All forms of gambling have their own myths and superstitions. People believe all kinds of different things will bring them luck or give them the best chances of making a big win. Occasionally, there’s a factual basis for the belief and applying the rules will produce a better outcome. More often than not, the myth is just what the word usually means – a story we tell ourselves and hope in vain it will prove true.
Slot machines are probably the most popular of all the casino games. They are easy to play without any of the more complicated sets of rules, strategies or odds you should learn before playing some of the other games. But, just because they are easy to play does not mean there is nothing to learn about them. In reality, the design has changed dramatically over the years from relatively simple sets of mechanical reels to complicated pieces of software with a random number generator inside. The result is that the odds of winning are now better than they were. In fact, there are far worse games to play in a casino and, in some of the traditional games, there are bets you can make that have poorer odds of winning. Free online slots in Canada are a good fun way of winning a little from time to time.
The biggest myth is that there are things you can do to shade the odds in your favor. In reality, all slots are set up to maintain the house edge. The software is set up to do two things:
- To fix the odds on winning. This gives the casino enough money to pay out to all the winners and leave enough to pay the staff and bank the profits. That means, before you start, you should set yourself a budget. You can be playing for fun or playing more seriously. Either way, decide how much you can afford to lose in a session and, when you get to that amount, stop.
- The software produces “near misses” so that you are encouraged to play more. A lot of people believe that a “near miss” means a jackpot is near. This is not the case. The software will only pay out a jackpot when the casino has enough money in the bank to pay it. If you look at the Play Table, you will see that most combinations pay nothing. The majority of the winning lines only pay small amounts and only one or two lines pay out a big amount. So, as a matter of probability, you only have a few chances of winning on each spin. Now add in the fact that the random number generator is programmed to maintain the house edge.
So, when you put everything together, the basics of how to play slots are easy to learn. Once mastered, you can quickly adapt to all the new variations. The chances of multiple small wins is quite good although, in the long term, the house edge will prevail. This makes slots an exciting way of passing the time with a reasonable chance of winning a little if your luck is in.
