a winner by walking away. Ginny’s advice
If you think you’re lucky,
can affect patterns of play.
For instance, according outcomes and decrease those sounds pretty good
to Ginny, before Walter
won his two big jackpots,
he played a variety of
slots: reel-spinners and video slots in different denominations. He would let his intuition and wallet guide him, and he’d play whatever he liked on a given day. He would win some and lose some, but always had fun at the casino. Since he won his first big jackpot on a reel-spinner and then the second on video slot, his pattern of play has changed. Now he only plays the same or similar slots on which he won, and expects to win again.
to me: Mix it up. Try different games. Keep your casino experience
fun. And if it’s no longer fun, do something else. Ginny keeps telling her husband, “Take a stroll
when you’re not on a roll.”
I say it’s inevitable that you’ll lose at the casino.
Just don’t make a habit of it.
Maya Winkler is a bicoastal cultural observer who plays in and writes about playing in Southern California casinos.
you don’t want.”
better odds — better chances — of winning than slots. But we do
APRIL 2019
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
PAGE 25