Some habits die hard. A great example of this is the requirement by some casinos that a player has to take an extra spin after a jackpot handpay:
While gambling in Arizona, I hit a hand pay. When the attendant came to do the payout, he asked me to take an additional spin before he walked away to get the money. I’ve never had this happen in my home state of Wisconsin, or in Vegas. Do I have to take this spin when they ask? Why do they do this?
Terri
It’s a leftover rule from an earlier era, especially on mechanical reel machines, which stay as they are until another player sits down to play them. It’s not unusual for players to opt to move on after a major win like a jackpot handpay, but that can yield a small problem, given casinos know a game wouldn’t be as likely to get played if a jackpot was left on the screen.
That’s where the idea of “spinning off” a jackpot comes from – by asking a player to complete another spin, the jackpot outcome that was on the reels would no longer appear, potentially deterring some players from sitting down and playing it.
Many newer slots, especially video slots, will “reset” to a default losing combination after a period of inactivity, switch to a denomination picking screen, or go into a demo mode, to aim to attract people in, vs. showing a winning combination that might scare people off.
This effectively solves this issue, but that doesn’t mean some casinos don’t still have that old policy in place on machines where this is no longer an issue. And they certainly are likely to have some machines on the floor that still are the old school mechanical reels which can’t reset, which is why some casinos still have the policy.
Ultimately, each casino has its own house rules, which govern all players who play there, and what would happen if you decline to do it can differ; if a casino is adamant enough about this, they could even in a worst case scenario withhold the jackpot payout until you spin off the jackpot on the reels, as a part of their house rules.
A more moderate (and likely) scenario nowadays is the casino itself spins it off, although sometimes they can’t do this in case they manage a win of their own. Presumably you can do this spinoff on the smallest bet possible, but of course this can still be a large wager if in a high limit room. But ultimately, the casino’s house rules dictate what we have to do.
Even though the fact a big hit was just paid has no impact on what will happen when the next person sits down, we are a superstitious folk, and so some players will simply avoid it because they fear the machine will hold back wins to make up some ground (but that’s not how a slot is designed, so ultimately we as players don’t need to worry about that).
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