If a slot machine malfunctions it cannot complete the random selection process, and therefore reverts to a 'tilt' mode. When a malfunction occurs some slot machine manufacturers, for engineering purposes, set the reels to stop briefly in a 'jackpot' position.
How Do You Know When A Slot Machine Is Hot
When playing slot machines it’s not unusual to notice streaks of wins or losses. Many gamblers will refer to the slot as hot or going through a hot cycle when it’s paying, or a cold cycle when it’s not.
But Do Slot Machines Really Have Hot or Cold Cycles?
Slot machines only have hot or cold cycles in that sometimes there will be noticeable strings of good or bad luck resulting in wins or losses.
The problem is that many slot players will declare their machine on a hot or cold cycle (based on how they’ve done) and then decide whether to continue playing based on that belief.
That’s a big mistake.
As explained in our How Slots Work article, every spin of a slot machine is a random, independent event. Slots have no memory of past wins when determining the result of the next spin. Win or lose cycles aren’t programmed into slot machines.
How Can a Slot Feel “Hot” or “Cold” if Every Spin is Actually Random?
Because random data can still have trends. If you flip a coin 1,000 times and record the results, you’ll likely find groupings of several heads or tails in a row. Just because an event is random doesn’t mean it won’t have repeated or grouped results. In fact, flipping a coin and expecting it to alternate perfectly wouldn’t be random at all.
Plus the human brain is exceptional at spotting patterns (even when they don’t exist), and that leads to people thinking slot machines have hot or cold cycles. This is known as the clustering illusion.
The Bottom Line on Slot Machine Cycles
Slot machines only have cycles if you look back and declare a string of wins or losses to be a cycle. The terminology is misleading though because it leads slot players to believe they can predict future outcome based on past results, which is impossible with random data like slot machine spins.
Slot machines aren’t programmed to be hot or cold – all that matters is that they meet the programmed payout percentage over their lifetime (many millions of spins, many more than any one person could play). It’s inevitable that some players will experience seemingly impossible luck with a slot machine, but attempting to predict the slot’s random number generator results based on prior wins or losses is not a wise bet.