There is some really bad slot machine advice or call it slot game strategy, which is appearing on the net in recent times. I found it so outrageous that at first I thought it was a joke. Most people who have gambled to any extent understand slot games well enough to play them and know to always bet the max amount in order to be eligible for the jackpot if lucky enough for it to hit. I think that is a given with most of you.

This goofy strategy which is aimed at those playing slot machine games online, is called the steps or the stepping ladder, perhaps the stepping stone. I wish I'd paid better attention to the name of the slot strategy now. Anyhow it suggests the player find a 3 coin machine and play one coin at a time ... only increasing to two coins whenever you win something back from the previous slots spin and then finally increasing to 3 coins bet if you win two spins in a row. It almost assures the player will never hit a win while playing 3 coins at a time because regardless of the fact that each spin is separate from the last and the next one ... I ask you: how often do you hit 3 wins in a row when playing a slot machine?

I won't argue the fact that the truly big wins or jackpots can happen at any time and they are unlikely to be effected on the timing of the payout because a small payout came before, or even if two came before. But what concerned me was how often do you hit a mixed bar win (such as a single, double and triple bar all lining up on the payline) which pays about fifteen times the investment. These little wins are what keep you playing until you can hit a big win. This steps strategy in my opinion will lead players into a scenario where they are losing most the times they are betting 3 coins ... because they had to hit two wins in a row to be able to bet the 3 coins. Truly ... how often do you hit 3 wins in a row on a slots machine?

Perhaps the math whizs in Vegas could tell me whether my suspicions are correct? But until they tell me different I cannot help but feel this "steps" betting system is a really bad idea for slots players. A quick glance at just a few of the triple coin slot machine games online revealed that some of the machines have more than a 50% difference between the payout on the 2nd coin and the payout on the 3rd coin (max bet). Out of the twenty or so online slot machine games that I checked I found none in the 3 coin category this strategy would be beneficial in any significant way.

I did find one two coin online slot machine game which had no extra benefit for betting the maximum amount where the steps strategy would at least not hurt the player significantly but there still is the fact that most slot machine wins do not come back to back meaning once again you'd be making your big bets while riding a win from a single coin win.

Frankly it sounds more like a system designed to give you the ultimate rush by following a win with a bet that is twice or three times the norm. And then the times you did hit with all three coins bet you'd be extra gleeful coming off two wins and then hitting that third with all three coins bet. I'm sure its a system that provides maximum rush for your gambling dollar but not so sure about the math using that strategy. If I had to guess it would be that the steps gambling strategy is at best harmless and at worst case is having the player making their biggest bets at the worst times.

My personal method for playing slots does mimic the steps in an abstract way. I believe you should bet at lower credit values but max credits bet. So instead of playing with credit values of one dollar and betting only one coin (equals one dollar), I would play with credit values of one quarter of a dollar and bet the three coin max. It saves me one fourth the cost if I had been playing single one dollar coins while giving me a jackpot expectation of ...

Well lets take an average three coin slot machine game powered by Microgaming software, the leader in the industry. I went with "Fantastic Seven" slots game which has three coin max bet which pays a jackpot of 500 credits on the first coin, 1000 credits on the second coin bet and 2500 on the third coin which is of course the maximum amount of credits you can wager. According to my math the 2500 jackpot would pay $625 with an original whopping wager of $.75 cents. if I had bet $1 playing credit values of one dollar my jackpot payout would be $500. So it costs less to win more when you play only max bets. *Please note that not all slot machine games on line pay the same schedule. The gap between coin two and max bet is almost always considerable however it can vary in either direction.

Good luck and thank you for your time.