There are exceptions, but generally if a casino loves something, players should run away screaming -- and casinos love slots. And, bizarrely, so do players. Slots are the most popular games in casinos. Of course, slots require zero prior knowledge to play them as well as anybody else. You walk up, stick your money in, and expect to get back 94% (or some other set percentage) of it. It is probably the zero skill, luck factor and win big for a small (and unfortunately a large outlay in many instances) outlay. It doesn't matter how intelligent, how rich or what social status you come from when you play slots - everyone has the same chance of winning. The trick is to be lucky enough to pick the slot machine that is ready to pay out big. There are some rules of thumbs that can make playing slots less costly or even increase your chance of winning. Click on the strategy above in the Slot Menu to find out a few simple tricks.

Remember that Vegas was built from the profits of the slot machines. They are by far the consistently most profitable form of gambling for a casino. In a busy casino, the average gross profit for the casino per slot machine is around $400 per day. So a casino with 10,000 slot machines expect to make about $4 million per day! Guess who is paying for it.

Slots are like parking meters - you put money in the machines for the right to park yourself in front of the machines. Instead of returning a set percentage of the money wagered, casinos could charge time fees for playing (most) slots. Basically casinos take a bunch of money from a large group of people, and divide it up between a smaller group of people, some of whom win very large amounts.

All of which makes slots sound like a lottery, and the parallel is a good one. Just like you can have a positive expectation in the lottery when the prize gets large enough, when progressive slot jackpots get big enough, slots "teams" leap into action. A deep-pocketed group now plays until the jackpot is hit. The casinos 94% edge can now be turned in the player's favor. Of course, it isn't at the casino's expense. The slot teams profit from the equity left earlier by players who played the machines when the jackpots were lower. One individual can also get an edge when jackpots are high enough, but you better hold onto your seat. You can use skill with slots, waiting for the right time to play, but this edge is usually small and fairly rare. If you want to hit the BIG slots progressive, don't play them until they have reached a certain value. A good rule of thumb is never to play a slot progressive machine when the Jackpot is less than $300,000 or equivalent in your local currency. Once it is over $300,000 or $1.3 million for the Million Dollar plus jackpots, the expected return is higher than when it is below $300,000 when your expected return is vastly NEGATIVE.