I lost a lot.

Well, it seemed like a lot. Every time I had a chance, and most of the time, I won nothing.

But I did really well in the long run. There were $4 jackpots, $10 jackpots, and some $50 jackpots. Within the first $50 wagered, I had won $68! My luck continued until I hit a $720 jackpot on the 110th pull!

This was fun! I was very confident I'd be able to break even, and hopeful that'd I'd be able to win more than $1,000!

As you can see in this picture, the machine keeps separate accounts for my total winnings and my free play.

By the time I had won $1,000, I still had $700 in free play remaining.

After my big jackpot, I was tempted to move to another machine. It felt like a second $720 jackpot was unlikely on the same machine.

However, I had just finished reading about the gambler's fallacy, I stuck with my original plan. Absent of any funny business, the machine I was playing should be just as likely to hit a jackpot as any other machine in this section.

Here's a snapshot of what happened: A pipe "|" indicates a loss, a number is dollars won.

start: ||||||||||||$10||||$50|||||$4||||||||||||||||||||$10|$10|||||||||$4||$10|||||||||||||$4|||||||||$40||||$10|||||||||||||$80 $4||||||||||||$4|$720
||||||$10||||$10|||$4|||$10||$4|||||||||||$50|||||||||$10|||||||||||||||$4|||$4|$4||||||||||||||||||||||||||||$10||||||||||||||||||$10|||||$10|$10|
|||$30 $10||||||||||$10|||||||||||||||||||||||$4|||||||||||||$10||||||||||$30||||||||$30|||||||||||||$4||$80|$4|||||$10||||||||||||||||||$10 $10
|||||$4|||||||$4 $4||||||||||$10||||||||||||$4||$10||||||$4 $10|$10 $10||||$10|$10||$10||$10|||||$10|$4|||||||$4||$10|||||$10||||||||||
$10 $4|||||$4||||||||$10|||||||||$4 end

I won $1,532!

Highlights:

• I started with 12 losses in a row.
• $720 jackpot was by far the largest, bookended by two $80 wins.
• In 500 plays, I lost 435 times, won 65 times.
• My longest losing streak was 28 straight losses.
• Despite my human brain's desperate attempt to find a pattern among the data, there isn't one.

It took an hour and nineteen minutes.

I can't believe I won more than $1,000. I had been so wrapped up in the odds that I forgot what makes slot machines so popular in the first place: Its fun, and possible to win money!

I hit "cash out" which didn't drop a wad of cash into the hopper, it just initiated the printout of this little reciept. I took it to a cashier and he counted out 15 hundreds and thirty two.

Sweet! And to think that I had wanted the cash! Getting the prize as slot play had worked out beautifully. It was a little scary at first, thinking that I could lose some or most of the money, a fool to the casino's trickery. But instead, I'd gotten two thrilling nights out of it, and improved my prize by 53%.

I have to admit, if you're going to bet money, the slot machines are a hell of a lot better than the state lottery. I really believe that it was an advantage to play such a dull machine. There are a hundred different games, but if a game is fun to play without a big payout, why would the casino reward players with a big payout too?

What a night. Now I just had to get out of there with the money.