A common or typical payout percentagefor slot machines in Alberta casinos is 92.4 per cent. This means that 92.4 per cent of the money that is wagered is paid back to slot machine players through winning hits; determined over millions of spins.

Slots machines, as games of chance (rather than skill), are generally more about having fun than they are about making money.

However, there are things you can do to maximize your wins and minimize your losses. For example, by calculating a slot machine’s payout percentage, you can obtain a larger picture idea of how much money you stand to win back. Other tactics include using effective bankroll management techniques, joining a slots club to benefit from its rewards programs, and more.

1. Top 10 Slots with the Highest RTP – Play with the Best Odds. By: Cat Marshall February 27, 2018 Whilst many people decide which slot to play based on the theme, special features or promotional offers, the savvy gamblers steer towards slots with the highest RTP.
2. Payout odds vary based on the machine. Two slot machines may look identical, yet may have different odds. So you can’t tell by the appearance of the machine. The odds of hitting the top award vary greatly by machine, and may be as low as one in 17,000,000 spins – comparable to winning Lotto 6/49.
3. Alberta's online gaming site raises the odds of creating new problem gamblers, expert says. Offering Canadian citizens living in Alberta more than 40 virtual slots, instant and table games,.

What Are the Odds of Winning on a Slot Machine?

Slot machine odds used to be easy to calculate. When you’re dealing with three reels, ten symbols on each reel, and a limited pay table, then it’s just a simple math problem. But the rise of electromechanical slot machines and (later) video slots added some complexity to the situation.

How Probability Works

Probability has two meanings. One is the likelihood of whether or not something will happen. The other is the branch of mathematics that calculates that likelihood. To understand the odds as they relate to slot machines (or any other gambling game), you have to understand the basic math behind probability.

Don’t worry though. The math isn’t hard. Probability involves addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, all of which you learned in middle school.

The first principle of probability is that every event has a probability of between 0 and 1. If something has no chance of ever happening, then its probability is 0. If something will always happen, no matter what, then its probability is 1.

Probability is, therefore, always a fraction. It can be expressed in multiple ways, as a decimal, as a fraction, as a percentage, and as odds.

A simple example is a coin flip. The probability of getting heads when you flip a coin is 50%. That’s common sense, but how is it determined mathematically?

You simply take the total number of possible outcomes, and divide the outcome you’re trying to determine the probability of it by that number. There are two possibilities when flipping a coin, heads or tails, but only one of them is heads. That’s 1 divided by 2, which can be expressed as ½, 50%, 0.5, or 1 to 1 odds.

Odds are expressed as the number of ways something won’t happen versus the number of ways that something will happen. For example, if you’re rolling a single six-sided die, and you want to know the odds of rolling a six, you’re looking at 5 to 1 odds. There are five ways to roll something other than a six, and only one way of rolling a six.

When you want to determine the probability of multiple things happening, you use addition or multiplication, depending on whether you want to determine whether one OR the other event will occur, or whether you want to determine whether one event AND the other event will occur.

If you’re looking at an “OR” question, you add the probabilities together. If you’re looking at an “AND” question, you multiply the probabilities by each other.

So if you want to know what the probability of rolling two dice and having one or the other come up with a six, you add the probabilities together. 1/6 + 1/6 = 2/6, which is rounded down to 1/3.

If you want to know the probability of rolling two dice and having BOTH of them come up six, you multiply the probabilities. 1/6 X 1/6 = 1/36.

How Slot Machine Odds USED to Work

Early slot machines were mechanical devices. They had three metal reels that had ten possible stops each.

To calculate the odds of a single symbol appearing on a reel, you just divide the one symbol by the total number of potential outcomes. So if you had one cherry on a reel, your odds of hitting that cherry were 1/10, or 10%.

To calculate the odds of getting three cherries, you multiple 1/10 X 1/10 X 1/10 and get 1/1000, or 0.1%.

If the odds of hitting that symbol are the same as all the others, then you have 10 possible jackpots you can win, which means that your chances of winning SOMETHING are 10/1000, which is 1%.

Most people wouldn’t play a slot machine that lost 99 times out of 100, though, so slot machine designers added additional, smaller prizes for getting two symbols out of three for certain symbols. And as long as they paid out less in prizes than the odds of hitting those jackpots, then those slots are guaranteed to make a profit in the long run.

For example, if a prize for hitting three cherries was $1000, you’d be playing a break-even game, but if the prize were $750, it’s easy to see how the casino would be guaranteed a profit. The difference between the odds of winning and the payout odds is where the casino makes its money.

How Slot Machines Work Now

Modern slot machines use a computer program called a random number generator to determine the outcomes of the various spins of the reels. This creates an imaginary reel with a number of symbols limited only by the program in question.

A mechanical slot machine with 256 symbols per reel would be huge, too large to play, much less to build. But a computer can create an imaginary reel with 256 symbols per reel and take up no more space than an iPod Shuffle.

To make things even more interesting and entertaining, slot machine designers can program different probabilities for each symbol to come up. Most symbols might come up once every 256 spins, but others might come up twice as often, while still others might only come up half as often.

This enables slot machine designers and casinos to offer slot machine games with far larger jackpots than they were able to when they were limited by mechanical reels. And they’re able to offer these large jackpots and still generate a healthy profit.

How Does This Relate to Payback Percentages?

The payback percentage is the amount of money that the slot machine is designed to pay out over an enormous number of spins. This number is almost always less than 100%. The difference between 100% and the payback percentage is the house edge, and that’s where the casino makes its profits.

A simple example can help illustrate how this works. Suppose you have a slot machine with three reels with ten symbols on each, and it only pays out when three cherries hit. The odds of winning that jackpot, as we determined earlier, is 1/1000.

If we set the jackpot as $900, and charge $1 per bet, the payout percentage for that game will be 90%, or $900/$1000. Of course, no one would play a slots game which only paid out once in every 1000 spins, which is why there are various smaller payouts programmed in.

There’s no way to tell what the payback percentage on a particular game is unless you have access to the par sheet for that machine. Casino management has that information, but players never have access to that info.

The best slot machine odds are almost always found in real casinos. If you see slot machines in an airport or a bar, be aware that the payback percentages on those games is much lower than you’ll see in a real casino.

How to Win at Slot Machines

Everyone would like to know how to win at slots, but the truth is that winning at slot machines isn’t any harder than losing at slot machines. You put your money in the machine, spin the reels, and hope for the best. Slot machines are meant to be fun; they’re not intended to provide the player with an income.

In fact, the reality is just the opposite. Slots are there to provide the casino owners with an income. How that works is one of the subjects of this page.

On the other hand, you can minimize your losses and increase your enjoyment of slots games by understanding how they work. You can also learn which slots pay back the most money. In the long run, the house will still have an edge over you, but understanding how much you can expect to lose in a given venue can help you make better bankroll management decisions.

In fact, it might be a good idea to modify you definition of “winning at slots”. Instead of considering yourself a winner if you bring home a big profit, consider yourself a winner any time you played and had a lot of fun.

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How Slots Work

All slot machines in modern casinos use a random number generator (an “RNG) to determine the results of each spin. An RNG is a tiny computer that does nothing but constantly generate numbers. When you push the spin button, that microcomputer selects a number which determines the outcome. In fact, this happens before the reels have even stopped spinning.

On modern slot machines, the reels are just there for show. From a practical standpoint, you could put a quarter in a machine, push a button, and have the screen flash: “You lose!” or “You win $10”. The mechanism that determined the outcome would be the same, but who would want to play a game like that, especially if you know that the house has a mathematical edge over the player.

The spinning reels, the sound effects, and the bonus games are all there to make the game more interesting to play. If you don’t like the artwork, the music, or any other aspect of a slots game, don’t bother playing it, because those are the real rewards of playing. The chance of getting lucky and winning a jackpot is a real reward, too, but don’t ignore the other aspects of the game.

The random number generator is programmed to pay back a certain percentage of the money paid into it over a period of time. This period of time is known in gambling math as “the long run”, and it’s a lot longer than most people think. We’re talking about tens of thousands of spins, not dozens or hundreds.

This percentage that’s programmed into these machines is always less than 100%. If a slots game were programmed to pay back more than 100% of the money put into it, it would lose money for the casino.

Casinos aren’t in business to lose money.

The trick is to find slot machines that have the highest payout percentages.

Which Slots Pay Back the Most Money

If every slot machine game in the world had a payback percentage posted on the machine somewhere, it would be easy to determine which slots pay back the most money. You could limit your play to machines with a payback percentage of over 95% for example.

It’s too bad casinos don’t provide that information on specific games, though.

You can find information about specific locations and their payback percentages, though. Some gambling guides and magazines publish this information. For example, The American Casino Guide provides certified information about the payout percentages in various states. Not all states reveal this information, but it’s not a huge leap of logic to expect better payback percentages in states that do reveal this information.

For example, the overall payback percentage for slots in Black Hawk, Colorado is 92.8%. In Central City, Colorado, it’s 92.93%, and in Cripple Creek, it’s 93.66%. Alabama doesn’t release the numbers on their payback percentages.

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Which casinos do you think offer the better game?

A couple of guidelines hold true no matter where you play, though. One of those is that payouts are better in large cities with lots of gambling. For example, the payouts in Vegas are higher overall than the payouts in Colorado. And the payouts improve when you play for higher stakes. For example, penny slots in Vegas average around 88% to 91%, but dollars slots average between 93% and 96%. Finally, slot machines at airports usually offer the lowest payouts.

What does that mean for the player? It means that over the long run, if you wager $x on a particular game, you’ll win back $x times the payback percentage for that machine. If you’re playing a dollar slot machine on the Strip in Las Vegas, for example, and the payout percentage is around 93%, then if you place $10,000 in wagers, you’ll win back $9300. You lost $700.

That’s only a long term mathematical expectation, though. In the short run, anything can happen, and that’s what keeps people playing.

How to Maximize Your Winnings and Minimize Your Losses

There are three ways to maximize your winnings and minimize your losses. The first is to always join the slots club, and always use your member card while you play. Slots club members get a percentage of their play returned to them in the form of casino rewards and cash back. This is normally a tiny percentage (think 0.1% or 0.2%), but it adds up, especially if you play a lot.

Don’t buy into the myth that playing with your slots club card lowers your expected return on the game, either. That’s not true. The random number generator in these games has no way of knowing whether or not you’re using your slots club card or not.

The second way to increase your winnings and minimize your losses is to use effective bankroll management techniques. This means limiting the amount of time that you play, limiting the amount of money that you’re willing to lose in any session and in any given gambling trip, and finding other fun things to do with your time besides just playing the slots.

Finally, try to play the machines with the highest payout percentage. Over the long run, if you keep playing, you’ll probably eventually wind up a loser at the slots (unless you hit a huge progressive jackpot), but you’ll lose your money more slowly and get more entertainment value for the money you gambled.

For those who are serious slot players or who love to play slots a lot, then I highly recommend that you understand the relevance and logic of Random Number Generators (RNG).

Too often, I hear from slot players that the game of playing slots requires no strategy. This is far from the truth! Whilst it is impossible to have sustainable and consistent winnings, you can mitigate losses. Now who doesn’t want to lose more money than they have to! Hence it’s vital to at least know the basics of slots.

For those players who play slots occasionally i.e. a social player, say for example when going out with friends and family or playing on the side while attending a major event, then I can completely understand that knowing RNG concepts would be a waste of time. But for other players, you should familiarize yourself with the concept.

Why should I bother understanding slots strategy RNG?

With any game, hobby or passion, it goes without saying that studying the concepts leads to being a better player. And this applies to slot players. The role of Random Number Generators (RNG) in slots is the core principle of determining odds for players. Which, of course, is the whole part of the game for slot players. Understanding the fundamentals of RNG will help reduce losses and will lead to a better playing experience.

What is the Random Number Generator?

The core principle of slot machines, is to provide a random outcome for slot players – very similar to other casino table games. Take for example the game of blackjack. In blackjack the cards are drawn randomly and the outcome is unknown (not only for the player, but to everyone including dealer).

Since slot machines are machines (stating the obvious) the randomness of the outcome needs to be programmed into the logic of the software.

Creating randomness with a mathematical equation is theoretically impossible, because if you can apply an equation it means you can determine the outcome. However algorithms can be created with the following attributes:

1. There is no repeatable pattern
2. There is a standard deviation such that over a long period of time there is an even distribution of outcomes.

If there is a repeatable pattern, then an outcome can be theoretically determined, this means that there is no randomness to the outcome. If there is no repeatable pattern then the result could be deemed to be random.

If the outcomes are not evenly distributed and the results are skewed in the long term, then this also means there is no randomness.

By fulfilling the attributes of an unrepeatable pattern and an even distribution over the long run, it can appear that randomness is achieved.

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Starting numbers or seeding

All algorithms require a starting number to begin the calculation of randomness. The starting number is referred to as the seed, Naturally if two slot machines are using the same starting number and have the same algorithm applied, then their outcomes will be exactly the same. As the slot machines churn through the numbers you will see that the output between the two machines would be exactly the same. However, without a person comparing the results of the two machines, individually each machine would appear to be generating outcomes randomly.

The starting number can either be chosen on by a fixed logic, such as today’s date. Or it can be based on a true random event such as the radio activity of decaying atoms. Linking a computer software to an external random event can be done, but is more relatively more difficult to build into a system and therefore most systems rely on a fixed logic to select the starting number.

A Random Number Generator is therefore an algorithm generating what appears to be random results. These results have no pattern(s) and in the long term there is an even distribution of outcomes.

RNG and the outcomes for slot machines

In a slot machine, random numbers are continually and consistently being generated, even when no game is being played. The outcomes of the algorithm are always being calculated, thousands per second. These calculations are being performed by the main server in which all the slot machines are connected to.

When a player pushes a button on a machine (which in itself is completely random) the output that was calculated by the main server at that point in time is produced. The results of a win or loss is then determined by the slot machine.

In knowing this, you can then deduce that it is impossible to predict the outcome of playing any slot machine to the second (or rather thousandth of a second). Unless you have the ability to know the algorithm logic and the speed to time pressing the button on a slot machine, it is humanly impossible to land on a determined outcome.

Know the Myths of playing slots

In playing slots it’s often easy to fall into the trap in believing myths about playing slots. Some of these myths refer to how to play the slot machines strategically to maximize your winnings. These myths can be very dangerous to believe in, and could burn through your bank roll very quickly.

Click here to see the Top 5 Myths and Strategies for Slots

Summary

Understanding RNG will help you with strategically playing slots. In knowing how RNG create random outcomes, it’s impossible for anyone to beat the system. Slots is about extending your playing run, and not going for the big win.

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