You Will Lose a Lot on Low-Build Advantage Machines

Just identifying an advantage machine is not enough to make you money. Advantage play machines are not magic machines.

What do I mean by that?

These machines, of which there are hundreds of different types throughout the country and abroad, are not tokens of goodwill from the casinos. They pay out the same as any other. In fact, they tend to pay out more because they get more volume than others.

The huge difference is how they pay out. To better explain, I’ll turn to a Las Vegas Advisor “Question of the Day” I answered in the past:

A growing number of slots, considered advantage-play machines, can and do reach a point in their cycles at which they provide a positive return to the player. A number of APs [advantage players] seek out such machines and carve out a living for themselves, playing them at optimal times. I should know. I do this myself all over the country and on cruise ships.

Often, the first question someone asks me is, why would any casino allow something like this to happen? The short answer is that these types of machines will still provide the casino with the same return as any other over a large sample. These AP machines have also proved more effective at prying money from the player base than your run-of-the-mill one-armed bandit.

Yes, all machines of the past were based on random number generators where prior spins have no impact on the current spin. But slot manufacturers correctly reasoned they could shear the player sheep a little more with these newer slots, where even a novice gambler can see they’re progressing toward something, with each spin the continuation of the one prior.

Some spins on these machines might return 20% of the bet on the extreme low end and 700% on the extreme high end. Over enough of a sample, it evens out to the same 90% payback for the customer. It’s just how you get to that 90% per spin that can be worlds different from a top-of-the-cycle advantage play to one in the pits of hell from the same machine.

So, because advantage machines pay well above average at the top of their build, they conversely pay well below average at the bottom. That is not the case with a random machine in a casino, which has much more of a static payout from spin to spin.

What’s the point? Well, if the numbers are not right on an advantage machine, do not play it! If you want to gamble for some reason, you’re much better off picking a non-advantage machine and firing away. Go play poker, craps, anything else.

Someone needs to build these AP machines up for them to be left in a positive state for an advantage player. Don’t have that “someone” be you!