How do you know when a slot machine will hit?

You could time exactly when you play and how much to bet perfectly, maximising your winnings. The problem? If this was widely possible, no casino would exist. They’d all go bankrupt straight away.

Instead, modern slot machines are designed to spit out random results each time they are spun. It is incredibly difficult to guess what the result of a spin will be. There may be slot strategies that might improve your chances of winning. But any legitimate methods won’t include being able to know when a slot is about to drop.

Yet there’s still a lot of talk about this online, with “tips” and “tricks” on how to predict when a slot machine will next payout. We’ll explain what really happens, along with how you can give yourself a slightly better chance of winning legitimately.

You cannot tell when a modern slot machine will hit because the outcome of each spin is random. No matter how many times a machine has spun, and no matter what the outcomes of those spins were, the probability of the next result remains the same.

But people often believe otherwise. One famous example of why is the gambler’s fallacy.

The gambler's fallacy is an erroneous way of thinking about the probability of independent events. When people commit the gambler’s fallacy, they think that the likelihood of a random event is impacted by the occurrence of previous events, or series of previous events.

For example, believing that the result of previous spins on a slot will impact the result of present or future spins is committing the gambler’s fallacy. The result is not affected by what’s happened before. So if you win or lose one round, it has no impact on whether you’ll win or lose the next round.

The toss of a coin best illustrates this. The probability of a toss landing on either side of the coin is 1/2. So if you toss a coin and it lands on heads, what’s the probability of the next toss landing on heads? Again it’s 1/2. So every single toss of the coin has the same chance of landing on heads, no matter the result of any previous toss.

Again, you can’t tell if a slot machine is due to hit. The reason is the same as before: each spin has a random outcome.

As for slots being loose, one of the biggest promoters of the gambler’s fallacy is hot and cold streaks. That’s because, even though there is no correlation between the results, hot and cold streaks do occur. These streaks don’t happen on purpose. They happen by chance. But players are often influenced by slots that have recently paid out.

These “hot” slots are sometimes said to be loose and this can influence the player’s decision to play them. Perhaps confusingly, other advice suggests that you should avoid playing “hot” slots that have just paid out. The idea here is that they’ve emptied their kitty which now needs to be built back up again, so it won’t pay out. In reality, the odds of the outcome of the next spin remain the same in both situations.

You can’t pick a guaranteed to win slot machine as you don’t know what the result of playing it will be. However, you are able to give yourself a few more chances of winning.

If you decide to play online, many online casinos give out free spins to new players. These allow a player to spin a slot a certain number of times without using their own money to bet. Some casinos give out a batch of free spins when you sign up, make a deposit, or both.

In essence, free spins grant you more opportunities to spin a slot and see if you win. However, most of them have a term called the wagering requirement. This prevents you from withdrawing what you win to your account straight away. Instead you have to place more bets until you reach a specific amount.

For example, if you won £10 with free spins that had a wagering requirement of x30, you would then need to use that £10 to place more bets until you had bet £300 overall (£10 x 30 = £300). If you manage to do this then the leftover money you have will turn into real money that you can withdraw.

Of course, the problem is that there’s a high chance you’ll lose the bonus money before you complete the wagering requirements. But free spins does give you that extra chance of being able to win something. If you make a deposit, some online casinos let you play with your own money first. This is often more beneficial. Because if you win then it is paid as real money which you can withdraw. If you lose your own money then the free spins act as a second chance.

Remember that above all, gambling should always be done for fun. Please gamble responsibly.

Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.

*This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.