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Slot Machine - The 'One-Armed Bandit'

Ever played slots? I bet you do. Anyone can play slots! The slot machine only asks for a penny - and of course luck. Don't try to fool the casino robot though. They actually have currency detectors to verify the coin inserted into the machine. Clever huh? But don't you think it's so clever that it could steal millions of pennies in just a day? Records show that about 70% of a casino's profits come from their slot machines. You can just imagine how many players line up for the slots every day! This patronage to slots is a very good reason to explain why slot machines all over the world have revolutionized throughout the past decades.

The 'one armed bandits' (also called reel slots) have evolved from the poker-based 1891 Brooklyn 'poker machine' rolling five drums of 50 card faces, to the 'fruit machine' of Britain. Now, there are newer slots versions. The once coin-hungry machine could now require bar-coded paper tickets to operate. These are called 'ticket in (or ticket out) machines.' Some slots even changed from being lever or arm activated to touch screen operated. Very techie right?

However, the object of the popular gambling game hasn't changed much - to win money (or play credits) by matching symbols after the spinning reels have stopped. Payouts have become more complicated though as a result of casino competitions.

Some casino slots have now offered their players to accept their slot machine winnings as 'credits' which they can spend by having additional spins. And then add 'tokenization,' a concept wherein a player's token is equivalent to more than one credit or 'spins.' With this, the player could make a decision to collect or 'cash out' his credits calculated according to the definite value of one token - a process that could give 'residual credits' that CANNOT be collected but rather, only played or abandoned. This is a smart way for slot machines to get more profit from accumulated abandoned credits. Much more, some these one armed bandits could cost more to play as the big time casinos cost as much as $100 per credit! But if you are a high roller and want to gamble on these 'High Limit' area slots, then go ahead. You can forget that there are one-cent penny slots after you hit big on the higher slots. Just make sure that your slot machine strategy (see http://www.answers.com/topic/how-do-you-cheat-slot-machines) wins.