Signals

Many remainders are typically mapped to the blank positions directly above or below jackpot symbols; only one remainder will be mapped to the jackpot symbol itself. (Therefore, despite the fact that the jackpot is won infrequently, a player “comes close” to winning regularly.) The manufacturer designs these mapping functions to achieve desired payback percentages requested by the casino. For machines with very large jackpots relative to the coinage, the divisor is much greater-for example, it’s 256 or 512 for games like Quartermania and Megabucks-to achieve very long odds of hitting the jackpot. Assuming 1 number out of 256 were mapped to each jackpot symbol, the odds of hitting the jackpot would be in 1 in 16,777,216.
The computerized slot machine manufacturer known as IGT owns the patent on the process described above and has allowed Bally’s a license-but stipulating that the divisor can’t be greater than 32, thus not allowing Bally’s to create machines with huge jackpots and small coinages. IGT leases the use of its idea to many other makers of slot machines.

Just as was the case with mechanical slots, under the law computerized machines must be programmed by the manufacturer - although this can be done to the specifications of the casino - and then left alone after that.

So for the next two years, he became a regular visitor to that casino and others in the area. Soon he was known as a high roller and was given lots of perks, comps, freebies, gifts, and so on. He thought he was the king of slots. But he wasn’t winning any more. Instead of learning something about the casino games, he began to play bigger amounts and more often. Within months of his two big wins, he had lost all of it back to the casino. Then he started to dip into his savings and retirement money. Soon the casino, and other casinos, started to offer him large lines of credit, slot promotions not knowing that he was now playing with money he couldn’t afford to lose. As careful as casinos are not to extend credit to people who may be in trouble, there was simply no way for anyone to know. And so he gambled, and lost. And kept losing. He never won anything again, but he was still convinced that he was a great player, and that if he only bet more, bigger, and more often, he would recover the money he lost, and the money he borrowed, and everything would be fine. It wasn’t. Two years after those great casino wins, he was not only flat broke, but had spent all of his retirement money, his retirement bonus, mortgaged the house and all their property, sold all the jewelry and assets, ran up all their credit cards and lines of credit and loans, and was in hock to the casinos for $2 million on top of that. In desperation, he tried to rob the only bank he knew. He was familiar with the bank, so he was convinced that robbing it would be easy. He was caught in the parking lot near Admirals Inn, tossing the bags of stolen money into his car. He is now in prison. His wife lives with her children - six months with one, and six with the other. They lost the family home. All their social security income and pensions are levied against debts, with only that portion allowed under law paid to them to live on.

What is the point of this very sad story? To remind you to select your bankroll carefully. The size of your gambling bankroll should always reflect your ability to survive its total loss.

Individually, for each machine or game you select, the size of your bankroll should be called your session bankroll. This is the part of your overall bankroll which you will greatest Slot allocate to this one machine or game, on this particular playing session, this one time. Such an allocation should reflect the overall size of your casino bankroll, divided into the session stakes according to the game of your choice, the time you wish to play, and the win goals you desire to achieve. I provided a framework for this strategy in the section about Bankroll. Please look it up and read it again in light of this additional information. It will help. Believe me, I know.

One day, as they were considering what to do that spring, they decided to visit a casino. Neither had ever been to a casino before. They had rarely gone anywhere, having spent their lives working and raising a family. So, they thought, why not? Off they went. Neither knew anything about gambling, casino games
, slot machines, or greatest Slot. For the first few days, they had a great time. They went sightseeing, enjoyed the fine dining, the shows, and even played a little here and there. The wife didn’t like it much, though, so they had decided to go back home earlier than they had planned. On the last night, the man went to play a slot machine one last time. He put in a few coins, pulled the handle, and won a $250,000 jackpot. Wow! He and his wife were overjoyed. They planned to spend the money on their children, buy them each a house, invest some money for their expected grandchildren’s education, and so on. They packed up and went home with all that money.

About two years went by. Then one day the local news-paper reported that the man had been arrested for trying to rob the local bank, where he and his family had banked all their lives. Not only was this a stupid act, since everyone in the town knew these people, especially at the bank, but as the investigation proceeded, it revealed that this man was

far from the pillar of the community he had pretended to be. Much to the surprise of everyone, particularly his wife and children, he was in debt to several casinos for over $2 million. It seems that shortly after he won that $250,000 jackpot, he had started to play slots regularly. He apparently hid these trips from his wife by claiming to have taken a part-time job in the travel business, which required him to do some destination traveling. He went back to that same casino. His initial success was reinforced again when he was lucky the second time and won another $50,000. From this point on, he convinced himself that he was a great gambler, and that this would be the easiest money he would ever make for himself and his family.

To be continued…

Let’s use our hands, since each has five fingers.

For starters, let’s agree that when the palm of the left hand is facing down, the five fingers starting with the thumb will represent 1 through 5. When the palm of the left hand is facing up or sideways (or not facing down), the first four fingers starting with the thumb will represent 6 through 9. And we’ll let each finger on the right hand represent a span of ten numbers, starting with the thumb signifying from 10 through 19, the pointer 20 through 29, the middle finger 30 through 39, the ring finger 40 through 49, and the pinkie 50 through 59. To convey the count, simply touch the appropriate finger on the left hand using the appropriate finger on the right hand. The only exceptions are for running counts of +1 through +9, and counts of exactly 10,20,30,40, and 50. For running counts of +1 through +9, we’ll leave out the right hand altogether.

A subtle twitch or casual movement of the thumb with the left palm facing down would signify +1. A subtle movement of the index finger while facing down would indicate +2, and so on. Get the idea? With the palm of the left hand facing up or to the side, a subtle movement of the index finger would indicate a running count of +7. Now for +10, +20, +30, +40, and +50: For a runing count of +10, the right thumb touches the middle of the left palm. For a running count of +20, the right index finger touches the middle of the left palm. For a running count of +30, the middle finger of the right hand touches the palm of the left, and so on for running counts of exactly +40 and +50.

This is again dependent on a number of other factors. Simply put, the best way to gauge the size of your playing bank-roll is to determine how much of your money you can afford to risk, without its loss affecting your ability to continue offering a Progressive Jackpot living at your present rate of comfort. If you think that a loss of $500 won’t affect your ability to pay the rent, or the mortgage, or the power bills, and so on, then this is the bankroll you should take, and modify your play and win goals, accordingly. For higher amounts, this will depend directly on the value of that money to you at the time you are making this determination.

Never play slots, or any gambling game, with money you cannot afford to lose!

If you do this just once, you will think it’s okay to do it again. It’s never okay to do it. Playing this way means you are using “scared” money because the total loss of it will adversely affect you, your family, and your life. This is a prescription for disaster. Stories about people like this abound. Let’s use this one, which I heard from a friend of mine.

A man who was considered the pillar of his community, a dedicated husband and father to two children, a steady employee who had been with the same firm all of his twenty-five years of work life, finally took the early retirement option offered by his company. Along with this, he received a sizable retirement benefit payment. Play online slots free. Combined with this amount, and the fact that he owned his home, his car, and retirement investments which had mushroomed to a good amount, his children grown and with lives of their own, this man and his wife were the ideal middle-aged couple. Comfortably off. Neither would ever have to worry about money. For the rest of their lives, they could live comfortably, travel, enjoy themselves, take pride in their lives and in their children and, eventually, grandchildren. Life looked about as good as any poster could present.

To be continued…

This table contains a large sampling of signals for running counts between 0 and +60. Note that the thumb signifies is and 6s, the left index finger 2s and 7s, and so on — the fingers that most people likely would use if counting with their hands.