A Beginners Guide to Slots written by a beginner
- Matt Bates
- Mar 28, 2021
- 8 min read
It's always good to start a blog with a catchy title but I've failed miserably. What it does do is let you know what to expect. I'm am so far from being an expert on this that you may wonder why I'm doing this. I had no idea about slot machines on my first trip as they differed greatly from what I'd played in the UK, they were flashy and for someone who gets attracted to new flashy things quicker than a moth to a light bulb I was in my element. It also helped my first Vegas slot machine was Beetlejuice (one of my favourite movies) so I was able to take in the fun of the game and slowly work out what I was doing. That said, even 5 trips in I still made mistakes, going onto a slot and not looking properly, the first time I played Goldeneye I think I accidently had it at $5 a spin.
It was suggested by a friend of mine that I do a beginners guide to playing the slot machines in Vegas so the first thing I did was look online to see what other people had done. To be honest I found many either having too much information or not enough and thinking back to the first time I played a slot machine in Vegas, my queries then would not have been answered. Understandably a lot go into the fact slot play is meant to be fun and entertaining, highlighting the pitfalls of gambling addiction and the fact all slot machines are random. I’m not going to go into payout percentages or anything like that, this is a beginner guide written by a beginner for a beginner. I just press the button and hope for the best but if this guide can help just one person not accidently bet 5 credits on a $5 denomination slot then my job here is done.
Those of us in the UK will be aware of the slot machines we see in pubs, many are changing to resemble those we see in Vegas but traditionally this is a UK slot machine;
I used to play slots like these when I was younger, me and my friends would all put £1 in and try to win the Jackpot of £25 although Jackpots have increased since then. It was believed certain button presses or doing things such as holding all the reels would lead to bonuses and wins. Whether that was true, I’ve no idea. It looks different to any slot machine I have seen in Vegas but some of it does resemble their tradition reel slot machines. The major difference is I’m yet to see a Vegas slot machine where you can hold reels (stop them from spinning) or nudge reels (move reels up or down a set number of times) although automatic nudging does happen on some Vegas machines.
The majority of slot machines you will come across will either be reel slots or video slots. The reel slots are the more traditional mechanical reel machines with three reels and the more advanced reel machines will have 5 or more. The video slots also have reels but there is more room for creativity, theming and bonuses. Over time the technology behind these video slot machines have resulted in 3D and even 4D machines blurring the line between slot gaming and video gaming. You walk on to the casino floor and see a slot machine based on a TV program you like. It’s already drawn you in as Beetlejuice did to me at Tropicana but what do you do now?
The most important things in my opinion to be aware of is the denomination value you want to play, the number of credits spent per spin and sometimes the number of paylines.
With some games you can change the denomination, for example those machines with a 1¢ denomination each credit is worth a penny, and so 100 credits equal $1.
For $1 denominations one credit equals $1, so 100 credits is $100.
The idea is to make it easier to work out your spend : if you play a 25¢ machine that’s 5 lines and 1 credit per line, that’s 5 credits, or $1.25, per spin.
Different machines have a range of denominations you can play so before pressing that spin button check your denom value. The denom value will be on display so it’s definitely something you’ll want to keep an eye out on before you accidently do 50 credits on a $1 machine.
The way this information is displayed varies from machine to machine and it really can be confusing. For me, I found the older machines a bit more complicated in that I had to use maths to calculate how much each spin would be. The more modern games make it a lot easier by showing you the number of credits you’ll be playing per spin so if you know the denomination it’s just denom x credits. Whilst on the subject of credits it’s worth knowing when you put your dollars in, it will most probably show you the amount in credits. If you touch the credits on the slot machine screen it then shows the amount in dollars so it’s easier to track your spending.
A payline usually goes from left to right (there are some where they also go right to left but that’s only a very few machines I’ve come across). There can be one to over 100 paylines and you can with some change the number of paylines but to be honest we never change the number of paylines to keep it simple and with denominations we usually stick with 1¢ ‘penny’ machines. The payline is ultimately what is going to determine a winning or losing spin – that’s if we don’t include scatter wins, features and bonuses.
Bonuses and features vary greatly between machines but usually consist of three particular symbols initiating either free spins or a feature to win more money. Some machines such as Goonies have random features that trigger at any point during the game as well. Features are usually flashy, fun and not as complicated as you may fear. The most interaction you’ll have is making a decision or two on screen during the feature whereas with Free Spins you literally spin to win and hope for retriggers where two or more of the Free Spin icon appears during your Free Spins awarding you with more. With some games you can also activate the feature within the Free Spins or vice versa. These features, bonuses and free spins vary a lot especially with the themed slots, this is where I definitely recommend watching some slot playing Youtubers just to get a taste of what to expect.
Now it's time to talk about 3 slot machines that I enjoy playing and coincidentally play very differently from one another.
1. Buffalo Gold
There are a lot of Buffalo games, this slot is made by Aristocrat and is a 5 reel machine with 4 rows. It's quite an old game, my research into it has it at over 8 years old. As well as the usual J Q K A symbols you have animal symbols including the Buffalo. Three gold coins activate 8 free spins and 2 gold coins during free spins activate the retrigger.
During free spins you collect Gold Buffalo to change the animal symbol indicated in the Buffalo Meter on the top right of the screen up to a maximum of 15 gold Buffalo turning all animals into Buffalo. The wild symbol as well as being x1 can also become a x2 or x3 and these do combine so a x2 and x3 on a winning line becomes x6
The game itself plays pretty traditionally and we like it in particular because it gave us our biggest win at Four Queens. We play the penny version and bet around $1.20/$1.80 a spin. The game is a lot of fun and easy to understand. Once you've got the free spins activated and a couple of retriggers it really gets the adrenaline pumping as you can see from this video clip.
2. Invaders From The Planet Moolah
This slot is from WMS gaming and its cartoony graphics, crazy sound effects and wacky theming make it a fun game to play. It's a 5 reel, 3 row game. The symbols are farm folk and animals that obviously include cows. The reels don’t spin traditionally like on other slots – they drop from above. The game uses the Cascading Reels feature where you can win time and time again on just one spin. The winning combination of symbols will vanish with other symbols on the reels falling into the empty spaces. New symbols will then drop in from above to fill the spaces left. If you have groups of wild symbols - cows, this can lead to longer cascading events. The more cascades you get the closer you get to activating the invasion feature and winning free spins. That's when things get even more crazy.
3. Crazy Money Deluxe
We played this game a lot when staying at Four Queens and won quite a lot. Manufactured by Incredible Technologies it has differences to the previous two slot machines in that and it also has Progressive Jackpots. This penny slot machine has five reels and 3 rows, 15-line game. Winning line combinations are comprised of similar dollar bill denominations pointing in the same direction. Most dollar bills face the same direction across but folded bills change the direction of winning combinations. The dollar bills can also go diagonally as well as horizontal.
Three SKY wheels activates the bonus - The Sky Wheel is a colorful digital wheel displayed on the vertical Skybox monitor overhead and you may be awarded instant credits which then trigger a secondary wheel that can award up to a 5X credit multiplier or a chance to respin the Sky Wheel. You could also win 1 of 4 progressive amounts (Mini, Minor, Major and Grand). If the wheel lands on the BONUS slice, a secondary wheel appears and awards up to 100 “picks” during the Money Catch Bonus round. During this bonus you grab flying dollar bills which reveal their credit value once touched. This bonus is fun and it took a lot of goes before we realised you don't have to go all hell for leather as the bonus continues until you picked all the notes you should.
Honorable Mentions:
Walking Dead 2 :
Great theming for any Walking Dead fan and good bonuses. It's considered a very volatile game that basically equates to higher risk. The payouts may be larger but are fewer and farther between and you can sometimes end up clicking the "spin" button, watching your balance dwindle, with not a lot to show for it. Not that Jane would agree, she did so well she even got Michonne and her walkers to turn up.
Bettie Page :
This slot caught my eye whilst staying at Four Queens, I had no idea who Bettie Page was but the presentation and the numerous fun bonuses in addition to winning quite a lot meant it quickly became my favourite slot machine of that trip. Turns out Bettie Page lead a very interesting life that was quite remarkable.
Something else quite remarkable is a Hand Pay. We came close once with Buffalo Gold but here's what you need to know about Hand Pays:
A win of $1200 or more is classed as a hand pay, Americans will have to pay 30% tax on that but the UK and a few other places are exempt from the tax. Some casinos may help you fill in the relevant paperwork - The form that you need to present is W8-BEN. This form will assist you in claiming the treaty benefits along with your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). However, some casinos will withhold the 30% and you'll need to claim it back.
Apparently, this site helps but I've never had to do it
Hopefully this blog has helped. I'm definitely no expert and if I've got anything wrong, please let me know so I can change it. If you want any further information and advice I 100% recommend this site : https://www.knowyourslots.com/ It is jam packed full of excellent advice and information on anything and everything slot related. So much so that if I'd have put this link at the start of this blog there'd be no point reading it. Anyway, thanks for reading, it's always appreciated to receive feedback but for now I'm off to think of other blogging subjects.
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