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what makes a "loose slot"?

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rapidroy:
when I go to the Las Vegas I always see ads for the "looses slots in town" what does that mean? can they change the payouts or something.

rickhunter:
It's a matter of perspective and opinion.  When a slot is installed, the installation and setup is overseen by the local gaming authority.  The casino will set a payback percentage (the theoretical percentage that the machine will pay back over a long period of time) and it is recorded by the gaming commission.  There are laws in most states governing the minimum payback, the higher the payback the higher the payout.  So if the payback is 92%, the machine will pay back 92% of what it takes.  So a "loose" slot" should be one that theoretically will payback more than the average machines in the area.  In Nevada the minimum payback on a machine is 75%, but casino's rarely go that low.  In most cases they are 88% for pennies, 90% for nickels, 92 for quarters, and 94 for dollar.  In the really high denoms you will see some that are 98% payback.  So sometimes, you will see a bank of machines with a 9x% percent payback sign, usually higher than the average.

It is important to understand that modern machines are designed to be very volatile, that is, it has high swings between losses and earnings.  You could hit a really big payout if you are lucky, but most of the time, the machine is just going to eat money, but in one spin, it could return everything it took in.  So even if you sit on a 98% payback machine, you could play hours and not see a good win, but that is just the nature of statistics and the way the machines are designed.  In the end, even on 98% machines, you are still loosing 2 pennies out of every dollar you play.  And keep in mind, that a big chunk of the payback % is calculated including the super rare to hit top prize.

LINDAM:
Also keep in mind that a machine that is set with a 98% pay back.......that pay back is based over the LIFE of the machine. The machine even though will never remain in the casino for 20 year, that could be the estimated life of the machine, and may never hit the big while on the casino floor.

UNIMAN:

--- Quote from: rapidroy on August 15, 2014, 07:40:46 AM ---when I go to the Las Vegas I always see ads for the "looses slots in town" what does that mean? can they change the payouts or something.

--- End quote ---
It means that a casino will say anything to get you to play their machines. A slot is loose when you are winning and tight when you are losing. Everytime you play a slot, by law, you have a chance to hit every possible winning combination and every possible losing combination. Casinos cannot make a slot payout or not payout, that is determined by a Random Number Generator in the machines program that stops on an outcome when you hit the spin button.
I would not be too concerned about payout percentage when going to Vegas for a weekend. Your either lucky or not. Over the course of years the percentage payout would start to matter. My advice is play what you like, spend what you can afford, and only spend money you won't feel bad about losing!

Now when it comes to video poker and keno I look for the better paytables as often times the frequent hits like flush and full houses are the payouts affected.

Tmmybahama:

--- Quote from: LINDAM on August 15, 2014, 06:21:51 PM ---Also keep in mind that a machine that is set with a 98% pay back.......that pay back is based over the LIFE of the machine. The machine even though will never remain in the casino for 20 year, that could be the estimated life of the machine, and may never hit the big while on the casino floor.

--- End quote ---


Are you guessing on the "life of a machine setting" is 20 years/????  Or do you think that it is written in the codes, that it must hit that x% by this amount of time and/or # of pulls.....???

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