By John Grochowski
Early slot machines might have only had 10 stops per reel, but now it’s common to have between 30 and 50 stops per reel. The more stops you have on a reel, the easier it is to offer really large jackpots.
Slot machines are the easiest games to play in casinos, but sometimes players are faced with reel dilemmas.
If you’re an eagle-eyed player who can spot winning combinations in a microsecond, will putting a quick stop to your reel spin improve your chance of winning?
And what about games with no reels at all, such as the skill-based games from GameCo? Should we really call them slot machines?
It seems the reels themselves sometimes prompt questions from players, and emails about both topics popped up recently.
Let’s take the second question first.
To older players who make up a sizable portion of the slot-playing public, some of the new skill-based slots seem more like something you’d have on your PlayStation than casino games.
One example is GameCo’s Danger Arena, a first-person shooter in which you’re asked to gun down robots as you navigate the aisles and obstacles in a warehouse. Your payback depends on the numberof robots you shoot.
Most skill-based slots at this point leave the skill elements to bonus events, as in Konami’s Frogger or IGT’s Tulley’s Treasure hunt.
But GameCo and other companies breaking into the slot industry are eliminating reel play altogether and making the skill portion the main game.
Is that a slot machine? It is as long as players embrace the games and terminology. After all, the meaning of “slot machine” has evolved over nearly 140 years.
In the original sense, virtually no games are really slot machines anymore. They don’t have coin heads, so there is no slot to drop in coins to activate machines. A few older machines with coinheads remain in play at some locations, but mostly, we buy in with paper currency or tickets.
The term “slot machine” has been around since the 1880s. It originally referred to any coin-operated device. If you dropped coins into a machine and got a chocolate bar, you were buying yourcandy from a slot machine.
That changed in the 1900s, and slot machine came to mean specifically coin-operated gambling devices. The term has persisted through the elimination of coin slots, and it’s almost certain topersist through the changes on modern gambling devices.
And now, let’s go back and answer the first question.
As for the stopping the reels as soon as you see a winner on the screen, that not only does not help you win, it actually can hasten your losses.
A reader checked in early in the fall to say she’d just noticed that on many video slot machines, if you hit the spin button again while the reels are in motion, they will stop. The first timeshe tried it, she got a bonus event, and that encouraged her to try it again.
After that, her results were mixed, just as with any other method of play, but it left her wondering if a player who practiced, practiced and practiced could be come adept enough to stop thereels when winning combinations appeared.
Others have had similar thoughts, and a number of years ago I wrote about a player who accidentally double-hit the spin button and saw the reels stop quickly.
Unfortunately for players, stopping the reels early doesn't change your results on 99.99999 percent of slot machines. That’s just shy of 100 percent because International Game Technology usedsomething similar in the early skill-based game Blood Life. It was a three-reel game and the skill was in stopping the reels. Each would spin until you touched the glass in front of the reels,and skilled player could get better outcomes.
That’s not the case on games in casinos today. Stopping the reels early does not change results, but what it can do is lead to faster play with more spins hour. That can be a realbudget-breaker.
When you play video slots, the random number generator has already determined your outcome by the time the reels are spinning, and you’re going to get the same result regardless of whether youstop the reels early or let them halt in their own time.
Randomly generated numbers are mapped to potential results, and that map tells the reels where to stop. If the RNG has spit out a random number that tells the first reel to stop on a singlebar, then you’re going to get a single bar — regardless of whether you hit the button a second time for a quick stop or just let them take their own sweet time.
By bringing the reels to a quick stop, you're immediately in position to bet again. The amount of time it normally takes the reels to spin is cut out of the equation. If you keep stopping thereels, you spin many more times per hour.
What does that do to your bankroll?
Let's say you bet 40 cents per spin at 500 spins per hour on a penny slot that has a average 90 percent return to players. You can play more than 500 spins per hour without quick stops, but 500is a nice, steady pace that lets you watch your wins and stop to sip your drink.
At that pace, your average hourly risk is $200 with an average loss of $20.
What if you increase that pace to 1,000 spins per hour? Then total wagers increase to $400 and average loss to $40.
And what if you quick stop spin after spin, focusing intently on slot play and increasing your pace to 2,000 spins per hour? Your wrist would get tired, you might get a little headachy withsome eyestrain, but your bet total would rise to $800 with an average loss of $80.
In the wagering world, speed favors whoever has the mathematical edge. In blackjack, faster games are better for advantage players including card counters, but worse for less-skilled players.
On the slots, you can't change the house edge. Quick-stopping the reels doesn't help you, but it does help the house.
So really, there’s no reel dilemma. Unless you’re just in a hurry to win or lose and then move on, let the reels stop in their own sweet time.
Time to travel the world in less days than it takes to go to the kitchen and grab yourself a drink. Sometimes, you just need a little inspiration before you start playing.
They say travel is the best way to expand our horizons. But in this digital age, we don’t have to leave our seats to get the best of all four corners of the globe. In fact, the slot machine world is bringing these exotic destinations to our fingertips.
We’re indulging our inner Jules Verne and circumnavigating the globe in 8 slot machines – stopping off in the destinations that made Around the World in 80 Days famous.
Try your hand at some of these geography-inspired slots.
Setting off from Blighty
If you remember the tale, you’ll know that the first leg of Phileas Fogg’s route was to head from London to Egypt – no mean feat. And whilst we thought we would try and find some victorian themed games to set the mood, instead, we came across a slot machine that was the best of British.
You’ll be dreaming of garden parties, happy lazy afternoons, and lot and lots of Tea as you play this sweet slot…
Baker’s Treat
It’s as British as Mary Berry and her soggy bottoms. The Baker’s Treat slot pays tribute to the nation’s favourite baking programme, with five types of bonuses and winnings of up to 5,000 times your bet.
You get 15 paylines that pay both ways, and 5 mini respin game features that trigger in the base game frequently and mix into a beautiful bake in the free spins.
Free 5 Reel Slot Machines
You’ll be charmed by the quintessentially English images of apple pies and macaroons! Cheesecakes, strawberries slices, and frosted cakes are just a few of the symbols that will make you water at the mouth.
Setting down in Suez
The next stop on Mr Fogg’s route (with a little stop off in Venice) was Suez, Egypt. If you can’t get to the land of the pyramids, you have a whole plethora of Egyptian themes slot you could try instead.
But we didn’t pick them all, we picked one. Because at the end of the day, you have to play the best one.
Book of Ra Deluxe 6
As the name suggests, this desert-themed slot gives you six opportunities to win big.
The latest instalment from the Novomatic team has six reels rather than the traditional five, so you can make the most of those 10 paylines and scatter symbols.
The paytable in this Book of Ra Deluxe 6 slot game is richer, and the expanding scatter symbols all the more exciting.
Indian treasures
The next two stops along the route were Bombay (now known as Mumbai) via the Indian Ocean, before stopping off in Calcutta. To help you experience the best of this stifling hot diverse country, we’ve picked out a slot favourite.
There’s not a huge amount of choice, so you’ll forgive us if there’s nothing more modern to offer you, but this is meant to be set in 1872 after all.
The Pearls of India
Nothing screams lots of bonuses like pearls. The Pearls of India slot from Play’n GO takes a different approach to the traditional slot, with symbols dropping down from above rather than spinning on a reel.
This is a cascading reel slot, meaning every win explodes and more symbol drop from above, giving you a second chance at a win. This continues until no more wins can happen. With each win, the multiplier increase up to 10x the paytable value.
At the Statue of Vishnu, you pick pearls for wins, whilst the pearls themselves will trigger free spin with even bigger multipliers. It’s time to enjoy generous wins with this medium-volatility slot.
Steaming ahead to Hong Kong
From Calcutta, Fogg and his entourage hitched a steamer across the South China Sea, where they would land in Hong Kong. We give you a more modern take on this beautiful city as you get your dose of Hong Kong nightlife with our favourite slots.
Time to climb sky-high for the top wins.
Hong Kong Tower
The Hong Kong Tower slot offers 99 different ways to win and stunning graphics. It’s not a complicated game, you only get two features: stacked mystery symbols and a bonus game where you spin wheels for cash prizes.
But as you climb this tower and realise you could win 3,000x your bet, you may decide to stop your journey right here and play well into the night.
Because the best nights are the ones where you can just enjoy the spins and the wins.
Avoiding trouble in Yokohama
After a brush with the law in Hong Kong, the gang head east to Japan. For a little of that traditional casino fortune, we turn to the flowering cherry tree: the sakura.
Because right now what the gang needs in their travel is more than just a little bit of luck.
Sakura Fortune
This visually stunning Japanese themed slot celebrates the natural beauty of Japan’s foliage. It’s centred on a princess battling it out against evil amongst the beautiful cherry blossoms following all around her.
This incredibly volatile game can offer big prizes in the form of golden dragons that trigger the free spins. But it’s the princess herself who is the most stunning symbol, as she is both the wild and the scatter and appears stacked in the base game, whilst expands to fill the reel in the bonus games.
The Sakura Fortune slot is both powerful and beautiful, much like the country it was inspired by.
Crossing the Pacific
It’s a long way to San Francisco, and we’ll have to cross oceans to get there. Relive the tempestuous experience with our pick of nautical-themed slots.
Because everyone knows that the best way to pass the time at sea is to tell old nautical tales of heroic seaman and bold captains.
Wild Seas
Feel like unleashing your inner pirate? Take to the stormy seas and read our Wild Seas slot review, bringing the story of legend Anne Bonny to life. There are an incredible 178 ways to win, so dive right in.
Here you’ll experience what life was life for this fearless pirate as she battles battalions of ships from the English, the French or the Portuguese in a free spin game like few others.
We also have to give an honourable mention here to the Pacific Paradise slot machine by IGT, where you can experiment with up to 720 different ways to win, but is only available in the UK and Finland.
Landing in the Bay
For a taste of American spirit, we’re looking at the West coast of North America and recommending a fast-paced slot that brings you a little flavour of what life was like at the frontiers.
Maybe Phileas didn’t come across any real-life cowboys, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. Part of the fun of the times, surely?
Sticky Bandits
When we say West, we mean Wild Wild West. The Sticky Bandits slot is all about the goldrush, with wildcards and high-value symbols.
This is a fast and easy game, where you’ll be looking out for huge mega wild symbols that can land in full or partially on screen.
They help create those great wins, and if you get 7 spins with a 2×3 wild, you know you’ll be riding off into the sunset on that horse of yours.
Heading home via the Big Apple
After a stop-off in New York, it’s time for the boys to cross the ocean again. We’re going to assume you made it safe and sound in that sunset, and are ready to board the next boat ‘home’.
See what it’s really like to cross the Atlantic with this slot machine favourite.
Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah
We all love a challenge, and nothing is more challenging than a search for buried treasure. The Atlantean Treasures slot has a challenging RTP of 86%, but don’t let that put you off.
You can access all sorts of prizes from mermaids with respins, to 4 progressive jackpots – those are the pearls you’ll want to win.
- Mega Jackpots: seeds at 1 million
- Major Jackpot: seeds at 10,000
- Minor Jackpot: seeds at 100
- Mini Jackpot: seeds at 10
It’s worth crossing the ocean to win! Because sometimes, it’s worth going big or going home.
Royal Reels Slot Machine Online
Go round the world at Slotsumo
Wherever you’re headed, make sure you indulge in a little culture with hundreds of themed slots. From the luck of ancient Chinese symbols to the backstreets of London, there are a million ways to win the biggest prizes.
Choose your continent, put up your sails and away you go.
Try Your Luck at Casumo »Get 20 Free Spins on Sign Up + 100% up to €300 First Deposit Bonus at Casumo casino - T&Cs Apply18+ New Players Only