Within the colorful world of slot gaming, there exists a multitude of myths and superstitions. These legends and beliefs have a way of transmitting themselves from one player to the next. They are part and parcel of players’ knowledge banks, seemingly embedded within the shared language of slot enthusiasts.
The very fact that a considerable number of these legends have attached themselves to the history of slottery should make us suspicious. After all, isn’t history so often the seat of absurdity? What I would like to do in this essay is what the sun does every morning when it rises—try to burn away some of the volume of myths encircling the slot-playing experience and offer a cleaner view of that experience in the process.
The very core of slot gaming involves a particular conviction: that some machines are “hot” and others are “cold.” “Hot” machines are supposedly more likely to hit a winning combination, while “cold” ones are thought to be in a bit of a slump. This belief, in turn, rests on the rather unfounded tendency of humans to try to make sense of a sea of patterns—trying to find some pattern or structure in what is, at its heart, a completely random event.
The fact is, though, that any sense of “hot” or “cold,” when it comes to slot machines, is purely imaginary. …
There is a widespread belief about playing slot machines that has nothing to do with strategy or conduct and everything to do with chance. This belief is sometimes called the “day and night” myth. Some gamblers are sure that a slot machine will pay out only if played at a very specific time of day or night. Is there any substance at all to this idea? Some say yes, and indeed, conversations with some knowledgeable gambling insiders proffer some persuasive—if not always permanent—evidence for this kind of rationalization. This is not to say that a particular slot machine is especially cold or hot at a given time, only that this is a fairly regular subject of debate.
Players’ physical actions spawn many slot machine superstitions. One believer may think it’s unlucky to pull a lever, for instance, while another might swear by the spin button. Still another might try to reinforce a certain choice by adding a meaningless step to the process: The puller will count to some even number before yanking, whereas the button pusher will perform some innocent-seeming gesture before pressing that makes the act of pushing feel slightly less like a decision with consequences.
And some just think that pulling off their masks and holding their lucky charms sideways will get them the win.
In the world of online slot games, the same false tales and sheer nonsense that have been told about land-based casinos for many years have now found a home on the Internet. As an online slot player, you too may have heard some of these tall tales. Perhaps you, like so many others, are inclined to believe them. Here are a few of the most common, baseless, and yet somehow enduring, myths you may have heard about online slots.
But just because you’ve heard them doesn’t make them any less false. And just because we’ve called them on their baloney doesn’t mean we’re giving you the green light to waste your money. We just want you to know what’s what and make your decisions accordingly.
Even though slot superstitions and myths have been thoroughly discredited, they are still to be found in the “common knowledge” of the gambling public.
The reason why I make them the focus of this chapter is that they serve as potent indicators of how our public and private lives are influenced more and more by irrational thinking. Even highly educated people, people who should know better, subscribe to the idea that your luck (or lack of it) at the slots says something about you as a person. But how can your momentary win or loss speak to anything intangible about your character?
To be clear, there is a world of false information and misinterpretations, of pure and simple exaggeration, around the sociology of slot gaming, otherwise known as the culture of the slot machine. Fundamentally, it often seems as if the people whose sort of sociology is attached to walking around a casino and interviewing gamblers for a paper or a tome like The Elusive Obvious really think they’ve captured the mindset of the typical slot machine player. They sure think they’ve got the key to the sort of myth and conceit that leads to Mistake No. 1 above: the notion that computers program these machines to go through long spells when they’re “hot” and just as long when they’re “cold.”
