Professor Slots
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Yesterday I got a text from a friend of mine – another gambling writer – who asked me if I knew anything about “Professor Slots.”
The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t remember anything specific enough about the website to have an opinion.
So, I visited his site, and now I have something fun to write about. Professor Slots offers “coaching” for slot machine players. And his website is far more professional and believable than most system sellers’ sites.
But can he really help you win at slot machines?
I have some opinions now that I’ve spent some time on his site.
Is Professor Slots Really a Professor? (The Short Answer Is “Yes.”)
Well, he wears a bowtie in the welcome video on the home page of his site.
And you can see multiple framed certificates on the wall behind his desk. If that weren’t enough, he had stacks of books on the desk behind him. (They were mostly part of the “for Dummies” series.)
Seriously, though, I watched his welcome video, and he provides one of the more convincing explanations I’ve seen from a “gambling expert.”
His name is Jon Friedl, and he claims to teach as an adjunct professor at 2 universities. He also says he has 8 degrees on the wall behind him, and he suggests that you look at his work history on Linkedin. He also mentions that he’s an aerospace engineer, and the classes he teaches are mostly about pattern recognition, decision analysis, and system simulations.
Digging Deeper Into Professor Slots’ Identity and Credentials
But when I visited LinkedIn and searched for both “Jon Friedl” and “John Friedl,” none of the results seemed to be a match for our Professor Slots. On a second look, though, it looks as if the president of Jon Friedl, LLC, is the professor I’m looking for.
It does indeed look like he has the credentials he claims. He spent 9 years and 5 months at Iowa State University, then 6 years and 2 months at Pratt & Whitney. That was apparently followed by 8 years and 6 months at General Electric Aviation.
And he’s now an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati, where he’s worked for over 8 years. When I did a search for his name + “University of Cincinnati,” I got a newsletter from the University announcing that he’d joined the faculty there.
I’ll admit it. I thought that a little research would find nothing on the internet to verify his claims, but lo and behold. There’s plenty on the internet to support his resume.
Oh, and before I forget, he also explains in his video that he has won 90 taxable jackpots in the last few months and a car. I should point out that anyone who plays slots long enough can win taxable jackpots, but that doesn’t mean you’re profitable.
I can buy 1000 lottery tickets for a dollar each and win $500, but there’s nothing impressive about a net $500 loss.
At any rate, Professor Slots, aka John Friedl, seems like a genial enough fellow, and I feel like I’d like him. I’m not sure he has much to offer me in terms of winning at slot machine gambling, though. But I don’t know everything, and he seems more transparent than most people offering ideas about how to win at gambling.
I’m going to look at what else his site offers to the public.
Master Casino Slots – Win Your Way to Success!
The above text is the headline that he uses to encourage you to sign up for his “free report.” It’s the most prominent item on his website, too – it’s at the top, and it’s impossible to miss.
When you click on the link, it takes you to a subscription page where he offers a free report with:
“Top 7 online resources for improving your gambling performance (including the one I’ve used as a top-tier slot machine gambler).”
I’m a bit of an expert at crafting headlines, and this one is excellent. For those not in the know, including a numeral improves the odds of having someone click on and read your page. Including something in parenthesis has the same effect. You’ll notice that many of the blog posts here have similar headlines, and there’s a reason for that.
So, I’m impressed with his marketing abilities, even though I’m still skeptical about the kind of advice I can expect from the site.
I immediately got an email welcoming me to his content updates. It includes a preview of what I can expect to get from him every day for the next week, which includes a getting started email, an email about assessing casinos, another about choosing slot machines, one about identifying gambling goals, and a final email about personal coaching.
After the first week, I can expect emails alerting me to the latest updates to his website during the last week. So far, so good. Oh, and I got the PDF report I was promised.
It’s not bad. It includes links to 7 legitimate resources about gambling, including a link to Steve Bourie’s American Casino Guide, which is an indispensable book. It also has a link to Bob Dancer’s podcast, a link to Michael Shackleford’s site, and a link to the Gamblers General Store.
I’ll be honest. I was expecting some lame casino gambling system stuff, but so far, Jon Friedl seems pretty legit. The worst thing I can say so far is that the sales pitch is over-the-top. The free product itself is understated and useful.
It also includes a link to the Professor’s list of top 25 slots tips.
The Top 25 Tips for Winning Slots Players
I’m finally getting to some really meaty stuff where I can evaluate the actual advice offered by Professor Slots. Here’s what I read on his tips for slots players page and what I thought of it.
The list starts off okay by suggesting that you do stuff like keeping records for tax purposes and joining the players club at the casinos. That’s harmless enough.
He then suggests you play older slot machines set to higher payback percentages. He offers no explanation for how to distinguish older slot machines set to higher payback percentages from older slot machines set to older payback percentages, but that might just be a phrasing issue.
If you’ve read much of what I’ve written about slots here, you already know that older, more straightforward machines tend to have a higher payback percentage anyway.
The Value of Tips Versus Mere Vague Observations
Many of the tips aren’t really tips at all in the sense that they offer you no action to take. Many of them are just observations about casinos, gambling, or slots. That’s okay, but it’s not as helpful as it could be.
Professor Slots
He does suggest finding slot machines at or near the end of rows where a lot of people group. This is ancient slot machine advice that’s been debunked.
He also suggests that you should play these older slot machines should be played as long as possible, in shifts if necessary, until the odds are physically changed according to the casino’s schedule. I think this last piece of advice is dubious. I’m not sure that most casinos physically change the payback percentages on these games, but even if they do, they never change them to 100% or higher.
And that’s what you’d need to make consistent profits from slots – a payback percentage higher than 100%.
A Tentative Grade for Professor Slots
When I started writing this, I fully expected to give Professor Slots an “F,” or a “D,” at best.
As it turns out, he gets a solid C+.
I haven’t explored his website in enormous detail. After all, he’s published a lot of content – not all of which is easily digested. For example, much of the content on the site is in the form of podcasts, and I don’t have time to listen to that.
I do have time to read content, though, and the 2 pieces of content I read thoroughly were better than I of 7 resources that he sent me via PDF was fine, but it didn’t offer me anything in terms of increasing my odds of winning at slots. The article on his site that he pointed to – the 25 tips for winning more at slot machines – was a combination of vague observations with tired advice, some of which has been debunked a long time ago.
Here’s an example of a ‘Vague Observation’:
“Understanding the history of slot machine development provides insight into the next technological advancements to expect.”
Professor Motor Slot Racing Cars
That’s not specific enough to help the average gambler win real money playing slots.
Conclusion
You can find far worse slot machine system sellers to follow than Professor Slots. If you know nothing about slot machines, you can find some accurate, useful information on his site.
What he can’t do – and what no slot machine guru can do – is teach you how to get a consistent mathematical edge against the casino slot machines.