The slot machine has a long-term payout rate: usually between 80 to 98%. What this means is that, although awards are selected randomly, over the long term, the slots games will pay back only 80-98% of the money you insert into them. The rest is pocketed by the casino. But, don’t misunderstand this:
- It doesn’t mean you are bound to lose: you’re not bound to lose. That rate is long term and it is for all players combined, you can easily be one of the winners.
- It doesn’t mean the numbers aren’t randomly generated: the numbers are still randomly generated, and the casino can’t influence the random number generation process to increase their revenues. It is illegal.
- It doesn’t mean the games only payout that rate each day: let’s take a machine with a payout rate of 85% – this machine could payout 120% one day, 60% the next day, 80% the day after, etc. It doesn’t mean that the casino will make the rate constant and ensure they make money each day. Rather, over a long period of time, the payout rates average out to 85%.
Now that you understand how slots games work, you also need to keep the things that influence payout rates in mind. For example, playing in higher denominations almost always means higher payouts. If you’re playing a 25 cent denomination, the payout rate will be around 88%, but 25 dollar denominations almost always have a payout rate of more than 95%! So you might be increasing your risks with higher denominations, but you’re also increasing your rewards.