If you’re one of those players who just can’t resist the powers of flashing lights, then you might just want to read this article. If you play fruit machines, pub bandits or any other kind of bookies fixed odds betting terminal, then the following tips might just help.
First of all you can forget all those magical tips and tricks you think you know, it’s time to approach the subject with an open mind. The fruit machine was built for profits not pleasure, so knowing your enemy is crucial before waging war against it.
1. Why they will and won’t pay out?
Knowing what these machines are and what they do is very important. First they are built for profits and not pleasure, paying out only if their pay table self profits have been met. Second, they are physical objects in that they can only hold so much money inside of them. It’s simple, they pay out when they’re full and don’t when they’re empty. So the first tip is finding a full machine, the most common identification for such condition is a falling coin once placed into the game.
Placing a pound coin into a bandit will fall in either one of two ways, the first is a short drop and the second is a long fall. If you’re pound coin sounds like it’s falling a few feet then it’s likely that the fruit machine game is full and likely to payout.
2. Look for low jackpot high percentage games
I’ve seen hundreds of people flocking around the £500 fruit machines only to leave empty handed on a mass scale. Don’t be drawn in by the big bucks, high jackpots normally mean low percentage payouts. One of the best tips for any budding bandit professional is to play low jack pot games with high paying percentages. Stick with those £25 top payers and just keep knocking them down, i personally would never play a slot game with a pay out percentage of anything less than 94%.
Most top uk online casinos pay at 97. 8% but land based betting games can be slightly lower.
3. Test the slot machine with the £3 rule
The three pound rule is a way of testing the slots game before you play it with total commitment. It requires discipline and the possibility of walking away empty handed, but only £3 out of pocket. Normally a good machine will but a player on the feaure board before 10 credits, this goes for any mid way bonus round where the numbers climb to the bonus feature at position 4. On a 30 pence credit it is safe to say that a decent fruit machine will put you on a winning feature before 10 credits are spent, therefore before £3.
If you can spend £3 on a pub, betting shop or casino slots machine and see nothing but rolling reels. Then there is no need to carry on playing that particular gaming device, walk away to fight another day or another slot.
4. Look out for Red Hot Machines
If you want to know how to win on fruit machines games then this is the golden rule, but also a very rare one. Red hot bandits and gaming devices that reach the jackpot milestone are player gold mines. Red hot machines are hard to lose, they give up everything and anything and allow players to continuously climb the features without any problems whatsoever, including those question marks and continue stoppers.
It’s quite difficult to spot a red hot betting game, but normally red indications which might range from the lights on the fruit to the manufactures logo. Generally though, a player only finds one through pure luck and chance. The trick is, keep playing that baby till it has nothing left to give.

5. Mix it up a bit
Computers are generally basic robots that rely on logic, patterns and predictable functions in order to operate. A fruit slot is no different and relys on the player to do everything the machine wants that player to do. If the game gives a player two lined up cherries with a free nudge on the last reel, with that last reel then bringing down a cherry for the player to win the lowest prize. Then normally the player will bring down the third cherry for a massive £1 prize. Only to then trade in that £1 for the feature board, which again the fruit machine is expecting.
I want you to try something different, remember enter your new fruit slot machine playing life with an open mind. If you’ve put £2 or £3 in the bandit, then why settle for basic cherries or the lowest point of the feature board. It’s absolutely rediculous and just one of those many ways in which the game is beating the player.
Start by avoiding low value nudges, bonus numbers, basic symbols, low earning prizes and other pointless features. Play only for the mid way prize money. Remember you have not put £5 into a fruit machine to win £2. 60. You’re going after the £25 jackpot, so play like you are.
6. Shark scoping fruit machines
Nobody likes a shark, but lets face it, these guys make the money on slot machine games. Sharking is the term best used to describe a smart gambling player. These people watch games, they observe other players and count the ratio between money in and money out. Start watching other slot spinners for yourself, let them do the hard work and the hard spending. Identify a game in which the spinner is losing everything, then strike the fruit machine right behind them and carry out the £3 rule.
7. Double take jackpots
It’s quite common for someone to leave a bandit once the jackpot has paid out. This is one of the worst mistakes you can make in betting shop fruit machine gambling. Remember, if pay tables are met then the jackpot will pay out, also know that you have know idea how much the pay tables have collected. There is a chance that you may take the jackpot for a second time, this is known as double taking.
If you win a £25 jackpot, then immediately pocket £20 as profits and then re-play the machine with £5. This will give you £3 to test the machine plus a further £2 of credits to hit the feature board. It’s a good bet that if you reach a bonus or feature within this follow up £5 after winning a jackpot, that you may double take the top prize.
8. The best time to play a fruit machine game
People often ask when is the best time to play on fruit machines? the answer to this question is as late as possible. Most gaming machines these days are turned off at night, so the following day the computer circuits and sequences are reset. At the end of the day however things are a little different.
Firstly the bandit has collected cash for the past 9 hours, secondly players who spin fruit slot games in the evening are very desperate players. They tend to be tired, drunk or perhaps both. Especially those who put money in bandits at the betting shop, these are people who play purely out of habit.
It’s time to start playing your games after 8pm in the evening, the pay tables are most likely to be full by this time.
9. Use slot machine bank roll management skills
Bankroll management is a way in which smart gamblers manage their money whilst spinning a slots game. The first rule of bank rolling is that you must be willing to lose everything, the second is that you never lose everything. Ok then, if you were going to manage your money at 20 percent then you would spin the machine in the following manner.

Lets say that you have £10. 00 credit, it means that you would play for 20 percent profit only no matter what. This can be quite useful in an arcade or a casino where there are many different games. So at any time if you make £12 in total, you leave and start playing on a different machine. It also means that as soon as you are 20 percent down, you walk away from the fruit machine.
Let me run that by you again, with £10 worth of spins you leave if you lose £2 and are down to £8. If you make £2 then you walk away when you are up at £12
10. Play online first with free spins and bonuses
If you spin slots in pubs, betting shops or bricks and mortar casinos, then you’re missing the greatest trick known to man. The internet is fast becoming the playground for any slot machine fanatic, with modern games better than ever and jackpots often reaching hundreds of thousands of pounds.
If you play uk online slots then you can benefit from huge player sign up bonuses, which often means real cash and free spins on over 200 well known video slot titles. Play a fruit machine in a betting shop and you get nothing for your £10 credit, play these games on the internet and you get far more for your money. The internet is the future of slot machine gambling and with jackpots for progressive games sometimes worth millions, it really is no wonder why we’re all now spinning on the web.