Gambling authorities are there to ensure that the gaming industry is operating correctly. Sadly, no advantage-play machines are in Atlantic City, but some can be found in casinos around the country in such areas as Nevada, the Midwest and Mississippi. These articles are excerpted from my book 'Slots Conquest: How to Beat the Slot Machines!' Slot Machines Odds & House Advantages. It is true that slots is one of the casino games that solely depend on luck. The random numbers generator makes it even impossible to know the definite winner. Understanding the slots odds and house advantage is an important step especially for those people who wish to win a fortune from slots.
When it comes to gambling, the easier a game is to understand the worse the odds usually are. This is certainly the case with slot machines. Playing them is as easy as pressing a button. However, between the high house edge and fast rate of play, there is no quicker way to lose your money in a casino.
Before going further, let me make clear that this page addresses the way slot machines work in most parts of the United States and the world. However, some parts of this page do not apply everywhere. For example, I state that slot machines have a memory-less property, where the odds of every spin are the same. In some places, like the UK, some machines in bars, called 'fruit machines,' have a mechanism that guarantees a certain profit over the short run, which causes the game to go through loose and tight cycles. These games do not have the usual independence property of the major slot makers.
Whether you're playing a 3-reel single-line game or a 5-reel 25-line game, the outcome of every bet is ultimately determined by random numbers. The game will choose one random number for each reel, map that number onto a position on the reel, stop the reel in the appointed place, and score whatever the outcome is. In other words, the outcome is predestined the moment you press the button; the rest is just for show. There are no hot and cold cycles; your odds are the same for every spin on a given machine.
Slot machines are just about the only game in the casino where the odds are not quantifiable. In other words, the player doesn't know how the game was designed, so it is difficult to look at an actual game to use as an example. So, to help explain how they work, I created the Atkins Diet slot machine (link). It is a simple, five-reel game with a free spin bonus round, much like IGT's Cleopatra game.
For information on how it works and all the odds, please visit my Atkins Diet par sheet.
For a more complicated example, featuring sticky wilds in the bonus, please try my Vamos a Las Vegas slot machine.
For information on how it works and all the odds, please visit my Vamos a Las Vegas par sheet (PDF).
The following table shows the casino win for Clark County Nevada (where Las Vegas is) for all slots for calendar year 2012. They define 'slot' as any electronic game, including video poker and video keno. I've found video keno to be about equally as tight as reeled slots, but video poker has a much higher return. So, the return for reeled slots should be higher than these figures.
Denomination | Casino Win (pct) |
---|---|
$0.01 | 10.77% |
$0.05 | 5.96% |
$0.25 | 5.74% |
$1.00 | 5.64% |
$5.00 | 5.51% |
$25.00 | 3.97% |
$100.00 | 4.73% |
Megabucks | 12.89% |
Multi-denomination | 5.32% |
Total | 6.58% |
Source: Nevada Gaming Control Board, Gaming Revenue Report for December 2012 (PDF, see page 6).
Most players play penny video slots. Based on past research, I find the house edge on those to usually be set from 6% to 15%. In general, the nicer the casino, the tighter the slots.
While there is no skill to playing slots, there is some skill in selecting which machine to play and ways you can maximize your return. What follows is my advice, if you must play slots at all.
Just about everything that players believe about slots is untrue. Here are the most common myths and facts. As a reminder, this page is based on slot machines commonly found in the United States. Some machines, like 'fruit machines' found in the United Kingdom work differently.
Fact: This is not true at all. Every spin is random and independent of all past spins.
Fact: As just mentioned, each spin is independent of all past spins. That means that for a given machine game, the odds are always the same. It makes no difference when the last jackpot was hit or how much the game paid out in the last hour, day, week, or any period of time.
Fact: The mechanism that determines the outcome of each play does not consider whether a card is used or not. The odds are the same with or without one.
Fact: That makes no difference. If you win $1,200 or more they will report it either way. If you have a net losing year, which you probably will, at least the casino will have evidence of it. Such annual win/loss statements may be used as evidence to declare offsetting loses to jackpot wins.
Fact: There is now some truth to the myth that the odds of a machine can be changed remotely. Such 'server-based slots' are still experimental and in a minority. Even with server-based slots, there are regulations in place to protect the player from the perceived abuses that could accompany them. For example, in Nevada a machine can not be altered remotely unless it has been idle for at least four minutes. Even then, the game will display a notice that it is being serviced during such changes. (source) Meanwhile, for the vast majority of slots, somebody would physically need to open the machine and change a computer chip, known as an EPROM chip, to make any changes.
Fact: I've studied the relationship between slot placement and return and found no correlation. Every slot director I've asked about this laughs it off as just another player myth.
Fact: Nobody would take the trouble to do this, even if he could. The fact of the matter is the casinos are trying to find a good balance between winning some money while letting the player leave happy. That is best achieved by slots loose enough to give the player a sufficiently long 'time on device,' as they call it in the industry, with a reasonable chance of winning so he will return to the same casino next time. If the slots are too tight, the players will sense it and be unlikely to return.
The kind of place you're likely to find tight slots are those with a captive audience, like the Las Vegas airport. So, if the slot manager feels that 92% is the right return for a penny game, for example, he is likely to set every penny game all that way, and keep them that way for years.
Almost all slot games randomly determine when a jackpot is paid. Mystery progressive slot machines, on the other hand, differ because theypay jackpots at a specific amount.
For instance, a game might be programmed to pay its jackpot at exactly $250. This means that you can predict exactly when the payouts will be delivered.
One defining characteristic of mystery progressive slots is that they have small jackpots. Their top payouts usually range between $50 and $500.
This isn’t very exciting if you like chasing huge jackpots, but the benefit is that you can use these guaranteed amounts to gain an advantage.
You need to calculate the target point when you should start playing in order to gain this edge. Here’s a formula that’ll help you do so.
The toughest part about this formula is that you’ll be dealing with one or more unknown variables. You won’t know the rise of meter, but you can reasonably assume that it will be around 2%.
Return to player (RTP) for most online slots is easy to find. But land-based slot machines’ payback is rarely public information.
You’ll have to estimate the latter by looking at state gaming reports to see how much each coin denomination pays. For example, a Nevada report might show that dollar slots offer 95% RTP onaverage.
Here’s an example on using the formula to figure out a target point.
Once you know the target point, you can either start playing right away or wait for the jackpot to increase further. Waiting is risky, though, because somebody can step in and play for thejackpot before you.
Therefore, the best strategy is to jump in as soon as possible, rather than leaving things up to chance.