Goldna

• Average Slot Machine Payout Percentage

Slot machine payout is the percentage of bets that the slot machine has returned to players in practice; it's also known as 'slot's return percentage.' So if a casino's slot machine payouts were 96% last month, players received $96 back for every $100 they bet on the machines on average.

Sorry about the delay since my last posting. I’ve been hard at work reading slot machine manufacturer specification sheets, and also playing the slots in my local casino – so that I can now bring you a list of slot machine payout cycles / volatility. I don’t believe you’ll find this information elsewhere! I researched it, I’ve prepared it (as I do with ALL content on this site) – so if by chance it ends up appearing somewhere else on the Internet going forward, remember where you saw it FIRST. Here!

To my mind there are three main types of slot machines. Those that have Frequent Hits and Modest Wins, those with Mid-range Hits and Medium Wins, and those with Less Frequent Hits and Larger Wins. I’ve arranged my list / tables with this in mind. I’ve considered slot machines from multiple slot machine manufacturers: IGT, Aristocrat, WMS, Bally, etc to try and provide a comprehensive listing. That said, I’m only featuring about 100 slot machines here – and there are many many thousands of slot machine varieties out there… still, it’s a start right?

If you’re a small recreational slot player, sticking with Frequent Hits and Modest Wins machines will lower your risk of going broke early. Middle of the road slot players with a few hundred dollars of bankroll might enjoy the Mid-range Hits and Medium Wins machines. Only serious / well bankrolled players should ideally play the Less Frequent Hits and Larger Wins slot machines – these are VERY volatile!

Enjoy the listing, and feel free to send me your comments or an email.

Slot machines with FREQUENT HITS and MODEST WINS
50 Lions
Black Rhino
Canary Riches
Heart of Gold
Incan Pyramid
Love Birds
Macaw Magic
Money Storm
Money Tree
Outback Jack
Ramses Prox
Where’s The Gold
Wild Cougar
Wild Goose
Wild Jungle

Slot machines with MID-RANGE HITS and MEDIUM WINS
Adonis
Aloha Magic
Arabian Jewels
Buccaneer
Corrida De Toros
Desert Gold
Dolphin Treasure
Geisha
Get Eggcited
Golden Canaries
Golden Gong
Golden Pyramids
Good Fortune
Grizzly
Helen Of Troy
Hollywood Dreams
House of Hearts
Jungle Jive
King of Neptune
King of The Nile
Koala Mint
LA Gator
Lucky Jack
Miss Kitty
Money Beans
Money Bears
Monkey In The Middle
Moon Festival
Moulin Nights
Musketeer
Mystic Mermaid
Nerds Gone Wild
Orchid Mist
Owl Capone
Oz Great Chase
Oz Jungle
Oz Lost City
Oz Safari
Panther Magic
Pelican Pete
Penguin Pays
Pot of Gold
Queen of The Nile
Rapid Riches
Return of the Samurai
Roll Up Roll Up
Seal The Deal
Show Me The Money
Spring Carnival
Super Stars
Superbucks 2
Superbucks 3
Superbucks 4
Sweet Hearts II
Triple Tigers
Venetian Nights
Viking Warrior
White Russia
Wicked Winnings
Wild Hearts
Wild Thing
Winning Streak

Slot machines with LESS FREQUENT HITS and LARGER WINS
5 Dragons
Anthony & Cleopatra
Big Ben
Brazil
Centurion
Choy Sun Doa
Crystal Springs
Dragon Lord
Dream Catcher
Fire Dancer
Fox On The Run
Genghis Khan
Golden Incas
Inca Chief
Inca Sun
Indian Dreaming
Island Delight
Kakadu Dreaming
Line King
Magician
Ms Foxy Fortune
Mystic Chief
Mystic Power
Peacock Magic
Phoneix Fantasy
Pompeii
Pride Of Africa
Queen Of Sheba
Red Baron
Star Drifter
Sun Queen
Temple Of Zeus
Tiki Torch
Water Margin
Whales Of Cash
Wild Africa
Wild Ways
Wings Over Olympus
Zorro

So who pays for those Volcanic eruptions? Pirate Battles? Carnival Parades? and Glittering Showrooms? Slot Machines. 60-65% of casino revenue is generated by those bell-ringing one armed bandits that seem to multiply on casino floors like rabbits. So how does the average player gain an advantage and possibly win? Well... aside from cheating (which we really don't suggest you get involved in) the only way to gain some sort of advantage is to choose your slots with utmost care and discrimination.

Slot machines in Las Vegas are required by law to payout 75% of the money that goes into them, actual payout in Las Vegas is approximately 95%. Will you be the one that takes the money instead of gives it? That is up to luck, but with a little investigation one can easily learn to identify which machines are more favorable to the player than others. Slot machines are all about the payout... Red White and Blue, Double Diamond, Dick Fucking Clark, Cherry whatever. At the end of the day what every slot player needs to do is look at the pay schedule on the machine they want to play. Very often the same machine one row over will pay 5,000 credits on 3rd credit jackpot while you're playing on a 2,000 3rd credit machine. Plain and simple you're cheating yourself.

Slot Spotlights

A few notable slot machines we here at VT have found more playable, or more interesting, than the other nonsense out there like Leprachaun's Gold or Tabasco Slots or whatever.

We like machines that have the best payouts on the lowest winning spins. These will keep you going longer between larger wins and not enact the ATM-In-Reverse principle seen at many of the larger joints (Venetian being the worst we've experienced).

100 or Nothing
Red, White and Blue
Slot Machine Jackpots Photo Gallery
Wheel of Fortune
Wild Cherry

Slot Machine Payback Percentages

Below are the slot payback percentages for Nevada's fiscal year beginning July 1, 2002 and ending June 30, 2003:

5¢ Slot Machines
The Strip - 90.32%
Downtown - 91.50%
Boulder Strip - 93.03%
N. Las Vegas - 92.97%
25¢ Slot Machines
The Strip - 92.59%
Downtown - 94.83%
Boulder Strip - 96.47%
N. Las Vegas - 96.63%
$1 Slot Machines
The Strip - 94.67%
Downtown - 95.35%
Boulder Strip - 96.48%
N. Las Vegas - 97.21%

$1 Megabucks Machines
The Strip - 89.12%
Downtown - 88.55%
Boulder Strip - 87.76%
N. Las Vegas - 89.41%
$5 Slot Machines
The Strip - 95.33%
Downtown - 95.61%
Boulder Strip - 96.53%
N. Las Vegas - 96.50%
All Slot Machines
The Strip - 93.85%
Downtown - 94.32%
Boulder Strip - 95.34%
N. Las Vegas - 95.32%

Average Slot Machine Payout Percentage

The Math of Casino Slot Machines

For every dollar you wager in a slot machine, you will lose 100% - Payback% of that dollar. For example, you're at Bellagio playing the $1 Double Diamond slot, wagering Two Credits ($2) per spin. According to the table, for every $2 spin you will lose 5.33% of that bet... just shy of 11¢. Granted these 11 cents don't get extracted instantly... this is computed over time. So if your bank roll limit is $10 it will take you, on average 52 spins before your bankroll is toast (under $1) and you are out of credits.

How was this number derived:

STAKE x (Payback Percentages) = STAKE x (Payback Percentages) = STAKE x (Payback Percentages) = ...
Repeat calculation until the number gets below the minimum bet - if you play long enough, you're gonna go broke. THAT is a FACT. Slot machines are entertaining, relaxing, require little thought beyond pressing a button. IF you want to truly GAMBLE, you might want to look into Video Poker, and eventually Blackjack as other options.

Granted, sometime in there you just might hit that $500 win on the Wheel of Fortune, or The Elvis progressive might shake rattle and roll $1000 your way... but the math inside the machine determines that you will in fact lose a certain percentage of your wager on each spin, and the more you spin... the more you will lose despite short runs of successful jackpots. If you find you are UP... leave. Every spin of a slot machine generates a random number that has NOTHING to do with previous numbers. SLOT MACHINES do NOT run in streaks (even if you might wish to think they do). Don't expect to get any of the money you put into a machine out of it unless you learn to press the CASH OUT button.

Gamblers Library

VT fully recommends the following books to help you decrease the house advantage on casino card games.

Buy used from Amazon.com and save big bucks!