Being A Professional Slot Machine Gambler
- How To Become A Professional Slot Machine Gambler
- Wild Gambler Slot
- Professional Slot Gambler
- Being A Professional Sports Gambler
- Being A Professional Slot Machine Gambler Online
- Professional Slot Machine Gambler
- Being A Professional Slot Machine Gambler Game
Most routes to becoming a pro gambler are well known. Daily fantasy sports (DFS), card counting, poker, and sports betting are all common forms of professional gambling.
A gambler is considered to be a professional if they gamble full time to earn a living and not merely for fun and excitement. Professional gamblers report their income and related expenses on Schedule C as self-employment income. Net Schedule C income is subject to federal income tax and to the self-employment tax, plus any state income tax.
Slot machines, on the other hand, seem like the last type of gaming that would offer an opportunity to become a professional. Aren’t these the games that people mindlessly play for hours and lose lots of money? Yes, to a degree.
However, slot machines can offer a chance to win profits under the right circumstances. That said, I’ll discuss different ways to win with slots and if this career choice is ultimately worth the effort.
What Are the Different Ways to Beat Slots?
You might think the only way to beat a slot machine is by praying to the heavens. If so, you’ll be surprised to find there are actually three different ways to win with slots.
Banking Slot Machines
A banking (a.k.a. accumulator) slot machine features a bonus meter that gradually fills as one collects special symbols. A bonus feature will be triggered once the meter reaches the top.
The premise behind these games is that they entice gamblers to play longer in order to unlock bonuses. But some players don’t manage to trigger the bonus, because they either run out of time or money.
Assuming they leave, you can swoop in and take advantage. You can theoretically gain an edge with accumulator slot machines when the meter is nearly full.
What’s more is that many gamblers continue playing so that they can earn the bonus. In these cases, you may need to build up the nerve to persuade a gambler off their slot machine beforehand.
Those who engage in this practice are often referred to as slots “vultures.” They hang around games and do anything possible to get a seat when the bonus is set to come.
Therefore, you not only need the time to find nearly full meters, but also need the nerve to talk somebody off a slot.
Mystery Jackpots
A mystery slot machine offers a progressive jackpot that pays out at a specific point. For example, a game may deliver its top prize at exactly $250.
Much like with accumulator slots, some gamblers leave a mystery jackpot slot machine before it’s set to pay out. This creates another opportunity where you can gain an edge by stepping in at the right moment.
The biggest challenge in getting this advantage is knowing when to play a mystery jackpot slot. Here’s a formula via Michael “The Wizard of Odds” Shackleford for calculating a mystery game’s most-profitable point.
- Formula: t = m × (h + r) / (h + 2r)
- t = Target point
- m = Max jackpot
- r = Rise of meter (percentage of each bet that goes into the jackpot; e.g. 2%)
- h = House edge (including average value of progressive jackpot)
This formula isn’t perfect. After all, you may not know the house edge and/or jackpot contribution for the game you’re playing.
But you can at least guess these variables and come up with a reasonable target point. For example, most games see around 2% of every bet go towards funding the progressive jackpot.
Here’s an example for using these variables to determine when you’ll have an edge:
- Formula: $250 jackpot x (0.05 + 0.02 rise in meter) / (0.05 + 0.02×2) = $194.44
- You should begin playing when the jackpot reaches $194.44.
Progressive Jackpots
Progressive jackpots play a huge role in the popularity of slot machines. After all, some of these prizes can be worth seven or even eight figures.
For example, somebody won a jackpot of $21 million through Microgaming’s Mega Moolah in 2019. This prize is an exception to the norm, but it shows just how large slots jackpots can get.
You definitely can’t expect to win profits on a game with 88% payback. This RTP is as bad as it gets in the slots world.
However, Mega Moolah’s payback grows along with the jackpot. At a certain point, this slot, or any other progressive game, can feature such a large jackpot that the game itself offers over 100% payback.
Assuming you play progressive slot machines at this point, you’re theoretically earning profits. But this is a huge “theoretical,” because you’d have to actually win the jackpot at some point to eventually be profitable.
The odds of winning the biggest slots jackpots can be 1 in 10 million, or even greater. You certainly don’t have any guarantees with these games.
Why You Should Chase Slots Profits
You can see from the above description that slots winnings aren’t easy to come by. However, you may still find this pursuit worth the effort for a few different reasons.
Make Money With Entertaining Games
Millions of people around the globe play slot machines on a daily basis for the entertainment value alone. Now, just imagine if you could also make a living while enjoying these games.
Professional slots play gives you this opportunity. You can hang out in casinos and play different slots for hours while earning a living.
Pick up Comps on the Side
The profits that you accumulate from slot machines aren’t the only benefits to this profession. You can also earn rewards on the side of your play.
You simply need to sign up for a slots club card at any casino where you gamble. From here, your bets will be comped based on each casino’s formula.
Generally speaking, you often receive 0.01% of your total bets as rewards. Remember, this money is on top of the profits that you’re already making.
Make Your Own Hours
Many people dream of working a job where they can make their own hours. Professional slots play offers this very chance.
You decide when to visit the casino and how long you want to play. You can also choose which holidays to work and which ones to enjoy.
Of course, you may have to play at the busiest hours to truly capitalize on these opportunities. But you always have the choice of when to gamble.
Visit Different Casinos
If you want to be a professional slots player, chances are that you’ll have to move to Las Vegas to do it. After all, Sin City offers the most accumulator slot machines, mystery jackpots, and progressive jackpots in the world.
Assuming you enjoy visiting different casinos anyway, then you’ll love this aspect of being a slots pro. Vegas, for example, offers well over 100 different casinos.
Not all these gaming establishments offer great opportunities to make profits. But you may include over a dozen different casinos in your rotation.
Why You Shouldn’t Try to Be a Slots Pro
Professional slots players aren’t very common. One reason why is because there are a number of downsides to this job, including the following.
Inconsistent Income
Even if you have an advantage with slot machines, you’re never guaranteed profits on a given day. You’ll have a very small edge in any game and must rely on the luck of the draw in some cases.
If you’re playing an accumulator slot with a nearly full meter, for example, you still need to collect the one to two required symbols to trigger the bonus. Sometimes, you’ll get the required symbols very quickly. Other times, you’ll have to wait and lose money in the process.
Assuming you keep playing slot machines with an advantage, then you’re going to make profits. But you never know how much you’ll earn during each day or even week.
Limited Opportunities
Accumulator slot machines used to be more common over a decade ago. However, many casinos found out that these slots caused major problems.
As covered before, vultures try to persuade gamblers off of machines with nearly full meters. Fistfights sometimes break out when vultures are too persistent or even downright rude.
Mystery jackpot games aren’t heavily prevalent in casinos either. They’re just not as popular as standard progressive jackpot slots.
Deal With Slots Vultures
Slot machine vultures are one of the ugliest parts of the trade. If you pursue accumulator bonuses, or even mystery jackpots, then you’ll be competing with these very same players.
They may harass you for infringing on their turf. Furthermore, they’ll try beating you to the punch when a favorable opportunity exists.
You may have no problem with this competition. But more competitors mean you’ll have a tougher time making profits.
You May Become a Vulture Yourself
How To Become A Professional Slot Machine Gambler
In the end, you might discover that the only way to earn consistent profits is to become a vulture. Are you prepared to try and trick gamblers off of slot machines just so you can profit?
If the allure of being a professional slots player is that great, then you may answer “yes” to this question. On the other hand, you might hate the idea of bothering other players just to get their seat.
Conclusion
Slot machines aren’t my favorite route for trying to win gambling profits. Nevertheless, they can be beaten under the right conditions.
Banking slots, mystery jackpot machines, and progressive jackpot games can all offer an advantage. You just need to go about playing them in the correct manner.
Accumulator slot machines have meters that trigger a bonus when filled. If you continually play these games right before the meter fills, then you’ll have a long-term advantage.
Mystery jackpot games pay their top prizes at a specific point. When you play these slot machines near the payout point, then you can boost your chances of winning.
That said, accumulator slot machines and mystery progressive jackpots are the most feasible paths to winning. But they also have their downsides.
Both types of games are available in limited supply. With banking slots, you also have to worry about vultures swooping in to steal profitable opportunities.
In summary, becoming a slots pro is far from easy. But you may still consider this path if you really love slot machines and want to profit from them full time.
Becoming an expert in gambling doesn’t guarantee you’ll become a winner at gambling. There’s a big difference between knowledge and acting on that knowledge. But making informed decisions is the 1st step in becoming a winner, so becoming an expert is a good 1st step.
This post is meant to fill that gap. It’s meant to be just as useful to the aspiring blackjack card counter as it is to the recreational slot machine player. I see plenty of gambling writers turn their nose up at recreational gambling, by the way. These writers act as if gambling without an edge is a sin or something you should never do.
That’s not the case. You can be an expert in gambling and still place negative expectation bets from time to time. Some of the best and smartest gambling minds I know admit to playing slot machines from time to time. I’ve found that the smartest gamblers tend to enjoy blackjack or craps when they’re playing negative expectation games.
I’ll explain some of the reasons that’s true, too, in the post below. Here are 7 steps to becoming a real expert in gambling:
1- Take a Course in Probability
For something to be considered gambling, it requires a couple of criteria to exist. One of those is that there must be money on the line. Without risking money or possibly winning money, it isn’t gambling. The other is that there must be uncertainty as it relates to the outcome. Probability is the study of uncertainty. It’s the math that measures the likelihood of events.
It’s about being an expert. And being an expert gambler means being an expert in probability. You might be able to get away with just buying a probability textbook and working your way through it. Some people are really good autodidacts. If that’s you, great—go get a college probability textbook and work your way through it. Lesser mortals like me—as talented at math as I am—must instead take a class with a teacher. This is the best starting point for expertise in gambling that I can think of—taking a probability class.
EdX.org offers free probability courses you can take online. MIT offers math courses, too, through their Open Courseware initiative. You can take a course named “Introduction to Probability” on either site, but you might consider delving deeper into the subject. Of course, probability issues will also be covered in some of the books about gambling that you’re going to read. Which brings me to the next step…
2- Read Some Decent Books about Gambling
Gambling books are often frustratingly specific. Some of them are also frustratingly wrong, especially when it comes to understanding the math behind some of the gambling activities most people participate in. Your goal is to find good books about gambling in general. Read and understand those, then move on to more specific books on more specific gambling topics.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Gambling Like a Pro by Stanford Wong is also good, although I though it was a little TOO basic. For some readers, it might be a better starting point for learning about gambling than Brisman’s book, although I think most of my readers can probably handle both books just fine. Casino Gambling for Dummies, by Kevin Blackwood, is also a fine introduction.
Gambling 102 by Michael Shackleford is a good book, too, but it’s short. I wish he’d gone into more detail, but he has a website you can visit for more insights, too. He’s one of the smartest gambling writers I know.
David Sklansky is responsible for some excellent books about gambling that focus largely on the math behind the games. Getting the Best of It is well worth your time. Fighting Fuzzy Thinking on Poker, Gaming, and Life is also one of the better books you’ll read on the subject. How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living is one of the books that influenced my thinking about gambling a lot. Finally, DUCY? Exploits, Advice, and Ideas of the Renowned Strategist is good, although it’s less about gambling than you might think.
3- Choose Something to Specialize In
It’s one thing to be a generalized expert on gambling. Eventually, though, you’ll want to specialize in something that suits your temperament. A lot of that will have to do with what you enjoy.
Even if you’re okay with being a recreational gambler, you should still focus on activities with a low house edge. Learning blackjack with basic strategy is the best value in the casino. You’ll also have the best opportunity to walk away a winner from that game. If you decide to take things up a notch, you can learn how to count cards later.
Craps is my favorite game for pure fun. It’s really common to have big swings, which makes it a lot more fun than some other casino games. It’s hard to imagine a game that’s more fun for the recreational gambler than craps. I don’t put a lot of stock into those experts who claim you can get an edge by influencing or controlling the dice, but some reputable gambling experts think you can.
I had a great boss when I worked at Hotels.com who used to tell me that the man who chases 2 rabbits catches neither. I’ve also heard that the original expression jack of all trades, master of none wasn’t an insult at all. It was something to aspire to. But it’s also a misquote. The real quote is this: Jack of all trades, master of ONE.
This should be your goal as a gambling expert. Know how to do just about everything when it comes to gambling, but start by becoming an expert at just one activity—be it blackjack, horse betting, poker, or sports betting.
4- Move to Las Vegas
One of the surest ways to increase your expertise at gambling is to gamble a lot. If you live in the United States, you’ll have an easier time of that—and find better games—if you spend a lot of time in Vegas. Sin City is home to 104 casinos, almost all of which also have a sportsbook. It’s also home to 31 poker rooms. If you want to gamble a lot, this is the place. It’s also where you’ll find more gamblers to interact with than anywhere else.
Not everyone can manage a move to Las Vegas. Some people have careers which force them to live elsewhere. If that describes you, maybe you can be one of those gamblers who just visits Las Vegas a few times a year. Once you’ve become established enough in your career, it’s probably time to start taking some time off.
5- Avoid Sucker Bets
I’ve said repeatedly that expert gamblers can also be recreational gamblers. This means that it’s okay for an expert gambler to make a bet with a negative expectation. But not all negative expectation bets are equal.
Let’s assume you’re playing for $10/hand. That’s $2000 per hour in action. You’re expected to lose $10 to $20 per hour under those conditions. That’s NOT a sucker bet.
Let’s compare that to a slot machine on the Strip. We’ll be generous and assume that this slot machine’s house edge is only 5%, which is on the loose end. Most slots players make 600 spins per hour. Let’s assume you’re playing for $3 per spin. That’s $1800 per hour in action, which is actually less action than you’re bringing to the blackjack table in the example above. But if your expected loss is 5% of that, you’re looking at losing an average of $90/hour over time. That’s a huge difference.
Wild Gambler Slot
Some of the other bets at the craps table are far worse. The proposition bets at the craps table are some of the worst. It’s not unusual to see bets with a house edge of 9%, 10%, or even 16%. You’re better off playing most slot machines than you are taking the proposition bets at the craps table.
Professional Slot Gambler
It’s hard to think of yourself as an expert gambler if you’re making sucker bets all the time. For our purposes, a sucker bet is a bet with a much higher house edge than you should be accepting.
6- Keep a Gambling Journal
I’ve mentioned the idea of keeping a gambling journal in some of my other posts. I’m a big believer in the power of the written word, especially when it comes to personal performance. That’s why I think you should record your gambling activities and outcomes in a journal. This is even more important if you have hopes of becoming a professional gambler.
It’s a combination of wishful thinking and confirmation bias. They WANT to think that they’re breaking even, because the realization of how much money they’re actually losing at the casino is painful. Confirmation bias just means they remember what they want to remember. They remember the results that support the story they’re telling themselves and their friends.
Being A Professional Sports Gambler
Once you start recording actual amounts, you’ll get some serious clarity about what you’re spending (or earning) from your gambling activities. You can’t really call yourself a gambling expert if you don’t know whether you’re winning or losing.
7- Gamble
Of course, some people want to become experts on gambling without ever placing a bet. I think this is like wanting to become a great bartender when you never take a drink. It’s like being a chef who never eats his own cooking.
But you’ll have a hard time writing anything convincing if you’ve never actually wagered any of your own money. Playing the free games on the internet won’t provide you with the same experience, although it’s better than nothing. If you want to become an expert gambler, you’re going to have to make some bets. That’s the nature of being an expert gambler.
Not every person is cut out to be an expert gambler. In fact, not everyone would even be interested in applying such a designation to himself. If you do think you might want to become an expert gambler, get ready to do some more work and put some more effort in than you might think. The hardest part for most people in our mathematically challenged culture is becoming an expert in probability.Being A Professional Slot Machine Gambler Online
Luckily for you, probability is probably the easiest branch of mathematics to learn beyond basic arithmetic. It’s certainly easier to understand than algebra or calculus. Specializing in a single activity and mastering it before trying to master another activity is also an excellent idea. Experts specialize. This applies to gamblers as well as to other professions and/or hobbies.
Professional Slot Machine Gambler
Being an expert gambler doesn’t have to mean making your living as a gambler, though. You can be a recreational gambler and an expert at the same time. Different people have different goals. But if you’re an expert gambler who plays recreationally, you’re better off understanding what you’re doing and how it works than not.
Being A Professional Slot Machine Gambler Game