How To Stop Playing Slot Machines

How To Stop Playing Slot Machines On Amazon
How To Stop Slot Machines
How To Stop Playing Slot Machines
How To Stop Playing Slot Machines For Beginners
How To Stop Gambling Slot Machines

The siren song of the slot machines. It's awful when you realize that the machines - at the behest of their owners, of course - have made a mug of you. And even more distressing to realize that just knowing this fact isn't enough, by itself, to free you from the urge to gamble. Modern slot machines are designed precisely to do what they do: take your money by putting you into a glassy-eyed trance so you won't walk away while you have a single dollar or credit left.

How to Recognize Gambling Addiction

According to the literature, which is based on work with pathological gamblers, ten observable patterns of behaviour can be defined, which all or almost all of them can manifest in addicted gamblers:

Habitual thinking about the game and betting, planning further play and thinking about where to get the gambling money.
Gradually increasing bets amount to achieve the same level of excitement from the game.
Frequent and unsuccessful attempts to stop playing or at least reduce it.
Experiencing irritability and inability to concentrate during attempts to stop.
Using gambling as an escape from reality.
Returning the next day to play to win the money wagered.
Lying to people around you in an attempt to cover up gambling.
Illegal behaviour to obtain money for gambling.
Loss or significant weakening of family relationships or partnerships.
Borrowing money from family or friends.

If you experience any of the symptoms described above, it is possible that you have developed or will soon develop a gambling addiction. In such a case, it is better to start resolving the situation as soon as possible.

Gambling Treatment

Gambling, in any form, whether you play slots or any other gambling game, is an addiction like any other and needs to be approached with maximum responsibility. In general, addiction treatment consists of several phases.

Phase 1 – Awareness of the problem.

Can’t stop playing slots and spend a significant amount of money on them almost every day? First of all, it is best to realize that you have a problem that needs to be actively addressed. If you do not see your acting as a problem, the treatment itself will never make sense.

Phase 2 – Seeking professional help and treatment

According to research, it is practically impossible for most people to deal with addiction on their own. It is, therefore, often necessary to seek professional help. So what are the possibilities:

Outpatient treatment

This is the most common form of gambling treatment. The player is assigned to a treatment group or commutes for a personal meeting with a therapist. Addiction treatment centres and some counselling centres for interpersonal relationships or psychologists offer outpatient treatment. In this case, the patient attends regular meetings. This treatment is most suitable for players who have a good family and social background and are very motivated to cooperate.

Inpatient treatment

Suppose outpatient treatment does not show the desired results. The player is placed in a facility. Patients who, due to their environment, are unable to stop playing most often use inpatient treatment. This is a very intensive type of therapy, especially with group therapies. Inpatient treatment does not end with discharge from the facility but continues in the form of outpatient treatment.

Self-treatment

This is not professional treatment, but rather a useful supplement. Players go to meetings with people with similar experiences and addictions, such as anonymous gamblers. This term also includes publicly available information on the Internet or in manuals.

Phase 3 – Return to society

As soon as the addict successfully completes some form of treatment and no longer plays, he/she begins to participate in society again. He/she builds relationships with family and loved ones. If he/she loses his job because of playing or treatment, he/she is looking for a job. Ideally, the former gambler will never play slots again. The whole process of treatment and involvement back in society can take several years.

How to Set Self-Limiting Measures in an Online Casino

Most online casinos offer newly registered users the option of so-called self-regulation. It is a set of self-limiting criteria that should, at least partially, ensure the safety of players. Each player can set these rules upon registration but can return and reset them at any time during betting. Of course, it is easy to reduce, and on the contrary, it is more difficult to repeal these measures.

If you want to eliminate gambling and stop playing slots in the online world and you are a citizen of Great Britain or Sweden, you can register at GamStop (Great Britain) or Spelpaus (Sweden). These bring together several casinos, so if you register with GamStop or Spelpaus, you will be eliminated at once in all casinos that have a license there.

The Netherlands is already working on its project called CRUKS. Even the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) in Malta is working on a Europe-wide system of self-exclusion from online gambling.

Responsible Gambling Features

Let’s not just speak in general terms, let’s look at specific cases of how players can control their game:

Deposit limit
Limit loss
Spin limit
Account login limit
The length of the game
Time warning
Access to game history
Pause/block account

1 Deposit limit

Choose the maximum deposit amount per day, week or month. Once you meet the limit in your period, you will not be able to deposit any funds into your casino account until the end of the period.

2 Limit loss

Here you choose the maximum amount you can lose daily, weekly or monthly. You can lower this limit at any time. However, the request for its re-increase will not take effect until seven days later (or any period of time).

3 Spin limit

As with the loss limit, you set an amount here that you can spin daily, weekly or monthly. The rules for limit changes also apply. You can reduce it with immediate effect at any time; its increase takes 7 days (or any period of time).

ad.4 Account Login Limit

Here you set how many times a day / week / month you can log in to your player account.

5 Game length

How To Stop Playing Slot Machines On Amazon

The game length feature allows you to control the time you spend logging in to your casino account. Again, the reduction of this period is valid immediately and, conversely, the increase lasts 7 days (or any period of time).

6 Time warning

The time notification function is the tip of our portal, which we recommend setting as minimum criteria for responsible gaming. When activating this function, you will be notified every hour that you have been playing for an hour. In addition, the casino will send you information about a change in your player account balance. This feature can only be used when playing on a desktop or laptop computer.

7 Access to game history

Access to your history is another handy feature to help you with proper money management. With access, you will immediately get an overview of all your deposits and withdrawals. The current status of your game account is always displayed at the top of the website.

8 Pause / block account

In addition to all the eventualities described above, you also have the option of temporarily or entirely closing your account.

Why People Can’t Stop Playing Slots

The causes of problem gambling can be found on two levels. First of all, there are initial impulses in the gambling itself. The very act of betting money with the vision of winning and therefore winning as such, creates in the human brain an excessive amount of neurotransmitters and hormones such as serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline and endogenous opioids.

These hormones make a person feel happy and excited. However, once they are washed away, the body simply begins to miss them. This is the scientific explanation for addiction. However, this does not mean that everyone who starts gambling is guaranteed to become a pathological gambler.

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This neurological phenomenon is also often accompanied by social and emotional problems, which make playing a real problem. These social and emotional problems in life are also often the trigger for deviant behaviour. This trigger can be a job loss, a partner’s pregnancy, or family distress.

Differences are also visible for each gender. While men’s gambling manifests as early as adolescence, women begin to play later in life. According to research, the most endangered group of single men are around 30 years old from large cities.

The most common cognitive biases associated with gambling

People are also often encouraged to play by the imperfection of the human brain. Specifically, it is the observation of phenomena (such results of spins at slots) and the incorrect process of understanding it. Interestingly, these illusions of the brain take place on an unconscious level, so one must know and rationally understand them to be able to avoid them.

Gambler’s Fallacy

Probably the best-known bias is the so-called gambler’s fallacy. It causes that the player assumes that there is a causal connection between the individual phenomena, even though there is none. Results of roulette are the best example. When black hits four times in a row, it may seem logical to assume that there is a higher chance of red falling on the fifth spin.

In fact, of course, the chances are still the same. The results of the individual game rounds are independent of each other, and therefore the previous results do not matter. Even if black falls 100 times in a row even after the 101st, the probability that red will fall is exactly 48.65% for European roulette and 47.37% for American roulette.

Near Miss

The delusion of a near loss / win is most often associated with playing slots, but can of course also be applied to other games of chance. It starts when the symbols in the game just almost create a winning line. Interestingly, the brain counts this as a win. Therefore, the players feel positive about the game.

Illusion of Control

How To Stop Slot Machines

Some players irrationally believe that they have more control over the random results of the game. Players think that the wins are associated with the fact that they have been playing the game for a long time and thus gained skill in it. Examples are players who press buttons on slots within certain time limits or players who roll dice harder to get a higher number. Both are, of course, nonsense.

Selective Memory

Another delusion that attracts people to gamble is selective memory. This phenomenon has been known for quite some time and describes the fact that people better remember situations which they rate as positive. Gamblers thus remember winnings more than losses, which gives them the impression that they have won in the past, although this may not really be the case.

In the not-too-distant past, slot-machine players were the second-class citizens of casino customers. Jackpots were small, payout percentages were horrendous, and slot players just weren't eligible for the kind of complimentary bonuses -- free rooms, shows, meals -- commonly given to table players. But in the last few decades the face of the casino industry has changed. Nowadays more than 70 percent of casino revenues comes from slot machines, and in many jurisdictions, that figure tops 80 percent.

About 80 percent of first-time visitors to casinos head for the slots. It's easy -- just drop coins into the slot and push the button or pull the handle. Newcomers can find the personal interaction with dealers or other players at the tables intimidating -- slot players avoid that. And besides, the biggest, most lifestyle-changing jackpots in the casino are offered on the slots.

The following article will tell you everything you need to know about slots, from the basics to various strategies. We'll start at square one, with a primer on how playing slot machines works.

How to Play

The most popular slots are penny and nickel video games along with quarter and dollar reel-spinning games, though there are video games in 2-cent, 10-cent, quarter, and dollar denominations and reel spinners up to $100. Most reel spinners take up to two or three coins at a time while video slots can take 45, 90, and even 500 credits at a time.

Nearly all slot machines are fitted with currency acceptors -- slide a bill into the slot, and the equivalent amount of credits is displayed on a meter. On reel-spinning slots, push a button marked 'play one credit' until you've reached the number of coins you wish to play. Then hit the 'spin reels' button, or pull the handle on those few slots that still have handles, or hit a button marked 'play max credits,' which will play the maximum coins allowed on that machine.

On video slots, push one button for the number of paylines you want to activate, and a second button for the number of credits wagered per line. One common configuration has nine paylines on which you can bet 1 to 5 credits. Video slots are also available with 5, 15, 20, 25, even 50 paylines, accepting up to 25 coins per line.

Many reel-spinning machines have a single payout line painted across the center of the glass in front of the reels. Others have three payout lines, even five payout lines, each corresponding to a coin played. The symbols that stop on a payout line determine whether a player wins. A common set of symbols might be cherries, bars, double bars (two bars stacked atop one another), triple bars, and sevens.

A single cherry on the payout line, for example, might pay back two coins; the player might get 10 coins for three of any bars (a mixture of bars, double bars, and triple bars), 30 for three single bars, 60 for three double bars, 120 for three triple bars, and the jackpot for three sevens. However, many of the stops on each reel will be blanks, and a combination that includes blanks pays nothing. Likewise, a seven is not any bar, so a combination such as bar-seven-double bar pays nothing.

Video slots typically have representations of five reels spinning on a video screen. Paylines not only run straight across the reels but also run in V's, upside down V's, and zigs and zags across the screen. Nearly all have at least five paylines, and most have more -- up to 50 lines by the mid-2000s.

In addition, video slots usually feature bonus rounds and 'scatter pays.' Designated symbols trigger a scatter pay if two, three, or more of them appear on the screen, even if they're not on the same payline.

Similarly, special symbols will trigger a bonus event. The bonus may take the form of a number of free spins, or the player may be presented with a 'second screen' bonus. An example of a second screen bonus comes in the long-popular WMS Gaming Slot 'Jackpot Party.' If three Party noisemakers appear on the video reels, the reels are replaced on the screen with a grid of packages in gift wrapping. The player touches the screen to open a package and collects a bonus payout. He or she may keep touching packages for more bonuses until one package finally reveals a 'pooper,' which ends the round. The popularity of such bonus rounds is why video slots have become the fastest growing casino game of the last decade.

When you hit a winning combination, winnings will be added to the credit meter. If you wish to collect the coins showing on the meter, hit the button marked 'Cash Out,' and on most machines, a bar-coded ticket will be printed out that can be redeemed for cash. In a few older machines, coins still drop into a tray.

Etiquette

Many slot players pump money into two or more adjacent machines at a time, but if the casino is crowded and others are having difficulty finding places to play, limit yourself to one machine. As a practical matter, even in a light crowd, it's wise not to play more machines than you can watch over easily. Play too many and you could find yourself in the situation faced by the woman who was working up and down a row of six slots. She was dropping coins into machine number six while number one, on the aisle, was paying a jackpot. There was nothing she could do as a passerby scooped a handful of coins out of the first tray.

Sometimes players taking a break for the rest room will tip a chair against the machine, leave a coat on the chair, or leave some other sign that they'll be back. Take heed of these signs. A nasty confrontation could follow if you play a machine that has already been thus staked out.

Payouts

Payout percentages have risen since the casinos figured out it's more profitable to hold 5 percent of a dollar than 8 percent of a quarter or 10 percent of a nickel. In most of the country, slot players can figure on about a 93 percent payout percentage, though payouts in Nevada run higher. Las Vegas casinos usually offer the highest average payouts of all -- better than 95 percent. Keep in mind that these are long-term averages that will hold up over a sample of 100,000 to 300,000 pulls.

In the short term, anything can happen. It's not unusual to go 20 or 50 or more pulls without a single payout on a reel-spinning slot, though payouts are more frequent on video slots. Nor is it unusual for a machine to pay back 150 percent or more for several dozen pulls. But in the long run, the programmed percentages will hold up.

The change in slots has come in the computer age, with the development of the microprocessor. Earlier slot machines were mechanical, and if you knew the number of stops -- symbols or blank spaces that could stop on the payout line--on each reel, you could calculate the odds on hitting the top jackpot. If a machine had three reels, each with ten stops, and one symbol on each reel was for the jackpot, then three jackpot symbols would line up, on the average, once every 10310310 pulls, or 1,000 pulls.

On those machines, the big payoffs were $50 or $100--nothing like the big numbers slot players expect today. On systems that electronically link machines in several casinos, progressive jackpots reach millions of dollars.

The microprocessors driving today's machines are programmed with random-number generators that govern winning combinations. It no longer matters how many stops are on each reel. If we fitted that old three-reel, ten-stop machine with a microprocessor, we could put ten jackpot symbols on the first reel, ten on the second, and nine on the third, and still program the random-number generator so that three jackpot symbols lined up only once every 1,000 times, or 10,000 times. And on video slots, reel strips can be programmed to be as long as needed to make the odds of the game hit at a desired percentage. They are not constrained by a physical reel.

Each possible combination is assigned a number, or numbers. When the random-number generator receives a signal -- anything from a coin being dropped in to the handle being pulled -- it sets a number, and the reels stop on the corresponding combination.

Between signals, the random-number generator operates continuously, running through dozens of numbers per second. This has two practical effects for slot players. First, if you leave a machine, then see someone else hit a jackpot shortly thereafter, don't fret. To hit the same jackpot, you would have needed the same split-second timing as the winner. The odds are overwhelming that if you had stayed at the machine, you would not have hit the same combination.

Second, because the combinations are random, or as close to random as is possible to set the program, the odds of hitting any particular combination are the same on every pull. If a machine is programmed to pay out its top jackpot, on the average, once every 10,000 pulls, your chances of hitting it are one in 10,000 on any given pull. If you've been standing there for days and have played 10,000 times, the odds on the next pull will still be one in 10,000. Those odds are long-term averages. In the short term, the machine could go 100,000 pulls without letting loose of the big one, or it could pay it out twice in a row.

So, is there a way to ensure that you hit it big on a slot machine? Not really, but despite the overriding elements of chance, there are some strategies you can employ. We'll cover these in the next section.

Slots are the easiest games in the casino to play -- spin the reels and take your chances. Players have no control over what combinations will show up or when a jackpot will hit. There is no way to tell when a machine will be hot or cold. Still, there are some pitfalls. It's important to read the glass and learn what type of machine it is. The three major types of reel-spinning slots are the multiplier, the buy-a-pay, and the progressive.

The multiplier. On a multiplier, payoffs are proportionate for each coin played--except, usually, for the top jackpot. If the machine accepts up to three coins at a time, and if you play one coin, three bars pay back ten. Three bars will pay back 20 for two coins and 30 for three coins. However, three sevens might pay 500 for one coin and 1,000 for two, but jump to 10,000 when all three coins are played. Read the glass to find out if that's the case before playing less than the maximum coins on this type of machine.

The buy-a-pay. Never play less than the maximum on a buy-a-pay, on which each coin 'buys' a set of symbols or a payout line. The first coin in might allow the player to win only on cherry combination, while the second coin activates the bar payouts, and the third coin activates the sevens. Woe is the player who hits three jackpot symbols on a buy-a-pay with only one coin played--the player gets nothing back. A variation is the machine with multiple payout lines, each activated by a separate coin. All symbols are active with each coin, but if a winning combination lines up on the third-coin payout line with only one or two coins played, the payoff is zero.

The progressive. You also have no reason to play less than maximum coins on a progressive machine. A player who eventually lines up the jackpot symbols gets a percentage of each coin played. The first progressive machines were self-contained--the jackpot was determined by how much that particular machine had been played since the last big hit. Today most progressives are linked electronically to other machines, with all coins played in the linked machines adding to a common jackpot.

These jackpots can be enormous -- the record is $39,710,826.26, a $1 progressive at a Las Vegas casino. The tradeoff is that frequency and size of other payouts are usually smaller. And you can't win the big jackpot without playing maximum coins.

If you must play fewer than maximum coins, look for a multiplier in which the final-coin jump in the top jackpot is fairly small. Better yet, choose a machine that allows you to stay within your budget while playing maximum coins. If your budget won't allow you to play maximum coins on a $1 machine, move to a quarter machine. If you're not comfortable playing three quarters at a time, move to a two-quarter machine. If you can't play two quarters at a time, play a nickel machine.

With so many paylines and the possibility of betting multiple coins per line, video slots are different. Some penny slots with 20 paylines take up to 25 coins per line. That's a $5 maximum bet -- a pretty penny indeed! Most players bet less than the max on video slots but are sure to cover all the paylines, even if betting only one coin per line. You want to be sure to be eligible for the bonus rounds that give video slots most of their fun. Some progressive jackpots require max coins bets, and some don't. If a max-coins bet is required to be eligible for the jackpot and you're not prepared to roll that high, find a different machine.

Money Management

Managing your money wisely is the most important part of playing any casino game, and also the most difficult part of playing the slots. Even on quarter machines, the amount of money involved runs up quickly. A dedicated slot player on a machine that plays off credits can easily get in 600 pulls an hour. At two quarters at a time, that means wagering $300 per hour -- the same amount a $5 blackjack player risks at an average table speed of 60 hands per hour.

Most of that money is recycled from smaller payouts--at a casino returning 93 percent on quarter slots, the expected average loss for $300 in play is $21. Still, you will come out ahead more often if you pocket some of those smaller payouts and don't continually put everything you get back into the machine.

One method for managing money is to divide your slot bankroll for the day into smaller-session bankrolls. If, for example, you've taken $100 on a two-and-a-half-hour riverboat cruise, allot $20 for each half-hour. Select a quarter machine -- dollar machines could devastate a $100 bankroll in minutes -- and play the $20 through once. If you've received more than $20 in payouts, pocket the excess and play with the original $20. At the end of one half-hour, pocket whatever is left and start a new session with the next $20.

If at any point the original $20 for that session is depleted, that session is over. Finish that half-hour with a walk, or a snack, or a drink until it is time for a new session. Do not dip back into money you've already pocketed.

That may seem rigid, but players who do not use a money management technique all too frequently keep pumping money into the machine until they've lost their entire bankroll. The percentages guarantee that the casino will be the winner in the long run, but lock up a portion of the money as you go along, and you'll walk out of the casino with cash on hand more frequently.

That is changing in new server-based slots that have started to appear in casinos. Operators will be able to change payback percentages at the click of a mouse, but they still must have regulatory approval to do so.

There is a lot more to slot machines than meets the eye. But if you learn the ins and outs of playing them, you can use some strategies that just might help you hit the jackpot.