Always pick out the lowest denomination machine that you are comfortable with to play with.

You’ll still lose less money on them, even though lower-stakes machines have worse odds. If you are playing a 90% 5-coin nickel machine you will lose $18.75/hr. on average, while playing a 98% 2-coin dollar machine means loses of $30/hr.

Only Play on machines that have been advertised as paying back a specificly high percentage.

Although in most cases casinos will not tell you how much their slots are paying back, there are some that do. In LasVegas, Stratosphere and Riviera offer 98% dollar slots, while Circus Circus offers 97.4% dollar slots. In Reno, Fitzgeralds offers a section of 50 dollar slots with an average payback of 97.4%. If you want to play dollar slots, you should only play at these casinos, or other casinos like them that are advertising a specific high payback.

Don't pay attention to such claims as "High Payback" or "Loosest Slots". Since they are not specific, those terms are actually meaningless. You should also ignore specific numbers that are very vague, such as "offering up to 98% return". The casino needs to tell you specifically which machines are 98%.

Progressives are those machines that sport the LED marquees showing the ever-increasing jackpots. Typically they pay back 2-7% less than standard machines, so if you play them do so sparingly, if at all. If (because you want a shot at a huge jackpot), you must play them, play a two-coin machine instead of a three-coin machine. You should also look for a $0.05 or $0.25 machine instead of a $1.00 machine.

The video type reel slots mostly have a pay back that is a percentage point or two less than the mechanical counterparts. Also, since you are allowed to play five coins on each of nine lines ($1.45/spin) you might be seduced into betting a lot more than you should.

At any casino you play at, get a slot card and use it. Even though the cashback that is rewarded on slot points are for the most part insignificant, when you play using a slot card the casino may give you free meals and generally will mail you offers for free or very deeply discounted rooms, which then can save you a lot of money.

Using a slot card has zero effect on whether or not you win, contrary to popular myth. With my slot card in, at Fitzgeralds in Reno, I managed to win several jackpots. (I played the slots only because they were offering a special promotion that was said to improve the odds of winning. For the most part I never play slots since I get better odds at table games.)

Since playing nothing but slots will probably bore you (especially if you're not winning, and you probably won't be), learn about a table game that you can play when you need to take a break from the slots. You may end up playing the tables more and the slots less over time, to being especially true since you get a better chance at winning when you play at the tables, and also because playing with other people is more fun. Here are the expected losses for playing 10 hours of slots as against table games:

If you were to play slots for ten hours, playing a $1 2 coin game, you would be expected to lose $800.

If you were to play slots for ten hours, playing a quarter 3 coin game, you would be expected to lose $360.

In contrast, playing Mini Baccarat at $5 a hand for ten hours would bring your expected losses to $80

Playing Roulette at $5 a spin for ten hours would bring your expected losses to $79

Playing blackjack at $5 a hand for ten hours would bring your expected losses to $25

Playing craps at $10 a round ($5 Pass/$5 odds) for ten hours would bring your expected losses to $25

This assumes that slots include 800 spins/hr. The slot returns used are for Las Vegas Strip and the Downtown casinos as they were published as of January 2002 issue of