How much are old slot machines worth

Remember the movie National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation, when gambling fever consumes Chevy Chase’s character, Clark W. Griswold? He goes on a losing streak to beat all losing streaks while his son, Rusty, wins four cars by playing the slot machines. Maybe Clark would have done better if he had read Probability For Dummies! In this article, you discover the basic ideas behind slot machines and how they work, so that you can get past the myths and develop a strategy based on sound probability.

Jumbo Slot machine wanted! We have arcade game buyers in every state in the United States of America looking for las vegas style slot machines/one armed bandits. Submit your game for free to day to a local buyer to find out just how much we are willing to pay you for that game that has been sitting there collecting dust for years!

Understanding average payout

As much fun as free casino games are, there comes a time for most of us, where we want the thrill of the gamble, to try and play for some real cash jackpots. The chance of winning a jackpot is slim, but it can add so much excitement when you play for cash, that it is well worth a small wager. Any penny slots 'worth it' - Atlantic City Forum. Just look around and find a slot that looks like fun to play and have fun. I personally have had some incredible spins and incredible bonus rounds on penny machines, as much as $700 or $800 on a single spin with a $2 or $3 bet. I have won the top progressive on the 'sex and the.

When casinos advertise that their slot machines pay out an average of 90 percent, the fine print they don’t want you to read says that you lose 10 cents from each dollar you put into the machines in the long term. (In probability terms, this advertisement means that your expected winnings are minus 10 cents on every dollar you spend every time the money goes through the machines.)

Suppose you start with $100 and bet a dollar at a time, for example. After inserting all $100 into the slot, 100 pulls later you’ll end up on average with $90, because you lose 10 percent of your money. If you run the $90 back through the machine, you’ll end up with 90 percent of it back, which is 0.90 x 90 = $81. If you run that amount through in 81 pulls, you’ll have $72.90 afterward (0.90 x 81 = 72.90). If you keep going for 44 rounds, on average, the money will be gone, unless you have the luck of Rusty Griswold!

How many pulls on the machine does your $100 give you at this rate? Each time you have less money to run through the machine, so you have fewer pulls left. If you insert $1 at a time, you can expect 972 total pulls in the long term with these average payouts (that’s the total pulls in 44 rounds). But keep in mind that casinos are designing slot machines to go faster and faster between spins. Some are even doing away with the handles and tokens by using digital readouts on gaming cards that you put into the machines. The faster machines can play up to 25 spins per hour, and 972 spins divided by 25 spins per minute is 38.88 minutes. You don’t have a very long time to enjoy your $100 before it’s gone!

The worst part? Casinos often advertise that their “average payouts” are even as high as 95 percent. But beware: That number applies only to certain machines, and the casinos don’t rush to tell you which ones. You really need to read or ask about the fine print before playing. You can also try to check the information on the machine to see if it lists its payouts. (Don’t expect this information to be front and center.)

Slot Machines Tips

Implementing a simple strategy for slots

Advice varies regarding whether you should play nickel, quarter, or dollar slot machines and whether you should max out the number of coins you bet or not (you usually get to choose between one and five coins to bet on a standard slot machine). In this section, you’ll find a few tips for getting the most bang for your buck (or nickel) when playing slot machines.

Basically, when it comes to slot machines, strategy boils down to this: Know the rules, your probability of winning, and the expected payouts; dispel any myths; and quit while you’re ahead. If you win $100, cash out $50 and play with the rest, for example. After you lose a certain amount (determined by you in advance), don’t hesitate to quit. Go to the all-you-can-eat buffet and try your luck with the casino food; odds are it’s pretty good!

Choosing among nickel, quarter, and dollar machines

The machines that have the higher denominations usually give the best payouts. So, between the nickel and quarter slots, for example, the quarter slots generally give better payouts. However, you run the risk of getting in way over your head in a hurry, so don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. The bottom line: Always choose a level that you have fun playing at and that allows you to play for your full set time limit.

Deciding how many coins to play at a time

When deciding on the number of coins you should play per spin, keep in mind that more is sometimes better. If the slot machine gives you more than two times the payout when you put in two times the number of coins, for example, you should max it out instead of playing single coins because you increase your chances of winning a bigger pot, and the expected value is higher. If the machine just gives you k times the payout for k coins, it doesn’t matter if you use the maximum number of coins. You may as well play one at a time until you can make some money and leave so your money lasts a little longer.

For example, say a quarter machine pays 10 credits for the outcome 777 when you play only a single quarter, but if you play two quarters, it gives you 25 credits for the same outcome. And if you play the maximum number of quarters (say, four), a 777 results in 1,000 credits. You can see that playing four quarters at a time gives you a better chance of winning a bigger pot in the long run (if you win, that is) compared to playing a single quarter at a time for four consecutive tries.

The latest slot machine sweeping the nation is the so-called “penny slot machine.” Although it professes to require only a penny for a spin, you get this rate only if you want to bet one penny at a time. The machines entice you to bet way more than one penny at a time; in fact, on some machines, you can bet more than 1,000 coins (called lines) on each spin — $10 a shot here, folks. Because these machines take any denomination of paper bill, as well as credit cards, your money can go faster on penny machines than on dollar machines because you can quickly lose track of your spendings. Pinching pennies may not be worth it after all!

AT first glance, it looks as if Eddie Cramer is operating a casino out of his modest one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn Heights, or at least one as Ziggy Stardust might have imagined it.

Japanese slot machines known as pachislos — all flashing lights and tinny, obnoxious noise — rest on just about every horizontal surface of the 500-square-foot space, including the sink and the stove. In his living room, where the walls are painted black to match the carpet, there are nearly a dozen machines, and the only furnishings are a few scoop-backed stools.

In the bedroom is a bed (surprise!) and a lot more slot machines.

Your first assurance that this is not a gambling den is Mr. Cramer himself, a soft-spoken man who tells his guest, fidgeting, “I don’t really even like having people in here.”

The other assurance is that these aren’t technically gambling machines. Mr. Cramer is one of the country’s foremost collectors of pachislos, cheap, slightly tacky slot machines that have amassed a cultlike following in the United States over the last 10 years. He began collecting them about four years ago after he saw one in a mall on Staten Island. Today, he lives mostly at his girlfriend’s apartment so he can use his own to house his collection.

Pachislos (pronounced PATCH-ee-slows) look much like any slot machine you would find in a Las Vegas casino. But they differ from American slots in small but significant ways.

AreContinue reading the main story

For one, they operate only on tokens, not currency. For another, they supposedly involve some skill: below each spinning wheel is a button that stops it manually, meaning pachislo players earn their jackpots by hitting the button at the right moment. One does not have to be a skeptic on par with, say, Aristotle, to doubt that this element of skill is anything more than illusory, but it is enough to exempt the machines from most states’ laws barring home ownership of gambling equipment.

Also, they are not just slot machines. Many of them, particularly the newer models, have LCD screens on which elaborate video-game-style narratives play out. And they have some oddball traits that appeal to kitsch-happy collectors: colorful anime-style graphics, ear-splitting sound effects and unfortunate Japanese approximations of American themes like “Rambo” and “Harley-Davidson.” An Obama pachislo comes decorated with an image of the president, arms folded, in front of the presidential seal and an American flag.

Pachislos are considerably cheaper than American slots: basic machines cost about $250, whereas a decommissioned Las Vegas slot machine can cost from $800 to $2,000.

In Japan, compulsive pachislo players are known to sit glassy eyed for hours in seedy pachinko parlors (named for the vertical pinball game that spawned pachislo). Although gambling is illegal in Japan, players can trade their tokens for “prizes” — empty plastic boxes or cigarette lighters — that they then take to redeeming centers across the street and trade for cash.

These machines “are very mesmerizing, they’re very soothing,” said David Plotz, the editor of Slate, who wrote about pachinko parlors for the Japan Society after spending time in Japan in 2001. “They are a form of escape in a country where there is very little of that.”

In the United States, however, the obsession seems to be more about collecting than playing. Collectors speak of sacrificing whole floors of their homes to accommodate their ever-growing collections. They gather on sites like Pachitalk.com and PachisloDB.com to share reviews of the newest machines or trade tips on where to find rare ones. And YouTube is filled with hundreds of hours of pachislo enthusiasts showing off their chirping, flashing collections.

Brian Evans is a retired Navy technician who discovered pachislos when he was stationed in Japan in the early 1990s. He has more than 35 pachislo machines in his home in Atlantic Beach, Fla., plus close to 20 pachinko machines.

“My neighbors thought I was crazy when they started seeing FedEx or UPS delivery boxes once or twice or three times a month,” he said. “But they came over and are like, ‘Hey, these are pretty neat.’ ”

For many American collectors, pachislos are the first experience with slot machines of any kind.

“I actually don’t like to gamble, because I don’t like to lose money,” said Rita Schack of Pearland, Tex., who made about $10,000 importing and selling pachislo machines last year on her Web site, BlueHotaru.com. “But once I found out the technology that goes into them and the great music they play and the flashing lights and the LCD videos they play, I just fell in love with them.”

She added: “The only problem now is fitting them in the house.”

But mention pachislos to a slot machine purist like Bob Levy, an antique slot machine dealer in Pennsauken, N.J., and prepare yourself for a good talking-to.

What Are Slot Machines Worth

“They’re junk, they’re disposable,” Mr. Levy said. “If you’re a kid or a senior citizen, they’ll keep you busy. But they’re kind of not terrific for a serious person.”

Chris Voges, a 40-year-old slot machine technician for Bally’s casinos, disagrees. He began collecting pachislos five years ago because he was impressed with the technology and the level of game play compared with American slots.

“It’s not just pulling the handle and waiting for the wheels to stop,” he said. “There’s a little more of a story line to play through.”

As a technician, Mr. Voges found himself taken in by the pachislos’ holographic displays and LCDs (he does not work on pachislos professionally). “American slot machines are just now catching up” in terms of technology, he said. Mr. Voges now has 15 pachislo machines in the basement of his Seaford, Del., home.

What are slot machines worth

Can all this fun be legal? That depends on where you are. At least two states, Connecticut and Washington, have ruled that pachislos fall under existing laws barring home ownership of slot machines, and most dealers won’t ship there. Other states, like California, have deemed them legal as long as they are not converted to accepting cash. But most states, including New York, apparently have yet to grapple with the question.

“Before anyone acquires one of these machines, we recommend that they speak to either their local police agency, the district attorney’s office or consult with an attorney,” said Joseph Mahoney, a spokesman for the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.

Still, because pachislos are sold and traded almost exclusively online, and because most states don’t seem to put much effort into enforcing laws against them, most collectors have no trouble acquiring pachislos wherever they live.

How Much Are Slot Machines Worth It

In any case, it is unlikely that most states have to worry about pachislo enthusiasts parlaying their collections into gambling operations. Ask a collector how to convert a pachislo to accept cash and you will mostly likely get a dressing down.

Value Of Old Slot Machines

“You do not discuss converting these over to coin-operated machines,” said Mr. Evans, the retired Navy technician. “It’s just looked down upon.”