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Sep

13

2016

How Side Bets Help your Chances of a Bonus in Slot Play

 How Side Bets Help your Chances of a Bonus in Slot Play

The use of random number generators make slot machines games of pure chance with odds that are the same on every spin.

If odds are set so there is a 1 in 50 chance of going to the bonus round, then they are 1 in 50 on the next spin even if you’ve gone 100 plays in a row without a bonus. They are still 1 in 50 if you’ve just gone to the bonus on the last spin, or on the last two or three spins.

Nonetheless, I’ve seen a number of games recently with side bets that are said to increase the frequency of bonus events.

How can that be? Does the side bet change the random number generator so that bonus symbols come up more often?

No. The odds of each symbol landing on the reels remain unchanged. What the side bet does is to activate a second way of reaching the bonus round with a mystery trigger and its own random number set.

Let’s say you’re playing such a game as you describe, but elect not to make a side bet. The bonuses are triggered any time you see three bonus symbols on the reels.

Now let’s say you change your mind and start making the side bet. The random number generator for the main game keeps operating as normal, and you still go to bonus events whenever three bonus symbols appear.

However, making the side bet activates a mystery trigger. Now you not only get the bonuses when the bonus symbols appear, you also go to bonus events when the game reaches a randomly selected amount of play.

You do not need to have a winning combination show on the reels to win the mystery progressives or go to the mystery bonus. They come by surprise – that’s the mystery part.

With extra triggers, you go to the bonus events more often even though the frequency with which symbols appear on the screen remains unchanged.

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