Slot Machine Myths

Slot machine myths

If you’re on the lookout for ways to increase your chances of spinning up wins while playing a slot game, you’ll find plenty of advice online. But there’s a lot of misinformation to be found, with only very occasional nuggets of truth. So we’ve debunked some of the most popular myths, enabling you to make sense of what’s true – and what isn’t!

Stopping the reels during a spin will increase my winning odds

There’s absolutely nothing you can do to improve your chances of landing a win, even if the game does allow an abrupt halt to a spin. But from the moment you start the game, complex algorithms have already calculated the final result, so whatever you do to stop the reels won’t have any effect at all. All slots games are governed by Random Number Generators which make sure every single spin is treated as a unique event, always with random results.

Games go through ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ phases

This is a belief that’s been circulating around land-based casinos for decades, and now it’s cropping up online too. There’s an innate belief that because you’ve spent time playing a game without landing any wins that it must eventually lead to a winning streak where payouts keep landing. But the random nature of the games means they don’t work like that. Slot games can’t be programmed to go through phases, so the only guarantee is that the winning average stabilises over thousands of spins.

Do Online slots payout less than land-based machines?

In fact, the opposite is true in this case. Slots fans are starting to discover that their returns are consistently higher when playing their favourite slots game online. That’s because online casinos simply don’t have the massive overheads that their land-based counterparts do. There aren’t the expensive premises, the glitzy décor, hundreds of staff and general running costs, so the savings are passed on to gamers. A game with an RTP of 75% at a bricks-and-mortar casino could offer a payout ratio closer to 97% online, which is a huge difference in potential returns for the player.
I can’t win a big payout when I’ve just had a major win
It’s human nature to assume that a Jackpot payout means you needn’t expect Lady Luck to come calling again for a while with that particular game. But once again those random number generators come to the fore. Even when you’ve just hit the top cash prize, you still have exactly the same chance of hitting that prize again with your next spin.

So I can’t do anything to increase my winning chances?

Now we didn’t actually say that! You certainly can’t make any reels land in your favour, but you can pick slot games with a higher chance of winning. Low-volatility slots are low-risk games – usually played at low-to-medium stakes – which spin up plenty of small cash prizes. So even a modest bankroll will provide a fun and satisfying gaming experience that really won’t break the bank!