Some players believe if you’re having bad luck at a certain machine, changing to another one will positively impact your luck. This topic comes up for both slot machines and video poker.
STATUS: Presuming all things equal, playing at one machine has no difference over another.
Casino games don’t have a memory of previous spins as a method of determining the outcome of a future spin. If a machine is “cold,” that’s simply an understanding of what happened on previous spins – what happens on the next spin has exactly the same odds as every spin before it.
Because of the nature of an RNG, clumps of good and bad streaks can and will happen just because of the way numbers are selected. It’s not going through a predetermined set out of outcomes in a specific order.
Changing machines, as such, won’t help you. But presuming they’re set to the same long-term payback (and on video poker, you can check to make sure), it won’t hurt you either. This is one of those times where it’s a neutral change.
This falls into the same bucket as things like taking money out and putting it back in, or changing your bingo card on a bingo machine. It doesn’t do anything positive or negative, and the machine doesn’t “warm up” from it or anything like that.
But gambling can be emotional and superstitious, and ultimately this is one of those times where it doesn’t really matter, so if it makes you feel better, feel free. If you believe a machine is luckier for you or not, that’s fine. Just don’t get upset if you end up with a similar outcome – the machine doesn’t have it out for you.
I play video slots daily. and believe that rng is B.S. for the most part. If I’m playing dues wild at 25cents, I’m getting wilds almost every hand, so then I change bet to 50 cents or 75 and suddenly I’m now only getting wilds every 5th 6th. so I change back to 25 and bamn I’m again getting wilds 2 out of 3 times. So if the rng does change its result regardless of the bet size then why does it consitantly give more winning hands at lower bets than at higher bets?
Your whatever amount extra a hand is not something worth risking billions of dollars of revenue through loss of licenses and trust by game players by rigging a machine only at those higher bet levels to fleece you of a hundred dollars. Short term variance is real, and your memory is storing away the times when you tried to push your bets and it failed. You probably remember it in part because you’re betting higher so your money simply goes faster when you aren’t winning at a higher bet – less chances to make something happen. Confirmation bias is a real thing.
The games are already designed to take your money over time; they don’t need to rig them on top of it. One of my mantras is: If you don’t trust the game, you shouldn’t play it. Maybe stick to quarters if you feel more comfortable there and you’re having good luck, but the games in most regulatory areas must play like if a real deck of cards was used, and that means the same chances of cards coming up regardless of bet amount.