Multi-denomination machines are increasingly the workhorses on the casino floor. So many players play them, and make observations based on their play. Some recent examples:
Why does it seem to hit on one denomination more than another?
Mary F.
I’ve had it happen many times now where I’m on a particular denom and the bonuses are just flowing like water. But if I change out of that denom to another they are skunked. I swear a buffalo link machine telegraphed it was gonna give out the major to me because I was hitting bonus rounds every 15-20 spins or so on one select denom and then sure enough, it spit out the major on one of them. Now I know the RNG theory says that was just happenstance. But I’ve seen it over and over and over on various machines I’ve played over the last few years. Bottom line, when a machine is on a bonus giving hot streak, ride it cause it’s a glorious thing.
Mark B.
Before we get into the specifics, it’s important to know that for the most part, changing denominations is a neutral choice. If you’re winning, and you want to keep going, there’s nothing wrong with that, as we know that the chances of winning are the same regardless of the outcomes that just took place. You can get a jackpot the very next spin after a jackpot.
But finding a “hot” denom is no different than finding a hot machine – you’re only learning what’s happened, and what can happen on the next spin is the same odds as before. Here’s why we think players observe this.
As Human Beings, We’re Fickle and Get Bored
If a denomination isn’t hitting, many of us are inclined to switch it up and try something else. When the machine starts hitting, we’re inclined to leave it alone. That creates the impression that hey, this denomination is hitting, and the others are not. But really you as a player just chose to stop at that denomination because you encountered some wins or some bonus action.
For some of us, we retain that information as this denomination was the hot denom, when it was just the timing of the denomination and the press of the spin button that did all the work. If we didn’t hit on that denomination, it’s very likely we would’ve switched to another one, looking for the elusive bonuses.
We’re Working with Incomplete Information
We only know what happened on a given denom at the time we hit spin. We don’t know what the outcome of the other denominations would’ve been, and we don’t know the outcomes of the spins we didn’t take between button presses. But as humans we still look for those patterns anyway.
For all we know, if we had pressed the button at the exact same time, some other denomination could have paid even better, and here we were thinking we were on the “hot” denomination. But we only know the outcomes of the spins we took, at the time we pressed the button, at the denomination we had selected. So we’ll never actually know if this was the best we could have done. And in the long run, it’ll all average out.
Remember Denominations and Payback
It’s also helpful to remember that the general rule is that paybacks increase by denomination, largely because casinos presume at higher denominations you’re going to bet bigger. So if your budget allows, it’s generally not a bad long term decision to take advantage of a higher denomination. While things can go any direction in an individual session, in the long term, playing a higher denomination game should return more to you as a player, generally speaking.
Takeaway
Hopefully that helps make sense of why a denomination might be hitting better – it’s our attempt to place a pattern and try to devise a winning strategy, but in the long term, no one denom is going to be a consistent outright winner. We’ll have our wins and losses just like any other denomination.
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