Streaks happen on the slot machines. They’re the product of random chance and normal probability, but they happen.
Problem is, they don’t happen in any predictable way. There’s no way to tell when a hot streak is going to come, and once we’re in one, there’s no way to tell when it might end. If players could predict either, we could make a lot of money.
It’s the same thing with cold streaks. We don’t know when a machine is going to start losing spin after losing spin. And once it goes into such a streak, we have no idea when some better results might be coming. If only we knew how long the streak would be, we could move on to avoid the worst losses.
The cold streaks prompted one reader to email wondering if adjusting her play might help.
“I know about the random generator,” she wrote “but if you’re not doing well, does it help to play slower till the cold streak is gone?”
Playing slower doesn’t affect game outcome in any predictable way. You’ll be stopping the random number generator at different points, so results will be different than if you just played normally. Sometimes your results will be better, and sometimes worse.
There is a positive from slowing your play. It conserves money because you’re making fewer bets per hour. So if you’ve been losing and want to stretch your money, then yes, playing slower is a way to do that.
Streaks happen, there’s no tendency for a hot machine to stay hot, or a cold machine to stay cold, and you can’t help begin or end streaks in any way. But conserving money? That’s a good thing.
