Is There an Advantage at the "Bowl-Filling" Slot Machines?

My question is about slot “advantage play.” A popular new trend to be machines where you have to fill a bowl with coins in order to activate the bonus round. The games are mostly Asian-themed, with many different variations. On my last trip, I began to look for the games where the coin bowl was almost full, in the hopes of quickly getting a bonus round. I discovered lots of slots where the coin bowls were near full. For whatever reason, it seemed that other players would get close to filling the coin bowl, then walk away. I’m not sure why other players would do this, but I definitely took advantage. I was wondering if you have noticed this phenomenon as well and if you cared to comment on it.

[Editor's Note: For this answer, we turned to our go-to expert on these types of somewhat obscure gambling questions, Michael "Wizard of Odds" Shackleford. We're always interested in his take on questions that we send to him.]

I too have wondered about the game 88 Fortunes, which is one of many Asian-themed games to display a bowl of coins.

As the player gets coins on the reels, they add to the bowl at the top of the screen. The game gives the impression that there's a positive correlation between the coins in the bowl and the probability of triggering the Fu Bat bonus.

However, that is a false impression.

Under “Jackpot Bonus,” the rules screen says, “The accumulation of coins over time on the top screen has no effect on triggering the Jackpot Bonus.”

So that easily answers your question.

If you're going to play one of these “bowl-of-coins” games, my advice is to play the one where the jackpots, especially the lower ones, are the highest. I think the jackpots rarely get large enough to offer a player advantage. However, if you're going to play anyway, it's good to reduce the house edge as much as you can, as I say about every game.

My final comment is this. When you’re not sure about the rules of a game, read them! I can count on the fingers of one hand the times that I've seen slot players scrolling through the rules screens, which they should. The first step to smart gambling is to know the rules of whatever game you’re playing.

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Randall Ward Jun-04-2022

advantage players

only good thing about pandemic was it hampered the people hovering around hoping you'd leave so they could take advantage of your "bonus".  now they're back, and the publicity of advantage play brings in amateurs like the questioner.

O2bnVegas Jun-04-2022

suckers

Like all other slots, the 'bowl dump' is designed to reel you in with a few dumps.  Then you keep playing, waiting for the next one, which may be just a small amount and start all over.  Reminds me of Aladdin, when I first played and did real well, but thereafter kept chasing the bonuses...waiting...waiting...waiting...spending...spending...

Candy

rokgpsman Jun-04-2022

Slot psychology

In this modern day of electronic gaming it's very unlikely any slot machine will have exploitable situations. The slot mfrs have teams of software and hardware engineers, they know out to the 100 millionth spin and beyond how a game performs. The days of a poorly developed slot machine that had a loophole players could take advantage of is long gone. The machines allow just enough winners to induce more play, but the casino wins more than it loses - guaranteed. Have fun, enjoy yourself, the excitement of hoping to win is terrific. That's a big part of the game's design, it's based on human psychology. But be realistic about your chances, they are very small.

doggieman Jun-09-2022

88 Fortunes slots

My question is about the slot advantage play question on June 4th about the Asian themed games with bowls of coins. Are they programed to trigger the Jackpot Bonus after a certain amount of coin in/bowl full or let's say after every 100 spins. Or is it completely random which I suspect?

Question of the Day - 04 June 2022

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