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Slot machines are more fun when you understand what’s going on with the game. If you don’t know what the slot machine symbols mean, and if you don’t know what it takes to get a winning combination, you might as well just play rocks scissors and paper with some stranger.
The purpose of this post is to take a detailed look at some of the inner workings of slot machines, especially as it relates to the slot machine symbols most commonly in use.
The traditions behind why slot machines use bar and fruit symbols are decades old, and the history of slot machines is fascinating all by itself.
In this post, I explain what the different slot machine icons mean and why it matters to the average player.
1-What Does the Bar Symbol Mean on a Slot Machine?
Slot machines have been around since the 1890s. You’d find these early slot machine games in bars and taverns in cities like New York and San Francisco. When gambling became illegal, these businesses started giving away candy and chewing gum instead of money.
Imagine going into a bar today and putting money into a slot machine with the opportunity to win a free drink or a cigar.
That’s what gambling in a tavern was like in the 1890s.
What does the bar symbol mean?
Think about what it looks like.
It’s a rectangle, right?
My first guess would be that the bar symbol on a slot machine symbolized a candy bar, but that would be too big. After all, keep in mind that the idea was to have prizes that were small, like coins.
The bar symbols on slot machines represent sticks of chewing gum — specifically, BAR chewing gum. (It was a popular brand of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company at the time.) They were in color in those days, and different colors meant different flavors of gum.
Slot machine makers still use bar symbols out of tradition, even though I’ve never seen a slot machine game that offers gum as a prize.
2- What Do the Fruit Symbols Mean on a Slot Machine?
Just as the bar symbol meant you were going to win chewing gum, the various flavors of fruit-inspired candy were prizes you could win. Cherry symbols meant winning cherry-flavored candy.
Apples meant winning apple-flavored candy. Oranges and plums, well… They meant you won dragonfruit and huckleberry flavored candy.
Just kidding.
Obviously, the picture of the fruit in question represented the flavor of candy you won.
And, again, the reason these symbols are still in use have more to do with tradition than anything else. People are just used to seeing these symbols on these games.
3- How Many Different Symbols Are There on a Slot Machine?
An average slot machine game might have about 20 symbols on each reel. This does NOT imply that each symbol has a 1/20 probability of coming up on a spin, though.
Modern slot machines use a random number generator to determine their results. These are actually random — they’re not fixed or rigged in any way.
The casino makes its money because the prize schedule for a slot machine game pays prizes in such a way that the game is inherently profitable.
Think about it this way:
Suppose you played a casino game where you had a 1 in 600 probability of winning, but when you won, you only got a payout of 500 to 1.
Do you see how that would be profitable for the casino?
You’d lose $1 on 599 spins, but you’d win $500 on the one spin, for a net loss of $99.
Such a game would have a house edge of around 17%, on average.
The payouts on a slot machine game are more complicated than that, but it’s the same principle.
4- What Are the Odds of Winning on a Slot Machine?
Here’s the thing about slot machines:
You don’t know what the odds of winning are.
And, to an extent, the odds of winning are irrelevant. What you’re really concerned about is the payback percentage.
That’s a ratio that compares the odds of winning with the amount you win. Over time, it represents the long-term average of how much money the casino will win from you on each bet.
Most slot machines have a hit ratio of about 1 in 3 or 1 in 4.
So it’s fair to see that on most slot machines, your odds of winning something are 3 to 1 or 2 to 1.
The problem is that the payouts aren’t commensurate with these odds of winning.
Also, slot machines pay off bets on an X for Y basis rather than an X to Y basis.
In blackjack, your payouts are in addition to what you risked. Bet $5 on a blackjack hand and win, and you get a 1 to 1 payout, or even money. You get your $5 bet back with $5 in winnings.
Gambling machines, though, pay back with odds on a 1 “for” 1 basis. Bet $5 on a spin of the slot machine reels, and you get $5 in winning in exchange for your $5 bet.
The machine acts like it’s a win, but the reality is that it’s a push.
This is also one of the reasons slot machines measure their odds using payback percentage rather than house edge.
When a slot machine game has a 90% payback percentage, it means that on average you get back 90% of each bet. Place a $5 bet, and you’ll get an average of $4.50 back over time — which means you’ll lose 50 cents per bet on average.
And that’s just the average including any jackpots you win. If you play in the short-term and don’t see a jackpot, you’ll usually see a lower payback percentage until you get some winnings and catch up.
5- Which Slot Machine Has the Best Payout?
How do you know which slot machine has the best payout?
The short answer to this question is easy enough:
You don’t.
You have NO WAY of knowing which machine has better payouts than the other machines. In fact, you can play an identical slot machine next to the one you started on and be facing a different payback percentage.
The casinos have no rhyme or reason in terms of where they place the higher and lower payout machines.
In the long run, it doesn’t even really matter. If you play a negative expectation game long enough — and slots are ALWAYS a negative expectation game — you’ll eventually lose all your money.
Stop worrying about which slot machine has the best payout.
Worry instead about how much fun you’re having — or not. If you don’t enjoy a specific game, move on to another game.
6- Why Are They Called “Slot” Machines?
They’re called slot machines because you put your money into a slot to play.
When they were first invented, slot machines only worked on a literal coin-in and coin-out basis.
Now, of course, most slot machines work by accepting bills and spitting out a piece of paper with the amount you’re owed on it.
But we haven’t changed the name of the games.
Also, it’s not called a slot machine in other countries, always. In the United Kingdom, they’re called fruit machines. In Australia, they’re called “pokies,” which is short for poker machines.
That last nomenclature comes from their original nature — the first slot machines, which predated the machines that gave away candy — used playing cards to produce random results instead of symbols on metal reels.
7- Who Invented the Slot Machine?
According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, as well as many other legitimate sources, Charles Fey invented the first slot machines.
He born in Bavaria but was making his living as a mechanic in San Francisco when he invented slot machines in 1894. It didn’t take long for him to be doing so well that he started a factor to produce more slot machines.
The first 3-reel slot machine with machine-generated payouts in real money was invented in 1898, also by Charles Fey. The Liberty Bell, which most modern slot players would recognize as a real slot machine, came along in 1899 — another Fey invention.
There are only 4 Liberty Bell machines still extant.
Also, it didn’t take long for other companies, like the Mills Novelty Company, to steal Fey’s invention and start making money from their own versions of it.
Finally
Those are the most accurate and concise answers to some of the most common questions about slot machines and their symbols on the internet.
What other questions do you have besides what do the symbols mean?
Leave me a note in the comments, and I’ll respond with an answer if I can.
One of the most popular casino games people can play is the slot machine. It is popular not only because it is easy to use and does not require you to learn any rules or tricks for playing, but also because it can make you win big with a single pull of a handle. This is why you can see casinos online and on land having a huge selection of slot machines for their gamers to choose from.
When it comes to slot machine gaming, people tend to gravitate towards slot machines that give them the chance to win big. The machines that can do this are progressive slot machines that have ever increasing jackpots that when hit gives the player hundreds of thousands and even millions in winnings. Of course, progressive jackpot slot machines are not that easy to win at, but then again, so are regular slots.
This is where the question of which type of slot machine should you play on comes in. Should you try your luck on progressive jackpot slot machines or is a regular slot machine your best option for winning anything when it comes to the one-armed bandit? What makes one better than the other?
Before we answer these questions, let us first understand what each slot machine type is and how a person can win on them.
Progressive Jackpot Slot Machine
In a nutshell, a progressive slot machine has a jackpot that increases in amount as more people play on it. This means that progressive slot machines can have really massive jackpots until someone wins it. These machines usually have a base jackpot to begin with and this amount increases as more people play the machine over a span of time.
Progressive slots can be linked with others like it in order to make the jackpot prize go higher faster and to make it more enticing and exciting for players. Some of these machines are even linked across outlets and portals, which is what allows the jackpot to reach immense proportions, sometimes in the millions. When a person wins the jackpot, the prize starts at the base point again and slowly increases until someone triggers the jackpot yet again.
Regular Slot Machine
A regular slot machine also has a jackpot that you can win if you get the right symbols to line up on the reels. The difference however is that while progressive slots have an ever increasing jackpot prize until someone triggers it, regular slots have a jackpot that stays the same no matter how many people play on it. It can be won over and over again without the amount ever changing.
The amount that can be won on regular slot machines is considerably smaller than those on progressive slots. Prizes are usually based on how much you bet multiplied by the jackpot number of coins. For example, if you bet £1.00 and you hit the jackpot which brings with it a x3000 prize, then you get £3,000.00 as your prize. If you bet £2.00 then your prize would be £6,000.00 for a jackpot combination based on the pay table of your machine.
How to Determine Which Type of Machine is Best for You
When you are trying to choose which type of slot machine game to play, you will want to determine where your money is better spent. Most people would say that your best option would be to go for the machine that offers you the biggest payout, which is the progressive slot, but is it though? Should you just throw caution to the wind and bet your hard-earned- money on a machine that might possibly win you millions but has a low probability of doing so? Is a regular slot machine better at letting you win than progressive slot ones?
The answer to this question is actually dependent on a number of factors. For starters, the odds of winning at progressive slots are usually dependent on the design of the machine and the odds of the machine itself. These odds, which are called RTP percentage or return-to-player percentage, is the percentage by which a person gets to earn back the money they play at these machines - the higher the number of this percentage, the bigger the odds that you will win back the money you play on these machines.
Most regular slot machines come with upwards of 90 percent RTP, which can translate to getting 90 percent of every bet you make. So if you play £1.00 slots, you are paid back £.90 of what you bet on these machines, if you are lucky. Almost all machines, whether online or in real life, come with a 90% RTP or higher.
Progressive slot machines, on the other hand, can be somewhat tricky to win on. Since a lot of people are playing to win that one big jackpot, it’s basically a game of who gets it first. These also come with winning patterns that are more difficult to hit, some extra rules that need to be followed, and even an extra game that you need to win at in order to bag the top prize. In short, progressive slots are more difficult to win at than regular slots.
To determine which machine is best for you, you first need to figure out what your gaming style and intentions are. If you are playing to hit it big no matter what the cost, then progressive slots are best for you. If you want to win small amounts over time, slowly building to a substantial but not necessarily life-changing win, then regular slots may be best for you.
Another thing to consider when you are choosing slot machine types to play is your budget and playing time. If you want to play for a longer period of time, then a standard machine is what you should play on. If you want to win small amounts constantly and have a bigger chance of bringing home money after a day of playing slots, then regular machines are indeed the way to go.
If you are a gamer who wants to hit it big and are not averse to playing on a machine that everyone else is trying to win big on, then you should play on a progressive jackpot machine. You should know before you start playing however that most progressive slots have a lower payout ratio than regular slots, so the chances of winning small but constant amounts on these machines is pretty slim. You should also be aware that in order to win the jackpot, you need to bet max every single time, so this can translate to higher costs when you are playing.
When Is It Best to Play on Progressive Slot Machines?
When you are aiming to win big on slot machines, then progressive slots are the way to go. There are some things you need to keep in mind before you start feeding these machines your money though. When it comes to progressive machines, there is such a thing as perfect timing in order to increase your chances of hitting it big. When is it best to play on these massive jackpot machines? Here are some of the better times to do so:
When no one has won the jackpot in a long time – when the machine has been sans a winner for ages, it is ripe for the picking, so to speak. This means you should definitely try your luck on it. Who knows, you might be the next slot machine gazillionaire out there! The logic behind this is actually pretty simple. When a machine’s jackpot has risen to exponential heights and no one has won it yet, it is a good idea for you to try your luck on it since more people will be playing on it.
You can compare it to playing the lotter when the prize is still pretty low to betting your numbers when the prize has reached hundreds of millions. More people will bet, which can mean that there is a higher chance of someone winning since there will be more lottery number combinations out there.
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When the jackpot has reached massive amounts – this is still technically the same as playing when no one has won the jackpot in a while. The jackpot prize of a progressive slot machine, particularly one that is connected to a single prize all around the world, will become massive when no one has won it for a long time and when people continuously play it. When a prize gets too big to ignore, and more people play it, the chances of someone winning the jackpot increases as well.
When you are feeling lucky – have you ever had those days when you feel like you can never lose? Those days when everything is going right for you and all that you say or do benefits you in one way or another? Well, if that is the case, you should try your luck at a progressive machine. Who knows, your good luck may carry over and win you the jackpot. Of course, when you play, try to set a budget so you don’t go overboard and bet everything you have simply because you are feeling lucky. Setting a limit will help you control the urge to continue betting even when your luck has already turned.
Which Machines are Better to Play At?
At the end of the day, it all comes down to which machines you are comfortable and feel lucky to play at. If you find that you are luckier playing on regular slots than you are on progressive ones, then stick with the machines that make you feel like a winner. Also, try to choose machines that have a higher RTP since these usually give you more chances of winning than others.
If you are after a big win that can change your life however, then progressive slots are where it is at. Just be careful when you do try your luck on these machines since these can be very addictive and can lure you into thinking that the next spin will give you the jackpot that you crave. Set a budget for your progressive slot machine gaming, always bet max, and try your luck when you are feeling lucky.
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There is no such thing as a better slot machine to play on when it comes to choosing between regular and progressive slots. It’s all a matter of which machine you enjoy playing at and which ones give you the satisfaction that is felt when you win. It is also a matter of finding the machine that you can easily understand when you play since there are actually quite a few that are too complex for some people to understand.
The one thing you should always keep in mind when you do gamble on these machines, whether online or in a real life casino, is to do so responsibly. Luck can turn in an instant and if you notice that your luck has taken a downward trend, it might be a good idea to give it a rest. Always set a budget when you gamble so you don’t bet away your life’s earnings, your home, and everything else that you own just because you are feeling lucky.
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Responsible gambling is, after all, what you should practice in order to enjoy your slot machine gaming without having to worry about going beyond what you can afford. Once you reach your limit, stop and tell yourself that you can game another day since your budget has been reached. It is also a good idea to set a time constraint on your gaming so that you can still walk away with winnings when you are feeling lucky on these machines or on the tables.