It’s strange really, isn’t it? Most gamblers will head to their favourite casino, or favourite online casino in today’s day and age, sit down to their favourite game and just play away. For some it’s websites such as 32Red which draw appeal, whereas others like to venture to the big cities such as Las Vegas or Nevada. Whether it be the slot machines, the roulette wheels or the poker tables, most just enjoy the games and see if their luck is in, without asking questions about the origins of the games, the facts of the games or even the more exotic facts about them. So, without further ado, we present some fun facts about the slot machines, in order to give players a little bit of insight into their favourite machine-based game.

Fact #1:

Given the popularity of gambling states such as Nevada and locations like Las Vegas and Atlantic City, it is inevitable that most people would assume that America has the most slot machines within its borders. Those people however, would be wrong, as it is in fact Japan that is the slot machine capital of the world. The Japanese have an approximate population of 27 people per slot machine in their country, with a total of 4.6million slots, or ‘pachisuros’ as they are called in Japan currently in operation. Even more surprising is the USA’s actual total, which is severely less than Japan’s at a total of approximately 752,000.

Fact #2:

Slot machines are just about the only game across the casino floor that has unpredictable and unquantifiable odds. This means that odds cannot be quantified when playing a machine, so players will never know their chances of winning when they take a chance on the so-called ‘one-armed bandit’ machine.

Fact #3:

The world’s largest slot machine is famously named ‘Super Big Bertha’ and measures in at a huge total of two metres across, and two and a half metres high. Human beings struggled so much so to pull the machine’s giant lever, that it eventually became powered by a five horsepower motor, to get the game going. The odds of hitting that jackpot on this huge contraption, which displayed a total of twenty symbols across eight reels, were a whopping 25.6 billion to one. Bertha allowed both half-dollars and dollars from customers to spin the gears and offered an impressive million-dollar jackpot.

Fact #4:

Slot machines can offer one of two different types of jackpots: either a flat-top one, or a progressive jackpot. A flat-top machine is one that has a set limit for players on how large the jackpot will be should they win on the machine, progressive jackpots will only grow higher until somebody wins them. Progressive machines allow these types of jackpots by taking a percentage of each player’s bet for their spin of the gears and put it towards the jackpot – so if you want to win a higher jackpot, get people on the progressive slots!

Fact #5:

Each spin on a slot machine is entirely random. This means, that should you find yourself filling the seat of a player who has just hit a bumper payout, you shouldn’t hesitate to get spinning, despite the usual thinking process of lightning never strikes twice, so to speak. Who knows, your spin might be the second consecutive ‘bumper spin’ of the day!

Slot Machine, image from Wikipedia