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By multiplying the probability by the possible win at each level, we can find the percentage returns or another very important value – house edge.

Hidden Numbers

Average Slot Machine Odds

Your odds of winning are better than this, as you can hit five bells, five whistles or five of any other set of symbols, so on this machine your odds of any set of five are actually 5 x 0.032%, or 0.16%. So once in every 625 spins of this hypothetical machine, you’ll hit your set of five identical symbols for the jackpot. At real slot machines for sale we also provide a warranty on all slot machines for home use and program the slot machine according to your specification for bill, ticket, coin, or token validation. All reconditioned slot machines for sale that will be used in a home operate on 110 volts with a.

When it comes to online slot machines where payouts at various levels are arbitrary, the values are rarely published. There are exceptions even in this case, but typically the chances are unknown. In this respect, we can only guess. Why? Because we are simply not capable of playing so many games on one slot machine to find its frequency. So if we get a jackpot, it’s the just pure coincidence. A game that one player finds very promising may be unattractive for another player.

The accompanying table that tells us that our slot machine has average returns of 92.61% will only serve us to find that we will never reach that value in the short run and hides the actual properties of the machine.

If we take into account all the possible combinations of stops of individual reels, each game has 373,248 possible final combinations. A player would therefore have to play more than 373,248 games to get the relevant results of the final combinations.

Our Real Chances for a Jackpot

For example, in the 373,248 games that we can call a cycle, a jackpot with a payout of 833 to 1 occurs on average in 8 cases. If consider that one round lasts five seconds, we would have to play 130 games per hour. Our chances of hitting the jackpot are then 13.96 percent. The chances of missing any jackpot are far lower, exactly 0.03 percent. Our chances for eight jackpots are therefore 45.30 percent or 40.74 percent, respectively.

Let’s consider a 4-hour session. You’re keeping the pace and playing one game in 5 seconds. Overall, you will thus play 2,880 games. Your chances of missing the jackpot are then 94.01 percent. That means you’ll hit it in 5.80 percent of the games, which is a decent chance. Don’t despair – it is not much, but it’s better than nothing!

Let’s leave behind the highest jackpot with the 833:1 payout and look at our chances of hitting the second highest jackpot. Its payout is 320 to one and we’ll miss it at 78.12 percent. In that case, however, we have a great 19.29 percent chance of hitting the jackpot. The chances of hitting two of each are then 2.38 percent of cases.

Chances to Win Progressive Jackpot

As you probably know, winning a million jackpot is not something that happens to you every day. And you’re right. For example, the chance of winning a jackpot on a Megabucks slot machine is 1 in 49,836,032. Just for comparison, the chance of winning a Powerball lottery is 1 in 292,201,338. In the following table, you will find the chances of winning for selected progressive jackpots.

Game	Probability
Caribbean Poker	1 ku 649 740
Jack or Better	1 ku 649 740
Progressive Blackjack	1 ku 4 392 609
Bonus Keno	1 ku 8 764 410
Let ’em Ride	1 ku 649 740
Roulette Royale	1 ku 1 874 161

And what about online slots? Sadly, no publishing company does declare the probability of winning the jackpot on online slot machines. However, these chances are generally thought to be in the order of tens or hundreds of millions to one.

If we brush up on basic knowledge of mathematics, we can try to estimate the probability of winning:

• Average winnings: € 5,073,220
• Let’s calculate that 2% of each bet is in the jackpot:
• The maximum bet is € 6.25
• For each maximum bet, € 0.125 (6.25 * 0.02) goes to the pot
• 5,073,220 / 0.125 = 40,585,760

On average, a player must place 40,585,760 bets. The chance of winning the jackpot can be estimated at 1 in 40,585,759. Of course, this is an estimate, and the real probability may be different.

Small Versus Big Jackpot

Note that the highest jackpot (833 to 1, i.e. 2,500 credits for a deposit of 3 credits) is generally considered low. Many other online slot machines offer far more profitable payouts. But here you have to be careful. The higher the possible win, the lower your chances of achieving it.

Let’s assume that our favorite slot machine pays a jackpot of 3,333 to 1 (10,000 for 3 credits). Our terms are the same as in the previous example. Now we hit 2 jackpots per 319,928 games and we lose 319,928 games. Thus, the return rate would be the same, up to two decimal places.

With a payout of 3,333 to 1, we will not hit the jackpot in 98.47 percent of the 2,880 games. Our chance for a successful round is thus only 1.52 percent. The odds of hitting 2 or more jackpots are only 0.01 percent.

Another indicator is the percentage of effective returns in case you do not hit the jackpot. In both cases, the odds of hitting the jackpot contribute to the returns by 1.78 percent. So, instead of 92.61 percent, you will not hit the jackpot in only 90.83 percent of cases. But if you’ve never hit the second highest jackpot, your chances are even worse.

Other gambling games have far fewer possible results. Because they have fewer results, the game must be approached in an even more sophisticated manner. Never forget the lazier you play, the greater edge the casino will have.

Even if the chance to hit the jackpot are tight, you can always anjoy playing non-jackpot slots. Check out our guide on how to win on slots and play like the pro.

• Appendices
• Slots Analysis
• Miscellaneous

Introduction

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.

How They Work

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).

Real Slot Machine For Sale

Odds

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.

Clark County Slot Win 2012

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.

Advice

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.

• Always use a player card. Slots may be a lousy bet, but the casinos treat slot players very well. A $1 slot player will probably get comped better than a $100 blackjack player. Of course, don't play for the reason of getting comps. You'll give them a lot more than they'll give you.
• The simpler the game, the better the odds. The fancy games with big signs and video screens tend to not pay as well as the simple games. However, slot players always tell me the fancy games are more fun.
• The higher the denomination, the better the odds. For that reason, it is better to play one coin per line on a 5-cent game than five coins per line on a 1-cent game.
• Don't forget to cash out and take your ticket when you leave. It is easy to forget after hitting a jackpot.
• Try to play slowly and as little as possible to get your fix.
• In some games there is a skill feature, like Top Dollar. In such games, advice is usually offered, which you should take.

Myths and Facts

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.

• Myth: Slot machines are programmed to go through a cycle of payoffs. Although the cycle can span thousands of spins, once it reaches the end the outcomes will repeat themselves in exactly the same order as the last cycle.

  Fact: This is not true at all. Every spin is random and independent of all past spins.

• Myth: Slot machines are programmed to pay off a particular percentage of money bet. Thus, after a jackpot is hit the machine will tighten up to get back in balance. On the other hand, when a jackpot has not been hit for a long time it is overdue and more likely to hit.

  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.

• Myth: Machines pay more if a player card is not used.

  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.

• Myth: Using a player card enables the casino to report my winnings to the IRS.

  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.

• Myth: The slot department can tighten my game with the press of a button remotely. Thus, you better be nice to the staff and tip them well, or they will use a remote control to have the machine take you down in a hurry.

  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.

• Myth: The machines by the doors and heavy traffic flow areas tend to be loose while those hidden in quiet corners tend to be tight.

  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.

• Myth: Slots tend to be looser during slow hours on slow days of the week. However, when the casino is busy they tighten them up.

  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.

Play

Reviews

• Dazzle Me (NetEnt)
• Mr. Vegas (Betsoft)
• Sparks (NetEnt)

Internal Links

• Appendix 1 shows the details and analysis of almost 4000 actual spins on a Reno slot machine.
• Appendix 2 shows an example of the virtual reels behind a hypothetical slot machine and how the average return is calculated.
• Appendix 3A: 2003 Las Vegas slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3B: 2002 Jean/Primm slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3C: 2002 Tunica slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3D: 2002 Henderson/Lake Mead slot machine rankings.
• Appendix 3E: 2002 Quarter and dollar returns for Las Vegas slots
• Appendix 4 shows how the return is calculated for my Wizard's Fruit Slot Machine.
• Appendix 5 analysis of the 21 Bell Slot Machine.
• Appendix 6 Analysis of Red, White, & Blue Slot Machine.
• Lock and Roll analysis of the skill-based slot machine found in North Carolina.
• Deconstructing Jackpot Party analysis of the video slot machine.
• Deconstructing Lion's Share analysis of the classic MGM progressive game.
• Deconstructing Cleopatra analysis of the popular IGT game.
• Deconstructing Lionfish analysis of the slot game found on many Game Maker machines.
• Deconstructing Megabucks.
• Deconstructing the Atkins Diet slot machine.
• Deconstructing Lucky Larry's Lobstermania.
• Deconstructing Hexbreaker.
• Deconstructing Blazing Sevens.
• Deconstructing Hot Roll.
• Mystery progressives on Ainsworth slots.
• Mystery progressives on WMS slots.
• Baltimore Sun article, in which I am quoted.
• 100% Rebate on Slot Losses Promotions: When to quit playing when all losses are refunded.

External Links

Real Slot Machine Odds Poker

• For a simplified explanation of slots, please see my companion site Wizard of Vegas
• German translation of this page is available at richtigspielen.com
• Another decent overview of how slots work and some practical advice for playing them is How Slot Machines Work at VegasClick.com.
• PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling by Kevin A. Harrigan and Mike Dixon, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This is an outstanding academic paper that details how some popular slot machines were designed.
• PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling - Academic paper based on the par sheets for some modern slot machines

Best Odds Slot Machine

Written by: Michael Shackleford