Best Slot Machines At Foxwoods

Are loose slot machines found on the ends of aisles? How about the slots near the table games? They’re tight, right? Where are the best paying slots located? We try to find the answers to the eternal question: where are the best slot machines to play?

Slots Played At Foxwoods
Foxwoods Slot Machines List
New Slots At Foxwoods

There’s a sucker born every minute… and a ‘winning slot system’ for each of them

by Rob Wiser

Prior to the advent of the Internet, when I found myself unable to sleep, I’d sit up all night watching television infomercials. There was some truly spectacular crap being pitched on TV in the 1990s: food processors, body hair removers, spray-on hair, Chia Pets, torture racks guaranteed to give you six-pack abdominals (or your money back—but you’d better order now, because these things are selling fast!)…

One time, in my sleep-deprived stupor, I was nearly convinced to phone in my order for the Cash Flow Generator. I could never understand what it was exactly, or how it would enable me to generate an extra $20,000 a month in my spare time. But it was being hawked by the Rice brothers—midget twins in suits who billed themselves as “the Country’s Most Recognized Success Experts Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Smallest Twins.” (Now that’s saying something.)

Then there was Matthew Lesko, the guy who jumped around in a hideous question-mark-covered suit, babbling about how to get free products and money from the federal government.

But my favorites were the wildly enthusiastic “get rich quick” entrepreneurs like Tom Vu, the Vietnamese immigrant-turned-real estate tycoon who, while surrounded by bikini-clad babes on a yacht, jabbered in broken English about his millionaire-making techniques. (My favorite Vu quote: “Don’t listen to your friends! They’re losers!”)

Also keeping me entertained during those long sleepless nights: Dave Del Dotto, who showed how ordinary couples, relaxing by their new beachfront homes in Hawaii, were pulling down an extra $30,000 a month, thanks to his real estate secrets. (Actually, these infomercials never “showed” you anything, except for joyous testimonials. To learn the secrets, you had the order the kit/attend the seminar/hand over your credit card information.) And who could forget the boyish-looking Don Lapree, who preached the gospel of classified ads and 900 numbers—and how you could start building your own financial empire today.

Nowadays, when plagued with insomnia, I surf the Internet instead of channels. Cyberspace has really opened the floodgates for a new generation of snake oil salesmen. And they’re not just flogging sexual performance pills, bogus stock tips and motivational tapes. Some of these charlatans are targeting you—the slot machine player.

In fact, last night, I came across a website with this enticement:

“Discover how to make a minimum of $1,000 on the slot machines—EVERY NIGHT! Make the casino your personal money machine!”

Obviously, I had to continue reading. A guaranteed way to clean out the slots? What could possibly be in this huckster’s kit? A crowbar, a ski mask and a good pair of running shoes?

As it turned out, he was selling a downloadable e-book. The sales copy contained a long list of bullet points, including: “Learn how to use the casino staff as your personal jackpot detectives! I’ll show you the five-minute system that will skyrocket your winnings.”

OK, wait a minute, I thought, taking my hand off my mouse. Now he’s bringing the “casino staff” into it. At this point, I knew the bullet points were basically just running down the most popular slot machine myths. One of the silliest is that slot attendants are somehow privy to “inside information” about which machines are “due” to hit. The theory is that, since they’re watching the action all the time, they know which games have been sucking up money and not paying out—and if you slip them a buck or two, they might point out the one that is ready to deliver the gold.

Now, let’s return to Planet Earth. Let’s say you’re a slot attendant, and you happen to know which machine out of a thousand is on the verge of paying out a truckload of money. Would you share this information with some random customer who may (or may not) slip you a couple of dollars? Or, would you be on the phone to your significant other, telling him to get his butt over to the casino ASAP and jump on that machine?

Another ecstatic bullet point declared, “Discover where and when the machines are going to pay off the most money!”

This was another classic example of slot fiction. It reminded me of a conversation I had with some guy in a bar when I was back East over the Christmas holidays. He overheard me mention that I was from Las Vegas, so we got into a discussion on gambling. He began to lecture me about how to win money at the two Indian megacasinos in Connecticut, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. He had a bizarre conspiracy theory about how the casinos had formed some sort of secret pact: The slots at Foxwoods were programmed to pay out on Thursdays and Fridays, and the slots at Mohegan gave up the money on Wednesdays and Sundays, or something like that.

Which is complete hogwash, of course—just like the e-book this website was trying to sell, which I’m sure contains “advice” about playing the machines near the lobby and the entrances, because they’re programmed to pay out frequently. (The idea being, people will be drawn into the casino when they see all the giddy customers winning jackpots.)

The fact is, while a certain amount of strategy does go into placing specific machines in high-traffic areas of the gaming floor to maximize profits, I’ve never heard any truth to the rumor that the “loose” games are placed near entrances. After all, when it comes to jackpots, we’re still talking about very long odds. And no casino—or casino employee—knows when those jackpots are going to hit.

The website’s sales pitch went on ad nauseum, inviting me to visualize myself as a big-time Slot Machine High Roller: “Picture yourself staying in a VIP suite, dining at the finest restaurants, enjoying front-row tickets to the show! All for free because you’re a top player… and a winner!”

I kept scrolling down the page, as the pitch built toward its close:

“I could sell these confidential casino secrets for over $10,000 to high rollers. But if you order now, all this can be yours for the discount price of $29.95.”

Well, that’s just downright philanthropic, I thought. Obviously, high rollers would pay a fortune to possess a foolproof method to beat the slots—but this guy’s practically giving away his e-book for under $30. (All major credit cards accepted.) He’s the Robin Hood of the casino world!

But it does beg the question: Can there be any validity to a system that promises to make you a winning slot player over the long run?

For an expert opinion, I turned to John Grochowski, a syndicated gaming columnist, author and radio host. He told me: “I’ve seen systems that have you looking for cherries sitting on the center reel, systems that alternate maximum and minimum bets, even systems that vary bet size according to Fibonoacci numbers (a mathematical progression in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.) None of them are worth the paper they’re printed on, the tape or CD they’re recorded on, or the cyberspace they’re wasting.

“When someone offers to sell you a system that, within days, will have you start winning and never stop, it’s time to put your hands in your pockets and walk swiftly in the other direction,” he continued. “With very rare exceptions, slot systems don’t work and can’t work. Results are as random as humans can program a computer to be, and there’s no way to time random results, no signal the machine gives that it’s ready to pay off, no way to look at a machine and tell what’s coming.”

What about the “rare exceptions?” Does this mean a legitimate system does exist?

“The exceptions concern specific machines we don’t see much any more,” he replied. “It was possible to get an edge on games with banked bonuses—such as WMS’ “Piggy Bankin’” or games with a goal, such as Silicon Gaming’s “Buccaneer Gold”—by not playing until there were enough coins in the piggy bank or enough daggers stuck in the pirate ship’s rail. But when players started to take advantage of such games to collect bonuses that had been built by others, manufacturers adapted quickly.”

This is not to say there aren’t learnable tactics that will help your chances at other casino games. Advanced blackjack and video poker players use strategies to bolster their odds of winning. Among serious craps players, there is a camp that firmly believes “dice control” (throwing the dice a certain way to hit your numbers) works. But for most players, the learning curve—and the pressure of trying to use these techniques in the heat of the moment—makes them more trouble than they’re worth.

“The rule of thumb is, if the system is easy, it doesn’t work,” says Grochowski. “Card counting works at blackjack. Learning optimal video poker strategy does improve your results. I’ve seen enough ‘dice controllers’ in craps that I’m in the camp of believers, though dice control is a physical skill that takes a lot of practice and patience to master. But as for betting systems that claim to be able to beat games by timing bets or increasing bets at specific times or choosing games that are ‘ready’ to pay off? No, they don’t work. Systems players sometimes have success once or twice and think they have something. But, with repeated play, they all wind up losing money.” ´

Slot Scams.

Introduction to Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

I recently met fellow slots enthusiasts and gambling podcasters at Foxwoods Casino, a tribal casino located in southern Connecticut, in part to create this Easily Win a Little at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut article. Other goals included promoting my Professor Slots brand and, last but not least, figure out how to win at slots there.

Vito from Cousin Vito’s Casino Podcast organized this “Gamblepalooza” meetup. He did a great job with what we all hope will become a regular annual event. Also, a special thanks to the staff at Foxwoods casino, especially to our Casino Sales Executive, John, for his professionalism, dedication, and attention to details. Thanks, Vito and John!

In this Easily Win a Little at Slots at Foxwoods Casino article, I’ll primarily go over what I learned about how to win at slots there. As I’ve come to understand, and hope you have too, my winning strategies for slot machines isn’t about how to be luckier.

Instead, it’s about understanding, or at least using, how casinos have deliberately set up their slot machines for slots enthusiasts to take advantage of as an opportunity to win.

What I found at Foxwoods Casino was such a winning opportunity. As I’ll explain, a few slot machines have been set up in such a way as to be taken advantage of quickly. That’s good news. The bad news (spoiler alert!) is that all such winnings are rather small.

However, easily winning a little at slots is probably very useful to far more people, when most slots enthusiasts are low rollers.

This article has the following sections:

Introduction
My Online Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
My On-Site Physical Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
Assessing Foxwoods Casino by Talking with Slots Players
Assessing Foxwoods Casino by Questioning Casino Staff
How to Win at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
Optimizing How to Win at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut
Summary

Keep Reading … or Listen Instead!

My Online Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

My first evaluation of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut was done online when preparing to publish my article Connecticut Slot Machine Casino Gambling back in July of last year.

I learned that Foxwoods Casino Connecticut had grown, partly due to competition with nearby Mohegan Sun Casino, to become one of the largest casinos anywhere. Depending on how casino “largeness” is measured, it is currently reported to be the third or fourth largest casino in the world, although it has ranked as high as second largest in the past.

Other items of interest I learned then was that Foxwoods Casino Connecticut is an American Indian tribal casino owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. Since Foxwoods is a tribal casino, it is not subject to state gaming regulations but rather regulated through a negotiated state-tribal gaming compact approved by the U.S. Department of Interior.

For those interested, this state-tribal compact is available at Connecticut State’s Department of Consumer Protection on their Tribal-State Compacts and Agreements webpage along with the state-tribal compact for the Mohegan Tribe for Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino.

The final item of interest to slots enthusiasts regarding gaming regulations is monthly actual payout return statistics available on the State of Connecticut’s Gaming Revenue and Statistics webpage.

For the most recent month, March 2018, the actual payout return percentage was reported to be 91.56%, the lowest payout return since Foxwoods fiscal year begins on July 1.

As it happens, these statistics show that consistently highest payout returns were at the beginning of Foxwoods fiscal year. From July through October of 2017, the average payout return was 92.05%, with the highest monthly payout return being 92.16% in October 2017.

At the time of this writing, Fiscal Year 2017/2018 is incomplete. Now, however, the average annual payout returns for the last five years going back Fiscal Year 2011/2012 has shown a remarkably steady increase. For Fiscal Year 2011/2012, the yearly payout return was 91.59%, followed by a steady rise to 92.19% for the most recently completed Fiscal Year of 2016/2017.

Finally, it is well worth noting there has been a steady and significant drop, currently nearly halved, in the total number of slot machines available at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut from Fiscal Year 2008/2009 to present.

In Fiscal Year 2008/2009, coinciding with the last year of the relatively recent 17-month-long Great Recession, Foxwoods Casino Connecticut had 8,108 slot machines. This number of slots has dropped each year steadily since, with the total number of slot machines currently being 4,106.

So, what does all this mean in terms of winning at slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut? Well, it’s hard to say. Initial assessments are fact-finding missions, with little in the way of conclusions as much as it might be helpful to do so. Nevertheless, it sure is interesting seeing such data-supported trends.

In all seriousness, it is indeed hard to say what is going on at Foxwoods. However, something dramatic and dynamic is happening. Staying focused on winning at slots and setting aside all other considerations, I wonder how we might use this rather interesting information to win more at slots at Foxwoods.

But, before drawing any more conclusions just yet, let’s continue this article with whatever information can gleaned from visiting Foxwoods Casino Connecticut.

My On-Site Physical Assessment of Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

Frankly, Foxwoods Casino is huge. Upon checking in at 2 p.m. on a Thursday, I went for a walk for a few hours. I didn’t have or want a map. While walking, I counted six separate sub-casinos within the overall casino. I could talk about my feet getting sore for walking for the next 5 hours, despite wearing comfortable shoes. Instead, let’s talk about what I saw.

By far, the most important thing I noticed was what I didn’t see. I wandered everywhere without doing any gambling. I was looking around, letting my feet go wherever they wanted while I soaked in whatever there was to do so.

I went to every sub-casino and visited every high limit area in every sub-casino. And do you know what I didn’t see, not once during that 5-hour walk? I didn’t see a single hand pay being given out by a slot attendant.

Everywhere I went, there were no hand pays. No one was winning jackpots. Now, again, I tried not to draw any discernible conclusions just yet. Why? Because it was only late afternoon on a Thursday. I didn’t want to bias my observations by drawing the conclusion begging to be made without looking for hand pays when the casino was a little busier.

So, to avoid jumping to a conclusion too soon, I decided to look for slot machine hand pays deliberately until Friday evening. But, tentatively, I held in my mind this possible conclusion: Foxwoods Casino Connecticut gives out a relatively low number of hand-pays to slots players. If confirmed, only small non-taxable jackpots would be potentially possible.

While my personal slots play is high limits, this was personally quite upsetting. However, for the sake of my lower roller readers and listeners, I realized this might be just what they most would like. They might most like to spend a little bit of money to win a slightly larger bit of money.

Of course, this would depend on finding a way to win jackpots less than the taxable limit of $1,200 to generate the hand pays I wasn’t seeing. I decided that, if a few hand pays were confirmed, then I needed to focus on looking for ways to make small wins with small bankrolls. So, I did. And I did.

Assessing Foxwoods Casino Connecticut by Talking with Slots Players

After my wandering around on Thursday, I met up with Vito and other early arrivals to Vito’s “Gamblepalooza” event. I also had an opportunity to talk and question John, the Foxwoods’ Casino Sales Executive effectively acting as our event host.

And, what was the first thing Vito said to me? That his wife Amanda was over on a Buffalo slot machine after having won a bunch of free spins. I asked where, and he pointed to where she was. Maybe 20 minutes later, Amanda joined our group – at which point I asked her specifically which machine she was playing.

She told me where there was a row of identical-looking slot machines near the walkway between the casino lobby and the hotel elevators. I asked which slot machine in this row had she played, and she said the slot machine on the far left.

When everyone split up to go gamble, I headed over to those Buffalo slot machines. They were penny machines. They were also all were being used, which can sometimes be a good sign. So, I sat and watched for a little while. Again, there were no hand pays. But, there were small wins.

There were not a lot of small wins, but some. I had to consider if there would be enough to make any level of profit, somehow, with the right playing technique. When a machine opened up, I sat down and played to try and get a feel for its odds of winning.

My conclusion was that each slot machine was providing a taste in the first few bets placed, and then no wins other than usual entirely luck-based wins. This result was based on a slight but noticeable pattern I seemed to be detecting with my pattern recognition abilities.

My conclusion, and again it was based on a slight but noticeable pattern I seemed to be getting from my pattern recognition abilities, was that each slot machine was providing a taste in the first few bets placed, and then no wins other than usual entirely luck-based wins.

It was slight, but there. Combined with the location of these slot machines near a busy walkway, I had a working theory to try out. The next step was to create experiments or make further observations which would either prove or disprove the hypothesis. So, I did just that.

Assessing Foxwoods Casino Connecticut by Questioning Casino Staff

Assessing a casino isn’t entirely a linear process. I look for clues everywhere, mostly focused on looking for winning patterns I’ve seen elsewhere while also keeping an eye out for any new trends. Because, once I find an economic model put in place by the casino, then all I need to do is figure out how to take advantage of it.

So, between wandering around and then playing those Buffalo machines, I talked with our Casino Sales Executive. And, I asked him questions which would help me continue to look for a clue to winning patterns that I’d seen elsewhere. And, he gave me such a hint.

Upon questioned about Foxwoods Casino Connecticut having six sub-casinos, John told me which of these sub-casinos was newest and how new it was. He told me that the Great Cedar Casino was six months old.

That was important to know because it would have the latest and greatest in server-based operating software. And, I knew several ways to test those operating systems for winning patterns.

Being years newer than the other sub-casinos, the Great Cedar Casino would have the latest casinos operating software choices for casinos to “tinker” with the winning odds of their slot machines.

This bit of information resolved my most significant concern about visiting one of the largest casinos in the world. Some of the sub-casinos would be old, with few winning strategies due to likely having a central computer.

Other sub-casinos would be a bit more modern, and a few sub-casinos would be the newest. But, this was my first time at Foxwoods. How would I know which sub-casino was oldest, old, modern, and cutting-edge modern to apply the appropriate winning strategy?

Slots Played At Foxwoods

Well, John told me which one was the newest casino. This was my next good hint for figuring out how to win at slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut. Now, let’s bring together everything learned, so far.

How to Win at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

For those keeping track, here’s what we have learned so far:

Slot machine hand pays are relatively few, possibly even non-existent
Slot machines near a busy walkway provided an initial win, a taste
The newest sub-casino was the Great Cedar Casino

Foxwoods Slot Machines List

These three things are what I learned about winning at slots in Foxwoods Casino Connecticut after being there for about 6 hours. I’d have preferred it would only have taken half that time but, well, it was one of the largest casinos in the world.

The next morning, on my way back from breakfast, I kept an eye on slot machines facing the main walkway, the most extensive walkway I’d yet seen, for the Great Cedar Casino. And do you know what I saw? I saw a winning slot machine at 8 a.m.

It was a penny machine automatically playing off free spins. The current jackpot was about $500, and continuing to close with only 20 or so free spins out of 85 completed.

Francis, the slots player on that machine, was happy to tell those gathered that he’d only put a $20 bill into the penny slot machine. On his first bet, the first push of the button, he won those 85 free spins.

And, he hadn’t played maximum credits. Maximum credits was 600, and his bet was for 150 credits. So, for a single $1.50 bet, he was already up to $500 and continuing to climb.

About 10 minutes later, we all congratulated him when the rising jackpot went over the taxable limit of $1,200. Another 5 minutes later, the last free spin was over, and his taxable jackpot on this penny machine stood at $1,474.27.

New Slots At Foxwoods

This slot machine matched all the winning criteria I had observed, plus one more that I’d already known was possible from a casino Ohio. This fourth criterion was simply this: Most likely, with it being a weekday morning, that slot machine hadn’t been played for a while before this jackpot.

Again, all of this is simply a working theory of a specific casino slot machine setup built step-by-step with careful observation and unbiased deductive reasoning and critical thinking. The point is, I had a working hypothesis to test. So, I did.

Over the next few mornings, I won small jackpots on the slot machines facing that walkway, trying only to play slot machines not played for a while.

Within a few bets, I won $315.45 on Saturday at 4:30 a.m. and, at more normal times, $89.25, $87.60, $135.60, and $105.60. On several other attempts, I won about as much as I had bet. Three times, I didn’t win anything.

Since each bet was between $1.50 and $6.00 on these penny machines. According to my gambling records, I spent about $40 in bets and won a total of $745.50. My profit was just over $700 when using this winning strategy only, not including what I spent learning to win.

Optimizing How to Win at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

Optimizing this strategy centers around the fourth winning criterion, Specifically, it centered around the hypothesis that slot machines not played for a while tended to give our higher jackpots.

With the weekend approaching at one of the largest casinos in the world, the slot machines I wanted to play were getting a lot of use, probably played at least once every hour for 24 a day.

But, optimizing this strategy during a busy weekend at the casino is entirely possible. I suggest picking your candidate slot machine as soon as whoever is using it finishes playing, then proceed to read a book for a while.

How long should you read the book? I have no idea. I’d suggest waiting between 20 minutes and two hours before playing the slot machine. Wouldn’t this be boring, you ask? Well, that would entirely depend on the book, now wouldn’t it.

I do have to wonder what the casino’s reaction would be to someone reading a book at an idle slot machine? Would a random casino employee know that it has been set up to provide a taste? As taste that would cause observers to run and play on another slot machine, thereby recouping the cost to the casino?

Or, other slots players may complain that, if you don’t want to play it, they will. So, as usual, there is always more to learn. If you try reading at a slot machine, and you get a reaction from the casino, I’d be very interested in knowing. Thanks.

I did share this winning strategy with other gamblers attending the Gamblepalooza event, with a bit more details offered to a few in thanks. They all came back later saying how much I had helped them win at slots.

One even showed me a voucher for a little over $1,100, shown below, which I reasonably assumed was from winning several non-taxable jackpots via the winning strategy I have also described here.

They seemed quite happy with it, which made me happy. But, again, for me as a high roller…. Well, let’s just say it was missing a few zeros. But, that’s how it is for me.

Summary of Easily Win a Little at Slots at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut

From Thursday, April 19, through Sunday, April 22, in 2018, I visited Foxwoods Casino in southern New England to generate this blog article for you.

My goals for this casino trip were to provide another casino trip report, and also to meet members of my audience as well as other visiting gambling podcasters.

My third goal was to figure out if there was any way to systematically win at slots at this tribal casino, one of the largest casinos in the world and indeed the most significant tribal casino. I successfully accomplished all three goals.

Through using my pattern recognition abilities, deductive reasoning, and critical thinking, I developed the following working theory of how to win at slots at Foxwoods from making the following observations:

Slot machine hand pays are relatively few, possibly even non-existent.
Slot machines near a busy walkway provided an initial win, a taste.
The newest sub-casino was the Great Cedar Casino.
Initial wins, or tastes, were larger on idle slot machines.

I then used this working theory myself, as well as shared it with several of my fans and fellow gambling podcasters, to win small jackpots on slot machines at Foxwoods Casino Connecticut.

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