After a Big Win, Should You Cash Out and Put Fresh Money In?

One of those superstitions players tend to cling to is around big wins. Many players will immediately cash out their ticket after a big win, and put fresh cash in to replace the ticket.

There are a variety of reasons for this step, which I’ll get into in a second, but one I’ve had multiple players tell me is that a player that has a big ticket in a machine puts it at risk because the machine knows you have it and will therefore pay you back less. Really?

STATUS: No, not really.

The machine has no memory, at least not about bonuses or big wins, and not about who was the one to get paid. So cashing out and putting a fresh bill in will change up your timing, but it won’t change anything about how the machine pays out.

I’ve heard more innocuous reasons for doing this, all of which seem reasonable to me:

• Some players don’t trust themselves with a big ticket and would rather set that money aside, instead setting a fresh limit for themselves with that new bill. By taking the money out, they can’t just gamble it all right back into the same machine.
• Some players don’t like showing a big number on their screen, using the fresh bill to lower the number back down if someone’s walking by. This is usually for safety reasons, or to avoid having someone beg for money in casinos where this is prevalent.
• Some like to cash the ticket out and break it into smaller bills again, likely to go along with reasons one and two. Some portion might choose to put some of the winnings in a device like the Winners Bank.
• A reader suggested some may cash out to avoid hitting the upper limit a ticket machine will cash without a cashier. Some places put limits at $1,000, for instance. However I see this quite often by players with just a couple hundred in the machine.

All of the above are fair and reasonable. If it helps you with bankroll management, I’m all for it. Just don’t blame it on the machine – it has no skin in the game, regardless of the decision.