Stop Loss

Slot machine strategy for limiting the amount of money lost by the player.

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A "stop loss" strategy can involve any of several different methods, or a combination of several of them. The idea is that players want to avoid losing their entire bankroll, so they set up guidelines under which they will walk away from the slot machine -- no questions asked. The idea of stop loss is that a player all hot-and-bothered by the passions of the slots game might not have the sense to walk away from the machine after losing a bunch of money, so the players set pre-made concrete rules to follow once inside the casino.

The most common stop-loss slots strategy is the loss limit. With the loss limit, the player decides beforehand the amount of money he or she will need to lose before ending the slots session. This is often in the 50% range -- that is, 50% of the player's bankroll. If the player loses 50% of the money allotted to playing slots that day, then the player walks away from the slot machine. This happens as soon as the threshold is reached.

Certain players might set the loss limit higher or lower than 50%. Naturally cautious players might set their loss limit at 40% or even 30%, while more aggressive slot machine players will set their loss limit at 60% -- though usually not too much more than that.

Another common stop loss technique is the "naked pulls" limit. A naked pull is a slots term simply meaning spins (pulls of the slots lever) where the player loses the bet. If the entire stake is lost on a pull, it is called a naked pull. A player using a pull limit will decice to quit playing a machine after a certain number of naked pulls. So if a player sets a 9 pull limit and has 9 naked pulls in a row, the player walks away from the machine.

The naked pull limit can get tricky. That's because a player can lose a lot of money losing 7 or 8 pulls in a row, but might not ever reach the 9 naked pull plateau. Some players play with a 15-naked pull limit, which means the player is likely to be playing a long time on one slot machine.