Slot Machine Payouts

I am sure you've heard this piece of advise before and you have no doubt read it more than a few times. One of the if not the most important thing to do before sitting down to play a slot machine is to try and find a machine to play at that has the highest return possible.

To explain why finding a machine with the highest possible return is important lets examine the differences between a 99% payback machine and a 93% payback machine.

A 6 percent difference may not seem like a lot, it is only 6 cents on the dollar after all. But over a playing session that 6 cents can make a huge difference. Let say you take $100 to the casino as your bankroll. You play through that $100 and on a 99% machine you get $99.00 back. On a 93% machine you only get $93.00 back. That 6 cents has suddenly becomes $6.00. And it gets worse. The chart below shows how devistating that 6% can be to your bankroll. Lets say you play that $100 through each day for 5 days without adding any money to it, you would expect at the end of 5 days to have $95.10 on the 99% machine and only $69.57 on the 93% machine. What this means is that the 99% machine cost just under $1 per day for the entertainment it provided, the 93% machine cost just over $6.

Machine with 99% Return		Machine with 93% Return

Input	Return	Input	Return
$100	$99.00	$100	$93.00
$99.00	$98.01	$93.00	$86.49
$98.01	$97.03	$86.49	$80.44
$97.03	$96.06	$80.44	$74.81
$96.06	$95.10	$74.81	$69.57