Readers ask if quick reflexes are the key to winning

By John Grochowski

Asian-Themed Slot Machines. Asia is a world full of ancient customs, martial arts, dragons, beautiful scenery, even more beautiful women, and, of course, more treasure than you can possibly imagine. The great news is that the world of online slot games can bring all these themes, and the treasure, to your fingertips in an instant – all you.

I keep a list of questions that I’m most often asked about slot machines. You could probably tick off some of them: “Are games programmed to go cold after a big win?” “Do you get less payback when you use your rewards card?” And the big one, “Can you tell me how to win?”

• The big red Koi is the wild and the only fish symbol. When you play Nian Nian You Yu slot machine, the wild will substitute all other symbols including the scatter. The wild appears on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th reels and will double any winning combos. The scatters are depicted by a group of Chinese characters that translate into the gamble logo.
• I turned to call a slot attendant and while I was doing that he put his money in again, pushed the button and hit a jackpot. In my dream we then had an argument over who gets the money, the person who clearly had the machine and intended to play it or the person who unsolicited put the money in the machine.

Those have been standards ever since I started writing about casinos and casino games 20 years ago. But recently, another question has been shooting up the charts. I have it all the way up at No. 2 on the readers’ hit parade:

“I’ve noticed on a lot of video slot games that if I hit the button a second time while the reels are spinning, they stop right away. I was wondering if I could use this to my advantage. If I see the bonus triggers or the jackpot symbols at the top, should I quickly hit the button again and try to stop the reels?”

I had that thought myself the first time I accidentally double-hit a button and saw the reels click to an immediate halt. Could this be an answer to the chart-topping question, “how to win on the slots?”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. In nearly all slot games that allow you to stop the reels, there is no skill or timing involved on your part. The random number generator has already determined your outcome when you hit the button to spin the reels, and you’re going to get the same result regardless of whether you stop the reels early, or let them halt in their own time.

Asian Person Smiling Playing Slot Machine On The Toilet

When you play a slot machine, the game isn’t actually being played out on the reels, whether it uses “real” reels or video reels. It’s being played internally, on the game’s random number generator. The reels are just a player-friendly interface, and are told where to stop by the RNG. If there’s a malfunction and the reel display doesn’t match the numbers generated, it’s the RNG that counts. Large jackpots can be denied—and have been denied—if a check shows the random numbers on the internal computer chip don’t match the winning symbols on the reels.

But this is extremely rare. The engineering is good enough that almost all the time, the RNG and reel display are going to match up. This doesn’t change if you double-hit the bet button. If the RNG has spit out a random number that tells the first reel to stop on a single bar, then you’re going to get a single bar—regardless of whether you hit the button a second time for a “quick stop,” or just let them take their own sweet time.

There are rare exceptions. When I’ve answered similar questions in the past, I’ve mentioned IGT’s Reel Edge games. In their original incarnation, Reel Edge games enabled players to touch and stop the reels one at a time. There was actual skill involved. Your timing in stopping the reels determined the outcome. The reels spun very, very fast, so it was going take a keen eye and sharp reflexes to get better than random results, but it was possible.

I gave it a try, and found my reflexes just weren’t fast enough to generate more than my normal share of winners. In the original three-reel Blood Life game, I identified a green 7 as the easiest symbol to pick out as it whizzed by. I touched each reel individually as I saw a green 7 reach the top of the slot window, and managed to stop 7s on all three reels. Alas, I failed to land them all on the same payline. Some younger folks with quicker reactions may have been able to do better.

I don’t know if any of the first generation of Reel Edge games remain on casino floors. They were never widespread, and I don’t get lists from casinos or manufacturers telling me what games are available in any given casino. The new generation of Reel Edge puts the skill-based portions of the games in the bonus events.

Blood Life’s updated video incarnation, Blood Life Legends, allows you to test your skill with a joystick to guide a bat through the ups, downs, twists and turns of a cave as you try to collect gems for bonuses. There is actual skill involved, but it’s not the reel-stopping experience readers have been asking about.

On most slot games, even in the bonus events you’re getting an illusion of skill rather than actual skill. And when it comes to stopping the reels, it’s the random number generator, not your reflexes, that determines the results.

What about my readers’ other top questions?

To answer another—no, games are not programmed to go cold after big wins. Results remain as random as humans can program a computer to be. As long as the RNG keeps doing its thing, any big jackpot, any hot streak, and any cold streak eventually fade away into statistical insignificance, and the machine comes very close to its expected payback percentage.

No, you don’t get less payback when you use your rewards card. The player rewards system doesn’t interact with the RNG.

And no, with rare exceptions, there is no way to beat the slots except by being in the right place at the right time. There have been opportunities for small profit on games with banked bonuses such as the old WMS game Piggy Bankin’, where the sharpies would start to play only when there were enough coins in the bank to give the player an edge.

Such games are not common. Just as with stopping the reels early, your results are up to chance and the RNG.

You are probably wondering why PlayTech would choose such a name for their creation, well here is the answer: the name of their new product is dedicated to a Chinese New Year phrase. It is a wish for abundance throughout the year that people say to each other. This slot is similar to X-Men 50 Lines.

If you play Nian Nian You Yu slot machine in the right way, you too will be celebrating abundance through the year: the 500,000 credit jackpot will ensure you do. There is also a four tier progressive jackpot that adds to this treasure.

How to Play Nian Nian You Yu Slot?

The gamble has three rows and five reels as well as 9 fixed pay-lines. The design is colorful and has a familiarity with it. The reels spin on the traditional temple’s walls that have fireworks that illuminate the background.

Although the title suggests so, there are very few fish on the show though all symbols are theme related. These include flowers Chinese characters, firecrackers, lantern, various food items, some fruit, a table, and two ornamental dragons. The most valuable symbol is the purple dragon and will give you a 1000x the amount you wager per line for five that are on an active pay-line.

The big red Koi is the wild and the only fish symbol. When you play Nian Nian You Yu slot machine, the wild will substitute all other symbols including the scatter. The wild appears on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th reels and will double any winning combos. The scatters are depicted by a group of Chinese characters that translate into the gamble logo.

Betting Options

You can opt to wager on all 9 pay lines (each pays both ways meaning you get double the chance to earn with winning combos). The betting range is 0.01 to 50 credits.

Themes and Special Features

The word for “abundance” in the Chinese language has a similar pronunciation as that for “fish.” This explains why every New Year celebration is graced by a fish dish as part of the menu. As well as why the wild is a fish symbol; it is what that brings you the abundance in the free online Nian Nian You Yu slot.

The scatter symbol which is depicted by the game’s name in Chinese characters (年年有余) pays prizes on total bet multipliers with no need to line them on active pay lines. Two scatters that are positioned in any reels will give you back the total stake, 3 will give you 5 times the amount you bet, 4 will give you 10 times, and 5 will give you 100 times.

Asian Person Smiling Playing Slot Machine Roman Tribune Online

You can play Nian Nian You Yu free slot in most casinos across the globe including countries such as China, South Africa, the Maldives, Uruguay, Hungary, and many more.

One More Advice

Asian Person Smiling Playing Slot Machine Figurines

What could spell abundance more than the words: “progressive jackpot?” Nian Nian You Yu slot machine game does not have bonuses or free spins. However, there is a Wheel of Fortune that is randomly triggered to open a side game. You spin a wheel to try your luck at the progressive jackpot and boom! You can get the big cash prize.