Many slot channels will give advice on “extending your slot play”. The only time this makes sense is if you own stock in that casino.
"Playing for Time" is a Nice Way of Saying Losing
Slots became more entertaining the first time we returned home with more money than we left with. If want the same, continue reading.
It took five trips to Las Vegas to come home with a profit, and we had to discard much of what we’d learned from YouTube to get there. The first thing to go was ANY tip about playing slots longer. As new gamblers, we mistakenly thought that the longer you play, the more you win. Not true. The goal when playing a slot machine should always be to win money as quickly as possible. Here’s why…
Your Bankroll Should Last Multiple Trips
Driving to an ATM is not something I enjoy. For the past five trips, we haven’t had to do it because we can continue to play from our bankroll. Bankrolls should be money that you wouldn’t miss if you lost it, so keeping it separate makes sense.
A Prolonged Loss Is Still a Loss
We’ve learned the hard way that the time spent on a slot before you win a bonus or jackpot isn’t nearly as fun as winning so much cash that you can’t close your wallet. While there may be people that buy a scratch off lottery ticket and scratch one box a day to prolong the tension/excitement, we aren’t those people and we don’t think you are either. Because we have to fly to Vegas, every hour we’re there costs us $20. The shorter the time between wins, the better.
Money Can Buy Things That Losing Money Can't
Unless you have a slot channel, playing slots for hours and losing all of your money gets you nothing. Is winning money important? Well, yes; otherwise they could remove the pay outs from slots and they would still be popular. That will never happen.
Every casino’s dream is to acquire players who play slots (the game with the worst odds) for as long as they can and then leave with empty wallets. While I’m sure there are people that enjoy sitting on a park bench throwing dollar bills at pigeons and then going home broke, that’s not the mindset we promote.
The goal should always be to win as much money as quickly as possible. If you watch our videos, you’ll see that we get first-spin bonuses frequently. We’re overjoyed when this happens because it’s the maximum possible return on the money wagered AND the basis of the stock market: we “buy” low (with time & money being our investment) and sell high (win quickly).
ANECDOTE: The “side effect” of high-limits gambling are higher loyalty tiers. We had a very lucky run in Las Vegas, winning more than $5K in an hour. Two of our wins are worth mentioning: one for $762, which we only paid about $53 to get (7th spin bonus) and one for $2,000 which we paid $60 to get (2nd spin bonus. We used that money that evening to pay a $90 tip on a very fancy dinner. The reason we didn’t use it to pay for the entire meal is because the casino had ALREADY GIVEN US MONEY to buy it through their loyalty program.
There are other ways to enjoy your money
One of the perks of Las Vegas are the restaurants and shows. While playing slots is fun, so is not starving.
We appreciate that we can have a fantastic dinner (with ingredients we can’t buy where we live) any time we want. The cost of a meal like this can be $400 or more for two. Because we are Gold Tier at MGM, our trips include $400 in resort credit, which means that fantastic meal is free…except for the tip. We only got to Gold Tier by winning money and then using that to continue our play.
We aren’t “go to a show” people. We’re perfectly happy watching Star Trek reruns in our hotel room. If you want to go see the latest Cirque du Soleil act, winning at slots can make that happen.