Many players naturally look for an advantage when gambling, whether perceived or real. This is one of those questions that goes in a different direction than the originally posed question, but gives us an opportunity to reiterate one of the simplest yet effective pieces of advice we can offer around playing slots:
If you go every day, play the same machine at the same time, same bet, same ticket amount in… Are your odds better than just walking around and sitting at it after seeing the maxed out progressive not hit every time you go?
Dianna W.
Grinding out at your favorite slot wouldn’t have any different odds than the same machine with a maxed out Major waiting to be won. But if the machine you’re grinding on doesn’t have a maxed out Major, you’re giving up a bit of potential return when you do at some point win that Major progressive.
If the odds are the same regardless of size, it makes sense to pursue that maxed out machine if it’s available, because the potential payback is higher when one is won. Now, that doesn’t mean you will win it, but why win $500 if it happens when you have the opportunity to win $1,000?
Now, if they’re different games, the odds of winning them may differ, so comparing any two random progressives may not be as helpful information. But often there’s games in the same family next to each other or even found in different parts of the casino. And generally, casinos don’t set games in the same family to dramatically different payback levels, so the progressives are the extra bit of information you have that can let you pick the machine you want.
Of course, with the odds being the same, that maxed out major might take awhile to win. We observed one at a casino that was maxed out for so long that when it was finally won, it reset back to almost the full maxed out amount. it then proceeded to max out again, before being won again and now being at a point closer to the low end for the first time in months.
That doesn’t mean the odds of a maxed out major being hit are lower, it just means that how long it has taken won’t have any material impact on when it will go off, as with randomized slots previous history doesn’t offer any prediction on that next spin – the odds are the same.
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