How to Beat Slots: Tips for Recreational Players A recreational gambler who enjoys playing slots, and expects to play slots regularly over a period of many years, would probably do better over the long term playing only progressive jackpot slots on which the jackpot was significantly larger than the average level at which it goes off.
Introduction to 60-Thousand-Dollar Slot Machine Jackpot
Are you ready? Are you ready to win a 60-thousand-dollar slot machine jackpot? Are you sure? From making the bet to income tax preparation, I’ll go over everything you’ll need to do.
Huge Slot Machine Jackpots
One of my biggest issues with slot machine casino gambling has been the surprises, like winning an unexpectedly large jackpot. Of course, it’s possible to win big jackpots. We all know that’s possible, so why not be ready? Here’s what to expect if you win big.
This article has the following sections:
- Introduction to 60-Thousand-Dollar Slot Machine Jackpot
- What It’s Like to Win Big
- How to be Ready, Just in Case
- Choices: Handling the Hand Pay
- What Comes Afterward
- Preparing for Income Taxes
- Summary of 60-Thousand-Dollar Slot Machine Jackpot
Keep Reading … or Listen Instead!
Subscribe to the Professor Slots podcast at Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio | Spotify | Stitcher | Pandora | Tune-In | SoundCloud | RadioPublic | Android | RSS and wherever else you find podcasts!
What It’s Like to Win Big
I’ve won 90 taxable jackpots in 9 months in a U.S. state where slot machine jackpots became taxable at $1,200. Of those, three exceeded $10,000. On average, 1 in 30 jackpots exceeds $10,000. This excludes the $40,000 cash option I got for winning a car at the end of those 9 months.
My first big jackpot was for $27,000. So far, this is my largest jackpot won playing slot machines. I won it early on Saturday, December 21, 2013, at 5:40 a.m. at Horseshoe Cincinnati, since purchased and renamed JACK Cincinnati Casino.
I won this $27,000 hand pay on a Red-Blue-White Seven’s slot machine in the high limit slots room. I’d made the maximum bet on this $10-denomination, 2-credit slot machine.
I was checking to see if I could cycle my bankroll on this slot machine. I was testing to see if it was a winning slot machine. I’d just about decided I was wasting my money because it wasn’t showing any evidence of bankroll cycling when it hit.
I remember the moment clearly. It was very early in the morning. I’d started my session at 4 a.m. and had already won a small hand pay. I remember seeing someone
A floor manager was there with the slot attendant during their hand pay, so it must have been over $10,000. As the floor manager and slot attendant walked away after the hand pay, they began walking by me.
Just as they approached, my $27,000 jackpot hit. I looked down, saw the 2,700-credit hit, looked up at the floor manager looking at me, and swore.
That was embarrassing. I don’t usually swear. But, at that moment, I felt the need to do so. I swore right while
I called out to him, to explain. “Excuse me! Sorry about that! I didn’t mean to swear, but I just won a jackpot. A really big jackpot!” They came back.
Right about then, 30 seconds after the slot machine hit, I basically went into shock. Since I’d started gambling again after nearly 10 years, my biggest jackpot was $5,000. I’d won it three times over the last month, since I’d started gambling, and every time was hard on me.
But now, I’d won more than 5 times that. It wasn’t easy. I remember telling the floor manager how unreal and dreamlike it felt. I even asked the slot attendant to pinch me.
And, after the hand pay, I had trouble deciding what to do next. Should I just go on with my day? Should I stick to the plan I had had in mind? Or, was my plan of gambling all day ruined? Hint: You’re done – go home.
Can you imagine how I was feeling? I know some of you can indeed imagine it. I know because some of you have won even bigger jackpots while playing slots.
How to Be Ready, Just in Case
Are you ready to win a big jackpot the next time you play a slot machine? To be ready, you’ll need some essentials like your government-issued I.D. But there are other ways you’ll probably want to be ready.
You’ll need the government-issued I.D. to receive a taxable jackpot at a casino. That’s essential. If you don’t have it with you, nice casinos will let you go to your car for it. But, I don’t think you should count on the casino letting you go home to get it.
If you’re anything like me, you might find yourself not quite yourself after winning a big jackpot. To be ready, think it through in advance. Make yourself a plan. Then, if/when it happens, all you need to do is remember the plan.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated plan. Just ask yourself this simple question. After you get the hand pay, will you stay or will you go? There will be more decisions to make, but that’s really the most important one.
As I tell my students, which as it happens I did again earlier today, I don’t care what your plan is. I care that you have a plan. We’re not having a career discussion right now, but I think you get the point.
Will you leave the casino or will you make a night of it? Personally, I’d leave. I’d leave as soon as I could. I didn’t know that in advance of my biggest jackpot, but I do now. That’s my plan. What’s yours?
Choices: Handling the Hand Pay
So, imagine you’ve just won your biggest jackpot ever. And, you have your I.D. You might even have a player’s club card so your personal information is on file with the casino. Next up is the hand pay and more decisions.
If you’ve never won a taxable jackpot before, no matter what size, the hand pay process is straight-forward. You win a jackpot. The machine locks up. A slot attendant comes. You do the paperwork. Someone else shows up to verify the jackpot. Finally, you get paid.
As it happens, I’ve already explained the hand pay process when winning a taxable jackpot playing slots. I called that article How Do Slot Machines Pay Out Taxable Jackpots, which is also my podcast episode #7: How Do Slot Machines Pay Out-California Slots 2017.
But, there are some slight changes to this process when winning big jackpots. In most states, jackpots of $10,000 or more require that the jackpot verifier is a floor manager rather than another slot attendant.
Tip #1: You can tip the slot attendant, and in my opinion should, but you can’t tip the floor manager. If they say it’s okay, the floor manager will take a tip to put into the group tip jar for all the slot attendants. But, typically, floor managers can’t receive tips.
Tip #2: This is your chance to meet a floor manager. It’s a priceless opportunity. Get to know them. Make friends, if you can. Floor managers know a lot more about what’s going on in a casino than slot attendants. Ask questions. Be nice. Thank me later.
You do have another choice to make, however. For jackpots just over the taxable limit but under $10,000, casinos will provide banded stacks of $5,000 when you ask for cash instead of a check. Other casinos only provide banded stacks of $10,000.
Either way, for a large jackpot where you ask for cash, you can expect banded stacks (sometimes called bricks) of hundred-dollar bills. Personally, I have found it’s nice when a slot attendant counts out 100-dollar bills in my hand. Professionally, I advise you to take most or all the jackpot as a check.
That is if your plan includes requesting some or all your taxable jackpot in cash. It’s really your choice, however. What’s your plan, again?
What Comes Afterward
If you do request cash and end up leaving the casino without spending it, I should mention what happens at a bank when you go to deposit $10,000 or more in cash. It’s just the same as any other cash deposit, except for the Currency Transaction Report (CTR).
The CTR is a reporting requirement for U.S. financial institutions regarding all cash deposits, withdrawals, and currency exchanges of $10,000 or more. When making a deposit of at least $10,000, it will be reported to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within the U.S. Treasury Department.
FinCEN was created in 1990 and became its own bureau under the USA Patriot Act passed in 2002. In part, it monitors and analyzes financial transactions for illegal transactions. This includes financial crimes related to money laundering and corruption.
Over recent years, I’ve deposited more than $10,000 multiple times at my bank and never had a concern. They do ask where the money came from to which I typically respond, “I won it at the casino.”
I don’t think you have any cause for concern as earning money at a casino isn’t an illegal transaction. My lack of concern here hinges on understanding that big jackpots generate a W-2G tax form when won at a casino. So, if FinCEN does become interested, it wouldn’t take much for the U.S. Treasury to confirm the source of that much cash.
Nevertheless, I thought you should know about the CTR. There is another aspect to accepting a lot of cash you should probably be aware of. In my mind, it’s slightly more important than the CTR. It’s this: How much cash can you carry?
Let’s say you’re wearing a pair of jeans or trousers with typical size pockets. Let’s further say you’re not wearing a jacket or carrying any sort of purse. Finally, let’s assume all your cash is in $100 bills. Under those circumstances, how much cash can you carry without it being in your hand or sticking out somewhere for anyone to notice?
With a wallet in one pocket and a mobile phone in another, I’ve been able to tuck away 200 $100 bills, that’s only $20,000, in all the pockets of a typical pair of men’s jeans. Let’s say you won a big jackpot which you accepted as cash and after taxes have $50,000 in your hand.
How To Win Jackpots On Slot Machines
What do you do with it? Yes, you can fill all your pockets with $20,000 of it. What about the remainder? Do you ask the casino to provide a brown paper bag, perhaps? I’ve been in this situation and faced this dilemma. Once again, make sure you have a plan in case you win.
One final note about getting home. Feel free to ask the casino for security to walk you to your car. They’re perfectly happy to do so. Unlike me, try to remember where you parked your car. Take it from me, it can be surprisingly hard to remember that little fact when you’re clutching tens of thousands of dollars in your sweaty hands.
Preparing for Income Taxes
One time I was sitting two seats away from someone who looked like they had never been in a high limit slots room at a casino. Do you know that look? Anyway, they looked both nervous and like they wanted to go.
Suddenly, and it’s always sudden, they won a $4,800 jackpot. They just nodded to themselves and started hitting the cash-out button. Which, naturally enough, wasn’t working because the slot machine had locked up due to winning a taxable jackpot.
When the cash out button wouldn’t work, they turned and looked at me with a question in their eyes. This is where I walked right into trouble. I said, “Oh, the machine’s locked up because you’ve won a big jackpot. Don’t worry, the slot attendant should be here any moment to help you with getting it as well as paying taxes.”
I was just trying to be helpful. I imagine you know what happened next. “Taxes? Taxes?!” As they became more and more upset at me, I tried to disengage from the conversation. Luckily for me, the slot attendant arrived right about then to save me.
Slot attendants are great. Seriously. I always remember how upset this taxable jackpot winner was whenever I work with a slot attendant. It is what I remember whenever I tip my slot attendant after winning my own taxable jackpots.
So, if/when you win a taxable jackpot, you’ll be working with a slot attendant. I’ve already described what that is like. But, let’s discuss income taxes for a moment.
Just the other day, a follower of my Professor Slots Twitter account said, “The amount of the taxable jackpot needs to be raised.” My response was, “Why? It’s still taxable, even if you don’t get a W-2G hand pay. But, I do appreciate the sentiment. I really do.”
If you win $10 at a casino, it’s taxable income. This gets confusing fast though, because what if you spend that $10 in the next few minutes without it ever leaving the slot machine? I’m going to avoid answering that as it really deserves its own article someday.
What isn’t in dispute is what happens when the casino issues a W-2G income tax form reported directly to the IRS. If you choose to accept a taxable jackpot, then you will receive a W-2G.
As an aside, some people can’t afford or otherwise don’t want taxable jackpots. For instance, my family friends Lois and Dave in my article Seminole Brighton Casino Florida Trip Report, also mentioned podcast episode #27 Seminole Brighton Casino-Minnesota Slots 2018, are from Canada.
For them, any gambling income from their annual visits to U.S. casinos is foreign income and potentially subject to taxation by the Canadian government. Yikes! Apparently, as usual with income taxes, what to do is very individualized.
My admittedly limited understanding is, and please don’t consider me as any kind of professional or expert with regards to international tax law, my Canadian friends can earn some income when gambling in the U.S. – but not a lot of income. A $60,000 taxable jackpot may well be too much, too difficult, and therefore unwanted. Maybe.
You can always choose not to accept a taxable jackpot. You can choose to walk away. An old slots joke is this: “The only way to legally avoid paying taxes after winning a jackpot of $1,200 or more is to simply not accept the winnings.”
That’s funny, yes? It’s funny but true. Also, be aware the taxable limit is instead $600 in some states like Massachusetts, at least for the moment.
Finally, there are the tax choices you’ll need to make when filling out the paperwork for the taxable jackpot with the slot attendant.
- A federal income tax withdrawal from your winnings is typically optional.
- State income tax withdrawal is very state-dependent.
- Local income tax withdrawal exists if the casino you are at is located within a city’s limits.
- Other withdrawals may exist such as a nonrefundable 3% tax on jackpots over $1,200 in Mississippi as imposed by the Mississippi Gaming Commission. For details on this, see my article for Mississippi Slot Machine Casino Gambling.
If you keep good gambling records, it usually works out well to choose to not pay federal taxes. Why? Because keeping good gambling records means you’ll have gambling deductions to apply during your annual income tax preparation.
If you don’t keep good gambling records then, frankly, you should start doing so. To help get started, here’s my article on Keeping Gambling Records for Tax Preparation and More as well as podcast episode #28 Gambling Record-Keeping-Mississippi Slots 2018.
The danger of not keeping gambling records is having to pay income taxes when avoiding them, or getting a refund later, was entirely possible. Keep gambling records just in case you win a big jackpot. Make it part of your plan, okay?
Summary of 60-Thousand-Dollar Slot Machine Jackpot
A few weeks ago, a fan of my website and podcast named Richard from Gainesville, Georgia, contacted me via Twitter after he won a $60,000 slots jackpot. I was proud of how well he handled it and told him so at the time
How he handled a big jackpot reminded me of what it was like. My first time, I didn’t do as well as Richard. So, I wrote this article so you can do better than I did and perhaps as well as Richard if you won a large taxable jackpot.
Basically, you need a plan in case you win a taxable jackpot. Here are a few things we’ve considered and which you’ll need to decide for yourself preferably before winning a big taxable jackpot:
- What will you do immediately after winning a big jackpot? Choosing to leave or stay is the biggest decision here.
- Cash or check or both? If cash, consider how little you can carry in your pockets.
- Paying income taxes: Federal, state, local, and more are all possible. Or, there may be none. It mostly depends upon your state.
- Keeping good gambling records to potentially get income tax refunds. Or, without gambling records, not getting any of it back. Choose now.
Related Articles from Professor Slots
Other Articles from Professor Slots
- Previous: Reviewing Peter Liston the Slotz King’s Video Interview by ACG
- Next: Top 9 Slot Tips by RunHorse (YouTube Video Review)
Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC
Progressive Jackpot Slot Pros
By Arnold Snyder(From Casino Player, August 1995)
© 1995 Arnold Snyder
Professional gamblers beat slots either by limiting their slot play to progressive jackpot slots at which the jackpot has gotten big enough to give a player advantage, or by using slot play to milk various kinds of loss rebates and free money offers, in both online and brick-and-mortar casinos. Usually professional slot players combine both methods—that is, they wait until the jackpot is close to giving a player advantage, and take advantage of casino points and comps as well.
In order to use the first method in slot games other than video poker, you have to record the results of enough spins on a slot game to determine the frequency of each type of payout and the percentage of your bet that goes into the jackpot. From this you can determine the house edge on the game. This all takes some work and a good understanding of the math involved..
Professional gamblers tend to either be good at math, or rich enough to hire someone who is. And they tend to be very dedicated about playing at casinos that give the most back for their play, through good points programs and comps.
How to Beat Slots: Tips for Recreational Players
How To Win Jackpot On Slot Machines
A recreational gambler who enjoys playing slots, and expects to play slots regularly over a period of many years, would probably do better over the long term playing only progressive jackpot slots on which the jackpot was significantly larger than the average level at which it goes off.
Just be aware that you can't know for sure where a player advantage starts unless you go through the process of mathematically analyzing the game. And no matter how big the jackpot gets, it doesn't guarantee that you will win the jackpot, or even that the jackpot will go off while you're in town. There are no short-term win guarantees in gambling, not even for professional gamblers.
All a player advantage means is that, if you limit your play to such situations, and you put in enough hours, you will likely make more money in the long run than you put in. But the long run can mean a very long time, and if you play only a few hours a year, you may not get in enough hours in an entire lifetime to get ahead.
So no matter how big the jackpot gets, you should play only an amount that you can afford to lose without it affecting your lifestyle.
Also, slot pros don't like to play for too small an advantage, so they'll usually wait until the jackpot is significantly bigger than the minimum level necessary to turn the advantage to the player. On the other hand, if they know they'll be getting valuable points and comps for their play, they can play for a slightly smaller jackpot and still have a player advantage overall.
Pros generally prefer to play jackpots with a smaller average jackpot size than a gigantic average jackpot size. For example, a slot with an average jackpot payoff of $3,000 or $10,000 is considered a better bet than a slot with an average jackpot payoff of $1 million, because the variance on the games with the smaller average jackpots will be a lot lower. (That means a pro will require less of a bankroll to make sure he won't go broke chasing the jackpot.)
But professional slot players typically have very large bankrolls to play on—much larger than the average Las Vegas recreational player, who may bring a few hundred dollars in mad money to Vegas to try her luck. Slot pros who find a game where the progressive jackpot gives a player advantage are generally prepared to put in whatever money and hours it takes to keep playing until the jackpot goes off. And if that player is not the person to win that jackpot, he'll stiill have plenty of bankroll left to go after the next jackpot, whenever a player advantage occurs. He won't be broke.
Again, the reason the pros need such a big bankroll is because even when you're playing a progressive jackpot slot with a decent player advantage, you can't guarantee you'll win that jackpot. All a player advantage means is that you can know you'll win over the long run if you put in enough play.
For more information on how professional gamblers beat slots, read Million Dollar Slots by Peter Liston, an accountant turned high school teacher turned professional slot player.
The Casino Perspective on Players Who Know How to Beat Slots
Question from a Player: As a semipro card counter for about two years, mostly in Las Vegas, I have finally given it up for . . . the slots! The heat and the harassment associated with card counting finally wore me down. I’ve hooked up with a pretty well-financed video poker team. The money is steady and the heat is nil. It’s boring, but you can’t have everything.
How To Win Jackpots On Slot Machines
What I don’t understand is this: Why is there no heat? Some of my teammates, to be honest, are downright rude when we go in to take over a bank of slot machines. Getting rid of the “tourists” is one of my least favorite parts of this job. I’m just a “worker ant” on this team, but I’d like to start running my own slot teams in the future. My technical question is this: Is there a mathematical formula for figuring out how much each “tourist” on a bank costs you in win expectation?
Answer: In the May issue of Casino Journal, Anthony Cabot, in his “Gaming Law” column, addresses the problem of professional slot teams from the casino perspective. He compares the problems casinos have with slot pros to the problems they have with blackjack pros, and reveals why the casinos seem to have such a high tolerance level for slot teams, who are virtually never barred.
Apparently, there is a gaming regulation in Nevada that implies that casinos are holding “in trust” for “the public” any progressive slot jackpot on any game that has a progressive slot jackpot, until a member of “the public” wins that jackpot. The specific wording of this regulation makes the casinos hesitant to exclude any member of “the public” from playing their progressive slots. The casinos fear the possibility of a lawsuit from some member of that all-inclusive public for whom their slot jackpot is being held in trust.
Cabot’s article is very enlightening. Don’t think that the casinos are unaware that many slot pros are “rude” to their regular customers. The casinos are very vexed with this problem. In my opinion, if slot pros continue to chase tourists away from the machines, it’s just a matter of time until the powers that be rewrite the regulations. The casinos have an enormous amount of political clout in Nevada, especially when it comes to keeping the tourists happy.
A big part of this problem arises from two misconceptions that pervade the slot world — one slot players’ misconception, and one casino operators’ misconception.
One: Many slot pros believe that it is more advantageous to take over all slot machines on a given bank in order to “lock up” the inevitable jackpot. This is false.
Two: Many casino operators believe that they do not profit from slot pros, since the pros only play on slot machines where the players have the advantage. This is also false.
To deal with the second misconception first: The casinos profit from slot pros the same way they do from their other slot customers. The slot pros’ advantage comes solely from the jackpot that is being held “in trust.” Technically, that is not even money that belongs to the casino. It is money the casino has already “lost.” It simply has not yet been determined which player has won that money.
While a slot pro is playing, the casino continues to “rake” the pot, and takes a profit from every pro’s dollar that is played. For a standard 8-5 jacks or better progressive, any time a professional slot team takes over a bank of these machines, regardless of how many machines are on the bank, and regardless of what the jackpot is at the time of takeover, the casino will profit, on average, $2,200 on quarter slots, or $8,800 on dollar slots, directly from the slot team’s play.
When a slot team moves in on a progressive dollar bank, they are virtually “paying” the casino $8,800.00 to “buy” the jackpot (which the casino doesn’t really even “own” anymore). Since the amount of money the slot pros are willing to pay the casino to buy the jackpot is money that those savvy players would not otherwise play in the casino at all, this money is all gravy to the casinos.
This profit to the casino will definitely be diminished by the number of non-pros who are pushed out of the casino by the slot team's “rudeness.” However, if these non-pros do not leave the casino, but simply move to other slot machines or games within the casino, there is no loss to the house of any of this profit from the slot team’s play.
As for the “cost” of “tourists” to a slot team — there is none. Whether or not the slot team takes over all machines on a bank or any portion of them, they will “pay” the same amount for that jackpot — $2,200 on quarter machines, or $8,800 on the dollars.
In fact, on video poker machines it is actually more advantageous to a slot team for tourists to continue pumping the jackpot up while team members shoot for it, because the tourists will continue to increase the slot jackpot total at no cost to the team, and at the same time the pros are still favorites by a long shot to win the jackpot, because most tourists play so poorly that they are far less likely to hit the jackpot.
Huge Jackpot Slot Wins
The real problem in many slot departments these days is a supply-and-demand problem; specifically, there is a greater demand for progressive slot machines than the casinos are supplying. The overabundant slot pros are fighting for the profitable slot jackpot opportunities that arise, aggressively squeezing the “tourists” off the banks of machines they want to play. If there were enough progressive slot banks available to keep the pros busy, the casinos would maximize their profits by courting these pros with comps!
If I owned a casino in Las Vegas, I’d advertise “All Progressives All the Time!” And I’d put in unusual video poker machines to confuse the amateurs as much as possible, so that the video poker jackpots would get pumped up as high as possible as often as possible. I’d want the pros stalking my aisles ready to jump on any bank as soon as the profit opportunity hit an acceptable level.
I’d maintain a very cordial relationship with the professional slot players, with the understanding that these pros would not offend or pressure my regular customers. If the pros understood that they paid the same amount per jackpot whether or not they monopolized a bank, and if there were enough profitable jackpots to go around, “tourists” would be welcomed by the pros to continue pumping up those already profitable jackpots to even more profitable levels.
The sad situation described by Anthony Cabot is more a result of ignorance on both sides of this battle than any other factor. The casinos are sitting on a virtual gold mine with their progressive slots. They should be “milking” the pros for the real value these players represent, not resenting a gaming regulation that the casinos perceive to be tying their hands. ♠
The easiest way for normal slot players to win at slots is to play at online casinos with free money from the casino. See Arnold Snyder's How to Beat Internet Casinos and Poker Rooms.
For more information on how professional gamblers beat slots, video poker, roulette, keno and a wide variety of casino games, see the Blackjack Forum Library.
I Love Jackpots Slot Machine
Back to Home.
Comments are closed.