Common Myths about Online Slots: The One-Armed Bandits, Busted

Human beings are myth dwellers. They inhabit a world hard-wired to the brim with altered perceptions, logical fallacies, heuristics, and prefabricated bias. Despite a individual’s usual steadfastness, their brain is oh’ so vulnerable and fragile in the face of conspiracy theories that it provides fertile ground for patterns and myths to flourish dangerously. We’re talking about online slot myths, to be more exact.

There are more myths about online slot machines and casino games than the Greeks ever manufactured.

It matters less that dozens of mathematical studies and profile organizations have vowed that the random number generator- the beating heart of the pokies- cannot be cracked by the hunting of patterns within the game. Most players will still bet their bitcoin that if “a couple of 10s come on the middle reel while you have a scatter on the first line, then you’re up for the jackpot” or that a slot that hasn’t yielded a win in a long time is about to break the ice with the biggest jackpot in history.

Online slots can be deciphered, though it takes either a team of cheating Russian engineers or the most brilliant casino hustlers to run the math.

But just as insinuating that the moon landing was not real based on the allegation that there was no lack of wind to swing the flag poetically, holding on to a gambling superstition or counting the patterns like they’re blessings are enduring myths that will not be debunked soon enough.

Or will they? We have polished our Neil deGrasse Tyson argumentative weapons and are ready to bust some slot myths.

Myth No.1: Slots Are Late Deliverers

You can have your pizza and eat it too by the time you expect a slot machine to pay out only on the grounds that it hasn’t done so in a while.

An armed-one bandit is never due to hit. It does so unexpectedly. Spins are not programmed to eat your winning chances away until they can’t hold them in anymore and just throw it all back at the next gambler.

Respect the random number generator and it will respect you back!

Myth No.2: Slots Do Not Pay Two Jackpots in a Row

Correlated to the first myth is the belief that online slot machines do not pay out if they had just granted a jackpot. Again, the odds are just the same: irregular, arbitrary and beyond anyone’s control.

Myth No. 3: Slots Follow a Spinning Rhythm

Some gamblers will stand by their tried and tested winning combo- a fiery succesion of quick and standard spins. Often, the believers of this particular myth cannot be persuaded otherwise since the bonus round does get triggered from time to time. Aka, randomnly.

Spin and hit the reels, and you’re bound to win something. This is the name of the game, after all!

Myth No. 4: Slots Run to Multitudes

Finally, “myths which are believed in tend to become true”, says George Orwell. After all, who knows, right? If there is a benevolent god seeing you hard at work and hitting that reel in strong faith and anticipatory glee, maybe he will grant you with a discernible pattern to structure your reality. 

And the idea that new online slots are always being released just so the player can enjoy variety and a multitude of options is true.

Gamblers often fall on losing streaks. To cushion the rough landing into reality, online casino providers will launch an endless stream of games that promise better odds and less “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

Another myth deals with the Knight’s Life slot. Some Twitch users have claimed that, since “horses are scared of lights”, turning them off will reward you with a bonus.

Others have tried it in all skepticism and, to their astonishment, it seemed the myth was no horseplay and the physical darkness of the real world influenced the virtual generosity of the digital realm. 

While this online slots myth seems to be more in the neighborhood of the Ghostbusters than the Mythbusters, we know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The Mythbusters of Online Slots

There are other myths about online slot machines out there, like the hot or cold streaks that can trigger a bonus round or how three reel slots beat the five reel ones.

However, there is hardly any gain in indulging in superstition or pattern hunting. Myths anchor the believer in certainty. And isn’t gambling supposed to be all about the free falling?