Casinos can feel like night and day when you go at night vs. the morning, or on a Saturday vs. a weekday. Players notice, and sometimes wonder why:
I wanted to know why it is when you go to the casino on Friday or Saturday the machines are really active paying out jackpots? But when you are at the casino Monday or Tuesday it’s not as active as weekends. Is there a switch there that switches the payouts those days?
Mrejackpots
For every player that thinks casinos boost payouts on weekends because it’s busier, there’s another player that thinks they boost payouts on weekdays because it’s quieter and will bring in more players.
But notice how casinos don’t market either of those scenarios – if they’re going to invest money into payouts at certain times as a marketing tool, where’s the marketing awareness to tell players to come get the better payouts?
Casinos don’t make these changes because they don’t need to. Slots make more money than just about anything else in the casino, and they do this by having a higher house edge and by getting played over time. Tweaking payouts by a percentage point or two isn’t going to move the needle particularly much, and in the short term could do nothing (someone could hit a $10k jackpot and throw the game’s stats off for a bit on the lowest payback setting).
So what’s more likely happening? Fridays and Saturdays are prime time at the casino – they’re busier, with more players trying their luck. More players mean more wagers being placed, which means more of everything – more losing spins, more winning spins, more bonuses, more jackpots.
More of everything numerically doesn’t mean your chances of winning are better, because the overall odds haven’t changed. There’s just more people at it at once.
Now, if that gets you going more because the casino’s hopping and it makes it more fun, considering going to the casino is supposed to be a choice of use of your entertainment budget, then that’s a valid reason to go then. But if you’re trying to time your visit as if it will give you better performance on your wagers, you can safely put that thinking aside as you’re not going to get any benefit timing your trips (unless it’s linked to a casino promotion that gives you an additional benefit, anyway).
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