We’ve all said it before, “This machine is hot or this machine is cold.” For years there has been the theory that slot machines run in cycles. The theory says that if you can find the slots when they are in the hot cycle you can be a winner.

You’ve probably witnessed, or maybe you do it yourself, someone moving from slot machine to slot machine. They may put in $10, hit the spin button a few times and move to the next machine. Most people who do this are looking for the slot machine that is in the hot cycle. They believe that once they find that machine it will keep winning and winning.

On the other hand, we’ve been on a machine that does nothing but eat our money. Those machines are considered to be on cold cycles. If you find yourself on a cold machine you probably either need to switch machines or you can try to ride the cold cycle out and wait for the hot cycle.

The reality of the situation is slot machines do not run in cycles. It may seem like machines get hot and cold, but in reality it is purely random. Each spin is random and has nothing to do with the last. In fact, you are just as likely to hit the jackpot on the spin after you just hit a jackpot as the spin before you hit the jackpot. The odds are the same. However, when we see someone hit a jackpot on a machine we think that machine has already hit so it won’t hit again.

These are all thoughts that go through the minds of slot machine players. Over the years many have come to believe them as fact, but unfortunately most are simply not true.