How To Find A Winning Slot Machine

How To Find A Slot Machine's Payout Percentage. An RTP percentage represents the proportion of the money put into a slot machine or game which would be expected to be paid back out to players over an extended period of time. A slot with an RTP percentage of 100%, for instance, would eventually pay out exactly the amount that's paid into it. Slot machine video from casino expert Steve Bourie that teaches you the insider secrets to winning at slot machines and how a slot machine really works.

Some people might want to know how to find the payout percentage on a slot machine. Sadly, it's not something that's printed on most games — at least not here in the United States.

This post is for them.

Understanding this topic involves some rudimentary understanding of probability as it relates to casino gambling. You'll need to understand three separate concepts thoroughly:

1. Payback percentage
2. House edge
3. Return to player

This post explains each of those in enough detail that even a beginner should understand what they mean.

Some Basic Facts Related to Probability, the House Edge, Payback Percentage, and Return to Player

Probability is the branch of mathematics that deals with how likely an event is to happen. If you want to measure how likely you are to win a jackpot on a slot machine, probability is the way to figure that out.

But the word also refers directly to that likelihood.

In other words, if I say the probability of getting heads when I flip a coin is 50%, I'm not talking about that branch of mathematics. I'm talking about the actual statistical likelihood of that event.

You should understand a few things about probability in general.

Probability is always a number between 0 and 1. An event with a probability of 0 will never happen, and an event with a probability of 1 will always happen. The closer to 1 the probability is, the more likely the event is to happen.

Probability can be expressed multiple ways. It can be expressed as a fraction, a decimal, a percentage, or as odds. The probability of getting heads on a coin flip can be expressed as 1/2, 0.5, 50%, or 1 to 1.

An event's probability is the number of ways it can happen divided by the total number of possible outcomes. When you're discussing a coin toss, you have two possible outcomes. Only one of those is heads. That makes the probability 1/2.

The probability that an event will occur added to the probability that an event won't occur always equals 1. Therefore, if you know the probability that something will happen, you also automatically know the probability that it won't happen, and vice versa.

The house edge is a statistical measure of how much the house expects to win (on average, over the long run) from every bet you make on a game. The house edge is a theoretical number that accounts for the probability of winning versus the probability of losing AND the payout if you win.

All casino games carry a house edge. In the short run, it doesn't matter much, but in the long run, it's the most important thing.

If I say a game has a house edge of 4%, this means that over time, you should average a loss of $4 for every $100 you bet on the game. This is a long run statistical average, though. In the short run, you're unlikely to see results that mirror the house edge.

The return to player and the payback percentage are the same thing. Some writers use one to refer to the statistical expectation and the other to refer to the actual results, but most writers use these terms interchangeably.

The payback percentage added to the house edge always equals 100%. The payback percentage is the amount of each bet that you get back, and the house edge is the amount of each bet that the casino wins. Again, these numbers are on average over the long run.

A game with a 4% house edge has a 96% payback percentage.

In the United States, slot machine payback percentages are impossible to calculate and not posted on gambling machines. To calculate the house edge or the payback percentage for a casino game, you need two pieces of data:

1. The probability of winning
2. The amount of money you'll win (the payoff)

Slot machines include their payouts on their pay tables, but they don't include the probability of achieving any of the winning outcomes.

In some countries, the payback percentage is posted on the machines, but not in the United States.

To make things even worse for a slot machine player, the random number generator program can be set differently even if the slot machine is identical to the one next to it. You could be playing The Big Lebowski slots at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, and your buddy could be playing the identical machine right next to you.

The payback percentage on his machine might be 94%, and the payback percentage on your machine might only be 88%.

The difference comes from how the probabilities are weighted for each symbol. On one game, the bars might show up 1/4 of the time, but on the next, they might only come up 1/8 of the time.

How To Win At Slots Every Time

This has an obvious effect on the payback percentage.

The payback percentage would be easy to calculate if you knew the probabilities. The payback percentage is just the total expected value of all the possible outcomes on the machine.

Let's assume you have 1000 possible reel combinations. Let's also assume that if you got each of those in order, from 1 to 1000, you'd win 900 coins.

The payback percentage for that game would be 90%.

You'd put 1000 coins in, and you'd have 900 coins left after a statistically perfect sampling of 1000 spins.

If you knew the payback percentage and house edge for a slot machine game, you could predict your theoretical cost of playing that game per hour in the long run. You'd only need to multiply the numbers of bets you made per hour by the size of those bets. Then you'd multiply that by the house edge to get your predicted loss.

Most slots players make 600 spins per hour. Let's assume you're playing on a dollar machine and betting three coins on every spin, or $3 per spin. You're putting $1,800 per hour into action.

If the slot machine had a 90% payback percentage, you'd lose $180 per hour on that machine. You'd have $1,800 at the start of the hour and $1,620 at the end of the hour — assuming you saw statistically predicted results.

In the real world, though, where you'd be seeing short-term results, you'd see some hours where you won and some hours where you lost. If you played long enough, the Law of Large Numbers would ensure that you'd eventually see the statistically predicted results.

But in the long run, the math will ensure that the casino will win a net profit.

How You Could Calculate a Payback Percentage Based on Actual Results

Of course, you have some data that you can directly observe when you're playing slot machines.

But tracking this data and calculating the payback percentage on a specific session can add to your enjoyment of any slot machine game. It can make you more mindful because you'll be paying more attention to what's happening.

Here's how to do it.

Start by tracking how many spins you're making per hour. This is easy to do, but it takes more effort than you might think. It might help to get one of those clicky things people use to count stuff with. You will probably also need a stopwatch of some kind. I just use the timer function on my phone.

Make a note (mental is fine) of how much you're betting per spin. It helps to bet the same amount.

Also note how much money you started with so that you can calculate how much you've won or lost. The slot machine will convert your money into credits. The easiest thing to do is to keep up with how many credits you had at the beginning of the session and again at the end of the session.

Now, let's do the math using a hypothetical 45-minute session.

I made 300 spins in 45 minutes. I was betting $3 per spin, and I started with $600.

After my playing session, I had $500 left. At times I was up, and at times I was down.

But my net loss was $100. (My starting bankroll was $600, and I finished with $500.)

Over 300 spins, that means I lost an average per spin of 33 cents. $100 in losses divided by 300 spins is 33.33 cents per spin.

How much was I betting per spin?

Since I was playing a $1 machine, and my max bet was three coins, I was risking $3 per spin.

33 cents is 11% of $3, which means my actual loss was 11%. The machine paid back 89% for the session.

Does this mean that the payback percentage for the machine is 89%?

Probably not.

In the scheme of things, 450 spins is a small sample size. To have any confidence in your statistics, you really need to have at least 5,000 spins under your belt.

Even then, depending on how volatile the game is, your actual results might be wildly different from the mathematically expected payback percentage.

Here's another example that will prove that point.

My friend Leo went to the Winstar last weekend and played the $5 slots. He started with $3,000, and when he left, he had $4,800, which means he had an $1,800 profit for the day.

He played for seven hours.

I've watched Leo play. He's slow, but not much slower than average. He makes about 500 spins per hour.

This means that he made about 3,500 spins.

$1,800 in winnings divided by 3,500 spins is an average win of 51 cents per spin.

Since he was betting $5 per spin, his return was 10.3%.

His actual return for the trip on that slot machine was 110.3%.

I have friends who design slot machines for a living — more than one, in fact. They'll be happy to tell anyone who asks that the algorithm is never set up to have a payback percentage of more than 100%.

What About the Casinos That Advertise a Specific Payback Percentage?

Some casinos advertise a specific payback percentage. This is almost always stated as an 'up to' number.

So you might see an ad for a casino that says, 'Payback percentages up to 98%!'

They're almost certainly telling the truth, too. They probably have one slot machine in their casino that has a payback percentage of 98%. Of course, it isn't labeled, so you don't know which one it is.

And in the short run, which is what you're going to be playing in as an individual gambler, there's not much difference between a 98% payback percentage and a 92% payback percentage. You could walk away a winner or a loser at either setting.

Also, keep in mind that the games aren't designed to tighten up after a win and loosen up after a lot of losing spins. That's not how it works at all.

The machines are designed to allow you to win a certain specific percentage of the time because of the probability. Then there's an average amount that you'll win based on the payout for the specific combination of symbols that you hit.

But every spin of the reels on a slot machine is an independent event. No deposit online casinos for usa players. You can hit a jackpot on a spin, and your probability of hitting the jackpot on the next spin hasn't changed at all.

What About the Denominations and Location Reports I See Advertised on the Internet?

You'll find websites like Strictly Slots and American Casino Guide which post payback percentages for specific denominations and specific casinos. These are AVERAGES.

These averages have little bearing on the machine that you're sitting in front of.

For example,
you might be looking at a casino that reports an average payback percentage of 94% on its dollar slot machines. That casino might have half their machines paying off at 90% and the other half paying off at 98%.

And you won't be able to differentiate between the two because the hit ratio might be the same from one of those machines to another.

What Do Hit Ratio and Volatility Have to Do With It?

The hit ratio is the percentage of time that you can expect to hit a winning combination on a slot machine. Something like 30% isn't unusual, but it can vary 10% or more in either direction. The casinos want you to a hit a winning combination often enough that you won't lose interest in playing the game.

But hit ratio is only part of the equation. The average size of the prize amounts is also important. Volatility takes this into account. A game that hits less often but has higher average prize amounts might have the same payback percentage as a game that hits more often but with lower payouts.

Either way, in the short run, it will be all but impossible to discover this number, too.

If you wanted to, you could track how many spins resulted in wins for you and calculate the percentage, but you're facing the same obstacle you are with the overall payback percentage of the machine.

You just don't know what it's programmed to accomplish in the long run.

Online Slot Machines

Some online casinos post the payback percentages for their slot machine games. I think this information is of limited use, but I also think it's fairer to the gambler than not providing them with that information.

After all, table games are transparent. You can calculate the house edge for any casino table game there is because they all use random number generators with known quantities — cards, dice, and wheels.

There's been a push to label food, both at the grocery store and at restaurants, with nutritional information that includes caloric amounts.

Requiring casinos to provide similar information about their gambling machines only makes sense.

We'll see if it ever happens, though.

Conclusion

You can't find the payout percentage on a slot machine — at least not in the United States.
I've heard that you can get this information on slot machines in Europe, but I've never seen an actual photograph of this kind of labeling.
You can, though, have some fun calculating actual payback percentages in the short run. This at least gives you something to keep track of while you're playing slots, which is honestly one of the more mindless activities in the casino.

You don't need any special skills to play a slot machine. All you do is select the spin button and wait for results.

But this isn't to say that you can't do certain things to improve your chances of winning in slots. One of the easiest ways to boost your odds is by playing slot machines with high payback percentages.

Much like any other casino game, winning back more money gives you better odds of beating the casino.

Find out as I cover different methods of finding payback for popular slot machines in both land-based and online casinos. But first, I'm going to discuss exactly what payback is for those who know little about this concept.

What Is Payback Percentage and Return to Player?

Two terms that you'll often see in the slots world include payback percentages and return to player.

Payback percentages and return to player (RTP) are the same thing, and they refer to how much money a slot machine pays over the long term.

Here's an example.

• A slot machine has 94% RTP
• You bet $100 on this game
• 100 x 0.94 = $94
• This slot machine will theoretically pay you $94 for every $100 wagered

I stress the word 'theoretically,' because slot machines don't hit their intended payback percentage in the short run. Instead, these are volatile games that only realize their RTP after hundreds of thousands or even millions of spins.

You might think that this diminishes the value of finding RTP. But if you continually play slot machines with high payback, then you'll have the best chance to win money.

Finding Payback for Popular Land-Based Slot Machines

The land-based casino industry features plenty of famous slot machines, including IGT's Ellen, Aristocrat's Game of Thrones, Bally's Hot Shot, IGT's Megabucks, and IGT's Wheel of Fortune.

Given how these machines take millions of dollars in collective bets every day, you'd think that it would be easy to find RTP for each one. But the truth is that it's really hard to get info on land-based slot machines.

One problem is that casinos can order different payback for the same game. If IGT offers 10 different RTP options for their Ellen slot machine, then many casinos will to choose differently from each other.

Another problem is that there's just not much information out there on land-based slot machine payback. You can google different terms again and again and still not find RTP for the most popular slots.

But as impossible as finding brick-and-mortar slots payback may seem, there are a few different avenues you can take.

Look at State Gaming Reports

One of the most reliable ways to find RTP data on slot machines is by looking at reports from gaming jurisdictions.

These records contain general information on what payback you can expect from different casinos. You may even get lucky and find payback percentages on the popular games.

This 2017 report from the Nevada Gaming Control Board shows the state's average win from various coin denominations, as well as Megabucks.

• Penny Slots = 90.17% payback (9.83% house take)
• Nickel Slots = 94.54% payback (5.46% house take)
• Quarter Slots = 93.06% payback (6.94% house take)
• Dollar Slots = 93.94% payback (6.06% house take)
• $5 Slots = 94.16% payback (5.82% house take)
• $25 Slots = 95.03% payback (4.97% house take)
• $100 Slots = 93.21% payback (6.79% house take)
• Megabucks = 87.93% payback (12.07% house take)

Megabucks is arguably the world's most famous slot machine. This game has paid out many of the biggest slots jackpots in history, including the largest one at $39.7 million.

This is why the Megabucks slot machine is the only one that regularly appears on the Nevada Gaming Control Board's monthly/annual reports.

The data above shows that Megabucks only paid back 87.93% throughout 2017. This game doesn't even match payback from Vegas penny slot machines (90.17%), which are notorious for being tight.

But it's worth adding that the 87.93% payback refers to what Megabucks starts at after IGT seeds the initial jackpot.

Given that this is a progressive game, the jackpot grows with every bet. And Megabucks' payback can be much higher than the 87.93% listed value.

Many famous slot machines with big progressive jackpots start around 88% payback, including Wheel of Fortune. You can then use the jackpot size to make an educated guess on how high the RTP has grown.

Be sure to look at your state's gaming report to see what you can dig up on slot machine payback.

Odds are that you won't find data on specific games, like with Megabucks in Nevada's report. But you'll at least get an idea of the casinos and coin denominations that are paying well.

Make General RTP Assumptions About Coin Denominations

Generally speaking, slot machines with higher coin denominations pay more money.

Of course, the statistics don't always show this. A good example can be seen in the 2017 Nevada report discussed above, where everything from nickel to $100 slots are relatively even.

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But also keep in mind that the $25 slot machines had the highest payback (95.03%). As for the $100 slots only paying 93.21%, this can be chalked up to a smaller sample size.

Only a small percentage of gamblers can actually afford to bet $100 per spin. This means that the $100 slot machines' statistics will be more volatile than other denominations.

We can look at payback for coin denominations at Connecticut's Foxwoods for evidence of this.

• Penny Slots = 89.88% payback (10.12% house take)
• Nickel Slots = 90.58% payback (9.42% house take)
• Quarter Slots = 91.95% payback (8.05% house take)
• Dollar Slots = 93.45% payback (6.55% house take)
• $5 Slots = 94.08% payback (5.92% house take)
• $25 Slots = 96.16% payback (4.84% house take)
• $100 Slots = 96.76% payback (3.24% house take)

You can see here that payback progressively increases when moving from penny to $100 slots. The biggest separation is seen when moving from the $5 slots (94.08% RTP) to $100 games (96.76%).

Making generalizations about slots payback percentages based on games' coin size isn't a guaranteed plan. But it's a solid method to use when you don't have any other information.

Be careful when seeking out higher-denomination slots just for the payback, though. You're still going to lose more money on high-denomination slots overall, even with the increased RTP.

Here's a comparison using the Foxwoods' data to illustrate this point.

• I play a penny slot machine with 89.88% payback
• I make 100 spins on this game, which has a $0.50 minimum bet
• 0.50 x 100 x 0.1012 house edge = $5.06 in losses
• I play a $5 slot machine with 94.08% payback
• I play 100 spins on this game, which has a $5 minimum bet
• 5 x 100 x 0.0592 house edge = $29.60 in losses

If you really want to play the higher-denomination games, then by all means, do so. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that you'll win more money this way.

Look at Overall Slots Payback for Casinos

You won't have much luck finding RTP for individual slot machines, but you can at least develop a composite average by looking at overall payback among casinos.

State gaming reports, like the ones discussed before, are good for doing this. Here's an example from Ohio that shows the average 2017 slots RTP for their casinos.

• JACK Cleveland = 92.34% payback (7.66% house take)
• Hollywood Columbus = 92.17% payback (7.83% house take)
• JACK Cincinnati = 91.56% payback (8.44% house take)
• Miami Valley = 91.24% payback (8.76% house take)
• Hollywood Toledo = 90.95% payback (8.95% house take)
• Belterra Park = 91.08% payback (9.92% house take)
• Hard Rock Rocksino = 91.06% payback (8.94% house take)
• Scioto Downs = 90.96% payback (9.04% house take)
• JACK Thistledown = 90.87% payback (9.13% house take)
• Dayton Raceway = 90.47% payback (9.53% house take)
• Hollywood Mahoning Valley = 90.09% payback (9.91% house take)

These figures show what you can expect in terms of all slot machines at these casinos.

The best deal was offered at JACK Cleveland, where players earned an average of 92.34% payback. The lowest overall RTP is seen at Hollywood Mahoning Valley, where players faced 90.09% payback on average.

Of course, there are no guarantees when you go off of composite averages. You can sit down to a random slot machine at JACK Cleveland that pays less than games at Hollywood Mahoning.

But the key is that you at least have a better chance by choosing casinos with superior payback.

Google Different Slots Payback/RTP Terms

One final way that you can look for land-based payback percentages is simply by googling terms. You can choose specific terms such as 'Ellen slot RTP' or 'IGT Wheel of Fortune RTP.'

I've spent a good deal of time searching for various terms regarding land-based slot machine payback. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have turned up little-to-no information.

If your initial searches don't produce anything worthwhile, you can always switch things up. For example, google 'Hot Shot slot payback' instead of 'Hot Shot slot RTP.'

But again, information is scarce on payback for individual slots. The best you'll normally do is finding general info like state gaming reports and articles.

Finding Payback for Popular Online Slot Machines

Looking for online slots RTP is a much easier task compared to doing the same for land-based machines. The main reason why is due to the nature of how the internet slots industry works.

Online gaming providers produce games and normally offer a uniform payback percentage across all casinos. This differs from the land-based industry, where the casinos have options in terms of RTP.

The end result is that the same slot machine you find at one online casino has identical payback in another casino.

On another note, you can expect higher RTP from online slots. The reason why is because internet casinos can run these games cheaper due to less overhead costs.

They don't have to pay for big slot machine cabinets or people to maintain the games. Instead, everything runs through internet software.

Now I'm going to look at a few different ways that you can find RTP for online slot machines.

Search for Individual Games and Their Payback Percentage

If you already have a specific online slot in mind, then you can quickly find payback by searching for it. Here's an example:

• You want to know payback for NetEnt's Blood Suckers
• You google 'Blood Suckers slot RTP'
• A number of available results show that it offers 98.0% payback

The good news is that you don't even need to select one of the search results in most cases. You can instead read the description snippets under each link to spot the payback percentage.

In the case of my search for Blood Suckers' RTP, I only had to scroll down to the second result's description to find the answer. Of course, you should start clicking website links if you don't find what you're looking for in the descriptions.

Looking at the individual games works great if you already have favorite slots and want to know their RTP.

Look at an Online Slot Machine's Help Screen

Much like land-based slot machines, older online slots fail to list their RTP. But most of the new online slot machines do offer this information.

All you need to do is visit an internet slot machine's help screen to check for the payback. Here's an example.

• I'm playing Thunderkick's Esqueleto Explosivo
• I select the help screen
• I scroll down and quickly see that this game offers 96.0% RTP

Sometimes you'll play games that have multiple pages on the help screen. In this case, all you need to do is keep scrolling until you find the payback percentage.

You'll notice that certain online slots makers always put the RTP in the help screens of their newer games. Examples include NetEnt, Quickspin, and Thunderkick.

Google Individual Online Slots Makers

What I've discussed so far works well for finding payback percentages on popular online slot machines. But if you like a certain slots maker's style, then you can look for RTP on all of their games.

This is nice because it gives you a complete list of a specific provider's slot machines. You can then use this info to choose the highest-paying games.

Here's an example on finding RTP for RealTime Gaming (RTP) slots.

• I google 'RTG slots payback'
• I select multiple websites
• These sites collectively offer RTP on many RealTime slots

Sometimes the info you need will be dispersed throughout several search results. Other times you'll find a neat list that covers every slot machine.

Don't Forget About Slots Volatility

I covered the importance of payback percentages earlier. But it's also important to consider how volatility affects your returns.

Volatility refers to how much your short-term results will fluctuate when playing slot machines. This means that you might not win much money in the short term even if a game has good RTP.

High-volatility slot machines have more unpredictable results than low-volatility games. Free money slot machines. If you're trying to stretch out a small bankroll, then you want to avoid games with high volatility.

Some online slots developers actually give a volatility rating for their slot machines. Pragmatic Play is one example, and they use between one and five lightning bolts to indicate volatility.

But the vast majority of internet slot machines still don't offer this information. That means you need to look at the jackpot size and the pay table to make a rough guess on a game's volatility.

Generally speaking, volatile slot machines have big jackpots and few small payouts. Therefore, you want to look for the opposite of this to make your bankroll last longer.

How Progressive Jackpots Affect Payback

Several of the most popular online slot machines are linked to huge progressive jackpots. These include Microgaming's Mega Moolah, NetEnt's Mega Fortune, Playtech's Jackpot Giant, and Random Logic's Millionaire Genie.

These games are just like Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune in how they start with low payback. But the RTP steadily grows as more players pour money into these games.

Mega Moolah starts off with 88.12% payback. This figure quickly grows as the Mega Moolah jackpot adds millions of dollars in value.

Unfortunately, calculating exactly how much a progressive jackpot affects RTP is next to impossible. The reason why is because slots games don't list the exact odds behind every payout.

This is different from video poker, where we can always figure out payback percentages based on the odds of getting certain hands.

Nevertheless, you can make educated guesses based on where a jackpot value begins up to its current point. If Mega Fortune is seeded at $500,000 and grows to $5 million, you know that RTP has also increased by a significant amount.

Of course, the odds are very slim that you'll win the progressive jackpot. This means that you'll be dealing with the base payback figures.

If you're not comfortable dealing with between 88% and 90% payback, then I suggest choosing popular online slots that don't have big progressive jackpots. These games will pay back money on a more consistent basis.

But if you like to dream big, then, by all means, play the bigger progressive slot machines. Just wait until the jackpot grows, though, so that you theoretically get higher expected value from your wagers.

Always Read the Help Screen to Ensure You Earn Max Payback

One more point I'd like to stress is how you should always check out the help screen to learn all the rules.

I already discussed how this is a good way to figure out a game's RTP. But the help screen also explains the different stipulations behind earning max payback.

You may have to use all of the pay lines or bet a certain coin size to qualify for the highest RTP. Furthermore, the progressive jackpot and/or bonus features may only be available for max bettors.

The aforementioned Game of Thrones slot machine requires a 100-credit wager to trigger the Fire & Blood bonus. If you don't have a chance to unlock this bonus, then you're not playing for the highest payback.

The last thing you want to do is play a slot machine under the guise that you're earning a certain payback percentage, only to find out that you're not. Check out a game's help screen and learn the rules before you start betting real money.

Conclusion

Finding payback percentages is far easier with online slots thanks to all of the available information.

You can find this info either by googling popular games or even the slots providers themselves. The latter is great for when you like a certain slots maker and want to know which of their games offer the best RTP.

In contrast, land-based slot machines offer very little payback info. Megabucks is one of the few popular slots with an actual payback figure listed online.

This leaves you having to sift through state gaming reports and making guesses based on coin denominations and progressive jackpot sizes. It's not an exact science, but this at least gives you some clue.

In summary, use the methods that I've covered here to find payback percentages for popular slot machines. Consistently doing so ensures that you'll win more money back as you continue playing slots.