Players often ask how many coins they should play in a slot machine. This is somewhat of a personal decision you should make based on the amount of money you have brought with you to the casino to play slots with. The only hard fast rule you should follow is “Always play full coins in a Progressive Machine.†If you don’t have maximum coins in and you hit the winning symbols you will not get the Jackpot. So always play full coins on the progressive. But what about the other types of slot machines? First you have to decide which type of slot machine you want to play. You have the choice of a video Slot or a Reel type slot machine.
The new video slots are fun and exciting and the slot makers are doing their best to make sure they are very entertaining. One other thing they have been doing to the video slots is adding pay lines and the number of coins you can bet per line to increase the amount bet on each spin. There is a reason for this. Video slots, especially those with fancy bonus screens take a little more time per spin than do the regular reel machines. While the video reels are spinning or the bonus round is playing, players are not putting money into the machine. Compare this with the reel type machines that take three coins and spins rather quickly. So by making it enticing to bet more coins per spin they recoup some of the revenue the machine is not generating during the normal spin/play process.
In the last few years the slot makers have been adding more pay lines to their games and have been increasing the number of coins that can be played on each line. Most of the new video slot machines have a minimum of nine lines and you can play any number of coins from one to ten on each line. The standard on the most new machines is five coins per line which means a maximum bet would be 45 coins. The amount for a maximum bet would be $2.25 for a nickel machine and $11.25 per spin for a quarter machine. If you want to play just a single coin on each of the nine lines it would be 45 cents for the nickel and $2.25 for the quarter. It can cost you a lot more money to play video slots than a standard reel machine.
One thing to take into consideration when deciding whether to play video slots or reel slots is the return on a single spin. On a reel machine when you do have a hit you get at least your money back for that spin your money back. This may not be the case with a video slot. You might have one line that is a winner and pays three coins but you lose on the other eight lines. It cost you nine coins for the spin and you only get three so you are still out six coins for that spin.
You should also consider that the big jackpots on most machines are only paid if you are playing maximum coins. On a reel machine it may be 3 or 4 coins. On a video slot it is more likely to be 45 or even 90 coins. Since most of the jackpots on the video slots don’t fall into the “Life Changing†dollar amounts as a game like Mega-Bucks or the other progressive machines, you may decide to just play one coin per line instead of the maximum. Since you know that your chances of hitting the big one are slim you may get more entertainment out of playing just one coin at per line and stretching your bankroll.
So it boils down to deciding to play maximum coins to try to hit the big jackpot or just playing one coin for entertainment. There really is no reason to play 2 though 9 coins on a tern coin per line machine unless you are well ahead and in that case you may as well just play the maximum for a few spins and hope for the jackpot. The other alternative would be to drop down in the denomination of machine that you play. Play a single coin per line on the quarter machine and play full coin on the nickel machine. It works out to the same amount.
The choice is yours. Whether you decide to play video or reel slots with one coin or the maximum, remember that playing slots should be considered entertainment. If you do get lucky and win, then good for you. But never play more than you can afford to lose if things go bad.
