1. The majority of first-time gamblers begin on slot machines. All you really have to do is insert money and push a button. Compared to table games, slots are less intimidating for people who don’t know the proper etiquette when interacting with dealers, like placing your money on the table instead of handing it to the dealer.
2. You should now have enough information to be able to make an informed decision about which slot machines you should choose at a casino. Remember, if your goal is fun, you might want to go for more intricate video slots with lots of bells and whistles, but lower payouts.
3. Progressive slots should not be the game of your choice when you are out picking a winning slot machine. They are hard to crack, come with terrible odds, and are horribly expensive to play. You can learn more about the dangers (and advantages) of these particular games in our guide on how to win progressive slots.

• Rent A Slot Machine
• Parts Of A Slot Machine
• Should I Play Slot Machines
• Slot Machine Games
• Which Slot Machine Should I Play

Do you play slot machines?

Slot machines are easily the biggest moneymaker for the casino. If you’re going to participate in such games, you should learn how to play slot machines right (not wrong). The first thing to understand about slot machines is that they have a guaranteed mathematical advantage for the casino. Slot machines aren’t the highest-paying games on the casino floor, but they’re popular because they are so entertaining. If you want to spend some time at the slot machines and also maximize your payouts, here are some tips to follow.

What most people don’t know is that slot machines are big business.

Rent A Slot Machine

Slot machines and other video gambling options are a big bulk of the dollars earned by casinos.

Did you know that most Midwestern Casinos make the majority of their revenue from these games?

Slot machines make up a little bit less than 90% of their annual profits.

The big question is this:

Should you play slot machines?

I don’t think so. Let me tell you why:

Why Slots?

Reel spinning on slot machines is big business for casinos. Their profits exceed other gambling games like video poker, blackjack, and other games.

What is it that makes slot machines such big moneymakers?

Slot machines have the advantage of masking their true cost to the player than other gambling options.

When a player drops a 25 cent coin into a slot machine they think that is the cost of their game. The player couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s take a look at the real cost of playing slot machines:

The Real Cost of Slot Machines

There’s an economic theory known as, Law of Supply and Demand. This law says that the value of something is in higher need the consumer price falls. If you flood the market with something, the demand is going to fall.

This theory completely depends on a term called price transparency. This idea is for the everyday purchases we make on everyday purchases. This common type of spending is along the lines of grocery stores and Amazon purchases.

The types of items that fall under price transparency are food items, Amazon purchases, and other household and consumer goods.

What doesn’t fall under this category is services rendered that we don’t know the final cost of.

Think doctor’s appointments and car repair work. You just can’t know the final cost of the replacement of your radiator. There are too many factors involved like labor and wait time on the part(s).

Slot machines are an even iffier outcome than the final bill of your car’s repair. This is true because we don’t have a way to predict the true cost of our wagers at slot machines.

And this throws the idea of supply and demand out the window.

Casinos determine the price of the average or projected house edge on every wager placed by gamblers in their casino. This is also viewed by casinos as the long-term edge built into every game they offer.

For an average gambler, their small time frame playing the slot machine will bring a “price” that is a lot different than the original 25 cent coin dropped into the machine.

Let look at an example:

Let’s assume the slot machine has a 10% house edge. (This is pretty normal for slot machines.)

This 10% house edge, in the long run, will earn the casino % of all the money played on that machine.

Let’s say the machine has $100.00 played on it over 200 spins.

The payout would be $90.00 to the gambler and $10.00 to the house.

From the casino’s point of view, the price it charges to play the slot machine is 10% of what the long-term spending of the players.

From the player’s point of view, they see the cost of play by what they spend per s[end. If they put in a dollar to spin the slot machine once and it doesn’t payout, the slot machine costs $1.00 to play. Not the 0.10 to win (the casino’s win).

You’re asking yourself, so who’s right?

They both are correct.

The game has collected $1.00 from the player. The casino has factored in that 90 cents of that $1.00 will be paid out to other gamblers.

Still following?

Good.

A person gambling on a slot machine could never realize this, The player will most likely only play that specific slot machine for a couple of hours. That time sent on that machine will give the player big hopes of a huge payout to balance their time spent playing.

At this approach to playing, the slot is almost fruitless. It could quite possibly take one person years of playing that exact slot machine to finally hit a big.

That’s not a good use of time.

Playing the Long Term

The cost that the gambler views when playing a slot machine is based on the view of their time spent playing the slot machine in the casino. The casino is looking at the long term payout of the slot machine to players while the player looks at the 1-2 hours they will commit to playing the machine.

The ability to see the long term approach casinos take to slot machines is an advantage most veteran players are able to see. Let’s take a look at an example to make this theory a bit more clear.

Joe, who just got paid, heads to the casino with 100.00 to play on slot machines over an hour on Saturday afternoon. Joe has three possible endings for the day:

1. Joe loses all his money and goes home with less money he started the day with.
2. Joe hits the big jackpot on a slot machine and goes home with A LOT more money than he started his day with.
3. Joe breaks even and leaves with the 100.00 he started with.

Obviously Joe would like to come home with big winnings on his time spent playing slots.

But the second choice for Joe’s time at the casino is to come home breaking even.

He got to the casino with $100.00, played for an hour, won a little and left with his $100.00.

No harm, no foul.

Unfortunately, the first scenario is more likely than the other options.

More players lose than win.

This is essential for the casinos to be profitable businesses.

And they are more than profitable; they’re hugely profitable.

The big jackpots are paid by all the other gamblers that have lost money on those slot machines. Those losses = one big payout on almost all slot machines. That is the basics of the slot machine business

You’ve heard the saying “You win some and you lose some”?

In the case of slot machines, it’s more like “You win one and they lose a lot”.

It’s almost like the biological term symbiosis.

If there were no losers, there would be no big payouts on slot machines for the casino.

The casino would get a bad reputation for having no winners — which is a death sentence for casinos.

What most players don’t see is the long term payout on slot machines in casinos. Slot machine gamblers do not sit down with the mindset that I have to play this exact machine for X amount of spins to get that big jackpot. They want the immediate gratification of the big win.

If this was the mentality of most players the would be able to see what that first spin was worth. If slot machine players could see the cost of playing slot machines I think there would be a steep decline in the popularity of slot machines would see a steep decline in casinos.

No Slot Machines? What Should I Play?

I have given you plenty of incentive to stop playing slot machines.

But what should a regular slots gamblers play instead?

There are a plethora of games that have better odds of winning.

Here are my top 3 games to play at casinos instead of slot machines:

1. Blackjack- Blackjack has much better odds of winning than casino slot machines. Also known as 21, this traditional table game favorite is one of the most popular card games at casinos. Your odds than slot machines. There are plenty of how-to sites on the internet about how to play, and more importantly, how to win! Give it a try.

2. Poker- Poker is probably the most infamous game when people think of gambling games. The house doesn’t have much at stake because players are playing against each other with their own money. It’s a great game to play, only if you have a great poker face. Look it up, you’ll have a blast playing poker instead of wasting your money on slot machines.

3. Craps- Craps is a dice game where players bet on where their dice throw where they will land on the table. Its a lot of fun, better odds than slot machines, and there is usually a lot of excitement around the craps tables. It is a great way to get to know people.

Finally

Parts Of A Slot Machine

I have gone over how slot machines work, how the casino odds work, and why that one winner is piggybacking off all the time other players have wasted their money.

In the short run, slots are fun, but you are rarely going to hit that big jackpot everyone dreams about.

You now have the information you need to know why you should stop play slot machines. Try some of the table games. They are fun, have better odds of winning and you will likely walk away with more of the casino’s money in your pockets.

I would love to hear your thoughts on playing slot machines in casinos. Please feel free to leave a comment or questions below.

Introduction to $60,000 Hand Pay

Are you ready? Are you ready to win a 60-thousand-dollar slot machine jackpot? Are you sure? From making the bet to income tax preparation, I’ll have to deal with after having won.

One of my biggest issues with slot machine casino gambling has been the surprises, like winning an unexpectedly large jackpot. Of course, it’s possible to win big jackpots. We all know that’s possible, so why not be ready? Here’s what to expect if you win big.

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What It’s Like to Win Big

I’ve won 90 taxable jackpots in nine months in a U.S. state where slot machine jackpots became automatically taxable at $1,200. Of those hand pays, three exceeded $10,000. On average, one in 30 of those 90 jackpots exceeded $10,000. This excludes the $40,000 cash option I got for winning a car at the end of those nine months.

My first big jackpot was for $27,000. So far, this is my largest jackpot won playing slot machines. I won it early on Saturday, December 21, 2013, at 5:40 a.m. at Horseshoe Cincinnati, since purchased and renamed JACK Cincinnati Casino then sold again in 2019 to become Hard Rock Cincinnati.

I won this $27,000 hand pay on a Red-Blue-White Seven’s slot machine in the high limit slots room. I’d made the maximum bet on this $10-denomination, 2-credit slot machine.

I was checking to see if I could cycle my bankroll on this slot machine as well as testing to see if it was a winning slot machine. I’d just about decided I was wasting my money because it wasn’t showing any evidence of bankroll cycling when it hit.

I remember the moment clearly. It was very early in the morning. I’d started my session at 4 a.m. and had already won a small hand pay. I remember seeing someone win their own hand pay behind me, but couldn’t see how much.

A floor manager was there with the slot attendant during their hand pay, so it must have been over $10,000. As the floor manager and slot attendant walked away after the hand pay, they began walking by me.

Just as they approached, my $27,000 jackpot hit. I looked down, saw the 2,700-credit hit, looked up at the floor manager looking at me, and swore.

That was embarrassing. I don’t usually swear. But, at that moment, I felt the need to do so. I swore right while looking the floor manager in the eye. He kept walking, now with a frown.

I called out to him, to explain. “Excuse me! Sorry about that! I didn’t mean to swear, but I just won a jackpot. A really big jackpot!”

They came back. Right about then, 30 seconds after the slot machine hit, I basically went into shock. Since I’d started gambling again after nearly 10 years, my biggest jackpot was $5,000. I’d won it three times over the last month, since I’d started gambling again, and every time was hard on me.

But now, I’d won more than five times that. It wasn’t easy. I remember telling the floor manager how unreal and dreamlike it felt. I even asked the slot attendant to pinch me. She did. It didn’t help.

And, after the hand pay, I had trouble deciding what to do next. Should I just go on with my day? Should I stick to the plan I had had in mind? Or, was my plan of gambling all day ruined? Hint: You’re done – go home.

Can you imagine how I was feeling? I know some of you can indeed imagine it. I know because some of you have won even bigger jackpots while playing slots.

How to Be Ready, Just in Case

Are you ready to win a big jackpot the next time you play a slot machine? To be ready, you’ll need some essentials like your government-issued I.D. But there are other ways you’ll probably want to be ready, which I’ll go over soon.

You’ll need the government-issued I.D. to receive a taxable jackpot at a casino. That’s essential. If you don’t have it with you, nice casinos will let you go to your car for it. But, I don’t think you should count on the casino letting you go home to get it.

If you’re anything like me, you might find yourself not quite yourself after winning a big jackpot. To be ready, think it through in advance. Make yourself a plan. Then, if/when it happens, all you need to do is remember the plan.

It doesn’t have to be a complicated plan. Just ask yourself these simple questions. After you get the hand pay, will you stay? Or will you go? There will be more decisions to make, but that’s really the most important one.

As I’ve told my college students during career discussions, I don’t care what your plan is. I care that you have a plan. We’re not having a career discussion right now, but I think you get the point.

Will you leave the casino or will you make a night of it? Personally, I’d leave. I’d leave as soon as I could. I didn’t know that in advance of my biggest jackpot, but I do now. That’s my plan. What’s yours?

Choices: Handling the Hand Pay

Imagine you’ve just won your biggest jackpot ever. And you have your I.D. You might even have a player’s club card, so your personal information is on file with the casino. Next up is the hand pay and more decisions.

Should I Play Slot Machines

If you’ve never won a taxable jackpot before, no matter what size, the hand pay process is straight-forward. You win a jackpot. The machine locks up. A slot attendant comes. You do paperwork. Someone else shows up to verify the jackpot. Finally, you’re paid.

I’ve already explained the hand pay process when winning a taxable jackpot playing slots in How Do Slot Machines Pay Out Taxable Jackpots.

But, there are some slight changes to this process when winning big jackpots. In most states, jackpots of $10,000 or more require that the jackpot verifier is a floor manager rather than another slot attendant.

Tip #1: You can tip the slot attendant, and in my opinion should, but you can’t tip the floor manager. If they say it’s okay, the floor manager will take a tip to put into the group tip jar for all the slot attendants. But, typically, floor managers can’t receive tips.

Tip #2: This is your chance to meet a floor manager. It’s a priceless opportunity. Get to know them. Make friends, if you can. Floor managers know a lot more about what’s going on in a casino than slot attendants. Ask questions. Be nice. Thank me later.

You do have another choice to make, however. For jackpots just over the taxable limit but under $10,000, casinos will provide banded stacks of $5,000 when you ask for cash instead of a check. Other casinos only provide banded stacks of $10,000.

I’m trying to get away from collecting those paper bands around $10k in hundreds, but it’s been a surprisingly difficult habit to break.

Either way, for a large jackpot where you ask for cash, you can expect banded stacks (sometimes called bricks) of hundred-dollar bills. Personally, I have found it’s nice when a slot attendant counts out 100-dollar bills in my hand. Professionally, I advise you to take most or all the jackpot as a check.

That is if your plan includes requesting some or all your taxable jackpot in cash. It’s really your choice, however. What’s your plan, again? Remember, preparation is key.

What Comes Afterward

If you do request cash and end up leaving the casino without spending it, I should mention what happens at a bank when you go to deposit $10,000 or more in cash. It’s just the same as any other cash deposit, except for the Currency Transaction Report (CTR).

Do any slot machines take silver dollars in las vegas. However, if you’re looking for a true vintage Las Vegas experience you can head into five casinos in downtown Las Vegas. There are still a handful of casinos who offer vintage coin-operated video poker or slot machines. The vast majority of casino machine games have been modernized with the TITO (Ticket In Ticket Out) system.

The CTR is a reporting requirement for U.S. financial institutions regarding all cash deposits, withdrawals, and currency exchanges of $10,000 or more. When making a deposit of at least $10,000, it will be reported to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within the U.S. Treasury Department.

FinCEN began in 1990 but became its own bureau under the USA Patriot Act passed in 2002. In part, it monitors and analyzes financial transactions for illegal transactions. This includes financial crimes related to money laundering and corruption.

Over recent years, I’ve deposited more than $10,000 in cash multiple times at my bank and never had a concern. They do ask where the money came from to which I typically respond, “I won it at the casino.”

I don’t think you have any cause for concern as earning money at a casino isn’t an illegal transaction. My lack of concern here hinges on understanding that big jackpots generate a W-2G tax form when won at a casino. So, if FinCEN does become interested, it wouldn’t take much for the U.S. Treasury to confirm the source of that much cash.

Slot Machine Games

Nevertheless, I thought you should know about the CTR. There is another aspect to accepting a lot of cash you should probably be aware of. In my mind, it’s slightly more important than the CTR. It’s this: How much cash can you carry?

Let’s say you’re wearing a pair of men’s jeans or trousers with typical size pockets, not woman’s jeans with their surprisingly small pockets. Let’s further say you’re not wearing a jacket or carrying any sort of purse.

Finally, let’s assume all your cash is in $100 bills. Under those circumstances, how much cash can you carry without it being in your hand or sticking out somewhere for anyone to notice?

With a wallet in one pocket and a mobile phone in another, I’ve been able to tuck away 200 $100 bills, or $20,000, in all the pockets of a typical pair of men’s jeans. Let’s say you won a big jackpot which you accepted as cash and after taxes have $50,000 in your hand.

What do you do with it? Yes, you can fill all your pockets with $20,000 of it. What about the remaining $30,000? Do you ask the casino to provide a brown paper bag, perhaps? Once again, make sure you have a plan in case you win.

One final note about getting home. Feel free to ask the casino for security to walk you to your car. They’re perfectly happy to do so. Unlike me, try to remember where you parked your car. It can be surprisingly hard to remember that little fact when you’re clutching tens of thousands of dollars in your sweaty hands.

Preparing for Income Taxes

One time I was sitting two seats away from someone who looked like they had never been in a casino’s high limit slots room. Do you know that look? Anyway, they looked both nervous and like they wanted to go.

Suddenly, and it’s always sudden, they won a $4,800 jackpot. They just nodded to themselves and started hitting the cash-out ticket button. Which, naturally enough, wasn’t working because the slot machine had locked up after hitting a jackpot over $1,200.

When the cash out button wouldn’t work, they turned and looked at me with a question in their eyes. This is where I walked right into trouble. I said, “Oh, the machine’s locked up because you’ve won a big jackpot. Don’t worry, the slot attendant should be here any moment to help you with getting it as well as paying taxes.”

I was just trying to be helpful. I imagine you know what happened next. They practically yelled, “Taxes? Taxes?!”

As they became more and more upset at me, I tried to disengage from the conversation. Luckily for me, the slot attendant arrived right about then to save me.

Slot attendants are great. Seriously. I always remember how upset this taxable jackpot winner was whenever I work with a slot attendant. It is what I remember whenever I tip my slot attendant after winning my own taxable jackpots.

Which Slot Machine Should I Play

So, if or when you win an automatically taxable jackpot, you’ll be working with a slot attendant. I’ve already described what that is like. But let’s discuss income taxes for a moment.

On Twitter, one of my 10,000+ followers said, “The amount of the taxable jackpot needs to be raised.”

My response was, “Why? It’s still taxable, even if you don’t get a W-2G hand pay. But, I do appreciate the sentiment. I really do.”

If you win $10 at a casino, it’s still taxable income. This gets confusing fast though, because what if you spend that $10 in the next few minutes without it ever leaving the slot machine?

Sometime later, I may write about the more practical aspects of casino gambling and disconnects with general requirements from the IRS. In brief, the IRS says all gambling income is taxable and state gaming regulations usually say using an electronic device during gaming is a felony.

A practical compromise would be to record how much bankroll you walk into a casino with and how much winnings you walk out with, including the free market value of any gifts. At least, doing this is possible.

What isn’t confusing is what happens when the casino issues a W-2G income tax form reported directly to the IRS. If you choose to accept a taxable jackpot, then you will receive a W-2G.

As an aside, some people can’t afford or otherwise don’t want taxable jackpots. For instance, my family friends Lois and Dave in my article Seminole Brighton Casino Florida Trip Report, are from Canada.

For them, any gambling income from their annual visits to U.S. casinos is foreign income and potentially subject to taxation by the Canadian government. Yikes! Apparently, as usual with income taxes, what to do is very individualized.

My admittedly limited understanding is, and please don’t consider me as any kind of professional or expert with regards to international tax law, my Canadian friends can earn some income when gambling in the U.S. – but not a lot of income. A $60,000 taxable jackpot may well be too much, too difficult, and therefore unwanted. Maybe.

You can always choose not to accept a taxable jackpot. You can choose to walk away. An old slots joke is this: “The only way to legally avoid paying taxes after winning a jackpot of $1,200 or more is to simply not accept the winnings.”

That’s funny, yes? It’s funny but true. Also, be aware the automatically taxable limit for gambling income is instead $600 in Massachusetts, but perhaps eventually other states.

Finally, there are the tax choices you’ll need to make when filling out the paperwork for the taxable jackpot with the slot attendant.

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• A federal income tax withdrawal from your winnings is typically optional.
• State income tax withdrawal is very state-dependent.
• Local income tax withdrawal exists if the casino you are at is located within a city’s limits.
• Other withdrawals may exist such as a nonrefundable 3% tax on jackpots over $1,200 in Mississippi as imposed by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

If you keep good gambling records, it usually works out well to choose to not pay federal taxes. Why? Because keeping good gambling records means you’ll have gambling deductions to apply during your annual income tax preparation.

If you don’t keep gambling records or federal gambling deductions aren’t allowed due to your overall income, then you’ll need to always include a federal income tax withdrawal with every jackpot or suffer through an income tax payment when you eventually file your annual income tax return.

If you don’t keep good gambling records then, frankly, you should start. Why? Because the danger of not keeping gambling records is having to pay income taxes when they could have avoided them. What if you win big? What if you win so big that everything changes?

Isn’t that why you’re interested in my content, to succeed? To win more, and more often? Keep gambling records just in case you win a massive jackpot. Or lots of $1,200 hand pays which, in a year, adds up to the same large jackpot … or more. Make it part of your plan, okay?

Summary of $60,000 Hand Pay

Some time ago, a fan of my website and podcast named Richard from Gainesville, Georgia, contacted me via Twitter after he won a $60,000 slots jackpot, took a check, and immediately walked out of the casino. I was proud of how well he’d handled it and told him so at the time.

How he handled a big jackpot reminded me of what it was like. My first time, I didn’t do as well as Richard. So, we’re talking about this now so you can do better than I did and perhaps as well as Richard if you won a large taxable jackpot.

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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC