Breaking the Slot Code review

Possibly the "Major" jackpot on those "Link" machines.  In general, the Mini, Minor, Major, and Grande jackpots change with the coin bet, as in the 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, $1, and $2 selected.  I've seen the Major reach $1000 and stay there for a long time before it is hit.  At some point it will hit, of course.  We watched (and played) one for two days.  It was hit by somebody the morning we were leaving.  And BTW  that particular game is not featured in 'the book'.

That's just my experience, not from anything in the book.  I'm sure I'll learn more if I ever go back to the book.  It got a little 'tedious' for me and how I want to spend my time playing.

Candy

Then it should be very easy to explain in one sentence. He doesn't even have to tell us the real name of the machine, so that he can share that info without also giving us the golden keys to that treasure trove of riches.

But you use the right word: "clue." Not a certainty: a HINT. The author of the book conjectures that when the bonus hits X or whatever, the game becomes +EV. But no cold, hard calculations, no icky old math, are given.

Sure, we could all look at a machine and say, hey, that bonus is really big, maybe it's worth a play. But as I keep saying, we can't KNOW that the machine's in a positive state. We can only surmise, and hope.

If there's a "must hit by" feature on a machine, AND it's possible to calculate the maximum number of spins to make that happen, then it would be possible to ESTIMATE the potential return, and I say estimate because there would still be no way to determine the expected cost of those spins.