How Do Slot Machines Work At Casinos
By playing any such slot machines for just a few spins, it was then possible to work out whether the slot machines was about to pay-out, and players would be able to work out when to click onto the spin button at just the right time that a random number would be selected that had a winning combination attached to it. However, providers are the ones who choose whether to or not to release payout percentages. They can’t accurately do this with slot machines at brick and mortar casinos, because providers feature different RTP options. One casino may order a slot at 93% payback, while the next orders it at 95% RTP.
- Slot games have boomed in popularity in recent years, taking the place of more traditional table games, thus knowing how online slot machines work is always beneficial. They are easy to find in many online casinos, very simple and easy to play, and come in all sorts of themes and designs.
- As a popular casino game that dominated the casino lobbies of physical casinos, the slot machines feature a lever on the side and a button on the front which can be pressed to start the turning of the reels. The first versions of the reels included the currency detector which can detect and authenticate the money inserted.
If you’re going to play slot machines, you should understand how slot machines work.
That sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people have no idea how these games really work.
In this post I explain how slot machines work in simple terms that anyone can understand.
What Is a Slot Machine?
Real money slot machines are the basic gambling machine at most casinos, and slot machines generate 70% to 80% of most casinos’ revenue. In some casinos, they make up even more than that. They’re called slot machines because you used to put coins in a slot to play them.
Slot machines differ from other gambling machines because of the way the outcomes are generated. A video poker game is also a gambling machine, but it’s not a SLOT machine. Neither is a video blackjack game.
What makes a slot machine game a slot machine game are the spinning reels.
In early mechanical versions of the games, you literally had big metal reels powered by springs and levers. They spun and landed on various stopping points when the kinetic energy that caused them to spin was all faded.
Modern slot machines use a computer program to determine the outcomes. The spinning reels are just for show, even on machines that LOOK like they’re using physical reels.
But many – if not most – modern slot machines just use a computer monitor with animated reels to determine outcomes.
How Does a Slot Machine Come Up With a Random Result?
Modern slot machines used a computer program to determine the outcomes. This program is called a “random number generator” or “RNG.”
Here’s how the random number generator works:
It constantly “thinks” of a range of numbers. Each number corresponds to a combination of symbols on the slot machine reels and the payline. When you press the spin button, the random number generator stops on that combination.
But with a computer program, you could easily have a symbol that comes up once every 20 spins, another that comes up once every 5 spins, and another that comes up once very 10 spins.
These changes in probability can even happen from one identical machine sitting next to the other.
I’ll have more to say about that in this next point:
How Slot Machines Make Money for the Casino
All casino games give the house a mathematical edge. This is usually based on something simple – in blackjack, for example, the player has to play her hand first. In roulette, you have two green numbers, but the payout odds would be break-even if all the numbers were black or red.
With a slot machine, the house makes its money simply by paying out at lower odds than the odds of winning.
Each prize amount on a slot machine has a probability of happening. When you multiply that probability by the prize amount, you come up with the “return” for that combination.
Add all those returns together, and you get the total return for the machine.
That return is always less than 100%.
Here’s an example:
You might have a 55% probability of getting no win at all. This would apply to all non-winning combinations, so the return for any of the non-winning combinations would be 55% X 0, or 0.
You might have a 20% probability of getting a single cherry symbol that doesn’t match anything else on the machine, and that might pay off at even money (1 for 1). The return for a cherry-blank-blank combination would be 20% X 1, or 20%.
You then might have another 20% probability of getting a 2 for 1 payoff for any combination that includes a bar symbol and no other matches. The return for a bar-blank-blank combination would be 20% X 2, or 40%.
If you had no other combinations, the overall return on this game would be 40% + 20% + 0%, or 60%.
This means that on average, over a staggeringly large number of spins, you’d wind up getting back 60% of the money you bet.
At $3 per spin over 1000 spins, you’d have bet a total of $3000.
The odds say that you would have gotten $1800 in winnings, for a loss of $1200.
Of course, a real slot machine pay table would have more than three possible prizes, and at least one of those prizes would be large. The average slot machine has a 1000 for 1 jackpot for its top prize.
How Do Bonus Games and Other Slot Machine Features Work?
Modern slot machines have a staggering array of special features, too. One of the most prominent of these features are the slot machine bonus games.
Here’s how that works:
Some combinations of symbols result in a mini-game that you get to play. It’s called a bonus game. It might be as simple as getting 10 free spins, each of which is guaranteed a winner. It might be more involved, like getting to play a Space Invaders type game where each alien you shoot has a prize amount associated with it.
Scatter symbols are also popular. A scatter symbol is a symbol that triggers some kind of payout regardless of where it appears on the screen.
The 8-liners in Texas are a good example. A screen has three rows of symbols, for a 3X3 grid. It’s called an 8-liner because there are eight paylines.
You have three horizontal paylines, three vertical paylines, and two diagonal paylines.
You must activate each payline with a bet, and it’s possible to win multiple prizes on multiple paylines.
Think of paylines as being similar to the various patterns that bingo variants have.
Scatter symbols trigger wins regardless of where it is on the screen.
Wild symbols are also popular. These are symbols which can fill in for another symbol that you would need to trigger a win on that payline.
If you play poker, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of wild cards. Just apply that concept to slot machines, and you understand how it works.
These are just a handful of the special features that are now available on modern slot machine games.
How Do You Win at Slots?
I wish I had a foolproof winning strategy for slot machines that I could share with you.
But I don’t.
No one else does, either, regardless of what they claim.
Slot machines are entirely random. You put your money in, and you take your chances. The only way to win on a slot machine is to get lucky.
You’ll find plenty of looney strategies that are supposed to improve your probability of winning. They’re all equally worthless.
One example is to find slot machine games on the edges of the banks near the walkways. The idea is that the casino managers want to attract players to the slot machines, and they do this by putting the looser games near the walkways.
Of course, this isn’t true in modern casinos. Even if it were true, it wouldn’t mean you were going to beat the casino. Such games would still have a mathematical edge for the house that you couldn’t overcome in the long run.
Another popular strategy I see touted is to look for hot or cold machines. A hot machine is one that has paid out several times in a row. The idea is that the game has gotten hot and is going to keep paying out.
A cold machine, on the other hand, is one that hasn’t paid out in a while.
If you have a 1 in 1500 probability of winning the top prize on a slot machine, that probability is the same regardless of whether the jackpot got hit on the previous spin.
It seems intuitive to think that if you just hit the jackpot, the probability of hitting it again on the next spin would be lower.
But that’s not the case.
It’s still 1 in 1500.
If you’re going to play slot machines, go into it with you eyes open and understand that it’s going to cost you money in the long run.
Don’t fall for lame, looney slot machine strategies.
Conclusion
Slot machines can be a lot of fun, but they’re like other casino games:
They’re more fun if you have some understanding of how they work.
After reading this post, you’re better educated that at least 80% of the slot machine playing public.
Return to player (RTP) is very important in regard to the long-term chances of winning with slots. RTP (a.k.a. payback) refers to how much slot machines are programmed to pay out in the long run.
Higher payback means that a game gives you a stronger chance of winning. Therefore, you’ll do well to know the RTP behind any game that you play.
You’ll discover that it’s really easy to find payout percentages for online slot machine games. A simple Google search will produce the RTP for most internet games.
Unfortunately, you’ll have a much tougher time figuring out the RTP of land-based machines. In fact, this information is rarely available.
Is there still a way for you to determine payout percentages for slot machines in brick-and-mortar casinos? I’ll answer this question by covering more on the difficulties of finding RTP for land-based slots and if it’s ultimately possible.
Why Isn’t RTP Available for Land-Based Slots?
Unlike with many online slots, you can’t just find the RTP for land-based slot machines through Google. Your efforts will turn up little to no results.
The problem with slots in brick-and-mortar casinos is that they don’t have uniform payback across every casino. Instead, game developers allow casinos to select payout percentages based on a list of options.
Here’s an example on how this works:
- WMS is offering Monopoly Party Train slot to Vegas casinos.
- They feature the following RTP options: 92.5%, 93.5%, and 94.5%.
- Caesars Palace orders this game at 93.5% payback.
- The Venetian orders Monopoly Party Train at 92.5% RTP.
- Treasure Island orders this slot at 94.5% RTP.
You can see the obvious challenge in trying to provide payback numbers for such games. A website could list Monopoly Party Train at 93.5% RTP, which is middle ground.
Most online slot providers differ because they offer their games at a uniform RTP across every casino. For example, Rival Gaming will feature Spy Game with 95.1% payback at each online casino it serves.
Some exceptions do exist in the online gambling world. RealTime Gaming (RTG), for instance, allows its casino clients to choose 91.5%, 95%, or 97.5% RTP for a given game.
You can’t find payout percentages for RTG games either. Nevertheless, you can still learn the payback for the vast majority of internet slots.
How Can You Figure out the RTP?
You won’t be able to find the exact payout percentages for most land-based slot machines. But you can at least get a good idea on the matter through a few different methods. Here are some ways to learn the RTP for brick-and-mortar casino slots.
Make General Guesses Based on Coin Denominations
Casinos like to reward gamblers who are willing to risk more money per bet. Therefore, they order higher RTP for games with larger coin denominations.
Here’s an example on how this works:
- Penny slot machines = 88% to 90% RTP
- Nickel slot machines = 91% to 94% RTP
- Quarter slot machines = 93% to 95% RTP
- Dollar slot machines = 94% to 96% RTP
- $5 slot machines = 95% to 97% RTP
Penny slot machines are almost always the worst games with regard to payout percentages. Larger denominations ranging from a nickel to $5 are all closer in terms of payback.
Your theoretical losses will be higher on nickel games and up just because you’re betting more per spin. Nevertheless, you can still get more value per dollar wagered with the higher-denomination machines.
Read State Gaming Reports
Rather than making generalizations about coin sizes, you can always check out state gaming reports. These reports show the average payout percentages (or house edges) for each coin denomination within a given state’s casinos.
For example, you might look at a Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) release and see that dollar slot machines are offering 94.79% RTP on average.
Interestingly enough, the NGC reports specific payout information for Megabucks. This IGT product is the most popular slot in all the popular Las Vegas casinos and warrants more detailed info.
You won’t find the exact payout percentage for an individual game, but you’ll at least have a better guideline with these reports.
Email a Casino and Ask
How Do Slot Machines Work At Casinos Free
One more option involves emailing a casino directly and asking them about their RTP for a specific slot machine.
The problem here is that customer service will often state that they don’t have this information available. But in certain cases, you may actually receive a real answer.
You shouldn’t count on this method majority of the time. It’s at least worth trying, though, if you’re desperate to find out the RTP for certain slots.
What to Avoid When Searching for Land-Based Slots Payback
You can see that there are a few different options for determining the payback for land-based slot machines. But there are also measures that you want to avoid on your payback-finding quest, including the following.
Relying on Signs Inside of Casinos
Many casinos hang signs above a bank of slot machines that will read something like, “Pays up to 99%.”
These signs are very effective at drawing players to slot machines. After all, who wouldn’t want to play a slot that only has a 1% house edge?
Unfortunately, these signs are also very misleading. Only one of the machines within the section has to offer 99% RTP.
The rest could pay as low as 90% RTP and still make the sign valid. Therefore, you can’t rely on much information that the casino supplies you with.
Using One Good Session to Determine Quality Payback
Slots are extremely volatile games that may pay a lot one session, then offer very few prizes for the next five sessions. Therefore, you can never use any single outing to judge how a game pays.
Many gamblers still make this very mistake. They’ll have one hot session with a game and believe that it offers a high payout percentage.
How Do Slot Machines Work At Casinos 2020
It would be great if finding RTP for land-based slot machines was really this simple. The reality, though, is that it’s anything but.
Blindly Believing Ads for the “Loosest Slots”
I’ve seen plenty of ads for loose slot machines when driving on the interstate. These billboards suggest that a given casino features slots with high RTP or frequent payouts.
How Do Slot Machines Work In Casinos
However, “loose” is a broad term that doesn’t really mean anything. State gaming laws don’t put parameters on what constitutes a loose game.
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Casinos can make this claim, regardless of whether it’s true or not. That said, you should take any such advertisement with a grain of salt.
Conclusion
You may think negatively about land-based casinos upon being unable to find RTP for their slots. After all, you don’t have to spend much time at all finding payback for online slots.
How Do Slot Machines Work At Casinos Like
However, providers are the ones who choose whether to or not to release payout percentages. They can’t accurately do this with slot machines at brick and mortar casinos, because providers feature different RTP options.
One casino may order a slot at 93% payback, while the next orders it at 95% RTP. Developers are therefore unable to offer a uniform payout percentage for each slot.
The good news, though, is that you don’t have to give up hope. Instead, you have a few options for finding general RTP figures.
The easiest method is to make generalizations based on coin denominations. Simply put, the higher coin denominations usually offer better payback.
You can also read state gaming reports. These releases show the average amount that each coin denomination pays out within a given state’s gambling venues.
How Do Slot Machines Work At Casinos
Finally, you can always email a casino directly and ask about a specific game. You won’t get the desired answer most of the time, but it’s worth trying.
In summary, finding the RTP for an individual land-based slot is impossible in most cases. But you’ll still have a general idea on how much these slots pay by following the previously covered tips.