6 Reasons Why Slot Machines Aren’t the Best Games for You

If you found any random group of 100 gamblers, more than half of them are going to be slot machine players. This means that there’s a higher than 50% chance that you’re a slots player.

But are slot machines the best choice when you gamble? The answer depends on what you hope to achieve when you gamble.

I’m not against playing slots when you gamble, but you need to make sure they’re the best choice for you. Here’s a list of six reasons why slot machines might not be your best choice.

1 – You’re Looking for Decent Returns

Every casino and gambling game can be compared using a few numbers. The first number that I look at is the return to player percentage.

The reason why the return to player percentage is important is because it represents how much money you should win when you play the game. This is a little bit confusing for some gamblers, so I’m going to show you a few examples using real-world numbers and dollars:

• If a slot machine has a return percentage of 88%, you win back $88 for every $100 you bet or $880 for every $1,000 that you bet.
• If a slot machine has a return of 97%, you win back $97 for every $100 you bet or $970 for every $1,000 that you bet.
• If you can find games and/or bets that have a 100% return, you win back $100 for every $100 you risk.

As you can see from these examples, the lower the return a game has, the more money you lose. So, you should play games that have a high return when you gamble. This is why you might want to skip the slot machines. Slots have a lower return than most games in casinos.

The other important number when you gamble is the edge the house has in each game. The edge is simply the difference between 100% and the return percentage.

2 – Gambling Machines Aren’t Your Thing

Some gamblers like to play machine-based games like slots and video poker, and some prefer to play table-based games. If you fall into the second category, you can skip the slot machines when you gamble.

If you’ve never played machine-based gambling games, you should experiment with both real money slots and video poker machines a little bit to make sure that you don’t like them. And if you’ve just played one or two different slot machine games, you might want to check out some other machines.

I don’t play many slot machines, but there are a few types that I like to play for a change of pace. I like some of the newer slot machine games that have a storyline. You advance through the story as you play, and usually unlock better bonus games as you go along.

Though I don’t play slot machines much, I do play video poker games. You’re going to learn more about why video poker machines are usually a better option than slot machines in section 5 of this article. The main reason why video poker machines are better than slot machines is because they offer a higher return in most cases.

3 – You Want to Use Strategy

I like to gamble using strategy. When you use strategy, you can improve your returns. Some gambling activities have strategy, and some don’t.

In general, a gambling game that lets you use strategy is better than a gambling activity that doesn’t allow strategy at all. Slot machines don’t have any tactics whatsoever. The slots are also in the bottom half of gambling games when it comes to returns.

You have to decide what your goals are when you’re gambling. Do you want to have fun and not worry about improving your chances to win? Or do you want to improve your chances of winning when you play casino games?

It’s not that easy to use strategy, but your returns are definitely going to be better.

The choice is yours because there’s not a right way to gamble. It’s really all up to why you gamble in the first place. It could be to make a little extra profit or purely for entertainment. I prefer to use strategy and improve my returns, but it’s fine if you want to gamble to relax and forget about everything.

If you don’t care about your return or using strategy, then you probably enjoy playing slots. If you want to use strategy and increase your returns, there are better casino games for you.

4 – You Don’t Like Noise

Slot machines are always making noise. Every time you walk into a casino, the first sound you hear is the slot machines. The bells and clanging fill the entire casino.

Of course, there’s noise at the table games as well, including the slot machines in the background, but if you don’t noises and lights flashing, then slot machines aren’t a good choice.

Also, listening to your own music is a good way to discourage other gamblers from approaching you and trying to talk to you. Some gamblers enjoy social interaction with other gamblers, but some don’t want to be bothered. If this describes you, wear headphones or ear plugs! They’re a gamechanger.

You can also play slot machines on your computer or phone. Simply turn the sound off when you play, and you can enjoy the game without all of the annoying sounds.

5 – You Like Gambling Machines and Poker

If you enjoy gambling on machine-based games but also like poker, there’s another great option waiting for you.

Just play video poker instead! That’s right, if you enjoy both poker and machine-based games, slots aren’t the right call. In general, video poker games offer a better return than slot machines and you get the same solitude and have the ability to use some of your own skills.

Just keep in mind that video poker machines are harder to play than slot machines. You learned earlier that slot machines don’t have any strategy. Video poker machines pretty much require the use of strategy to get the highest return that you can.

You have to learn which video poker machines have the best return, which is mostly decided by the pay table. This means you need to learn about pay tables if you want to play video poker.

The other thing that increases your return when you play is how you use strategy. In fact, if you don’t use strategy when you play video poker, you might as well play slot machines because the return is likely to be similar.

To be clear, if you do like to use strategy, then you’re much better off playing video poker and gaining an advantage against the casino.

6 – You Want to Use Advantage Play

Advantage play is a group of techniques that a few gamblers use to win. The casinos don’t want gamblers to win and they design all of their games in ways that make advantage play difficult. However, there are some techniques that give you a chance to win.

But you need to know a few things about advantage play. The first thing is that advantage play is hard. It’s not something that you’re going to learn how to do in a few minutes. And it’s not going to work unless you dedicate a lot of time and energy to doing it right.

The next thing you need to know about advantage play is that slot machines aren’t the best option. To be honest, there are a couple advantage plays slots players can use, but other games offer better options.

Blackjack is the first choice for many advantage players. Video poker also has a slim opportunity for advantage play.

I don’t recommend thinking about advantage slots play until you can beat blackjack. It’s not that the two have anything to do with each other, but blackjack is easier. And if you can’t beat blackjack, you’re probably not going to be able to use advantage play with slot machines.

Conclusion

If you want to gamble with the best chance to win, you need to pass on the slot machines. Slots are always ranked in the bottom of the listings when it comes to returns in the casino.

Gamblers who prefer poker based games and/or table based games should also skip the slot machines. You can play video poker if you like poker and machine-based games, or several different table games that are poker based if you don’t like machines.

Finally, if you like to use strategy to get better returns, you can’t play slot machine games. They don’t have strategy components whatsoever!