Inevitably gamblers go on losing streaks. Sometimes they can feel punishing, and as players we’ll sometimes look for reasons:
When you/someone else has a dry spell from winning, could that also mean the machine is recouping from a recently large payout?
Mark N.
Nope, past performance doesn’t predict future results here, by design. Players have an equal chance of winning on the next spin, regardless if the last spin was a jackpot or the last 100 spins were losing ones.
This is why the pots don’t matter, whether you use cash or a ticket, whether the machine is on the end of the row, and so on. If you saw someone hit massively on a machine and walk away after getting paid, that machine is absolutely fine to play.
But we know some players are superstitious, and some casinos know this too, which is why many still have a “spin off” rule, going back to the days of mechanical reel slots, so that the giant win isn’t showing on the reels after it’s been paid.
But that’s purely to ensure the more superstitious among us don’t avoid a machine just for seeing a big win having been achieved. It also is sidestepped by attract screens that many modern video slot machines have, which appear after a window of a machine being idle.
So no, dry spells won’t be caused simply because of a big win – that doesn’t factor into how a slot machine pays out. Dry spells are a side effect of the randomness of slot machines and how things work – if about half the spins are designed to be losing ones, it’s not unexpected for some n number of losing spins to occur back to back. And many slot machines have lower hit rates which mean it could be a much higher percentage of losing spins.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
