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May 21, 2018 The last win to make it into the Top-10 all-time slot jackpots on the Coast was five years ago in February 2013 at Palace Casino, when a 73-year-old Michigan resident won $7.2 million on a WMS The. Apr 04, 2017 You put money in the slot machine, pull the lever (or press the button, on most modern machines), and watch the symbols come up. You see one cherry, two cherries, then iStock. Suddenly, you realize what you’re looking at. You’ve won the jackpot, and you’re about to walk out of the casino a winner.
Introduction to How to Play Slot Machines
Do you remember the first time you entered a casino as a beginner slots player? I know I do. What I remember most is being extremely confused. It was so dark, yet with so many lights. And the smoke was everywhere! Perhaps you remember something similar.
My intent is to be genuinely helpful to slots players. While I think I still have a long way yet to go, I also believe I have been somewhat of service so far.
But, perhaps you are only just beginning your slots journey. What have I done for you to ease your way into becoming a healthy, happy slots enthusiast? So, this blog is for you, the beginner slots player, to, well, help.
Throughout this blog article, I’ll be referencing other articles I’ve written on various aspects of slot machine casino gambling. These articles are freely available to all.
This article has the following sections:
- Introduction to Learn How to Play Slot Machines
- Entering a Casino for the First Time
- My Initial Gambling Rules
- The Changing State of Gambling, in Brief
- Beginning Your Slots Journey
- The Golden Rule
- Journey into the Unknown
- Summary of Learn How to Play Slot Machines
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Entering a Casino for the First Time
My first experience at slot machine gambling was in 2003 at a small tribal casino (Kewadin Casino) in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I was taking a long drive back to graduate school in Iowa after visiting family in the lower peninsula and had found a hotel at which to spend the night.
A casino was located just down the highway from that hotel. I wasn’t aware of the casino being there until the hotel provided $20 worth of tokens to play at it.
I remember feeling a little nervous about entering a casino for the first time in my life. I mean, what would my family of non-gamblers think? But, I gathered up my courage and went on in.
I found it to be a highly distracting place: loud, lots of flashing lights, and smoke. This was a time when smoking was more fashionable than it is today, so there was a great deal of cigarette and cigar smoke in the air. This is still true today in some states, such as Nevada, although ventilation has gotten a whole lot better.
I distinctly remember rapidly spending the $20 worth of tokens on slots. Plus, another $50 besides which I could ill afford to lose. At the time I was a poor graduate student on a research stipend working a side job as a temporary instructor of college physics. I’d just spent my food money for the trip home.
Did I win anything that first time at a casino? No, I don’t think so. Why don’t I know if I had won or not? Frankly, how would I have known if I had? If I did, it wasn’t enough to grab my attention.
Maybe a few numbers changed on the player’s console, and the slot machine made an unusual sound. So? What of it? From my perspective, it was doing that every time I made a bet anyway.
I left the casino after having spent $50 I could barely afford to lose. As I continued home on that long road trip, I started thinking about gambling with slot machines. Since then, I’ve more-or-less never really stopped doing so.
After a few months of dwelling on that first experience, I happened to be visiting the Omaha Zoo just over the western border of Iowa in Nebraska. There, I saw a casino on the river. Hint: it was a riverboat casino.
With those months of thinking figuratively behind me, I’d concluded from my first visit that I needed a rule for how much I should allow myself to spend whenever, or if ever, I entered another casino.
The careful rule I came up with was this: “Take a fixed amount into the casino, say $25, and spend only that plus whatever you make from it.”
With this simple rule and $25 in hand, I entered this second casino at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon on a Saturday … and left almost 12 hours later at 1 a.m. Yes, that’s right, 12 hours. Why? Because I’d carefully followed my rule.
My error was that I hadn’t been prepared for success. This has continued to plague me, by the way. The error which my simple rule didn’t account for was this: Almost immediately after entering this second casino, I won $500 on a 25-cent slot machine.
Doing so left me feeling quite emotional, which inclined me to try to stick firmly to the rule – which I proceeded to do. As the afternoon and evening passed into the early morning, I continued to win additional small, nontaxable jackpots.
Eventually, I spent my $25 along with what I’d won with it. And so, this was my second experience at a casino. I’d gone from slots gambling for 10 minutes to a marathon 12-hour session.
I did try to find a hotel that morning, instead of driving home at such a late hour (and coming as close as I’ve ever gotten to hitting a deer on the highway), but the nearby hotel wouldn’t accept a credit card – only cash.
The hotel staff insinuated that people would provide a credit card to the hotel upon arrival, but afterward max out their credit limit at the casino. At check-out, they wouldn’t be able to pay their hotel bill the following morning. That shocked me.
My point here isn’t about my not being able to get a hotel room, but that this was my first real clue that gambling was … complicated. It consisted of more than just the act of making a bet by pushing a button.
It exists in a unique environment where loud sounds, flashing lights, second-hand smoke, and even gambling abuses can occur. How fascinating!
My Initial Gambling Rules
After these first two casino gambling experiences, I spent more and more time thinking about them without much progress in learning how to win. I wasn’t yet thinking about how to win, however. Rather, I was mostly thinking about the potential dangers of what I was getting myself into.
Eventually, I made a decision to keep trying to figure out this whole slots gambling thing. I wasn’t expecting to win any significant amount of money, not ever. But, I was hoping not to lose a significant amount of money.
At the time, for me, my primary motivation was wanting to develop better control over my emotions while gambling at a casino. When there, I was feeling overwhelmed by my strong emotions. I didn’t like feeling ruled, at times almost controlled, by my emotions.
If my reaction to these strong emotions was a personal weakness, I knew I wouldn’t just find myself exposing this behavior at a casino. I could potentially be surprised by it at any other time. For example, while living my life or when working professionally. I felt I needed to understand and, if I could, address it.
So, with this reasoning in mind for proceeding with gaining additional slot machine gambling experiences, I took a long look around where I lived for any nearby casinos within driving distance. As it happened, there was a nice casino relatively nearby.
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This local casino (Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa) had table games, floors of slot machines, a high limit slot room, and horse racing. And, oh, the splendor of the buffet!
To all my senses, it was simply delightful. So, with that limited assessment of a gambling establishment, about every month or more I’d take about $25 from my monthly stipend to go there with the full expectation of gambling it all away on slot machines.
But, would I…? For what happened next, you’ll need to take a look at another article called How to Win at Slots at Older Casinos Built Before 2012. But, that’s my story. Instead, let’s talk about your story.
The Changing State of Gambling, in Brief
Legal large-scale gambling in the U.S. started in Nevada in 1931. There was Las Vegas, of course, but also Reno, Lake Tahoe, and others. It basically stayed there until legalized in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1978.
Legalized gambling in Atlantic City provided casinos convenient to gamblers on the east coast. And, this balance of gambling between Nevada and Atlantic City continued until around the end of the 1980s. At that point, everything started changing more and more rapidly.
Basically, in 1988 tribal casinos became permitted by federal law. Although, tribes did need to negotiate state-tribal compacts with the state their reservations were located within. These negotiations typically took years.
Another substantial change happened in the early 1990s when riverboat casinos became legal in several midwestern states. Originally, state law required these casinos to travel on water, or at least unmoor from a dock, before any gambling could occur.
In the mid-90s, online gambling started up outside of the U.S. This got out of control fast, until various legal restrictions began protecting players. For a while, this protection was to block online gambling in the continental U.S.
By doing so, the U.S. Senate was not just protecting players, but also land-based casinos hurt by online gambling from outside the U.S. Not long after, Canada did much the same. Besides tribal gaming, this was the limit of federal laws restricting gambling in the U.S. until the banning and recent un-banning of sports betting at the federal level.
What all this means is simple. Gambling has become prevalent in the U.S., especially the most popular type of gambling there is: slot machine casino gambling.
There is another side of the coin, as it were, to all this growth and expansion of gambling. All through these changes to the gaming industry in the U.S. and abroad, the technology of gambling was also growing and expanding.
For example, as you might imagine, the impact of microchips and the internet was profound to slots. For a succinct article capturing these near-constant technological developments of slots machines, see my article on it called The Ultimate Guide to Slot Machine History.
My point of view is that slot machine casino gambling has changed a lot in the last few decades. Further, I believe that these changes will keep on happening. Knowing what has happened in the past will help us understand the future.
Some of the biggest changes occurring right now are related to slot machines no longer being fully random. Frankly, there are degrees of randomness. In the past, most casinos controlled the odds of winning on a slot machine by having slots mechanics physically adjust the odds on a regular schedule perhaps 2 weeks long.
Nowadays, at casinos built or heavily renovated since 2012, this is automated. Doing so both reduced the casino labor force and provided a near real-time understanding of the performance of the casino for its operator.
And therein lies the secret to winning at slot machine casino gambling. But, all that is a bit much for the beginner slots player. What you need to know is, the randomness of slot machines isn’t always fully random. There are patterns to this randomness and, if you know to look for them, you can find them.
Beginning Your Slots Journey
Maybe you’ve yet to visit a casino. Maybe you have visited a casino and wondered what the heck just happened. You might even have gone many times, but want to restart your slots journey for one of several reasons.
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Casino Slot Machines For Sale
If you’re just started on your slots journey, you may not know how much playing slots has changed so much in the last few years. That’s fine, as more than a few regular slots players haven’t kept up with all the changes of late. Or, rather, what the changes mean.
So, let us begin your journey together. Your first step? Well, it’s probably not visiting a casino. Your first step is getting online. Most people have several casinos near them. In Iowa, for instance, every resident has at least one casino within an hour drive.
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So, what about you? How many casinos are near you? Well, I shouldn’t explain how to use Google, but here’s a hint: Type “casinos near me” in Google. Doing so will show a map with all the casinos in your area. Cool, huh?
What you want to do is visit their websites. See what they have to offer that you might like. You’re likely not entirely focused on gambling. For instance, you’ll probably want a nice meal occasionally. So, look at what nearby casinos have to offer which might interest you.
That’s about all the preparation you’ll need to start, other than the Golden Rule.
The Golden Rule
There is a danger to gambling for the first time. I’m not a medical professional, so I cannot explain this danger as well as I would like. But this is the danger: You don’t know how you will involuntarily react to gambling until you do it the first time.
It’s kind of like that first alcoholic drink. With it, some people immediately realize they are an alcoholic. It can ruin lives, and doing something about it successfully will be a life-long endeavor.
I don’t mean to scare you. Not at all. Many people find recreational gambling to be quite entertaining. But, others find out they are compulsive gamblers. This can be hard on everyone. So, I have a few things to share about it.
First, please understand that casino’s reprimand employees, or fire them, if they tell a casino patron they are spending too much money and should go home. That’s just the sad truth. On the other hand, advertisements all over casinos explain how to get help.
Second, I don’t encourage non-gamblers to gamble. I assume anyone who finds me is deliberately looking for information on slots gambling. But, if you decide you want to gamble, then I take it as my responsibility to explain how to do it.
Third, there truly is a Golden Rule. Here it is: Don’t spend any money at a casino which you cannot afford to comfortably lose. That means you’re spending disposable income, which is money left over after all your bills are paid along with an additional amount put into your savings account of choice.
Journey into the Unknown
I suppose we should also discuss how a slot machine operates. Most newcomers sit down at a slot machine, put some money in, and start pushing some buttons. But, what do the buttons do?
There are several physical components to slot machines, including various interfaces with the player. I’ve already written an article about the common elements of a slot machine called How Slot Machines Work from a Player’s Perspective.
That article, or at least the schematic of a slot machine found in it, should go a long way toward taking the mystery out of how all the buttons, etc., work on a slot machine.
Another thing you’ll want to do is get a player’s club card from the casino. At its simplest, this is like your grocery card. In exchange for your contact information, you can earn points by spending money on gambling. They’ll also make some interesting offers.
You’ll get free stuff from the casino, most likely starting when you sign up. Sometimes, in the long term, it’s often the only way gamblers make a profit. Here’s another article with my explanation about these casino rewards clubs called Seven Advantages of Players Clubs for Playing Slots.
So, let’s recap what I’ve pulled together for you to start at slots:
- Go to the websites of casinos near you to understand their differences relative to your wants and needs.
- Check to make sure you have some amount of disposable income if you want to play slots.
- Visit your casino of choice and get a player’s club card at the front counter or kiosk.
- Pick a slot machine, make a bet, and see what happens next.
So, what does happen next? One example would be what happened to me, as explained. Or, something similar. If I had one wish for you, it would be this. I hope you don’t win.
That’s probably shocking, but it really is for the best. If you win big at your first visit to a casino, it sets an unrealistic expectation you might take years to recover from … if ever. I hope you win big on your second visit to a casino. That’s what happened to me.
Once you’ve visited the casino a few times, maybe you’ll want to know more about why casinos are the way they are. If so, I have plenty of articles about them. But, they may be too soon. When you’re ready, they’ll be waiting here for you.
I hope you have a good time at the casino playing slots. As I’m always saying: Have fun, be safe, and make good choices.
Summary of Learn How to Play Slot Machines
Too often a beginner slots player gets lost. So much is happening at once in a casino! Lights! Sounds! Smoke! There really is a lot going on for beginners. And, unfortunately, a casino doesn’t help. After all, it isn’t in their best interest to help.
Savvy slots enthusiasts understand what they are doing. They are all self-taught. Well, it’s time to fix that. With this primer, a beginner slots player doesn’t start from zero.
Why? Because I’ve explained the basics. When you’re ready for more information on playing and winning at slots, it’ll be here for you. Best of luck and let me know if you have any questions!
Related Articles from Professor Slots
Other Articles from Professor Slots
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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC
Introduction to Washington Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019
Washington slot machine casino gambling consists of 29 tribal casinos with a unique type of video lottery terminal (VLT) slot machines. Along with many card rooms in the state, they also offer most Vegas-style table games.
This post continues the weekly series Online Resource: A State-By-State Slot Machine Casino Gambling Series, an online resource dedicated to guiding slot machine casino gambling enthusiasts to success. Each weekly post reviews slots gambling in a single U.S. state, territory, or the federal district.
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Relevant Legal Statutes on Gambling in Washington*
The minimum legal gambling age in Washington depends upon the gambling activity:
- Land-Based Casinos: 21/18 depending on the casino
- Poker Rooms: 18
- Bingo: 18
- Lottery: 18
- Pari-Mutuel Wagering: 18
Washington slot machine casino gambling exists at tribal casinos based on the lottery’s scratch ticket games in electronic form. This unique form of video lottery terminal (VLT) slot machines makes Washington slot machines unique in the U.S. All other U.S.-based VLTs are lottery draw games, not from lotteries other game: scratch tickets.
Each of the 29 federally recognized American Indian tribes negotiated state-tribal compacts with the state to offer gambling at tribal casinos. However, the state and these tribes could not agree on whether Vegas-style slot machines should be legal in Washington.
Scratch-based VLTs resulted from early negotiations of state-tribal gaming compacts. This impasse resolution led to creating a secondary lottery system for VLTs at tribal casinos. The state lottery was a model for the Tribal Lottery System (TLS).
Draw-based VLTs create tickets at the time of the bet using random number generators (RNGs). Scratch-based VLTs know in advance the result of each wager. Put another way, the outcome of each scratch-based VLT bet is pre-determined. Bets do not require an RNG.
Another technical difference between lottery draw tickets and scratch tickets is how many of them can exist. For example, there can be as many draw tickets as players are willing to buy. However, lotteries create only a limited number of scratch tickets but, hopefully, enough for a busy night at Washington tribal casinos.
All negotiated tribal-state compacts also have other legal restrictions for their scratch-based VLT-style slot machines. These limits have been expanding over time as part of this state’s dynamic gaming industry. The requirements are:
- Allows replaying of credits won
- No handles
- No mechanical spinning wheels
- A minimum payout return (see below)
- $5 maximum wager on 85% on VLTs
- $20 maximum wager on 15% of VLTs
- Cap of 2,500 VLT machines per tribe
A small group, carousel, or bank of VLTs pull virtual scratch tickets from the same set. Each small group uses a different set. Given these tickets are of a finite number, running out of tickets in a set means only a few VLTs are out of them before switching to a new set of tickets. This switching should take place nearly instantaneously, likely not causing any small group of VLTs to shut down temporarily.
*The purpose of this section is to inform the public of state gambling laws and how the laws apply to various forms of gambling. This information is not intended to provide legal advice.
Slot Machine Private Ownership in Washington
It is legal to privately own a slot machine in the state of Washington if it is 25 years old or older. However, it cannot have a gambling purpose. For example, it must be free to play.
Gaming Control Board in Washington
The gaming control board is the Washington State Gambling Commission. It provides licensing, regulation, and enforcement of certain aspects of the gaming industry in Washington. Their regulatory responsibilities primarily include testing and approving new electronic gaming machines.
Casinos in Washington
There are 29 American Indian tribal casinos available in the state of Washington with more than 35,000 VLT-style slot machines.
The largest casino in Washington is the Muckleshoot Casino having more than 3,000 VLT slot machines and 75 table games.
The second largest casino is Tulalip Casino having more than 2,400 VLT slot machines and more than 35 table games.
List of Casinos in Washington
The state of Washington has no non-tribal casinos with slot machines. However, Washington has many card rooms or “mini-casinos” with up to 15 tables each.
List of Tribal Casinos in Washington
The state of Washington has 29 tribal casinos. Each casino’s website is in this handy downloadable list. Washington tribal casinos are:
- Angel of the Winds Casino Resort in Arlington located 50 miles north of Seattle
- BJ’s Bingo in Fife situated near Tacoma
- Chewelah Casino in Chewelah situated 50 miles north of Spokane
- Coulee Dam Casino, one of three 12 Tribes Colville Casinos, in Coulee Dam situated 40 miles north of Seattle
- Elwha River Casino in Port Angeles situated 70 miles northwest of Seattle by ferry
- Emerald Queen Hotel & Casino in Fife situated near Tacoma
- Emerald Queen Casino at I-5 in Tacoma
- Ilani Casino Resort in Ridgefield located 25 miles north of Portland near the border to Oregon
- Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton situated 23 miles north of Olympia
- Lucky Dog Casino in Skokomish situated 23 miles north of Olympia
- Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester situated 26 miles south of Olympia
- Mill Bay Casino, one of three 12 Tribes Colville Casinos, in Manson situated 200 miles northeast of Seattle on the north shore of Lake Chelan
- Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn situated 20 miles south of Seattle
- Nooksack Northwood Casino in Lynden situated 14 miles north of Bellingham
- Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights situated 10 miles west of Spokane
- The Point Casino in Kingston situated 18 miles west of Seattle via Bainbridge Ferry
- Quil Ceda Creek Nightclub & Casino in Tulalip situated 30 miles north of Seattle
- Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Ocean Shores situated 90 miles west of Tacoma
- Red Wind Casino situated in Olympia
- 7 Cedars Casino in Sequim situated 70 miles northwest of Seattle by ferry
- Shoalwater Bay Casino in Tokeland situated 75 miles southwest of Olympia
- Silver Reef Casino Resort in Ferndale situated 17 miles north of Bellingham
- Skagit Valley Casino Resort in Bow situated 75 miles north of Seattle
- Snoqualmie Casino in Snoqualmie situated 30 miles east of Seattle
- Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort in Suquamish situated 15 miles west of Seattle via Bainbridge Ferry
- Swinomish Casino & Lodge in Anacortes situated 70 miles north of Seattle
- Tulalip Casino in Tulalip situated 30 miles north of Seattle
- 12 Tribes Casino, one of three 12 Tribes Colville Casinos, in Omak situated 165 miles northeast of Seattle
- Yakama Legends Casino in Toppenish situated 20 miles south of Yakama
Other Gambling Establishments
As an alternative to enjoying Washington slot machine casino gambling, consider exploring casino options in a nearby state. Bordering Washington is:
- North: Canadian Province of British Columbia
- East: Idaho Slots
- South: Oregon Slots
- West: Pacific Ocean
Each of the links above will take you to my state-specific blog for that neighboring state to Washington.
Payout Returns in Washington
The Tribal Lottery System (TLS) directly controls the results of Washington’s unique VLT-style slot machines. A central computer system at the TLS provides the outcome of each bet made on each tribal casino’s VLT at the time of the wager. This off-site control extends to any bonus rounds.
All tribal-state compacts in Washington established a minimum payout return percentage of 75% for their VLT slot machines. Further, no tribe in the state of Washington releases payout return statistics of actual results for slots.
Our Washington Slots Facebook Group
Are you interested in sharing and learning with other slots enthusiasts in Washington? If so, join our new Washington slots community on Facebook. All you’ll need is a Facebook profile to freely join this closed Facebook Group.
There, you’ll be able to privately share your slots experiences as well as chat with players about slots gambling in or near Washington. Come join us!
Summary of Washington Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019
Washington slot machine casino gambling consists of 29 tribal casinos with scratch ticket VLT-style video slot machines. A central computer server at the Tribal Lottery System directly controls the results of each bet. Otherwise, all tribal casinos in the state of Washington offer Las Vegas-style table games.
Tribal-state compacts regulating Washington’s tribal casinos set a minimum payout return of 75% for their unique VLT-style slots. No payout return statistics are available to the public.
Annual Progress in Washington Slot Machine Casino Gambling
Sometime within the last year, the Two Rivers Casino & Resort in Davenport located 60 miles west of Spokane began to no longer offer a casino alongside its RV park and marina.
Archive: Washington Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2018
Related Articles from Professor Slots
Other State-By-State Articles from Professor Slots
- Previous: Virginia Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019
- Next: West Virginia Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019
What Happed To Slot Machines Closed Casinos Near Me
Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC