I’ve lost a lot of money playing slot machines in my life. Of course, this doesn’t make me special in any way because most slots players are in the same boat.

Along the way I’ve learned many valuable lessons about slot machines. None of these lessons have helped me win, but some of them have helped me become a better slot machine player.

Here are seven slot machine lessons I’ve learned from years of losing play. You can learn a few things from my experience that can help you improve your slots play.

Online, Mobile, and Land-Based Slot Machines

The only difference between real money online slots, mobile slot machines, and the slots you can play in land based casinos is the names of the machines. All modern slot machines are run by computer programs, whether you’re playing a physical machine or a virtual machine.

The computer program is built using rules that dictate how much the machine gives back in the form of wins and how much the casino keeps for a profit. The computer program also dictates how many spins return money and how many spins are losers.

In the long run you can’t do anything that changes how the programming works. The only way to win is to get lucky enough to play when the program is on a cycle of giving a few more wins than losses. And there’s no way to predict when these cycles happen.

You’re going to learn a lot more about slot machines and luck in a different section in this article. But the important thing to learn in this section is that there’s nothing you can do about the way slot machine programming works.

It’s a waste of time and energy to try to figure out slot machine programming. The programs are too complicated and they guarantee a long term win for the casino.

The Casino Tricks of the Trade

Slot machines are designed using every trick that the manufacturers know to get you to play and keep you playing as long as they can. This all starts with the basic idea of slot machine. You only have to bet a small amount and you have a chance to win a big amount.

Of course, this is the same promise that many gambling games are based on, and the fact is that even when you get lucky sometimes you’re still losing overall.

Slot machines use many other tricks to get you to play more. Special bonus rounds and games within games and stories that open the more you play are all tricks that keep you playing.

Everything about a slot machine is designed to get you to risk more money. And this plays right into what you’re going to learn in the next section.

Bet More, Lose More

Here’s how slot machines work in simple terms. You bet a certain amount over time and the machine keeps a percentage of this amount. In the short run you can see a wide range of results. But in the long run the slot machine keeps the percentage of money that it’s designed to keep.

Using this simple mathematical fact you can see that if you bet more you’re going to lose more. If you bet $700 instead of $350 you can expect to lose $45.50.

The only way to lose less when you play slot machines is to risk less. This means you either have to bet less on every spin or take fewer spins, or both. You can’t overcome the math behind the machine.