Updated Jjuly 25, 2025
Slot Tips
Slots are a game of chance. Don’t forget that.
A “game of chance” is based solely on luck, not skill. That’s both good and bad.
Play any slot, but don’t forget to win.
Many slot influencers push their viewers towards “low-volatility” slots such as Double Diamond Deluxe or Cherries Jubilee to build their bankroll.
We disagree.
A boring slot only serves to remind us that we’re paying a robot to take our money. As you can see from our videos, we play whatever we want and still return home with a profit.
What’s worse is that they don’t really explain what “low-volatility” means. The best explanation we’ve heard is that “low volatilty” slots give small but frequent wins, while “high-volatilty” slots give almost nothing back unless you get a bonus.
We’ve played Double Diamond Deluxe for 20 spins and gotten zero kickbacks. Is that low volatility? By this definition, no.
Slot Influencers Play for Time, Not to Win
What slot influencers don’t tell their viewers is that their real goal is to record a 24-30 minute video for as little money and effort as possible.
Search for “slots” on YouTube and look at the video durations. It’s no coincidence they’re all about same length (24-30 minutes).
Slot influencers will sit on one machine—even if it’s not paying—make bad bets, and burn through their bankroll to hit it to the 24-minute mark.
The Most Toxic Phrase in Gambling
“It was fun even if I didn’t win.” If you invest in stocks, would you ever say this? If your driving instructor sped through multiple red lights, crashed your car into a tree, and then said “it was fun anyway”, we doubt you’d be very understanding.
There are only two slot influencers we still watch: Jackpot Judo (great practical advice) and DLucky (no advice, but using his betting method is why we started winning). It may seem odd that we’re pointing you away from our own channel, but we give credit where it’s due.
The SlotBears M.A.D. Method™
A simple slot method that works. Our videos are the proof.
Move, Adapt, or Die
Always remember that slot machines don’t reward loyalty. They don’t “owe” you a win because you’ve fed a lot of money into them (the “gambler’s fallacy“).
The M.A.D. Method is simple and many people fall into it naturally: if you’re not winning on a slot machine, you have three choices…
M – MOVE to a new game, machine, or casino
A – ADAPT your bet (denomination, multiplier)
D – DIE, lose all of your money
It’s that easy. Slot machines are designed to distract you from noticing your shrinking bankroll. And, they’re really good at it.
Playing Slots is Fun.
Winning is Even More Fun.
It’s easy to confuse firecrackers, fat chickens, etc. with winning, and the same goes for tiny kickbacks (tiny wins, 10%-20% of your bet). Playing for time is fun, but winning a 100x your bet is more fun. Large wins can pay for a fancy dinner or even a car. “Fun” doesn’t pay for anything.
There are really only three rules when it comes to playing slots:
1. The money that you gamble should be money you won’t miss
2. Always focus on winning
3. If you aren’t winning, make a change
We kept the M.A.D. Method simple because most “methods” are cumbersome (the 5-spin method), unrealistic (the $1 method), or just another way of describing what you’re probably already doing.
FYI: The M.A.D. Method builds on a 2018 Danish biology study on how coral reef ecosystems respond to climate change. In gambling terms, “climate change” is the loosening or tightening of payouts and the slots introduced each year.
Think of Slots Like Stocks™
If you start from $100, hit a bonus, and wind up with $134, many people will consider that mediocre or even a failure. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The Slot Stock Market Analogy
If you bought a stock and saw a one-day gain of 34%, you’d be overjoyed. People would call you an investment genius.
Playing the stock market IS GAMBLING, just with more data and better tools. So is insurance. If you look at the disclaimer for a stock trading website, they’re almost identical to a casino disclaimer. You’re putting your money at risk, and there’s the chance you will lose it all.
Any Win is a Win
You’ll sometimes see us pocket a $110 pay slip—a 10% gain—and it’s for this exact reason. A $10 win on $100 is a better rate of return than the best saving account (4.56% APR as of March 2025) except that it’s not guaranteed.
DO NOT set arbitrary milestones for cashing out (up 50%, up 100%, up 200%, etc.). If you’re done playing a slot, pocket that TITO and thank us in the morning.
The High-Limit Slot Distortion Zone
Watching only high-limit slot influencers is the gilded entry to a distortion zone. They measure wins (and losses) in thousands of dollars, which is exciting and fun to watch, but for many it’s unattainable AND reinforces bad slot habits.
Copying their behavior can make a trip to Vegas miserable if you don’t have a large enough bankroll to support it.
High-limit slot influencers don’t win very much on a percentage basis. I watched a handpay video recently: the influencer started with $5,000 betting $100 a spin. He, gambled down to $850, then won a $2,000 bonus. That’s a loss.
The reason that video has 315K views is “conspicuous consumption” (a phrase that dates back to 1899). Psychologists aren’t sure why, but people like watching other people spend or waste a lot of money. See: The Kardashians.
BY THE WAY…
We love seeing our ideas show up on other slot channels because it means that it was valuable enough to steal.
Start with $100
Track your progress the easy way
We always start with a $100 bill when we start playing a slot so we can easily tell exactly what percentage we’re up or down at a glance.
If we get to $132, that’s 32% profit. If we’re down to $72, that’s a 28% loss. Easy.
This also discourages you from gambling away your white pay slips, also called a “TITO” (Ticket In Ticket Out), a tip that we learned from Jackpot Judo.
Getting back to your hotel room with a wallet full of TITOs should always be your goal. When you run out of $100 bills while playing slots, it’s time to tally your wins and losses, and then decide whether to continue or not. If we’re losing, we just find something else to do. The slots will still be there tomorrow.
If you’re up from your starting point, bank that money and take it home with you. If you want to continue, start with your original budget and see if you can grow it again.
If you’re down, think about where you went wrong. Did you chase a bonus on a slot that wasn’t paying back anything? Did you make too many small bets? Too many large bets?
Use Casino Loyalty Programs to Your Advantage
We highly recommend joining the loyalty program of the casino you’re gambling at. A nice hotel room in Las Vegas can be $300 per night or more. Since our first Las Vegas trip, we’ve received heavily discounted or free hotel rooms from both MGM and Caesars. We also receive thousands of dollars in freeplay and resort credit to pay for meals.
It’s a myth that using a loyalty card lowers your chances of winning. If this were true, then all of the casinos we’ve ever visited must want to reduce their profits. They don’t.
How to join a casino loyalty program
- Locate the rewards counter. You’ll be asked for your driver’s license. After your account is created, you’ll then be asked to enter a four-digit PIN (twice), which you’ll use from then on to log in to your account while at a slot machine. DO NOT use your ATM PIN.
- A loyalty card looks exactly like a credit card and should be inserted whenever you play a slot.
- As you play, you’ll earn tier credits. If you advance to a higher tier, the benefits increase.
Casino loyalty benefits can include…
- Free credits that you can use to play slots (“freeplay”)
- Free or discounted hotel rooms and shows
- Transportation to the casino, including flights
Casino loyalty tiers
This is basically the same as any frequent flyer, hotel, or credit card loyalty program. Loyalty tiers (Pearl, Platinum, Gold, etc.) are achieved by gambling a certain amount of money every year. The amount varies by program, but the higher your tier, the better the rewards casinos will offer you. We recently stayed at the Sky Suites at Aria for free; our suite normally goes for $1,200 a night.
Tier benefits extend throughout the following year. If you advanced from MGM’s Sapphire tier to Pearl this year, you’ll need to accumulate the same number of tier credits the following year to remain Pearl.
Why We Chose MGM Rewards
We chose MGM Rewards specifically for their win/loss tracking tools. (This is not an ad; ads are paid.)
MGM offers near real-time win/loss tracking, so we can see exactly how we’re doing by date and time. We can also track our tier credits if we’re trying for a tier accelerator. Advanced tools like these outweigh any perks, although we still gladly accept free penthouse suites and never-ending coffee.
A Partial List of Las Vegas Loyalty Programs
Infinity Rewards (Sahara in Vegas, Grand Sierra Resort in Reno)
Club Cortez (El Cortez in Las Vegas)
Monarch Rewards (Atlantis in Reno)
Fontainbleau Rewards (Fontainebleau in Las Vegas)
Venetian Rewards (Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas)
Genting Rewards (Resorts World in Las Vegas)
Plaza Rewards (Plaza in Las Vegas)
My Rewards (Station casinos)
Boyd Rewards (Boyd casinos)
Rio Rewards (Rio in Las Vegas)
Club Serrano (Palms in Las Vegas)
Cherry Rewards (Virgin in Las Vegas)
The Club at Southpoint (Southpoint casino in Las Vegas
Rampart Casino Rewards (Rampart casino in Las Vegas)
Other Goodies
Free Coffee: Most casinos offer free coffee in the morning. The benefit: no waiting in long lines and it’s usually less acrid than Starbucks.
Free Cocktails: At one casino (that will go unnamed), the drinks served by the cocktail waitress were a) bigger, b) stronger, and c) arrived faster than waiting in line for $18 gin & tonics that were mostly ice. We tip $5 for coffee or cocktails (more if we’re winning).
Free Mobile Phone Charging: On newer slot machines, there’s a charger built into the cabinet. Caveat: If you have an iPhone 13 Pro, the magnetic charger often doesn’t work. I carry a USB-A to Lightning cable with me.
Clean Public Restrooms: A minor joy, but very much appreciated. Vegas gives Bucee’s a run for their money.
Free Shows: Playing slots pretty much guarantees you will witness human drama of some sort while you’re playing. We’ve seen everything from jackpot joy to bickering couples to screen smashing. Slots are meant to be fun; don’t be one of people.
Slot Myths
We’re working on videos to dispel slot myths that we’ve seen on YouTube.
We show the time we started playing, the denomination, and the bet amount. This extra work is intentional. We were told over and over again that slot pay or don’t pay at certain times during the day. The truth is that we win at midnight just as often as at 6pm.
We’re also tired of having to play machines damaged by people convinced that pounding the buttons or screen gives them an edge. It doesn’t.
Common Slot Myths on YouTube
- The time of day changes your odds
- Maxing out the the volume improves your odds
- Loyalty cards hurt your chances of winning
- You can only play reel-based slots to build your bankroll
- Rapid-fire tapping on the screen (or beating on the buttons) affects the outcome
- Fast spins (double tapping the play button so the reels stop) improves your odds of winning
- Playing slots near a bathroom worsens your odds…or helps your odds; we’ve heard both
- Slots in non-smoking areas have worse odds (Park MGM must hate this one, since their entire casino is non-smoking)
- And more!