People Playing Slots

Introduction to Living Playing Slots

• People Playing Slots At The Poconos Youtube
• People Playing Slots Machine
• People Playing Slots At Casinos
• Playing Slots Online
• People Playing Slots 2019

Audience member RS asked, 'Are there people that make a living playing slot machines?' What an excellent question! Yes, they do. But how? Let's get into it!

My name is Brian Christopher, and every day, I post new daily videos of myself playing slot machines in the casino. You'll see some wins, some losses, some j. Casino Slots Online. All the slots available on our web-site are free. You can play free slots on slotsup.com to give it a try and get used to the way the slot machines work before you continue on your gambling journey and get to the genuine online casino or actual brick-and-mortar casino and play for real money.

As I relate information I've collected over time on this topic, keep in mind that I'm not an income tax specialist. If you pursue any of the ideas I put forward in this article, I recommend seeking professional advice from an income tax expert.

This article has the following sections:

• Introduction to Making a Living Playing Slots
• Do Professional Gamblers Exist?
• Do Professional Slots Players Exist?
• Be Able to Win at Slots
• How to Win at Slots
• Your Slots Gambling Career
• Summary of Making a Living Playing Slots

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Do Professional Gamblers Exist?

The first question we should ask ourselves when considering making a living playing slots, is whether anyone else does with some other form of gambling. The answer to that question is a resounding, 'Yes!' And the IRS agrees.

Professional gamblers do exist. But we should be clear about the term 'Professional Gambler' given its sometimes casual use. For clarity, what does the IRS consider a professional gambler? Here's a professional interpretation.

The professional gambler reports gambling winnings and losses for federal purposes on Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business. To compute his or her business income, the professional gambler may net all wagering activity but cannot report an overall wagering loss.

Using less income tax jargon and plucking out the important bits, a professional gambler:

• Reports gambling winnings and losses as business profit/loss.
• Cannot report an overall wagering loss.

Some of the lack-of-clarity of the general use of the term 'professional gambler' comes into play at times. The lesser term semi-professional gambler reports the same as a professional gambler but instead only makes enough to supplement their income.

Semi-pro gamblers don't earn a living through gambling. Not a full-time living, anyway.

The IRS doesn't distinguish between semi-pro and pro gamblers as, either way, they have an overall profit. When it comes to slots gambling, should we make the same distinction between pro and semi-pro? As we'll see, this is a trick question. Slot machines in georgia gas stations.

Do Professional Slots Players Exist?

I have met slots players who claimed to be professional gamblers. But it's been less than clear when speaking with them that they only play slots.

Whatever your table game of choice is, being a member of the casino's loyalty program means you receive free slot play. You can be a professional gambler because you make a profit at poker. But you'll play machines to use the free slots play. Otherwise, it's an awful waste.

These professional gamblers have pro status with the IRS because of their gambling at table games, not for playing slots. What we'd like to know is, do professional slots players exist?

As explained to me by long-term slots players, having once obtained professional gambler status playing slots, the IRS will not revoke a prior decision. This process is a so-called grandfather clause.

But what if you've never attempted to be a professional gambler before? Will the IRS accept you as a professional gambler who only plays slot machines? The answer is no. They won't. At least, not automatically.

Why not? Frankly, the IRS has the outdated idea that slot machines are entirely luck-based. They think playing slots is equivalent to flipping a coin.

If you attempt to get professional status playing slot machines only, the best advice suggests a high likelihood of an IRS audit.

Further, if challenged, they'll take the issue to court where you'll need to explain slot machines aren't entirely luck-based convincingly. How might you do this? For example, you could record an audio book like Learning to Win (commissions earned)….

The term I'd use here is problematic. It's problematic to convince the IRS that slot machine casino gambling isn't entirely luck-based. I'm confident I could prove it sufficiently in court, but why bother making an effort?

I have never officially been a professional gambler whose game-of-choice is playing slot machines. I hadn't tried to convince the IRS of this because, well, what was there to gain? Answer: Nothing that I could see. Can you?

Be Able to Win at Slots

Having a professional gambler status isn't necessary to make a living playing slots. People often want professional gambler status for, well, the elevated condition they think still comes with it.

It's kind of a thing of the past, but I suppose the heart wants what the heart wants. Who am I to stand in the way? Nevertheless, a bit later, I'll explain a popular workaround.

Pro gambler status or not, making a living playing slots absolutely means making a profit at slots. Audience member SD does. He told me his buddies pointed out how good he is and that he should make a living.

The real first step at making a living playing slots is to be able to win at slots. With standard casino business practices having broken slot machines from being fully luck-based, winning at slots has become a skill. And we learn skills.

Let's say that you're like RS and win at slots. How? Because you've got skills. You've found the patterns to succeed at your casino, where perhaps the simplest ways to take advantage of standard casino business practices are described by my winning slots strategies.

Great job! Well done! I'm proud of you!

But how many patterns of winning are covered in your skillset? To keep winning, you depend on the casino to keep doing whatever they're doing. If your casino comes under new ownership and they make business changes, then your winning at slots is disrupted…perhaps indefinitely.

To make a living playing slots, you need to win at slots. That's the first necessary skill. But the other essential skill is being able, again and again, to learn how to win at slots.

How to Win at Slots

Professional poker players can make a profit gambling. Some play poker regularly and earn their living incrementally throughout the year. Other poker players take a while to save a monetary stake and compete in a huge poker tournament somewhere once a year.

Skilled slots players earn their living incrementally throughout the year. But do some slots players win big? Occasionally they do, but 99% of the time it's just luck.

Life-changing jackpots worth millions of dollars still exist, although they are fading away due to nightmare-like legal liability issues for casinos. These are the so-called wide-area progressive slot machines. People who have won these mega jackpots were lucky, which is no way to make a living.

Sometimes skilled slots players are lucky, which is terrific and adds to their income. The rest of the time, they grind it out. They are advantage players (APs), as explained in Understanding Advantage Play Slots in Modern Casino Environments.

Skill-based slots players search, study, observe, and experiment until they find those few slot machines at a casino which are winners when played in a specific way. These skilled players then proceed to wear out the chair at that slot machine as they, week after week and month after month, incrementally make money.

Once you figure out how to win, in general, you don't stop doing whatever you've figured out unless forced. As mentioned, maybe the casino changes ownership. Or, much more rarely, perhaps something drastic happens to the economy, such as a global pandemic.

People Playing Slots At The Poconos Youtube

As we all know, these things happen. Consequently, making a living playing slots isn't a job. It's a career. And careers don't just happen. They're created and managed.

Your Slots Gambling Career

I may never pursue professional slots player gambler status with the IRS. It's difficult, and the legal fees will be expensive. And I'd only be doing it to make a point.

But I, and more than a few others, make up to a full-time living playing slots. And none of us, or you for that matter, have the problematic IRS issue of proving we win at slots.

What's this miracle solution, you ask? Well, why not make playing slots your business? After all, why wouldn't you? It's another potential revenue stream!

As I've already pointed out, make sure you check with an income tax professional. But everything you might be looking for from having professional gambler status can occur another, similar way. Start a business where your business is about slots.

Are you shy? Then start a podcast. You'll likely never have to meet anyone in person! And it's not hard or particularly expensive. See my other article Why You Need to Start a Recreational Gambling Podcast. A gambling podcast works just as well when it's not recreational anymore.

Are you photogenic? Great! YouTube it is! Some Youtubers only ever use the camera on their phone. As you get popular, you can monetize through YouTube. Or sooner, if you've got a product to sell elsewhere. Clever shirt, anyone?

Or maybe you've written a book on slots? That works, too! Maybe I'll see you later on the book tour, paid speaking engagement circuit!

Other successful slots businesses include recording your play at casinos, although it's not as easy as it seems. You can't just record at a casino unless they let you, so you'll need a contract. Your casino will either agree or they won't, so just ask them.

Summary of Living Playing Slots

Making a living playing slots can be a part-time supplement to your other household income or be a full-time career. Whatever level of profit is your financial goal, you'll need to know how to win at slots.

Further, you'll need to be able to succeed using skills you've developed and not fully depend on luck-based winning.

Related Articles from Professor Slots

Other Articles from Professor Slots

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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC

You can find stories about people gambling for a living. Many people play poker for a living, and it's easy to see why. Poker doesn't have a built in house edge; it has what amounts to a seat charge in the form of rake. Poker players aren't trying to win the house money, they compete for other player's money. This is different than most other forms of gambling.

You can also read about blackjack players that have learned how to count cards or find sloppy dealers that flash the value of down cards. Some of these players are able to play blackjack for a living. A small percentage of sports bettors, horse track bettors, and dog track bettors are also able to make enough money to gamble for a living.

But it's rare to find people who can gamble for a living who play other casino games. Bob Dancer claims that he was able to play video poker for a living several years back, but even if his claim is true, many things have changed since then. It's harder to find full pay video poker machines and casinos pay lower comp rates for video poker play.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that and I'm not trying to say that he didn't make money playing. But I don't know if anyone is making a living playing video poker today. It's possible, but if there are players doing it, there aren't very many.

A few authors claim to make money playing craps using dice control. This has always struck me as a way to sell books and training courses, but just like Dancer's claim in video poker, I suppose a few people can use dice control. Also just like video poker, if people are successful at dice control, there aren't very many of them.

Games like slots, roulette, baccarat, and other table games don't have stories about gamblers playing them for a living. Does the lack of stories mean that these games are impossible to beat?

Slots are the most popular form of gambling in casinos. People love to play slots. This brings me to the reason for this article.

The Hard Truth

Before you continue, consider exactly what making a living means. Some people live on $25,000 a year, while others seem to need $50,000 or $100,000 a year. Many factors come into play when determining how much someone needs to live.

Some of the factors include:

• Where you live
• How many people you have to support, like a spouse and children
• How frugal your lifestyle is
• How much debt you have

For the purposes of this article I'm going to use $52,000 a year as the threshold for making a living. This works out to $1,000 a week. You can use any number that you want, but unless you live in an expensive area, most people can survive on this amount.

Another issue that must be considered when you think about playing slots for a living is the lack of health insurance and other benefits. Professional gamblers have to find health care and they don't get paid time off. Health care is a serious expense for many people and it can be dangerous not to have some type of coverage.

Many young people don't worry about the lack of health care coverage, but as you get older it often becomes a real concern. If you have to pay for health insurance it can take a big chunk out of your income. Keep this in mind when you determine how much you need to make to play slots for a living.

The hard truth is playing slots for a living is almost impossible unless you're already wealthy and have enough money that you can afford to lose in the long run. It's much more likely that you're going to lose $1,000 a week than win $1,000 week playing slots.

While most slots players lose in the long run, it's not 100% impossible to play slots for a living. But such a small percentage of players make money that the truth is that you should probably forget the idea.

Play zombie outbreak slot online. Each machine is programmed to pay back a certain percentage of every dollar wagers and keep the rest for the casino. These numbers are called different names, but I call them pay back percentage and the house edge.

A slot machine's pay back percentage is the amount of all bets returned to the player through wins on the machine. If a slot machine has a 95% pay back percentage that means that on average it gives back $95 out of every $100 wagered to the player.

If you consider this from the other angle you get the house edge. When the slot machine pays back $95 out of $100, it keeps the other $5 for profit. In other words, a machine that pays back $95 out of every $100 wagered has a 5% house edge.

When you add the house edge percentage and the pay back percentage together, they always equal 100%. This means that if you know one number you can subtract it from 100 to get the other number.

You can use these numbers to predict how much money you should win or lose over a set period of time, based on how much you bet per hour. Because the house edge is in the casino's favor, it means that if you can't figure out how to overcome the edge or get lucky, you're going to lose in the long run.

Most slot machines have a payback percentage between 90 and 98%. This means the house edge is between 2 and 10%. With a house edge, it means that you lose between 2 and 10% of every dollar you run through the machine.

Here's an example:

• You play on a slot machine that has a 98% pay back percentage, which means it has a 2% house edge. Your bet size is $2 per spin and you make 400 spins per hour. You can figure out your average loss rate, or what you can expect to lose on average per hour, by using this formula.
• Amount bet per spin times spins per hour times the house edge.
• $2 X 400 X 2% = $16

This means that if you play for 10 hours your expected loss is $160. You simply multiply the expected hourly loss times the number of hours you plan to play and you get the average expected loss.

Slots are run by computers, which use a program based on math. These programs, unless the programmers made a mistake, make sure that the underlying math principles always come true. It might take millions of spins, but the programs guarantees that the machine produces the programmed profit percentage for the casino.

The house edge and pay back percentage are long term things. This means that these percentages are realized over a long period of time. In the short term the house edge and pay back percentages vary, sometimes a great deal. But eventually the short term variance evens out and produces the correct results.

Most players can't, and this is why it's almost impossible to play slots for a living.

If you still want to try to play slots for a living, the following sections have additional information you need to know. Just keep in mind that even if you use every trick and strategy in your power, you still might lose money in the long run.

Finding the Pay Back Percentage of Slots

You just learned about pay back percentage and the house edge and how these things guarantee the casino a profit. So the next question is how do you find out the house edge and pay back for slot machines?

Most casino games are designed in a way that it's fairly easy to determine the house edge and pay back percentage, or you can easily find the numbers with a quick internet search. But slots are different. The programs that run the machines have so many variables that unless you have access to the program it's impossible to determine the house edge and pay back percentage.

Another problem is that some machines offer different pay back percentages from the manufacturer, so each casino can order their machines with the percentage they want. You can find out more about finding slot machine pay back percentages here, but the news isn't good.

The following sections include everything I know that can help you improve your chances to win. Four of them are strategies that you can put into action yourself, and the other one is based on hope. Sadly, hope isn't much of a strategy, but it fits in perfectly with how most people gamble. They put their money out and hope to win.

Online Bonuses

Online casinos often offer bonuses for slots players when they make a deposit. You can get 100% or more of your deposit matched with bonus money you can use to play slots. This sounds like a great way to overcome the house edge, and if the money was free it would be.

While bonus money looks like it's free, when you read the conditions and terms associated with the bonus you find out that it's not a simple as the casino giving you free money.

Every online slots bonus comes with rules and regulations about how you can use it, what you have to do before you can cash out your money, and if you get to keep any bonus amount when you meet the terms of the offer.

The terms vary from online casino to online casino, so it's important to read them before you make your deposit. Some bonuses are deducted from your balance when you make a cash out request, while others can be cashed out eventually.

When you accept an online slots bonus you have to meet certain requirements. These are usually called play through requirements. A play through requirement means that you have to play the bonus amount, and sometimes the deposit amount as well, a certain number of times to clear the bonus. The requirement is usually shown as a multiple, like 25X or 50X. This means you have to make wagers totaling 25 times or 50 times the bonus, and sometimes the deposit amount.

Here's an example:

• You sign up at an online casino that offers a 100% sign up bonus on deposits up to $250. You make a $250 deposit and get a $250 bonus. This gives you a total bankroll of $500. The terms and conditions state that you have to play the deposit and bonus amount 50 times before you can cash out.
• The total of the bonus and your deposit is $500, so you multiply this by 50 to find the total amount you have to bet. 50 X $500 = $25,000, so you have to make $25,000 worth of bets before cashing out. The best can be any size as long as the total amount reaches the limit.

People Playing Slots Machine

You can use a trick at this point to get an idea of the possibility of clearing the bonus and having money left over. You can multiply the total amount you have to wager times the house edge to find the expected loss.

Using this example, if you play on a slot machine with a 5% house edge, your expected loss is $1,250. This means that usually you're going to run out of money before you clear the bonus. The only ways to change this are to play on a machine with a lower house edge, or find bonuses that have lower play through requirements.

You also need to make sure you understand the difference between cashable bonuses and the ones that are deducted from your balance. A bonus that can't be cashed out when you meet the playing requirements makes it unlikely you can beat the house edge.

Here's an example if you play a slot machine with a 2% house edge, using the same bonus numbers in the last example.

$25,000 X 2% = $500. This means that your expected loss is the same as your total bankroll of $500. Even if you get lucky and don't lose all $500, the odds of you having more than your deposit of $250 left after clearing the bonus is slim.

You should defiantly use online slots bonuses if you want to play slots. Even a bonus that's not cashable gives you extra money to gamble with. It also gives you extra chances to hit a big jackpot, which is the only way most slots players have of getting ahead.

Slots Tournaments

Slots tournaments aren't run at all casinos, but some casino run them from time to time, and a few run them on a regular basis. A slots tournament offers a minimum amount of play for a set entry fee and awards prizes for the top finishers.

Some casinos offer slots tournaments as a reward for a set amount of play and/or connected to their slots club program. If you can earn a free entry into a slots tournament, anything you win helps overcome the house edge on your normal slots play.

When you're looking for a slots tournament that has an entry fee, you should look for ones that have a guaranteed prize pool. If you can find tournaments that don't get enough entrants to cover the prize pool you can play with an edge. It won't greatly improve your chances of finishing in the money, but when the entry fees don't cover the prize pool it's profitable to play.

Here's an example:

• The casino offers a slots tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000. The entry fee is $10 and they only get 80 people to sign up. If you divide the prize pool by the number of entrants you get the average value of playing.
• In this case, the average is $12.50. Any time the average return for playing is higher than the entry fee you're playing with an edge.

You still have to finish in the money to win some money, but if you play in enough of these types of situations you come out ahead eventually.

Playing Slots for Comps and Promotions

People Playing Slots At Casinos

Every time you play slots you should be earning comps. Sign up for the slots club at your local casino and look for online casinos that have a rewards program. The casinos don't give back enough in comps to overcome the normal house edge, but every penny you get back in comps helps lower your cost to play.

Casinos also run promotions from time to time. You might be able to find free slots play vouchers and match play coupons in the local paper or on the web site of the casino where you're planning to ply. Promotions and coupons are a great way offset the built in house edge of the slot machines.

Getting Lucky

I hate to say it, but the only way most people can play slots for a living is to get lucky. If you're lucky enough to hit a big jackpot sometime in your life, and are smart with the money, you can afford to play slots full time.

The only slot machines I play are the ones that offer either a progressive jackpot or ones that have a set top jackpot prize of $100,000 or higher. I know I can't overcome the long term house edge without a big win, so I don't waste my time on machines that can't make a big deposit into my bank.

Getting lucky isn't a strategy, but if you don't put yourself in position where you have the chance to be lucky you don't even have reason to hope. If you want to play slots for a living focus on slots with big jackpot possibilities.

Playing Slots Online

Progressive Jackpots

The only way to truly play slots with an edge over the house is to play a progressive jackpot slot machine where the top prize has grown so high that it overcomes the edge. The problem with this is the same as I discussed earlier. If you don't know the house edge you can't determine how high the progressive jackpot has to climb before it makes the play profitable.

People Playing Slots 2019

If you don't know the house edge, simply play the slots that have the highest jackpots. Most casinos, both online and off, have at least one slots game with a jackpot over $1,000,000.

If you can't find one with a jackpot over $1 million, look for the highest one you can find. A $500,000 jackpot win might not set you up financially for life, but it's enough to help out quite a bit.

Conclusion

Playing slots for a living is a dream of many gamblers. But the truth is that it's almost impossible to succeed. The house edge locks in a long term profit for the casinos, so very few people win.

You can use the tips and strategies on this page to give yourself the best chance to overcome the house edge, but if you want to gamble for a living your best bet is to stop playing slots and pick a different game.