One of the biggest misconceptions we see players have is that casinos somehow have control over their specific payouts at their specific times. The general gist is casinos are somehow changing payouts. But this is a highly flawed idea. Let’s use today’s question as a jumping off point for this myth.
Isn’t it funny, you can play in a casino all day. Play everything. Nothing is paying and then at midnight you start winning jackpots. Or you’re playing during a certain hour during the day and then after a certain hour, you can’t win on anything you play. Server based systems. No, they don’t go into the machine itself but the server?
Margaret I.
We get it’s frustrating when you don’t win at the casino, but looking for a bogeyman is a sign you have an unhealthy relationship with the casino. As players, we should never enter a casino expecting to win, or to leave with money. Just like buying a movie ticket or a fancy dinner, casino trips should be considered entertainment and spent money.
As far as why this isn’t the answer, there’s a few reasons for this.
Server-Based Systems Never Took Off
Despite articles touting their functionality decades ago, casinos never really adopted server-based systems. And where they were allowed and regulated, rules would make it clear how and when they could be updated.
In Nevada, for instance, if there’s credits in the machine, changes couldn’t be made. So if you were playing a slot, whatever it was set to when you sat down is how it stayed until you were finished.
Further supporting that, a machine would need to sit idle for four minutes, then go into an offline mode for the change, and then have to sit idle again for a few more minutes before being playable.
Have you ever seen a whole group of slots in a Nevada casino suddenly go offline for a period of time, altogether? These are the sorts of things that would make for a viral TikTok clip, but it’s not the sort of thing we tend to see.
So for all the discussions on message boards and social media groups, this isn’t really something we need to be concerned about as players, because the vast majority of casinos manage slots the traditional way – with settings inside the machine and chips to swap out the games, vs. a server-side system.
Casinos Can’t Control Outcomes
The randomness of slots, thanks to the Random Number Generator (RNG), means any particular outcome the slot’s programmed to offer can occur at any moment. So your assertion that a casino can somehow stop you from winning until midnight and then let you win after midnight doesn’t really hold up.
When Brian Christopher says “It’s All About Timing,” he’s speaking to that randomness that exists. Even when slots are set to their lowest payback option, those top payouts the slot advertises have to be available.
Casinos don’t have control over individual outcomes, so if you have a bad losing streak, it’s just bad luck.
It’s More Cost Effective to Let the Slots Do Their Work
Payback percentages determine where a slot should end up in the long term, after millions of spins. You can get a jackpot on a slot with a low payback percentage, and you can lose your shirt on a slot with a high payback percentage.
That’s variance, and that’s what makes slots more exciting. Wouldn’t it be boring if you put a $100 bill into a slot and it gave you $90 back every time, because the slot was set to 90% payback?
There’s no real value to casinos tinkering with payback constantly because it doesn’t necessarily move the needle in short durations – the downtime of slots to do this could quickly overcome any benefit gained.
It also is important to remember slots already are powerhouse profit centers for a casino. An average slot makes a casino a couple of hundred dollars per day. Now figure most casinos have hundreds or even thousands of slots, and you get the idea – making all these changes for a few extra bucks.
Casinos who want to wring more money out of slots will likely set them all lower vs. constantly tinker. Or they might be more data-forward and look at how slots perform elsewhere to find the sweet spot of payback (some slots do better at a more generous payback, because players are more likely to play them longer, making up the difference).
Takeaway
A casino can’t control when you win or lose. They can’t (and aren’t) constantly tinkering with the paybacks of slots. If you have a bad day at the casino, it’s just that – a bad day. Similarly, epic runs are possible too, and that’s a lucky day.
To look for others to blame when having an unlucky run is a good sign it may be worth using your entertainment budget on something else, because you may not be enjoying the casino anymore. As the brochure goes, “When The Fun Stops…”
