If you play the slots at a casino, which denomination do you prefer and why?

I play penny slots when I’m in Vegas. I don’t play to win money, I play to cheaply kill time between poker tournaments and get the free beer from the cocktailer.
If I’m playing pennies and lose a few dollars, no big deal. If I win a dollar or two, sweet. It’s still a thrill. The odds are stacked way against the slot player, so I might as well lose my money slowly. Occasionally if I hit “big” at a penny slot (meaning like $5) I’ll think I’m a fool for only playing pennies- that $5 could have been $50 or $500. But the fact is, the vast majority of slot players will lose money. I’d rather lose a few dollars at a time than tens, hundreds, or thousands at a time.

I have done consulting work for a major Las Vega$ gaming company and have seen numbers across their inventory. By far the number one cash cow on their floor is slots.

Do not play slots.

I took this shot, which sums up my view of gambling precisely.

Well I am a not a rich person. I however like to take a $100. and go have fun. I have a casino a hour away. I usually play the quarters slots, nickel, and even penny. I can play all night. I am too chicken to play black jack. I have never done it. I hate to make a fool out of myself.

What about photographs taken inside a casino? casinos have never let a photo be taken inside their casions. has this changed? i took a photo of a big win on a slot machine at a casino in Indiana. no one seemed to care. they have a sign that states that photos are NOW being allowed inside their facility. is this change true for all casinos or is Indiana an isolated case?

Generally there are no pictures of tables, near tables, or with tables in the background. Very bad idea. Along with no flash for aesthetic reasons and anti-paparazzi protections, many casinos just make it easy and preclude it all together. I suspect there is lots of downside and little upside to it.

10 and 15 times 1 on the pennies. Because they are not played as much and I don’t have the money to spend.

It usually takes longer to lose our money on pennies. And we occasionally win one or two hundred dollars with them. We figure some people pay $100 or so to ski, and we pay $100 or so to watch silly pictures speed by and listen to the noises. And get free drinks. But we don’t end up at the doctor’s office with a broken leg from it, either! :-) Or at least, we haven’t so far.

I sometimes live big and play NICKLES – but only on the machines with a max bet of 15 cents <grin>.

I found this interesting:

Las Vegas companies have done extensive studies on human interactions with gaming; hooking people up with electrodes and sampling blood to see what makes them tick. It turns out the “hook”, the little endorphin based jolt people get while playing, is not the high you get from a win: it’s from the exact moment that you commit the funds, when you make the bet – each time. It’s the risk that people get addicted to, not the result.

This is why people don’t seem to care too much if they loose money, allowing them to deny the obvious reality of bad odds. And the thing that makes people play over and over again – sometimes to the brink of destitution – knowingly loosing hundreds, thousands, or millions – again and again.

It’s a strange human phenomenon. Some chaos theory strange attractor. Like someone throwing pennies into a wishing pond:
Throw: ”I wish I had more money.”
Throw: ”I wish I had more money.”
Throw: ”I wish I had more money.”

I also remember something in college about this (Perhaps B.F. Skinner’s work) where another interesting phenomenon was captured. Something like this: if you give a mouse in a cage a little button, where if they hit it they get cocaine, they acquire X level of addiction, forgoing food and whatnot. However, if you randomly provide the cocaine in the exact same mechanism, what happens is that the enforcement actually becomes stronger X+Y.

Apparently brain activity decreases with known repeatability, but the randomness engages much more of your brain (presumably trying to figure out why the good thing is happening) and thus brings more receptors/endorphins into play, creating a stronger kick when you do get the reward.

This is obvious when you think about it, explaining much in life. Like why random, emotionally/mentally engaging sex is so much better than known predictable sex.