How to Win At the Slot Machines

Note that this is not “How to Win At the Slot Machines EVERY TIME”. This is a document of my experiences at the Woodbine (racecourse) Slots on the western edge of Toronto.

Background

I was raised not to gamble unless I was 100% certain of the outcome. So I will bet you that the sun will rise tomorrow, the weather in summer will be warmer than it is in winter, apples fall to the ground, and so on. How can I be 100% sure of these bets? Because if I ever lose such a bet I have bigger problems than the ten-dollar bet!

A friend of mine loved gambling and I loved her, so whenever she suggested a trip to the Slots I would tag along because I enjoyed her company. Except she was not good company at the slots.

(a) Despite the racy advertisements showing everybody having a good time, the only people I saw smiling were the people in red jackets with shiny brass buttons.

(b) In particular my friend didn’t look happy as she fed those twenty-dollar bills into the machines.

(c) At that time my weekly groceries cost me about twenty dollars, so I was watching my basic grocery money being thrown away.

(d) Although she didn’t lose when she went by herself, she never won when I was there.

(e) She would let me watch over her shoulder for fifteen minutes, then tell me to get lost because I was bringing her bad lick.

Note that in (d) above she never claimed that she came out ahead of the casino.

Observation

I am a data-processing guy, so my learned inclination is to observe and collect data.

I noticed that whenever Betty (for that was her name) played the 25¢ machines and slid in a $20 note, the machine registered 80- credits.

I noted that she selected “Play three” so that when she pressed the Green button, the dials span, the machine clicked and whirred, and her number of credits remaining dropped by three, so to 77, 74, 71 and so on.

I noted too that shortly after the credits dropped below 70, the machine would ring a bell and the credits would rise to something like 87, or 93, or 106.

As Betty continued to play, that number of credits would drop three at a time until betty reached zero.

This was when she would jiggle about and tell me “Ooh! This machine is getting ready to pay off”, and slide in another $20 banknote.

Until $100 had disappeared into the machine. Then Betty would extract five more twenties from her purse and repeat the process.

This little chart shows a progression. Betty starts with 80 credits, drops three at a time to 68 credits, then on the next press of the Green button, wins a bit and shoots up to 98 credits. Then begins the long slide to zero.

The Pattern

The slot machines are programmed. I worked on a test of randomness of a micro-circuit back in the late 1970s.

I reasoned that these slot machines were programmed to provide a tickle, a promise of a pay off but than revert to the downward slide.

I watched this over three separate visits to the Woodbine Slots with Betty.

Came the Day

“Let’s go to the slots”. “I don’t wanna”. “Oh come on! I’ll treat you to an ice-cream afterwards”.

“Well, OK, but only of you’ll play the machines the way I say”.

Agreed.

I think she just wanted top go to the slots with or without me and really thought it was the ice-cream that swayed me.

The First Trial

Betty found a 25¢ machine and sat down to play.

I reminded her that she had agreed to play my way, so what exactly was :my way” she asked, withdrawing the first batch of twenties.

I told her “Play the way you always do, but when I tap you on the shoulder, take your hands off the machine and place them in your lap.

Agreed.

Off she went, 80, 77, 74, but when the bells rang and the credits leaped above 80, I tapped her on the shoulder.

“Now what?”.

“Press the white button way over on the left-hand side. “The one marked ‘Print’?”. Yup.

“What does that do?”. Press it and see.

“Buzz” it fed out a cardboard ticket about two inches by three inches”. Betty studied it than asked “What do I do with this?”. I told he that she was to give it me then go on playing.

I tucked the ticket into my shirt pocket and we repeated the process until her five twenties were used up and I had five tickets in my shirt pocket.

We walked over to the cashier, I made her stand in line clutching the five tickets, and she returned to my side with a hundred and seven dollars. I took the seven dollars of coins and put them in my left-hand trouser pocket. I keep my loose change in my right pocket.

Back to her 25¢ machine, she fed in another five twenties, I pocketed the tickets and then we went to cash in again.

We walked over to the cashier, I made her stand in line clutching the five tickets, and she returned to my side with a hundred and thirteen dollars. I took the thirteen dollars of coins and put them in my left-hand trouser pocket.

Back to her 25¢ machine, she fed in another five twenties, I pocketed the tickets and then we went to cash in again.

We walked over to the cashier, I made her stand in line clutching the five tickets, and she returned to my side with a hundred and three dollars. I took the three dollars of coins and put them in my left-hand trouser pocket.

But Betty didn’t like this, so she told me to go and amuse myself, which I did, and then we went home. Collecting an ice-cream along the way.

Now by the time she gave up, Betty had fed and lost three hundred dollars in that 25¢ machine. But when we got home and counted the change from my left pocket, we were up twenty-three dollars (7+13+3) and I pointed out to her that while we played my way, she was really playing with the same initial hundred dollars, and if she had quit playing after our third trip to the cashier, she would be ahead by twenty-three dollars.

She just wouldn’t have enjoyed the fun of dumping three hundred dollars into the casino.

So what?

It took about thirty minutes to play and cash in on three sets of tickets. It would have taken less time had we just played the hundred dollars three ties over and made but one trip to the cashier. But never mind.

Twenty-three dollars in thirty minutes is forty-six dollars an hour.

Tax-Free.

At the time the basic wage in Toronto was $11 per hour.

We made two more trips togeher to those slot machines, and we played it “my way” for the first three hundred dollars. We came out ahead on all but one trial, so eight times out of nine, we made a profit, and one time we did not.

And then:-

“… [ the problem with machines ] is a combination of the way that machine is able to trigger the release of dopamine through these kinds of tricks that has gone inside it, …”

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