Slot Hack: You Could Win Big With Your Leftover Change
The casino tends to be The Man. The Man has math on its side, and over time, you could actually lose money. We know, shocker.
But we’ve got a fun slot “hack” that could get you a big win with some spare change on your TITO voucher you might otherwise toss.
Mind you, this trick is something they don’t want you to know about. Not, The Man, they don’t care. It’s your fellow slot players who don’t want you to know this. So, naturally, we’re sharing it.
As we’ve shared before, casino TITO (ticket in, ticket out) voucher machines frequently don’t dispense coins now. Most still give vouchers instead of your change. They round down, and you have to trek to the cage to get your change. If you’re playing on a penny machine, you may just cash out for a voucher with a few cents on it.
You can often find these tickets with a few cents on them near kiosks or just sitting on slot machines, left behind by players who have better things to do with their precious time in Las Vegas than schlepping to a casino cashier.
Here’s a way to put those pennies to good use!
On certain slot machines, that ticket can get you a high limit spin, and high limit spins (even just one) can result in a significant windfall, even a handpay.
If you visit a Lightning Link slot machine, preferably in high limit (the higher the denomination the better for this hack), just insert your ticket.
Then select the highest denomination you can and the max bet.
On some high limit machines, that spin can cost a lot, but it won’t cost you any more than the ticket you put into the machine. It’s worth nothing this trick works with cash, too, so you can put a dollar bill in and take your chances. It’s just more fun with a TITO voucher with a few cents left on it.
When you try a spin at this high limit spin, the machine realizes you don’t have enough for a spin and offers up a feature called the “Lucky Chance Spin.”
On Dragon Link (photo at the top of our story), a message says, “Your remaining credits are less than your current bet. Choose a dragon to bet your remaining credits for a chance to win one game at your current bet.” The options differ based upon the theme of the machine, but select “Choose dragon/bolt (lightning bolt), or whatever.”
That’s right, in an attempt to squeeze every penny out of players, this feature gives a player a chance to win a spin at the full bet amount, no matter what credits remain on the machine!
If you hit it, you get a high limit spin and a high limit spin can result in a substantial win.
Here’s what it looks like on Dragon Link. Remember, we only put 50 cents into the machine, but the bet (if we’d won) would’ve been at the $50 level. Basically, you’re getting a shot at a high limit spin for next to nothing.
We’ve tried this fun hack upwards of three times, and haven’t hit the lucky spin yet, but we’re going to keep trying.
The power of this feature is amplified on the highest limit machines, of course, as one spin can be worth hundreds of dollars.
So, why is there concern about word of this hack getting out into the world?
Presumably, people think it’s a secret or a glitch that, once exposed, will be nixed by casinos.
Um, no. This feature is a way to keep players from walking away from the machine when they don’t have enough credits for a max bet. Slot makers are very good at math, and you can bet they’re not paying out more than they take in.
The main concern on the casino side is probably one of players (such as resource-challenged indigent individuals) “silver mining” for tickets to use for this game’s special feature. The term “silver mining” was used when coins were used in slot machines, and people would go machine-to-machine looking for credits left on the machine or coins overlooked in the coin tray.
Casinos would also prefer guests not play abandoned TITO tickets. There’s no nefarious reason (casinos keep 25% of the value of abandoned TITO tickets, Nevada’s general fund gets the rest), but it’s technically against the rules to wager found money. It’s unlikely a casino would go after somebody for betting a found ticket for a few cents, but the practice is discouraged overall.
It’s pretty obvious this feature is intended for use by a gambler who’s been on the machine awhile, and is down to their last few credits, but it also works for a one-off attempt.
Over a long session of play, if you’re bouncing around to several different slot machines throughout the day and evening, you could easily end up with a handful of tickets with a few cents on each, and this hack is a way to take one last shot at glory before calling it a night.
We don’t really know the odds of these lucky spins hitting, but we trust they are smallish. However remote the odds, this is still a chance to stick it to The Man.
Trying for this special feature has very little downside and lots of potential upside. You’re here to play, so play on, player, and let us know if you have any success.
Update (2/21/23): Our friend and slot maven Brian Christopher provided some additional insight into this bet. It appears your chances of hitting this Lucky Chance Spin improves with larger bets (still shy of the full bet).
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