Here’s another question around denominations and how payouts work:
If I’m playing a slot machine, and it has 2c, 5c 25c 50c bet denomination and somehow ALL of them have a bet of $9.00. Is the payout normally the same no matter what the bet level is?
Mike H.
Not necessarily. There’s a few things that can change things when you change denominations. Let’s review them.
Number of Pay Lines
On many multi-denomination machines, the number of pay lines active tends to decrease as the denomination increases. Even with the same screen, that can influence what the payout of that spin would be, simply because the number of lines now differs, and how much is being bet per line differs.
If the number of lines are halved, generally speaking for that same bet size the per line pays are twice as much. But if you didn’t get exactly half as many lines in that instance, the payout for that spin would differ.
Payback Percentage Differences
On multi-denomination slots, casinos often have the ability to design the payback percentage of each denomination. And the payback data shared in markets across the country often reflect a small increase in payback with each step up in denomination.
When you combine the change in lines with the change in payback percentage, the odds of the outcome being identical become much more unlikely, as the range of outcomes will now be different, to reflect the change in lines and payback.
Game Structure Differences
A class of games on the casino floor today use uneven bet increments to increase the amount bet while not growing the line bet wins by the same percentage. This is a quiet way of being able to add more money to the features and bonuses that players look forward to, but that can also impact where the percentage of payback at a certain bet level exists.
So that $9 could be more bonus heavy on a lower denomination, and more line hit heavy on a higher denomination. The balance between bonuses and line hits means the game will play a bit differently, but the overall approach to a game’s payback will still exist.
Takeaway
Given the above, we generally encourage players to play at the highest denomination on a particular game their bet level will comfortably accommodate. This ensures if a game is set to a higher payback percentage, they’ll benefit from this over time.
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