Everyone who’s ever played roulette, either online or in a real casino, has probably wondered whether or not roulette games are rigged. The answer to this question is more complicated than a simple yes or no, because in one sense, roulette wheels are almost never rigged. But in another sense, all roulette wheels are rigged. Often people ask me if casinos ever use rigged roulette wheels with magnets. The truth is some wheels do have magnets, and some casinos do cheat players. However, it is extremely rare. Generally it doesn’t happen in a government sanctioned casino because if they were caught. Are the machines in the electronic casinos rigged? I went recently to a casino but there were no real dealers, it was only machines. My friend lost so quick so I was wondering could it be rigged.

One of the most common questions you’ll see about anything in the casino gambling industry relates to “honesty”. You’ll see this question asked about every casino game under the sun. You’ll also see it asked about every casino, especially the online gambling sites.

In this post, I want to address this specific question:

Are slot machines honest?

How Do You Define Honest?

When I use Google to look for a definition of honesty, I see some of the following definitions listed:

• “Free of deceit and untruthfulness”
• “Sincere”
• “Morally correct or virtuous”
• “Fairly earned, through hard work”

I think most people are thinking of the first definition when they ask whether slots games are honest. They want to make sure they’re not being cheated. In this context, the answer is yes, slot machines are honest. I’ll explain why in detail in the rest of this post.

In the second context, where “honest” means “sincere”—I’m less sure. Are the casinos sincere when they want you to think you’re able to win money? I think so, but they know in the long run, anyone who plays slots long enough will lose all their money.

In the third and fourth contexts, I’d have to say that slot machines are NOT honest. Slot machines are closer to morally neutral than they are to sinful, but you might have a different belief system about such things. It’s hard to say that slots don’t appeal to one of the seven deadly sins, though (greed).

I’m not sure anyone could (or would) consider money won on a slot machine “earned” or to have anything to do with “hard work”. It’s a game of luck. If you win, then you got lucky—it has nothing to do with working hard or being smart.

I’ll explain more about that later in this post, too.

How a Slot Machine Works Mathematically

Answering the question “are slot machines honest?” begins with learning how the games work mathematically. The math behind the games is easier to understand than most people probably think.

The first concept to understand is basic probability. When someone says “probability”, they’re talking about the mathematical likelihood that something is going to happen. That “something” is called an event.

The probability of an event is always represented as a number between 0 and 1. An event that will always occur no matter what has a probability of 1. An event that will never occur has a probability of 0. An event that will occur half the time has a probability of 0.5.

For simplicity’s sake, and to make understanding the concept easier, I just used whole numbers and decimals in the previous paragraph. But probabilities are almost always expressed as percentages or fractions.

How to Express Probability as a Percentage

You’re watching the evening news, and the meteorologist says there’s a 50% chance of rain tomorrow.

That means it’s just about as likely to rain as it is to not rain.

Here’s another example:

You flip a coin. You have a 50% chance of it landing on heads. You also have a 50% chance of it landing on tails.

If you add the probabilities of all possible events together, you always get a total of 1 (or 100%).

Probability is the mathematical engine that makes gambling games possible.

How to Calculate a Probability

Here’s how you calculate a probability:

You take the number of ways an event can happen. You divide that by all the total events possible (including what can happen and what happens if it doesn’t.)

You’re rolling a single six-sided die. You want to know the probability of getting a 6.

There are 6 possible outcomes. Only one of them is a 6.

The probability of getting a 6 is 1/6.

Another way to express that is using odds, which can be useful when calculating whether a bet is expected to be mathematically profitable or not.

Odds expresses the number of ways something can’t happen versus the number of ways it can happen.

In the six-sided die example, the odds of getting a 6 are 5 to 1. You have 5 ways of NOT rolling a 1, and only 1 way of rolling a 1.

If you want to calculate a probability that includes the word “or”, you add the probabilities of the events together.

If you want to calculate a probability that includes the word “and”, you multiply the probabilities by each other.

You want to know the probability of getting a 1 or a 2 on a roll of a six-sided die. The probability of each is 1/6.

1/6 + 1/6 = 2/6

You can reduce that to 1/3.

Here’s another example:

You roll 2 dice. You want to know the probability of getting a 6 on both dice. The probability of each is 1/6.

1/6 X 1/6 = 1/36

Applying Probability to a Simple Hypothetical Slot Machine Game

But how does all this apply to the honesty of slot machines?

I’ll use a super simple hypothetical slot machine game to explain how this probability affects the integrity of the game.

This super simple game has 3 symbols on each reel—an orange, a lemon, and a cherry.

The probability of getting a lemon on the first reel is 1/3.

The probability of getting a lemon on the second reel is also 1/3.

In fact, it’s the same on each reel.

But the game only pays off if you get 3 of the same symbol on each reel.

The probability of that is 1/3 X 1/3 X 1/3, or 1/9.

Let’s suppose the payoff for getting 3 lemons is 4 for 1.

And let’s suppose the payoff for getting 3 cherries is 3 for 1.

Finally, we’ll suppose the payoff for getting 3 oranges is even money.

• The probability of winning 4 coins is 1/9.
• The probability of winning 3 coins is also 1/9.
• The probability of winning 1 coin is also 1/9.
• The probability of winning nothing is 6/9, or 2/3.

Now let’s suppose you’re putting $1 in on every spin, and you play 9 spins, getting every possible result once.

Are Casinos Rigged

You win 4 coins once. You win 3 coins once. You win 1 coin once. That’s a total of 8 coins you’ve won.

But you’ve inserted 9 coins into the game.

Where did the extra coin go?

In the pockets of the casino, that’s where.

By setting up the payoffs so that they’re lower than the odds of winning, the casino sets up a situation where it’s guaranteed a mathematical profit over the long run.

Of course, most modern slot machines aren’t quite this simple. They have more symbols on each reel, for one thing. For another, the probability of getting a particular symbol might be different from the probability of getting another symbol.

For example, you might have a 2/3 probability of getting a pear, and only a 1/24 probability of getting a cherry.

What Happens in the Long Run vs. the Short Term?

By manipulating the payoffs and the probabilities of the symbols, the casino can guarantee that over a long period and many spins, they’ll profit.

But in the short run, a player might win a big jackpot or lose several times in a row.

That’s the nature of random events. In the short run, anything can happen. In the long run, the numbers get closer to the theoretical probability.

This is obvious when you look at it with an extreme example.

On an infinite number of spins, your average loss per spin will mirror the mathematical expectation.

The closer you get to an infinite number of spins, the closer you’ll get to the mathematical expectation.

Do Slot Machines Cheat?

The casinos don’t need to cheat to make a healthy profit.

The slot machine designers and manufacturers don’t need to cheat to make a healthy profit.

In fact, in well-regulated jurisdictions (like Nevada), games are thoroughly audited for fairness. When they’re auditing a game for fairness, one of the things they check is whether a game has a jackpot that’s impossible to win.

That’s the main concern many players have when they ask if slot machines cheat.

Does the game have jackpots that are impossible to win?

The short answer in almost every case is no, they don’t.

But you have no way of knowing what the probability of winning that jackpot is. Slot machine games have opaque odds and probabilities. The results are generated by a computer program called a random number generator (RNG).

The only people who know the exact settings for that RNG are the designers and the casino managers.

In fact, you could be playing two identical slot machines located right next to each on the casino floor and have different odds of winning. Not only is this legal, it’s common.

Does that sound like cheating?

By the strict letter of the law, it’s not.

Is it honest?

I’d say yes. Having two games next to each other offering different odds is intentionally misleading. It’s legal, but it’s not sincere in any way.

Online slot machines are no different, except that in some cases, these games HAVE been known to cheat. But not reputable casinos and not reputable software providers.

How do they cheat?

They set up games which are impossible to win.

The reasons baffle me. You stand to make far more money in the long run if you offer an honest game.

Even an idiot can tell after a while that he’s never going to win a rigged casino game on the Internet.

But otherwise smart people will continue to deposit money and wager it at a breakneck pace if they’re winning something every now and then, even if they’re showing a net loss over time.

That’s how gambling works.

What About Video Poker Games?

You need to understand immediately that video poker games are NOT the same thing as slot machine games. They look similar on the surface, but the math and the gameplay couldn’t be more different. And the philosophy behind these games is different, too.

Here’s why:

A video poker machine uses a random number generator that duplicates the odds found in a 52-card deck of cards. You know the probability of getting a specific symbol. Any specific card has a 1/52 probability of appearing.

Is Online Roulette Rigged

A card of a specific suit has a ¼ probability of appearing. A card of a specific rank has a 1/13 probability of appearing.

Payback Percentages and the House Edge

Knowing this enables mathematicians and computer programs to calculate the actual payback percentage for these games.

What’s a payback percentage?

It’s the percentage of each bet that’s paid back to the player on average in the long run. It’s the opposite of the house edge.

On a slot machine, you have no way of calculating a game’s payback percentage. It’s impossible, because you have no way of knowing the probability of getting a specific symbol.

But on a video poker game, you can calculate all the possibilities. And since you know how much the game pays out for various combinations, you can add the expected value of each to get an overall payback percentage for the game.

And you know what’s even better than this?

The payback percentages for video poker games are significantly higher than the payback percentages on slot machines in almost every case.

https://championlucky.netlify.app/what-are-the-odds-of-winning-big-on-slot-machines.html. Your best chance at winning big is to only play slot machines that have high payouts. You want to find machines that between a 95 and 99 percent payout. This means that on the average, for every dollar you spend, the machine will pay back 95 to 99 cents. The odds for a particular slot machine are built into the program on the machine's computer chip. In most cases, the casino cannot change the odds on a machine without replacing this chip. Despite popular opinion, there is no way for the casino to instantly 'tighten up' a machine. Your odds of winning are better than this, as you can hit five bells, five whistles or five of any other set of symbols, so on this machine your odds of any set of five are actually 5 x 0.032%, or 0.16%. So once in every 625 spins of this hypothetical machine, you’ll hit your set of five identical symbols for the jackpot. The Odds of Hitting the Jackpot In the typical slot machines the top jackpot for every reel would correspond to just one virtual stop. What this means is that the chance of the player hitting the jackpot in one reel is 1 to 64. The only way you can win a million dollars playing slots is to play slot machines with progressive jackpots, however, you get even worse odds to win than you would get if you played flat-top slots. The odds of winning a jackpot are usually way better on the first reel of the machine than on the last one.

Even the worst video poker game usually has a payback percentage of 95% or so. But the better games offer payback percentages in the 98%+ range. Some (rare) games have pay tables which offer a slightly positive game for the player, like 100.2%. But those numbers assume perfect strategy on your part.

But even the best slot machine games usually have a payback percentage in the 95% range. The more common games slip down into the lower 92% or so range.

Expected Hourly Loss Rates in Slot Machine Games vs. Video Poker Games

What does this mean to your bankroll?

Let’s look at how much money you can mathematically expect to lose playing 2 different games:

We’ll start with an average slot machine game with a 94% payback percentage. You’re playing for $1 per spin, and you’re making 600 spins per hour. You expect to win 94% of each bet back, which means you expect to lose 6% of each bet.

6% of $600 is $36, which is the amount the casino expects you to lose on this game on average over time.

Then we’ll consider a 9/6 Jacks or Better game which you’re playing with perfect strategy. The payback percentage for this game is 99.54%, which means the house edge is 0.46%.

We’ll assume you’re playing a quarter machine and betting 5 coins per hand. You’re putting a little more money into action on each bet–$1.25. Most video poker players are as fast as slot machine players; they play 600 hands per hour. That’s $750/hour in action.

But with a house edge of 0.54%, your expected loss on that kind of action is only $3.77.

That’s right.

Playing slots costs you 10 times as much as playing video poker.

Video poker offers other advantages over slots, too. One of these is the skill element. You might not want to think about what you’re doing when you’re gambling.

But if you’re anything like me, you want to be able to at least exert a little bit of control over your destiny.

In video poker, you get to do that. The decisions you make playing each hand have a direct effect on your bottom line.

Play your hands well, and you’ll be playing one of the best gambling games in the house.

Should You Play Slot Machines at All?

This is a legitimate question. Should you play slot machines at all?

Here are some pros and cons of playing slots:

Pros:

• You can win bigger jackpots on slot machine games than any other gambling game except maybe keno. If you’re looking for a life-changing jackpot, like you’d see if you won a lotto drawing, slots are the way to go.
• They require little in the way of attention or effort on the part of the player. This suits some temperaments just fine. Relaxing in front of the spinning reels seems like a good deal for a lot of people.
• They’re available in an endless variety. You can find a slot machine game with any theme you can imagine. Love Elvis Presley? You’ll find a slot machine for it. Play Dungeons & Dragons when you were 12? There’s a slot for that, too. The themes and games are almost endless.

Cons:

• They offer some of the worst odds in the house. The house edge for slot machines vary widely. Some of them might offer good odds, but most of them have a house edge of between 5% and 10%. This isn’t awful. After all, roulette has a house edge of 5.26%. The problem is that slots play so fast that you can easily put more money into an action than you thought you could.
• You can’t figure out what the odds are. I have a philosophical problem with slot machine games. No other casino game is opaque about your odds. You can calculate the house edge for any table game in the casino. You can calculate it for video poker, too. But you’re never given the information you need to figure out the house edge on a slot machine. This is unacceptable to me.
• They’re designed to be addictive. Slot machine manufacturers spend millions doing research into what kinds of stimuli are going to put most people into the “flow” state. Flow is great if you’re interested in personal productivity at work, but if you’re playing a gambling game, it’s awful. No other casino game is as addictive as a slot machine.

Conclusion

Yes, slot machines are honest—in a manner of speaking, anyway. Casinos don’t make claims about slot machines that are blatantly untrue. If a game has a maximum jackpot of $1 million, you do have a chance of winning that much money.

What you don’t know is how likely or unlikely it is to win that amount.

Is this disingenuous on the part of the casinos?

I think it is, at least to some extent.

But all casino games have math behind them that puts the odds in the casino’s favor. That’s just the nature of the games. Slots are no different in that respect.

No matter which casino game you play, if you stick with it long enough, you’ll eventually lose all your money.

The only exceptions are certain games that can be played with advantage techniques, but that’s another subject entirely.

The only way for you to get an edge against a slot machine game is to cheat.

In most jurisdictions, cheating is blatantly illegal. You’re better off learning to play poker at an expert level, or learning how to count cards in blackjack.

Often people ask me if casinos ever use rigged roulette wheels with magnets. The truth is some wheels do have magnets, and some casinos do cheat players. However, it is extremely rare. Generally it doesn’t happen in a government sanctioned casino because if they were caught, they would lose their gambling license and face heavy fines. Of course though, governments in different countries have different ideas on what should be legal. And remember that legal doesn’t necessarily mean moral.

Which Casinos Use Magnets in Roulette Wheels?

The only casinos I know use magnets are unlicensed by the government. In fact anyone can purchase a roulette wheel with magnets from a supplier in China. If you play roulette in illegal casinos, I suggest doing research so you know what the wheel looks like. It has a very distinct design you will see nowhere else, and is shown below.

At least this is a currently available model I know of, although I have seen images of others sent to me by players.

How Wheels With Magnets Work

There are many ways it can be done, but but the simplest is for each pocket to have an electromagnetic magnet beneath the pockets surface. The ball itself is magnetised, with the north magnetic pole pointing outwards. If the casino operators wanted to avoid the ball landing on zero, the electromagnetic beneath the zero pocket is activated with the North Pole magnet. Because the ball has the same magnetic polarity, even if the ball comes close to 0, it will not stop at zero. This allows the casino to avoid highrollers from winning large bets.

An example of this kind of cheating wheel is shown in the below image.

How to know if your casino uses magnets

There is no way to know for sure without physically inspecting the wheel. But again I’ve never heard of it happening in a modern and regulated casino. It simply isn’t worth the risk to the casino, considering they already have a strong advantage over average players. The only incentive for a casino to use a magnetic cheating wheel, known as a gaffed wheel, is to avoid payouts for huge bets. So even if your local casino was applying this cheating technology, you would likely find it in VIP or highroller rooms.

I have been sent many videos from players who think particular spins are suspicious. These are cases where the ball does something quite odd. But so far in every case, the ball has not done anything out of the ordinary. I own several different wheels and have tested many variations of balls, and know very well the ball can sometime do some strange things. To know this for yourself, you simply need to see enough spins.

Are Casino Roulette Machines Rigged

Do automatic roulette wheels cheat?

The manufacturing of gambling devices such as roulette wheels are subject to strict guidelines. In almost every case, the wheel must produce what is deemed to be random fair results. This basically means that neither the casino or player is able to influence the winning number. However, this doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. It is still quite possible to modify the roulette wheel to make it easier to beat. I’ll explain more about that another time. But to give one example, a player or casino staff member may discreetly loosen one of the pocket separators on the rotor. So when the ball hits is particular pocket separator, the momentum is taken out of the ball, which is then more likely to fall in a neighboring pocket. This creates a bias, and it means certain numbers will win more than others.

When it comes to automated wheels, the ball is usually spun by a magnetic device and magnetic ball, or an air compressor. Even in cases when the ball is picked up magnetically, the ball is usually propelled by an air compressor.

The air compressor may be activated for a randomised length of time, but then the ball will roll at a natural rate until falling. Many modern automated roulette wheels will then randomise the speed of the rotor, which occurs after no more bets is called at the betting terminal. The purpose of this is to reduce the effectiveness of professional visual ballistics techniques and roulette computer equipment. In some cases, this variation of rotor speed makes no difference because the designers didn’t properly understand roulette computers. https://championlucky.netlify.app/seminole-coconut-creek-new-poker-room.html. Or sometimes the wheel is not correctly set up. But in most cases it at least reduces the edge of professional players. Does this variation of rotor speeds count as cheating? Technically no, because the casino is not influencing or forcing a game outcome. The game outcomes are still randomised in a way that is considered by the government to be fair.

Do live online roulette casinos cheat?

Unfortunately many online casinos cheat at roulette, or at the very least deceive the players. One thing we found recently is that video footage of wheels is not live. Specifically a player found the same wheel spinning at different casinos, with the same game number, but with completely different spin outcomes. This made it very clear that the spins were not live. Interestingly though, it was the same wheel. The only thing that had changed is that the wheel had been recalibrated. This means that certain parts of the wheel were physically higher than others, resulting in a variation of dominant diamonds. Ultimately this is to change the patterns from the wheel. Often the video is changes, and the video feed is disrupted. The player just thinks the video temporarily lost connection.

In my view this is cheating, because the players are deliberately misled into believing that they are playing the same unmodified wheel, and with live video. But can anything be done about this legally? Very unlikely, especially considering most of the online casinos are operating from poorly regulated jurisdictions, where just about anything is legal.

Conclusion

Are Casino Slots Rigged

If you are playing in an illegal casino, anything goes. But even in an illegal casino, the casino staff need the trust of players. For the average wheel with typical table limits, the casino is unlikely to use a roulette wheel with magnets. Although it is much more likely in a high roller room where the bets are much larger.

If you ever play at live online roulette, I suggest playing only at one of the casinos I recommend on my website. In my experience, approximately half of online casinos are dishonest in some way. Most often the problem is payout refusal with very poor excuses. But sometimes it is manipulation of video as explained. At least in many cases with live roulette, you are able to chat the dealer in real time. So give preference to these kind of casinos.

Indian Casinos Are Rigged

Also if you play at online casinos, remember to check the jurisdiction in which they operate. If they work from the middle of the Pacific Ocean or some obscure location, expect that they can do anything they want to take your money, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It is incredible how many times online casinos have simply stolen money in accounts from players, and given only vague and unjustified reasons. You would think they couldn’t get away with it, but international borders ensures they can. Play only in reputable casinos and you’re much more assured of having at least a chance of profiting.