Slot machines have an extensive history at having success stories, with everybody that visits Las Vegas trying their luck on at least one slot machine. However, is it as easy as just finding a slot machine that is centrally located and staying there for the whole day? Or, are there certain slot machines that have better odds that all visitors must look to play?

Slot Machines On The Strip

When you visit Las Vegas, you instantly feel drawn to spending your time on the strip. After all, that’s the main reason for visiting the city, as you want to be in and amongst the brightest lights and the biggest casinos. There have been a number of huge wins that have been well documented at some of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas.

California Hotel and Casino

In summary, who controls slot machine odds is answered by understanding they are controlled by the machine, the casino staff, both, possibly the state if the machine is a video lottery terminal, and by slot machine manufacturers themselves in the case of most Progressive slot machines.

• Manitoba Slot Odds vs International Sites. There are a number of land-based casinos in Manitoba including the newly opened Sand Hills Casino in Carberry. There is also the popular South Beach Casino & Resort, Club Regent Casino, and Swan Lake First Nation Gaming Centres.
• Players sometimes have difficulty with the idea that slot machine results can be programmed and random at the same time. So for many years, I’ve used a comparison to roulette, where you don’t know when any given number will turn up, but the odds of the game will lead to a 5.26 percent house edge – the same as a 94.74 percent payback percentage.

Slot machine: The ‘Mega Jackpot’ machine at California Hotel and Casino.

Everybody loves a success story, and there haven’t been many more exciting than Jessica Agbunag’s first trip to Sin City. The story had everything. Agbunag was visiting Vegas in honour of her grandmother, who was a constant visitor to the city and loved unwinding by playing slots. In honour of her grandmother, she decided to embrace the world of slots during her trip, and it reaped immediate returns. She won a number of small returns playing Wheel of Fortune before she struck gold at the California Hotel and Casino. Here, she was playing a mega-jackpot machine and managed to win $2.4 million.

Excalibur

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Slot machine: Anonymous by request.

A 25-year-old changed his life forever when visiting Las Vegas to support his basketball team. He arrived at the strip with a couple of hours to kill before having to make his way to the game. So, in true Vegas fashion, he decided to settle down and play on a couple of slots games. The Los Angeles-born player spent over $100 in Excalibur before the most incredible thing happened- jackpot signs. The win remains one of the biggest in Vegas history, as he took home $39,713,982. He decided against going public with his win, and also asked for the casino to transfer him $1.5 million every year instead of receiving the full payout in one go.

Palace Station

Slot machine: Megabucks slot machine

What’s better than winning a life-changing amount of money once? Well, winning it twice of course. That was the case for a 60-year-old woman who played on the Wheel of Fortune machine at Palace Station. She won $680,000 on her first win, before returning to play the slots titles in the same casino again and again. It was reported that she spent her fortune into playing casino games, but she reaped the rewards once again later in life when she won more than $27 million playing on the Megabucks slot in the same casino.

Should You Play Off The Strip?

The majority of people that live in Nevada typically gamble away from the strip. This isn’t saying that there is an increased chance of success away from the bright lights, but there certainly could be method in the madness. One user on Quora, who is a local, claimed that the best advice for those looking for a win is to bet away from the strip.

She claimed that he has won over $20,000 throughout her gambling career, and her tips for success include betting away from the strip. As well as that, she claimed that you should always bet the maximum bet that is allowed and should opt to play the newer machines rather than the older ones. She also claimed that casinos on Boulder Highway are where she has gained most of her returns on slots titles.

Online Vegas Slots

Of course, not all of us will be able to fly over to Las Vegas to play some of the lucrative casino slot games that are available. However, the advancements in technology means that you will be able to play on some of the most popular slots on Vegas sites such as Caesars and MGM. Caesars is one of the most popular online casinos for those looking to feel as though they are in Vegas, and there are a wide range of classic and progressive slot games available.

Among the most popular and potentially lucrative titles that you will be able to play are Megaways, 88Fortunes and Smokin’ Hot Gems. MGM also offers a number of the most exciting slots, and there are a varied mixture of titles available. Some of the most popular that you will be able to play on this site include Ozzy Osbourne Video Slots, Divine Fortune and Melon Madness Deluxe.

The evolution of online slots means that you are now able to get the Vegas experience that you dream of but online in the comfort of your own home. However, it’s fair to say that nothing will come close to being in Las Vegas in person.

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.

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).

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.

Manitoba Slot Machine Odds Genesis Open

Clark County Slot Win 2012

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.

• 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 Megabucks.
• Deconstructing the Atkins Diet slot machine.
• Analysis of Lucky Larry's Lobstermania.
• Deconstructing Hexbreaker.
• Deconstructing Blazing Sevens.
• Deconstructing Lionfish.
• 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

• 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

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