Sometimes it seems like a bonus arrives on a slot machine just in the nick of time. But does it?
It’s always sketchy hitting a bonus when you’re always out of money. It’s like the casino knows how to keep you going.
Hanzo H.
Casinos don’t have the ability to purposefully time a bonus based on criteria, such as how much money you have in the machine. Neither can the slot makers, given the randomness required when it relates to what outcomes are delivered when you press that spin button.
Casinos have blind spots, too. They don’t know if you have another $100 in your wallet to play or not. What if that was your last $100, and your getting that bonus led to your deciding to leave with some money vs. no money? You could look at it from the exact opposite perspective – casinos have no interest in giving you a bonus when you’re already basically out of money because then they can keep it.
The slots are well designed as it is to suck players in for a variety of reasons – bonus chasing, pot closing, growing jackpots, even going on tilt when we haven’t had a bonus in awhile. The list goes on. But the possibility of any single outcome occuring on any spin is the same, regardless of your balance, so they don’t, and can’t, rely on timing bonuses as it’s simply not an option available to them.
This is just another example of players looking for reasons to blame the casino for being pulled in. It’s on us instead to be aware of the factors in slot machines that make them enticing, and do our best to remember this and not let ourselves get drawn in.
A lot of thought and research goes into making slots enticing, for good reason – there’s money at stake for getting those elements just right. We don’t need any scapegoating to acknowledge this, and should resist those lines of thought as it’s not healthy.
In fact, we often advise players who are looking for targets to blame to consider not playing – as the saying goes, if it stops being fun, perhaps another entertainment venue is in order.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
