Casino Slots Bay Area
Once a month this column will answer reader questions about things you experience in Bay Area card rooms. The following recently came in from a player in the North Bay:
Question
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'On a recent visit to the Bay Area I visited a casino in the North Bay and overheard some other patrons describe the slot machines there as 'loose.' What does this mean? Are some slot machines really more likely to pay out jackpot money than others? How can you tell loose machines from 'tighter' ones?'
Answer
Bay Area Casinos California
Here's what Russell Kinney, vice president of slot operations at Cache Creek Casino in Brooks (Yolo County), had to say:
'When casinos talk about slots being 'loose,' they're talking about the payback percentage. Machines are set to pay back a certain percentage of everything that players put in. The catch is that this is calculated over millions of pulls. Most $1 machines and above pay back at 95 percent, so long as you are playing (the maximum number of) coin (lines). Over 1 million pulls, this means you'll make back 95 percent of what you put in. Of course if you sit down with $100 and play for 20 minutes, it is possible for the machine to take your money and not give you anything.'
'Payback percentage also relates to entertainment value. If you walk into a Strip casino in Vegas, and you put in $100 but only get 32 minutes of entertainment, that's not the best entertainment value. Well, if you go to a local casino and you get 45 minutes of entertainment for the same amount of money, you're getting more value, and the paybacks on the local machine are probably better.'
Bay Area Buggs
'For the best entertainment value, guests need to look for machines with the lowest top award. Think about it - at a payback of 95 percent or better, these machines are going to have a higher frequency of hits. If you have a $1 machine that has a top award of $1,000, it is going to hit over and over and over again for $10, $20, $50 and so on. Let's say you find another machine with a $50,000 top award. The program running that machine was written in such a way that it won't give you as many small pays because it has to pay out $50,000 at the top end. It's a trade-off; machines with higher top awards will take your money faster, but you have the opportunity to win big.'
'Of course the most aggressive paybacks - the 'loosest slots' - in the casino are usually video poker; paybacks here can be up to 103 percent. If you find a poker machine that has a 7/10 payback, I'd play it. That means that when you win, you get seven coins on a flush and 10 coins on a full house. Most paybacks in California are 5/8. Every once in a while you see a 6/9. Keep in mind that these rates are only if you play max coin, and only if you play by the same rules as the computer itself.'