Optimal Time to Play Slots

[Nicholas ReedParticipant]

I’m new to this and have a number of questions. I would love any and all opinions:

I live within driving distance to about 5 or 6 casinos. One of them is a bigger resort type casino but the others are smaller local ones. While I have found plenty of advantage machines, I’ve mostly struck out with finding plays. I’m wondering what you consider to be the optimal time of the week to go slotting*. For reference, here was my week last week – mostly at different smaller casinos.

Tuesday 8-10pm: Did 3 loops Found almost no plays

Thursday 11AM-1PM: Did 3 loops Found maybe 4-5 plays

Friday 11AM-4PM: Did many loops – it was pretty busy, still only found about 4-5 plays. Most machines at this one had the same screen for all the different line amounts at higher denoms. Do some casinos reset their machines overnight to curb AP playing? Is this a tell tale sign few have been on the machine since it turned on?

Sunday 12PM-2PM: The casino (larger than the others) was packed and had advantage machines everywhere I turned. But the competition was overwhelming. People were blatantly camping everywhere. And while I tried to be discrete, others were standing up, quickly checking every denom and moving to each machine in the row. Again, being completely obvious with what they were doing.

Slotting when the casino is busy seems like the intuitive answer, but based on my Sunday experience, does it just invite competition? Is the morning after a busy night work out better? Does the optimal time change based on what kind of casino it is (small local vs big resort)?

Thanks, sorry for the barrage of questions!

*Is there a formal term for this endeavor?

[Ben RosenthalKeymaster]

Keem ’em coming!

It’s always going to be casino-dependent on the “optimal time,” and some casinos are just always quite competitive. Heck, it’s why I take so many trips to places like the Bahamas, Colorado, Aruba…you name it. If I could go into my local casinos in Connecticut and find plays all day, I’d just do that. At most casinos these days, I am not sure there is an optimal time where you’re going to have the casino to yourself, so I wouldn’t necessarily try to find that magic window.

You may have to do some camping from time to time as well rather than just looping around. Trust me, I’d rather be on a fun scavenger hunt rather than lurking behind a machine myself, but sometimes the smart money is in doing the latter.

I have blog posts on that here:

• Good and Bad Signs While Camping
• Identifying Pros
• Campers On The Prowl

“Most machines at this one had the same screen for all the different line amounts at higher denoms. Do some casinos reset their machines overnight to curb AP playing? Is this a tell tale sign few have been on the machine since it turned on?”

When new games are added, they often come at the low end of a build. Or there may just be some stock screen; Golden Egypt, among many others, comes to mind. Once someone plays on that screen, it should change for good. However, I have seen this before:

• One Subtle Way Casinos Screw You Over

On a podcast I was on, the idea of casinos resetting machines was brought up as well. I wouldn’t rule it out, though usually it’s just going to be that no one has played on the high bets yet.

“People were blatantly camping everywhere. And while I tried to be discrete, others were standing up, quickly checking every denom and moving to each machine in the row. Again, being completely obvious with what they were doing.”

Yup, happens all the time. If the casino never makes an effort to curb advantage play, people get quite brazen with their checking. In fact, I actually prefer going to casinos that have started throwing out other advantage slot players because I can often check machines in a more subtle manner and find more plays than I would otherwise.

I’m more of a morning guy myself, but I would not say that’s the magic time frame or anything. You’ll have to see what works and what doesn’t at your specific casinos. And if you really want slotting to be a way to make steady money instead of just a fun hobby, you may have to travel around a bit, depending on where you are.

Formal term…hmm. I have a few in the glossary. “Advantage player” is probably the most common.

As you said, all opinions are welcome. We’re at an interesting time in slotting: There are a ton of advantage games out there. There is a lot of competition. Some casinos are starting to care about advantage players and do something about it. Manufacturers are creating new games with smaller edges and bigger swings, or just “fake advantage games”:

False Flag Slots (Fake Advantage Games)

Advantage slotting is not easy. I will be the first to say that. There’s still a lot of opportunity out there, but it can be a serious grind like any 9-to-5 type of job in a way.

[NickelsParticipant]

Step 1: Identify your competition in an area, what they look like, what games they’re aware of, etc.

Step 2: Take time to observe their schedules, figure out when they come in and when they leave.

Step 3: Come in earlier than them when you visit. If there’s so much competition that you can’t just beat them to the spot, then the busier the better as far as finding low hanging fruit.

 

Say for example you have a small locals casino where there’s two hustlers that you see regularly, occasionally you have other people come in, but not often. One of them works a regular job and isn’t off work until 5pm, doesn’t get to the casino until 6pm. The other one shows up to the casino periodically throughout the day to make the rounds, but never before 10am and not after midnight. Your best bet then would be to do a lap around the casino before 10am, if it takes you an hour to sweep the machines, then get there a little before 9. Then get there again at 5pm to make another lap before the guy on a normal schedule comes in. You just don’t want to get behind them and find yourself chasing their tail.

Here’s another example; This is a real-world example from years ago (2017-2018ish).You have a town with 3 casinos, there’s a shuttle service that goes in between all three in a loop. On a busy weekend, you can keep making laps through town and use the shuttle to deduce when someone else has just made a lap through that casino. If no other hustler is in line to get on when you pull up to the next casino, then you go and make a lap because there’s been enough time for plays to develop, if a hustler you recognize is getting on, you stay on and lap the next casino knowing that he’s checking the half you didn’t get to first. Then you get back on the shuttle, and he probably gets off at the next one, you wait and get on at the one you skipped before, take a little break, camp a little instead of doing constant laps, and when your competitor gets off the shuttle to come in there, you can stealthily get on the shuttle and now you’re back in front of him on the loop. Another option is using the shuttle to identify where people are going next and where they’ve been but using your own car to beat the shuttle to the spot.

 

“*Is there a formal term for this endeavor?”

I’ve always called it slot hustling.

[King of HeartsParticipant]

In the past, and this is strictly a Las Vegas experience, I have found that 3am-7am is the best time because most of the competition is asleep and there’s still enough late-night fish, especially on the weekends, to provide a decent number of plays. Currently, this is difficult for me, as I have an office-hours day job, but I hope to get into a sleeping pattern where I can do this on early Saturday and Sunday mornings, then get plenty of sleep on Sunday evening to readjust my schedule to the work week.

[Ben RosenthalKeymaster]

That was my preferred time in Vegas too for a while, especially since I’m flying in from the East Coast, so 3 a.m. isn’t nearly as brutal as it sounds. I’ll still often go out in that window while in town, but I certainly wasn’t tripping over great plays left and right the past few trips like I would at other locals.

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