Many casino workers get the majority of their salary from tips. This is the way it is for those employed in the service industry. Most table game players will tip the dealers while they are playing by making a bet for them. Some will just tip their dealer when they leave the game. But what about slot players? Are they expected to tip? How much and to whom?
All of these tips should improve the amount of entertainment and fun you get while gambling, even if they don't actually increase your chances of winning. For most gamblers, recreation is the goal anyway—if you have more fun for your money, you win even when you're losing. Many of these tips will work if you're gambling online. 10 Tips for Responsible Gambling. If you choose to gamble, do so for entertainment purposes. Treat the money you lose as the cost of your entertainment.
Tips For Gambling In Las Vegas
When Do Slot Players Tip?
Slot players usually tip when they receive a hand pay jackpot when the attendant must come and verify the jackpot and then come back and count out your money. If it is a jackpot over $1,200 the attendant will have the tax forms that you will need to fill out before you are paid. There are usually two or three people in attendance during a hand pay. This is for security reasons to make sure the correct amount of money is being paid to the correct person. This often leads to some confusion as to which one you should tip.
How to Tip Attendants
You don't have to tip each one separately. You can give one person a larger bill and tell them to split it. Generally, give the tip to the person who actually paid me the money. There is no set amount for tipping after a jackpot. Many players will tip somewhere between a half to one percent of the jackpot. For a thousand dollar jackpot, this would be between $5 to $10 dollars. When you do receive a hand paid jackpot, they never bring you bills smaller than a twenty. Are they just hoping that in the excitement of the moment you will hand them back a twenty dollar bill regardless of the size of the jackpot? Make sure to carry a couple five and ten dollar bills to handle this situation.
Tipping is a personal choice and your decision to tip anyone should be based on the service you receive. One criterion you can use before tipping for a hand pay jackpot is the amount of time it took to get paid. If the service is prompt, you may be inclined to tip a little more. If, however, you are waiting a long period of time, you may tip less. Take into consideration how busy the casino is at the time of the jackpot. If it is a busy Saturday night, you have to allow for the fact that there may be others ahead of you.
The one person all players should tip it the beverage server. Many casinos offer free drinks to the players. But in some casinos, those drinks are not free for the waiter or waitress. Because their tips are part of their salary some casinos require the waitress or waiter to pay a tax on each drink they order to take out onto the casino floor. If you order a drink and leave before it is delivered or you don't tip the server you have just cost them money. Many players are not aware of this so the next time you order a free drink, please take care of the person serving you.
I don't usually recommend slots for new gamblers, but I also know that many amateur gamblers love to play these one-armed bandits. Slot machines are usually some of the worst games for gamblers in the casino. And if you're not careful, these fun distractions are going to take all of your money.
I've put together a list of 11 tips and tactics for new slots players. These 11 quick tips aren't going to help you win in the long run, but they are going to help you have more fun when playing slots for real money.
1 – Avoid the Slot Machine Trance
Crystal forest casino game. The next time you're in a live casino, take a walk around some of the slot machine areas. The odds are good that you're going to see many slots players in what looks like a trance. They sit staring blankly at the screen and automatically hit the spin button every few seconds.
The slot machine trance is costly, and amateur slots players need to be aware of it so they can avoid it. Take a break from the machines frequently so you don't fall into this trap.
2 – Understand Return to Player
Every slot machine has a software program that runs the machine. This isn't how old-fashioned slot machines worked, but it's how all slot machines work today. And this is true whether you play live slots or on your computer or mobile device.
This software program has instructions that dictate how much the slot machine keeps and how much it gives back to gamblers. The amount the machine is programmed to give back is called return to player.
The easiest way to understand return to player is to consider it as a percentage. A slot machine with a 93% return to player pays out 93% of all the wagers it takes back to players.
Return to player is a long range or overall percentage, so in the short run, it goes up and down. But over thousands of spins, the return to player percentage is always realized. This is important to know as a slots player because if you bet $100 on a machine with a 93% return to player you're only going to get back $93 on average.
It's not easy to find return to player percentages for slot machines, but you should try to find it for as many machines as possible. And then you should only play on the machines with the highest returns.
3 – Understand How Casino Bonuses Work
One of the few good things about playing slots is that you can get some nice casino bonuses if you're willing to play mobile or online slots. If you can double your bankroll, or triple it, you can play a lot longer before you run out of money.
The next thing you need to know is what you have to do to meet the requirements of the bonus. This is usually a minimum amount you must risk based on the amount of your deposit and bonus. This is usually a multiple.
A 30x requirement on the deposit and bonus amount means you have to make wagers totaling at least 30 times the total amount of your deposit and bonus.
4 – Investigate the Casino Slots Club
Tips For Gambling On Slot Machines
Many casinos have a slots club available. It might be called something else, but they all work basically the same. You sign up for the club and earn some type of compensation when you play.
This is usually a small percentage of what you risk, but it's better to get something back when you play slots than not getting anything.
Find out if the casino where you play has a VIP program and sign up.
5 – Coin Size Considerations
If you bet $3 on a spin playing slots you're going to lose more than if you risk $1 on a spin. Remember how the return to player percentage works. The higher your coin or bet amount, the more you lose on average.
This means that one of the best ways to be able to play longer on your bankroll is to play on machines that let you risk less on every spin. Find a slot machine that has a small bet size and you can save money in the long run.
Tips For Winning At Casinos
6 – Playing Speed Implications
Another thing that directly influences how much you lose playing slots is how many spins you play. If you play 600 spins every hour you're going to lose more than when you take 300 or 400 spins every hour.
The nice thing about slot machines is you control how many spins you take every hour. You don't get kicked off the machine for not taking enough spins. Train yourself to play slots slower to extend your playing time and limit your losses.
7 – Why Games Within Games Exist
Many newer slot machines have games inside of the main game or bonus rounds that you can unlock. These all seem like good things when you're playing slot machines, but the truth is that these features are in the games to get you to play longer.
And anything that keeps you playing slots longer is good for the casino. Remember, the longer you play slots, the more you lose.
You can enjoy the games within the game and bonus rounds and story slots, but always remember that these things are there to make you play slots longer.
8 – The Difference Between a Jackpot and a Progressive
Some slot machines have jackpots. And some machines have progressive jackpots. These are both jackpots, but progressive jackpots are slightly different than regular jackpots.
A regular jackpot always stays the same amount. A progressive jackpot grows as more gamblers play the machine until a lucky gambler wins it. Then, the progressive jackpot resets to a lower amount and starts growing again.
9 – Limiting Your Slots Gambling Losses
You can use some of the strategies that I've already covered to limit your slots losses, but there's another simple step you can take that works perfectly.
Decide exactly how much you're willing to lose before you start playing and only use this amount to play. If you run out of money you have to stop playing.
10 – The Best Slot Machine to Play
This is just my opinion, but over the years, I've come to realize that the best slot machines for me to play have two things in common. Dog house meme.
I know I'm not going to win in the long run playing slots, so I want the chance to win a big jackpot while keeping my cost per spin as low as possible.
11 – There's an Even Better Option
Instead of playing slot machines there's a better option in most casinos. You can usually find real money video poker machines that have a much higher return to player than slot machines. And the return to player percentage is much easier to find for video poker machines.
If you're losing too much playing slots, take a look at video poker. You need to learn a little bit about pay tables and strategy, but this is easy to do.
Conclusion
If you're still convinced you want to play slots after reading this article, make sure you use the information you just learned to limit your losses. You can even try out the free online slot machines to see if you can have the same level of fun without losing money.
The best slots option is usually a progressive machine with a low cost per spin, but an even better choice is a different type of machine. No matter what you do, make sure you know exactly how much you're willing to lose playing slots, and never go over this amount.
