AboutC.J. Expertise If you would like to understand spinning reel slot machines, video poker and multi-line video slot machines, I can help. Can answer most questions on odds, math, trends, myths and realities related to gaming devices at licensed casinos in the US. I have no winning "systems" to offer. Please limit questions to slot machines in licensed casinos. Please do not ask about table games, or how to fix a machine!
Experience Work for a major manufacturer of gaming/slot machines, which are sold strictly to licensed casinos.
Question i have read that dollars payback more than quarters..quarters more than nickels...etc....so is that true even if you play 1 or 2 hundred pennies per pull on a penny machine, compared to 1 or 2 dollars per pull on a dollar machine? which is statistically better odds?
Answer Hi Harry,
It is a fact that casinos choose payback percentages on a sliding scale, based on denomination of the machine. This decision made by casinos was entirely logical 10 years ago. Those who played a 3 coin dollar slot were more valuable to the casino than those playing a 3 coin nickel machine.
Therefore, they were rewarded with better payback percentages.
That was then...before the days of the multi-line penny. The logic of rewarding players based on the value of the bet didn't follow. The reason for this is two-fold: First, the multi-line, multi-coin penny slot is still a penny slot, and there are still some old-school slot managers, operations managers, and General Managers who follow the sliding payback scale based on denomination, and really just don't "get it." But, there really aren't too many of those people around anymore.
The primary reason for penny slots to have the highest hold percentage (i.e. the tightest payback percentage) is that players don't seem to care! The multi-line penny machines offer so much "action" and entertainment, that players don't feel the difference in the hold percentage nearly as much as if they were playing a 3 reel, 3 coin spinning reel machine. So, the casinos can set the hold percentage tighter because the players continue to play those machines. Ultimately, the players dictate to the casinos what they will and won't play. So far, "time on machine" and entertainment are more popular than percentages, it seems.
The simple answer to your question: the best payback percentage is on higher denomination machines.
