Slot Machines : Best Online Slots

This past Monday, the largest non-Native American owned electronic bingo establishment in Alabama was shut down.  This establishment, the Victoryland Casino decided to close down in anticipation of a raid that was about to take place.  Governor Bob Riley had recently enforced an anti-gambling task force that is set to shut down any illegal gambling operations including online gambling casinos and illegal slot machines.  Victoryland Casino is usually very busy it but has turned into a ghost town as it closed its doors to the gamblers.

Victoryland was one of the largest employers in Macon County, Alabama.  Victoryland had a total of 600 employees on their payroll and was the largest casino in the state.  Governor Riley, however, saw the casino as an illegal entity that needed to be shut down as soon as possible.  He saw it as the largest illegal operation in the state.  It was the last known non Indian slot machine casino in existence in the state of Alabama.  This means that there are now no more slot machine casinos within the state making it a success for the governor and his task force. 

In anticipation of the raid and future Supreme Court rulings, Victoryland chose to shut down in order to remain in compliance.  The casino will reportedly reopen again after taking down the electronic slot machines. Officials fear that these machines will be disguised or hidden but Victoryland claims they will simply comply with current legislation.  Regardless of which, the governor’s anti-gambling task force has reportedly said that they will keep a close watch on the casino. 

Victoryland has been tussling with the Governor and his task force ever since gambling laws were passed.  Both have achieved minor and major victories in a battle of will and gambling.  The Supreme Court will soon hear cases of online gambling and the results of this remain to be seen. Until that time, Victoryland is working to comply with the law while maintaining the jobs and revenue that they have been able to achieve.

M.A.H.

No Responses »

While playing slots is an entertaining way to pass the time, the real goal is of course winning the jackpot, and hopefully this jackpot will be large enough to change your lifestyle indefinitely.

For this, most players will answer the question of how large a win would accomplish the above, with one million dollars, so let’s have a look at the online slot machines where actually winning one million dollars is a possibility.

Obviously, while playing the slots there are no guarantees, but if we set winning one million dollars as the goal, we should at least pick the proper slot machines that are able to provide us with this kind of cash. For that we will definitely need slots that offer progressive Jackpots as they are generally higher than regular jackpots, and from those slots with progressive jackpots we need popular ones so that the jackpot will be high enough to provide us with a shot at $1 million.

Currently we know of four online slot machines that are capable of providing us with the required conditions which are:

Mega Moola

This particular slot machine starts with a $1 million Jackpot, and is running on software from Microgaming. A player can bet up to $ 6.75 and in order to get a shot at the jackpot a bonus round has to be played, which works similar to a fortune wheel. Besides the mega progressive, players can win 4 other lesser progressive jackpots.

Millionaires Club

There are two types of this popular slot machine one 3 reel and one 5 reel. This slot runs on the Wagerlogic network and winning the progressive is similar to winning the progressive with Mega Moola from Microgaming. Unfortunately, the network does not cater to residents of the United States, due to the gambling regulations that were put in place in 2006.

Major Millions

This popular slot has already turned 6 players into millionaires overnight, within a 24 month time frame, which makes it the slot with the most winners for a single game. The slot comes in the same two versions as the Millionaires Club slot machine, meaning, there is a 3 and a 5 reel version of it. In order to win the jackpot players have to bet $3, which is the maximum bet for this particular slot machine.
Unlike Millionaires Club, US residents are welcome to play.

King Cashalot

This is another Slot Machine from the assortment of Microgaming, it is a five reel slot machine and one of the less expensive ones compared to the other three mentioned above. With a maximum bet of $2.25 a player has a shot at the progressive jackpot. This jackpot starts at $100k, so if this one is approaching $1 million it is very close to falling.

While winning $1 million at slot machines is certainly possible, the odds of it happening to any given player are relatively low. This does by no means imply that it is impossible, but a realistic view on the odds is required to view these slot machine games in the proper perspective.  This being said, one should only bet money that won’t cause you any financial problems if you happen to lose it.
M.A.H.

No Responses »

Take 10 casino players playing the slot machines and you will get 10 different reasons as to why they do, but one of those reasons comes back much more frequently than others: Slots have better chances of winning than any other casino game, online and in the land based casinos.

Unlike the popular casino table games, slots often offer massive (progressive) jackpots, providing a chance to make a considerable win, especially considering the small wager it takes to play a slot machine. Think about it, did you ever read about a player walking away with half a million dollars, from playing a game of black jack? Slot players on the other hand have lots of success stories to share, as wins in the thousands of dollars from playing the slots are fairly common.

Professional players know this, so why aren’t they working the slots?

Let’s brush up a little on our math shall we? Let’s say a slot machine with half a million dollars as a progressive jackpot, that players have a shot at by betting $1, and the slot has a ninety percent return ratio, that means the house advantage is ten percent. Let us also assume that approximately 1% of the return is being added to the jackpot. This would come down to a 500,000 to one ratio at chances of 50 million to one. Now if the machine gets 100 million spins on a yearly basis, the jackpot would fall twice a year.

In comparison to table games that on average have a house advantage of approximately 0.5%, generally a player of for example black jack, would spend a hundred or so dollars to enter the game, and then bet in blocks of $5. Now, if you are really lucky and keep winning consistently, it will take several years, to reach the same amount of the slot machine’s progressive jackpot! The odds of winning consistently for multiple years in a row are zero; you will have better odds on being struck by lightning! With slot machines on the other hands the odds are actually favorable for winning the jackpot when playing as consistently as described in the black jack example.

Another advantage of slots is the speed at which wins occur. It literally takes a spin of the reels and if the right combination falls, you will have hit the jackpot in a fraction of a second! Now translate this to the table games and you would have to play again and again to reach the same result for a long time to come.

In short, the reason for favoring slots is a very logical one: Compared to the low bet, the slots have much higher returns, faster pay offs, and better odds of winning.

Now to come back to our initial question: Why aren’t the pro players working the slots? The only decent answers we can think of is that maybe those pro players aren’t as smart as they think after all, or perhaps they are working the slots, and just not telling us, as winning at a roulette table or blackjack table has so much more charisma with the ladies. Just look at James Bond to see what we mean.
M.A.H.

No Responses »

With the arrival of the Internet and with it the online gambling industry, the two have been developing at an equal pace. The first online casinos were not much more than a collection of java, cgi, or php scripts linked together, whereas today the online casinos look as real as their brick and mortar counterparts.

With the development and maturing of the online casinos, so did the available slot machines advance on those sites. The first available online slots were the standard 3 reels variant, which you can still find in most land based casinos today, but presently we have state of the art video slot machines providing all the fun of modern day real slot machines and often much more.

However, the question I am asking today is, when you compare the two types of slots with each other, which one comes out as the preferred slots to play online? The answer may surprise you, so read on:

The classic online slot machines are simple, hit 3 of the same symbol and win a prize, where every set of symbols has their own specific worth, and on occasion you will find an old style slot machine that will even pay out at specific combinations of several symbols, but that is it as far as the features go. On the up side, winnings from these online slot machines are actually very good, and having played them a lot myself it has not been too many times that I have walked away with less money in my account than I started with. I even would go as far as to state that on average a player will make back at least what they spent when playing classic online slots.

With the new video slots, it is a different story. These slots have many special features offering bonus rounds, free spins, and winning combinations over three lines. Sound great! The reality is that though there are more combinations and ways you can win something, the actual amounts are often only a few measly cents. In fact every video slot I ever played has left me with empty pockets, or just slightly less than I spent on it.

This tells us, that even though those hyped up, state of the art, flashy, graphically perfect video slots machines may look and sound exciting, but to any self respecting gambler they would lose against the classic slot machines that are still available on most online casino sites, simply because any half decent player will look at the odds first, and if there are flashy features that is a plus, but not a requirement, and when it comes to odds, the good old one armed bandit still has those new slots beaten hands down.

Now, do not get me wrong, I am by no means telling you to back away from playing online video slot machines, in fact I know several players that have their occasional big win and obviously to them it is worth it as they continue to play, I am merely making an observation and stating that when it comes to winning the most (Which is why we play, is it not?), classic slots have the better odds out of the two types.

M.A.H.

No Responses »

A common question often asked online about slot machines, is whether or not it is possible to win real cash while playing the free slot games. Though the sound of playing a free game in order to win real cash sounds illogical to say the least, the introduction of the Internet has quickly changed this perception, and it is true that there are some web sites online offering free slot games where real money can be won, but one has to ask himself, how free is free?

As the saying goes: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and even in the case of playing a free slot game this saying holds true. In order to play the game, the player is required to register his or her email address which in turn is used for marketing purposes, either by the company behind the site itself or sold to third parties who will in turn attempt to monetize the mailing list.

It is easy to find the sites that offer the free slot games. Simply do searches on Google or other popular search engines and you will find an abundance of sites offering free slot games. However, there are less of them that offer real prizes you can win. What to look for in order to find the ones that do, is design. Find the ones that are professionally designed as those are most likely to provide the service as they usually have sponsors backing up their free slots (Usually an online casino operator). When found, look for a section describing their prizes and the conditions to obtain them.

Reputable online casinos are known to sponsor some sites on the web and some of them will offer the free games. The free games are not limited to slot machines either, usually on sites that offer free slots they also offer a whole range of other casino games you can play for free. Some will offer prizes, others may not.

So to come full circle and arrive back at the initial question: Is it possible to win money or prizes playing free slots online, the answer is a definite yes but keep in mind that nothing “free” is ever really free. Somebody somewhere is picking up the tab for the money that is paid out and in many cases that still means you, it is just cashed in through other means but you still pay.

M.A.H.

No Responses »

At the end of 2004 slot machines were released that were programmed with a new “Rapid Fire Jackpot ” feature. This type of jackpot works different than regular jackpots from slots. With Rapid Fire Jackpots they are connected to a selection of slots that hit the Jackpot at random without the need for any specific combination. This is not the first time this type of jackpot was introduced to the public, as the so called Marvel slot machines carried a similar jackpot feature.

The prizes from these types of jackpots are small compared to regular jackpots and this type of jackpot is won more frequently than regular ones.

The biggest question about this type of jackpot is how they are won. Unlike regular slot machines jackpots, there is no specific combination to make the win, so how does the system select a winner?

Now we have arrived at the interesting part. Once the jackpot has been won a new jackpot is selected at random by the system for the next one. Let’s assume, after the last jackpot $800 is selected by the system, and then the next winner will have that amount when the next random jackpot is won.

Winners are selected using the following principle: From every wager on the slots a part of the bet is added to the prize fund. Let’s assume in our case it is 1% of the bet. Now the first to place a bet and spin the reels that causes the total of the jackpot to exceed the selected amount, wins.

On the slot machine games 5 coin types are used between 10 cents and 5 dollars, with a maximum of 9 coins for every game played. This means if one wagers $1 per spin of the reels, 10 cents of that bet are added to the jackpot. The more you bet, the more you contribute to the prize money. Contributing more to the jackpot increases the chances to win it considerably, as each contribution from you brings the total closer to the selected amount at a much faster pace, than players that use smaller coin sizes.

In short; the higher the bet, the better the odds will be. Using smaller bets will decrease the chances of winning the jackpot dramatically.

In case you are now thinking that in order to win continuously playing these slots, all you need to do is wait until the jackpot is high, and bet as large as you can, think again. With jackpots that average in the $800 ranges, it would work theoretically, but it does not work out that way in real life.
Let’s assume that in order to win, you would be betting $45 per spin of the reels. For small amounts like Rapid Fire Jackpots offer that would mean risking a lot for low rewards. In case the jackpot is high enough it may be a good idea to do a larger bet every so many spins to double your chances of winning overall. Should you fail in taking the jackpot, at least you increase your chances of winning another prize from the reel combinations.

M.A.H.

No Responses »

Random number generator sounds scientifically mysterious, but is really quite straightforward. Slot machines are programmed with a computer that spits numbers out in a random pattern. Each time you spin it is like spinning for the first time. The random numbers programmed into the machine will come up eventually and you will win. How long between wins and how large the jackpot is are preprogrammed. Some slot machines pay often and for smaller jackpots. Some will take a huge amount of time to come up with a winning combination. A large jackpot is paid and then it may pay another just a short time later. It is all random. This all contributes to the excitement of the game. It also means that no amount of fancy gambling methods will really make a difference. If they did, the random number generator would be open to bias and would be faulty. No one should be able to influence the random number generator. That would constitute a fixed game.

When you are going online to play the slot machines, you can usually find out how often the machine pays out and how large the jackpot is. That does not mean it is getting ready to let down a windfall jackpot. The payouts are determined over time by the random number generator computer program and constitute averages.

If the payouts come more often and the jackpots are smaller you may be more comfortable extracting your own cash as quickly as possible and then using the rest of the winnings to gamble. When that is gone, stop. Many of the random number generated programs are set so that the longer you play the more likely it is that you will lose. If you win big, take the money and run. There is always another day for this kind of fun.

No Responses »

As is true of all games people play, rules provide structure and fairness. It follows then that slot machine games would also have rules. These are clearly posted so no player need stumble when they decide how to go about playing the slot machines. The rules may state that up to so many coins can be played on each spin. That means the player must decide to play a single coin or the maximum number allowed. Whatever their choice, they are still playing within the rules. They cannot add one more coin to the maximum and they cannot play without any coins. Rules create a level playing field.

There is a lot of discussion around the advisability of playing a single coin or the maximum number allowed. One school of thought is that by playing a single coin the game is prolonged, providing a greater chance of winning by spinning more times without using up the gambling fund. They may be right. Spinning more times with a single coin will up the chances of winning usually, however each pay out will be small.

Other gamblers swear by always playing the maximum number of coins accepted by the slot machine. They theorize that the machine may not come up winning as often, however each jackpot will be much larger. To help this theory along, the player either has a larger fund to gamble with or if losing, packs up and goes home when the machine does not pay out, since he will be out of money sooner than the one coin at a time player.

At any rate, knowing when to pack up and go home is one of the most important rules.

No Responses »

Even though everyone has heard of the anti-gambling laws in the United States, the demand for online slots remains strong. Online gambling addicts welcome the good news that they can still locate action at casinos online, via the internet, in most parts of the world. The time has not yet arrived when we must count online slots out of action.

New players are attracted to the online slots by the generous bonuses currently being offered by many online casinos. Regardless of the new anti-gambling laws, business is good according to the many online casino gambling sites. Players, new and experienced, are having a great time playing slots. Casinos continue to develop new hardware versions that keep online gambling fresh and exciting. Perhaps the possibility that online gambling could disappear makes it even more alluring. At any rate, players return time and again to take advantage of the great odds, fun and excitement of playing online slots.

Eventually we may feel the effects of the anti-gambling laws. Until that time, there are more and more online casinos offering interesting slots complete with amazing graphics to entertain as the players try their luck. With many different games to choose from and great odds, the demand for online slots continues to grow. Progressive slots, challenging variety, and fast exciting action all combine to make online slots irresistible. If you have not yet tried online slots, do not delay longer to have a great time. Look for an online casino that offers slots.

No Responses »

Variety in slot machine games equals fresh entertainment all the time. It is so much fun to go online at your favorite casino and play the slot machines. It seems like new versions are being added every week and each is more fun than the last. Begin by going on your favorite casino site and selecting slot machines. There are so many offerings it will take some time to decide which to try first. That is fine; you will just have to try them all and will have a grand time doing it. What better entertainment could there be?

Some of the online casinos offer progressive games as well. In these games if all those playing do not win, the jackpot continues to grow. You have heard of huge winnings on the online slots and this is how it happens. Sometimes the player has only wagered a small amount, as little as one dollar and luck is with him. He wins a half million dollars or more. That is a real possibility so the excitement builds as the game progresses. The winner is catapulted to an entirely new life with just one press of an online button.

In progressive games the casinos may be in different parts of the world, but are sharing in the game. When the casinos are linked together a million dollar jackpot is possible and has already happened. It could happen again. Large jackpots like this guarantee that millions of people are willing to try their luck in a progressive game. Just the thought that you could become a millionaire takes your breath away. Imagine your life after a huge win like that.

No Responses »