Go with friends who don't collect, but like to gamble. They can win strikes and you pay face. Even with friends who collect, we traded and sold to each other, for face, so the risk is spread out and shared.

I have purchased strikes from players, at the machine, while waiting. Remember what Archie wrote. Be unobtrusive.

About that "ask at the cage", don't take one persons answer. If you are at a place with four windows, take a walk, and come back to ask someone else. I have had people sell from the cage, when a different worker said, No Chance. (and it doesn't hurt to tip them, if you want to prime the pump for other collectors)

What they all say. I have played, and had three strikes fall out while I was killing time, pluggin one quarter at a time. I've fed in $40 and gotten two strikes before I gave up a loser.

Read This: Slot machines have no memory, no brain, no scheduled payoffs, it's totally random. If the person just before you hits for three, it has no effect on the next payoff. The random number generator just keeps rolling along, and over a long period of time, the payouts will be according to larger programmed probability.

There's no such thing as a hot or cold Strike machine, until you are done playing it. There might be variations in the odds, which are pre-selected and locked into the machine, but they don't change according to time of day, how much play, or what has or hasn't happened in the past.

Good Luck really applies here!

I haven't been to anywhere with "real" gambling in a year. Has anyone found pawn shops or coin shops any good for buying Strikes at reasonable prices? I guess if you can take it back to the casino for $10, it wouldn't make sense to pawn it for $7, unless you are someplace other than where they come from. I've seen coin dealers offering them for $12 - $15 without any concern for book values. Just a buy and sell business.

Oh yes, play three coins so all three lines will pay, unless you are killing time and want your money to last longer. No opinion on which method would actually work better, since the program for payouts is a secret. I would venture the opinion that under no circumstances should anyone, on any three coin machine play 2 coins.

$20 Play one quarter at a time for 80 pulls, you can only win on the middle line. OR $20 Play 3 quarters at a time for 26.67 pulls, all three lines pay. This ignores the wins you will get for cherries or maybe the three 7's.