All the talk about slot machines has reminded me of an article I read a about a year ago. A man in New Jersey was attempting to study slot machine payouts at Atlantic City, and after testing numerous machines on several days he concluded that the cheap slots would allow the player to win more than normal the first few "pulls". As the number of credits per pull increased, winning became more requent. He also said that by winning a few times in a row, then cashing out, then repeating the process he was able to make a small profit over time.

Has anybody heard this story or anything similar? If so, is this legal?

Also, some casinos list slot pay-out odds as 2:1 for a 1 unit gain and 1:1 for a push. These valuse are in fact incorrect (1:1 would be a one unit gain, not a push). Does the slot consider the coin they "return" to the player that was used to make their origional bet to be "payout?" Is the returning of money in this way factored into the percentage payout that casinos display?