Seeing a neighbor win big can be exciting in its own way, but for some players it also puts doubts in their heads around whether their own machine will now stop paying because of that win.
Is the payback percentage determined by a bank of machines or per machine? So if I see a jackpot on a certain machine does that decrease the payout chances on other machines in that same bank?
David C.
When it comes to Vegas-style (Class III) slot machines, the settings are set on a per slot basis. Generally, all the machines in a bank are set to the same settings (there can be exceptions, of course), but for the most part, regardless of whether you sit, the settings would be the same.
For other types of machine like Historic Horse Racing or Bingo (Class II) this might differ given the external means on which outcomes are determined.
Good news though – whether the payback was set per machine or per bank, a big win on another machine in the bank would not impact your potential payouts.
That’s because the payback is based on the odds of something happening, not whether something has happened in the recent past. This is why we say that previous slot spins don’t influence future results potential – this also goes for another machine in a bank of linked machines.
Even on a game like bingo, or historic horse racing, where your individual bingo card or horse picks will determine whether your wager is a winner or not, you could have a major win on your next wager as long as the outcome based on the external results and your individual machine’s card or horse selections match up in the right ways.
So players shouldn’t worry about whether a neighbor just hit a jackpot, or if their own machine just did – the odds on that next spin hasn’t changed because what a machine or bank of machines has paid recently – it has no resulting impact on the outcome of that next wager.
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