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Slots Long-time Slot Players: Are wins harder to come by?

Discussion in 'Slots' started by Snowbelle3, Feb 7, 2014.

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  1. sco5123

    sco5123 VIP Whale

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    My relative fills my head of stories of hitting several small jackpots in their day. Now they can't win. :cry:

    For you long-time slot players, do you find wins harder to come by than in the past? I only recently started playing slots in the past few years and I get excited when I get a $100 win because those are hard to come by for me. I wonder if it's just because I started at a dismal time...
     
  2. vegasvic

    vegasvic VIP Whale

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    Good question. I never play slots but this interests me. Has the trend been to offer larger jackpots at the expense of the smaller ones?
     
  3. Username

    Username VIP Whale

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    I don't generally play slots but last year hit $643 because my bride insisted I play and put the money in the machine while we killed time until we left for the airport.

    But anywho........walking around in casinos now compared to 10+ years ago, I don't see or hear nowhere as many winners as in the past. Actually seeing or hearing a decent/big win is almost rare now IMHO.
     
  4. sco5123

    sco5123 VIP Whale

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    I am not sure how it was in the past. Well, about 9 of my trips are from 2011-now and in that time I have seen 2 jackpots...one for several hundred thousand and another for $1500+ at video poker.
     
  5. eisen7979

    eisen7979 Low-Roller

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    I completely agree. It seems like in year past, there was jackpots and excitement everywhere. Interesting.
     
  6. Drambler

    Drambler High-Roller

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    I too have to say that I rarely see people hitting some decent wins like I used to. For me, I've rarely hit anything over the past few years. Maybe it's the proliferation of penny slots that is killing the big wins. You see lots of little wins but rarely do I see anyone hitting a huge jackpot.
     
  7. Auggie

    Auggie Dovahkiin

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    There isn't really a "now and then" with slot machines:

    Video slots really aren't that old and many of the games that make the original first generation of slots are still out on casino floors, both on The Strip and Downtown.

    And with reel machines there are still lots of old machines out there: the advantage to the casino is they are fully paid for and have earned their money back a thousand fold and so thats why you still find lots of machines from 80s and 90s out there.
     
  8. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    A lot of it is this. The returns are lower for one, and the variance generally is too leading to smaller size losses and wins for the amount bet. There are just less opportunities to break $1200 betting $3 on a penny slot vs. winning $1200+ on a 3 coin dollar slot.

    As for video poker, I have probably noticed more W2-Gs lately because I play it more slash I'm playing at places that a good number of people are playing max bet at the 50c+ level (where at least Royals trigger W2-Gs).

    Hell last year my g/f and I saw a lady hit Aces w/a kicker on a 97% Triple Double Bonus machine for $2000 in Podunk Cape Girardeau, MO of all places. :eek:

    As for Vegas, I haven't seen too many jackpots (one at Flamingo for $1500ish I think, outside of that no idea), but in general I am playing with the low roller crowd where the odds of getting a jackpot are minuscule (or impossible) because of the amount bet.

    My mom was a low-level diamond at CET for years, mostly playing pennies for $1-$2 spin, and I don't think she has had a W2-G for years...maybe since before 2007 or so. :( A lot of it has to do with the design of the games I think, and/or her not so hot luck.
     
  9. usmcbaby

    usmcbaby Tourist

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    I wasn't a big slot player till about 5 years ago. Since my local casinos (Indian Reserve) don't have craps tables I end up playing slots for a couple of hours after i get tired of 3-card. Most of the time I break even or end slightly up or down (around $100 either way).

    I have friends that play the slots non-stop. Recently spoke with one about this very subject and she said that its seems cyclical (sometimes she hits several small pots $400-800 and then she will get into a groove of larger pots $1000 +. Her biggest payday to date was $25k about 4 years ago. Mine biggest has been $800 which I hit after 3 pulls on a $1 slot (spending $12 to get $800 = major win in my book).
     
  10. LV_Bound

    LV_Bound VIP Whale

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    I only recall 2 awesome trips. Maybe 3 at the most.
    I have yet to come home a winner except for my first few trips, but that was mostly due to a lack of betting as opposed to significant wins.

    With so many people reporting W-2 wins I just figured it was me. :eek:
     
  11. Roginator

    Roginator Tourist

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    I used to hit small wins with regularity in Las Vegas. It's been rare the last few years as the condition of the hotels continues to drop. The owners probably figure... "eh.. people don't care if they win... let's reduce the payout some more."

    Almost all of my wins in the last decade have been everywhere else.

    I go because a) it's nice this time of year compared to Alaska, b) there's a LOT to see and do, and c) familiarity brings about a relatively easy travel experience.

    That being said, I'm leaning towards Hawaii in future.
     
  12. Guardian

    Guardian High-Roller

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    I think the only way to hit a nice payout on slots is to play the ones that have 3 or 4 progressive pots on them. Where I play at Caesars Windsor I have hit for $750 dollar each of the last two weeks on these type of games. Oh yeah, I was also dealt a royal in quarters. Its been a good start to the year!
     
  13. JosieCat

    JosieCat VIP Whale

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    I know personally, we hit far fewer hand pays now, and we have a much larger bankroll. I do think it has something to do with the machines we are playing, what I'll call the bonus round, video slot machines. We used to always hit at least one hand pay on a trip, back when we only played 3 reel slots.
     
  14. nostresshere

    nostresshere Mr. Anti Debit Card

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    I think they are a bit tighter.

    Even if EVERYTHING was the same, there would be less jackpots. Years ago they would do handpays on much smaller amounts. Now, it is rare to see a handpay unless it hits $1,200.

    Casinos have total faith in the accuracy of their machines and prefer to have lower labor costs. My opinion.
     
  15. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Yeah if people are using hand pays as a judge, there are a lot less of those too. Ticket-In/Ticket-Out is one of the greatest casino innovations of all time.
     
  16. jackincols

    jackincols Guest

    Just me, but I think all forms of gambling in Vegas are harder than they used to be in getting that win.

    I'm cynical enough to think much of it in the slots arena is due to these new server based machines.

    Craps? Lower the max. odds bet.

    Blackjack? Simple, just offer lousy rules.

    VP? Lower the pay schedules.

    Roulette? Just add double zero (although the casino take was good enough without it).

    Shake well and add a bunch of "carney table games" along with a plethora of penny machines where a max bet can be $3 or more and you have a recipe of disaster for the gambler.
     
  17. sco5123

    sco5123 VIP Whale

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    Great summation jack.
     
  18. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    As someone who has pretty consistently play slots betting one or two coins per line, I think that it depends on the game. Yes, there are fewer handpays. But in the coin era, cashing out as little as $75 on a nickel slot could trigger a hand pay and I regular saw people deposit extra money in slots to make the threshold. Now, for most casinos will pay out up to $1199.99 in a TITO and I have seen some games even spit out TITOs after big bonus wins rather than let the player accumulate a huge balance. Also, as the we went from nickel to 2 cent to penny slots, some people still made the same average bet while others just maintained their bet habits. So on one hand, you have people who play pennies making the same bets as nickels and on the other you have people like me who just bet one coin per line no matter the game.

    But for me, a big win is $50 after one spin or bonus round. On a stacked symbol game, that's not all that hard to get. The only problem is those games don't let you cycle money through as easily as some of the older games used to do. As for a major win like a W2G game, I really don't play slots in a way where that is a realistic expectation. The situations where I've won more than $1000 had to do with progressives and only required a max line, one coin per line bet.
     
  19. burdog

    burdog Low-Roller

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    When it comes to slots, the comments about the TITO make a lot of sense to me. I remember my wife getting a hand pay @ 4 Queens of $100(?) in 2005. Now it just spits out a voucher. But we don't seem to win with as much frequency as we used to it seems. (Insert your own "Good old days" story here). But my last trip I did hit $137 on the Godfather reel penny slot, on the minimum bet. So just right place at the right time.
     
  20. FordDlr

    FordDlr Low-Roller

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    I hit 2 hand pays my last trip in October. One for $1800 and another for $3000. I hit more at the indian casinos in Oklahoma. Although last year I was down quite a bit from the year before. Last years total on 1099s was around 50K. Most of that was from the casinos here in Oklahoma. The previous year totals were closer to 90K. I don't really know if I'm hitting less or if I just didn't go quite as often. I was only able to get to Vegas twice last year. Usually it's between 4 and 5 times. Seems like when I'm in Vegas I'm hitting about the same amount of hand pays over the last several years.
     
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