While there are an abundance of advertisements promising tips, secrets, and strategies for beating slot machines, once you understand how slot machines actually work, you will also understand that there is no way to cheat slot machines.

There are, however, a few tips that can help you enjoy the experience more.

These are listed below:

1. Decide ahead of time how much money you are willing to spend and can still feel comfortable about even if you end up losing it all.
2. Choose the slot machines you want to play wisely. If you are only concerned about huge jackpots, play progressive plots where the payouts are less frequent but the odds increase the higher the jackpot.
3. Decide if you are going to play one coin or max bet. One coin bets give more frequent, but smaller wins than max bets, while max bets are less frequent but offer larger payouts.
4. Move to another machine if you are not winning. Since there is no way to tell what a machine’s hit frequency is (how often you may win), you might as well try another machine.
5. Join the casino player’s club. Joining the casino player’s club just takes a couple of minutes and makes you eligible to receive a player’s card. With the player’s card, anytime you play you will accumulate points that will get you casino comps like discounts, meals, show tickets etc.
6. Check the payout schedule. Look for the machines with the best payout for smaller wins but still offer a decent jackpot if you happen to win the big one.
7. Think about leaving if you have doubled your money. Don’t get greedy and keep playing just because you are winning. It’s better to quit while you’re ahead.
8. Decide if you are going to play quarter or dollar slots. Quarter slots offer a low investment and a chance at higher returns, but, if money is not a big issue, the dollar slots are the better way to go. In either case, start out with simple three-reel, one pay-line machines.
9. Play only with money from your bankroll. Place the money you have decided to spend into a bucket and then use only the money from the bucket and not from the credit meter.
10. Most importantly – have fun! If you start to get frustrated, it’s a sign that it’s time to quit.

Private and public availability of slot machines in the United States is highly regulated by state governments and can differ in each state. Unlike Nevada, where there are very few, if any, restrictions on both private and public slot machine use, most states do have established gaming control boards for regulating the possession and use of slot machines. For example, in New Jersey, slot machines are only permitted in hotel-owned casinos based in Atlantic City, and other states, such as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri, only allow slot machines (as well as any casino-style gambling) on licensed riverboats or permanently anchored barges. State by state regulations on private slot machine ownership can be found by looking at regulations on U.S. state slot machine ownership.

Native-American Casinos

Casinos located on reservations operated by Native-Americans are not allowed to have slot machines unless the tribe first comes to an agreement with the state in which it is located (per the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act). The agreement usually provides for the state to receive a percentage of the gross revenues from the slot machine activity.

In some states, there are restrictions on the class of slot machines that can be used in a casino or other gaming area. Traditional slot machines, or Class III slot machines, operate independently from a centralized computer system and the chances of a player winning any type of payout is the same with every play. Class III slots are sometimes called “Vegas-style slots” and are seen mostly in Nevada and Atlantic City.

Class II slot machines, on the other hand, are connected to a centralized computer system that determines the outcome of each bet that is placed. As a result, Class II slot machines are similar to scratch-off lottery tickets because each machine has an equal chance of winning a series of limited prizes. Class II slot machines are also referred to as “Video Lottery Terminals” or “VLTs”. Both classes may or may not have a player skill element.

Slot Clubs

Australia has one of the highest per capita concentrations of poker machines in the world. Officially known as ‘Gaming Machines’, but often called poker machines or pokies, recent changes in regulations have given rise to numerous poker machine venues across Australia. This nation-wide growth in the number of slot machines has caused many different branches of the clergy as well as charities for the poor to protest their prevalence, arguing that the excessive numbers of slot machines has caused an increase in the levels of problem gambling. Gambling becomes a problem when it causes financial and social stress to the gamblers and their families.

Poker machines in Australia use video displays that usually simulate five reels. The machines also have additional bonus features and second-screen features such as bonus levels and free games. They also allow for multiple lines (up to fifty) or multiple ways (up to 243) to be played. For casino operators, these higher levels of complexity often translate into greater revenues but they also often mean an increase in the potential for problem gambling.

Many claim that the high levels of accessibility of the slot machines also contribute to problem gambling. The machines are available just about everywhere -- in casinos (which are located in just about every major city) and in sports clubs, social clubs and RSL clubs.

Most problem gamblers who have attended counseling sessions through “Gambler’s Help” said that poker machines were the biggest culprits when it comes to problem gambling. As a result, there is a strong focus on the regulation of multi-hand poker machines and there are many groups that are supporting changes in gambling legislation.

In Britain, slot machines are commonly referred to as fruit machines or amusement with prizes (AWP) and are typically found in arcades, clubs, pubs, and sometimes take-out food stores. British slot machines usually have three or six reels with around 16 or 24 fruit symbols printed around them. To win money playing these machines, a certain combination of fruit symbols must appear after the reels are spun. Winnings are either paid out from the machine or sub-games are played. The machines resemble slot machines found in most casinos throughout the world, but the term “fruit machine” usually refers to the slot machines found in arcades and pubs. Fruit machines have a lot of extras, including trails and sub-games. The jackpots on fruit machines, however, are quite limited and often pay no more than a maximum of 25 pounds in any one win.

Sometimes fruit machines will payout multiple, sequential jackpots, also known as a streak, but each jackpot requires that a new game be played – essentially circumventing the 25 pound maximum payout rule.

British fruit machines also operate slightly differently than do American slot machines. With American slot machines payouts are programmed to pay a percentage over the long run but in the United Kingdom the machines don’t payout immediately. Instead, UK slot machines are programmed to take on an amount above its payout percentage before winning, so if a payout is 95%, a machine will make the player lose ten pounds before paying out 9.50 pounds.

The Fairplay campaign in the United Kingdom has claimed that the fruit machines use fraudulent gaming practices where, what appears to be random outcomes of gambles and chances that should be affected by a player’s decision, have actually already been predetermined. For example, let’s say you have gambled the win up to £25. At this point, the machine doesn’t want you to gamble anymore so if you select a “high” from the five, the machine will spin a three and you will lose. If you select a “low”, on the other hand, the machine will spin a nine and you will lose.

Fairplay’s allegation stems from the fact that the fruit machine computer hardware allows the RAM state to be saved at a particular point and then replayed, resulting in a different choice. The UK Gambling Commission has since warned the fruit machine industry that it must make appropriate modifications to fix the problem.

While most modern slot machines, look and feel like the old mechanical models, they actually operate quite differently than the original models. The new models are controlled by a central computer system located inside each machine rather than the motion of reels used by mechanical models. Using step motors, the computer turns and stops each reel at a predetermined point. Rather than the fluctuating electrical current that drives a standard electric motor, step motors are driven by short digital pulses of electricity that are controlled by the computer. With each pulse, the motor is moved incrementally with great precision. The games are not, however, preprogrammed to pay out at a certain time, even though the computer tells the reel where stop. Instead, a random number generator in the computer makes sure that each pull has an equal opportunity at hitting the jackpot.

Whenever the slot machine is running, the random number generator (RNG) is sending out whole numbers (usually between one and several billion) hundreds of times each second. The moment a player pulls the arm back or presses the button, the computer records the next few numbers from the random number generator. It then feeds these numbers through a simple program that will determine where the reels should stop spinning.

Since the RNG has already selected the stops, by the time the reels are spinning the game is essentially over. Thus, with modern slot machines, there is really no need for the reels to spin. They are there more for cosmetic purposes or as a courtesy to the player. In fact, computers have made the reels obsolete -- a player could just put his money in and the machine could simply tell him whether he won or lost.

Some symbols are more likely to hit than others because the reels are weighted differently. For example, the slot may pick a random number from 1 to 27, which might correspond to the symbols in the following hypothetical example:

While this is not an actual chart of a slot, it does demonstrate the operating concept of the slot machines. If there are 22 stops on the wheel, which would include the 11 symbols and 11 blanks, you don’t have a 1 in 22 chance of hitting the jackpot -- you have a 1 in 64 chance of hitting it. This is very deceiving and, were casinos honest, they would hang a disclaimer on each machine pointing out the real odds of hitting a jackpot symbol.

Furthermore, each reel is weighted differently. Consequently, a player is much more likely to get jackpot symbols on the first and second reels, which builds the suspense level, but unlikely to get it on the third reel.

To understand how the process works with the standard three-reel machine, let’s assume that you are at a slot machine and have pulled the handle or pressed the button to get the machine started. At this point, the computer will record the next three numbers from the random number generator. The first number will be used to determine the position of the first reel, the second number to determine the position of the second reel and the third number to determine the position of the third reel. For this example, the first number will be set at 123,456,789.

To determine the position of the first reel, the computer must divide the first random number by a set value, usually 32, 64,128, 256 or 512. For this particular example, the computer will divide by 64. After dividing the random number by the set value, the computer then records the remainder of the quotient. In the example used above, the computer would find that 123,456,789, can be divided by 64 a total of 1,929,012 times with a remainder of 21.