We often get asked whether you need to max bet on a particular slot. Often, the answer is no. While conventional wisdom in some circles is that you always have to max bet a slot machine, the reality is most slots don’t require this at all.
Instead there’s another aspect that’s more important, and that’s known as the cost to cover. As the term implies, cost to cover is betting enough to ensure that you have access to all of the potential payouts.
On certain machines, that will be a max bet scenario. Many Quick Hit machines, for instance, require you to max bet to access the progressives, so failing to do so means you’ll be paid less proportionally for any 5+ Quick Hit wins. But on some of the latest versions, like Quick Hit Link, you don’t have to max bet. And on Quick Hit Explosion, which has a wide area progressive, your cost to cover is betting high enough to be eligible for the Explosion jackpot, which isn’t a max bet.
Megabucks is another game that for many years the conventional wisdom was you have to max bet. But newer variations only require that you bet the standard $3 to be eligible for the Megabucks jackpot, but allow bets that go higher. Megabucks Mega Vault, for instance, allows up to $10 bets on penny denomination, but you only need to bet $3 to be eligible for the Megabucks progressive. Betting higher than $3 simply increases your chances proportionally, but isn’t required.
The importance of cost to cover is ensuring you have access to all the pays, because many times the top pay is linked to that last increment. For instance, playing Video Poker, not betting 5 credits on a standard Video Poker machine means getting shortchanged on the pays for Royal Flushes. Sure, they don’t happen often, but given they’re responsible for 2 percent of the overall payout of a machine, being shortchanged here can be pretty costly.
On Double Top Dollar, the 9-line variation costs 10 credits, and qualifying for the Double Top Dollar bonus requires that 10th credit. Play only 9, and while you’ll have access to all the line hits, you won’t have access to the bonus.
On Dancing Drums, you have the option to bet 1-5 Gold symbols. But betting less than 5 gold symbols means you have no chance at that Grand progressive jackpot. If you want access to that, you need to bet that minimum of 88 cents.
So ultimately, it helps to be familiar with what bets give you access to all of the pays and the proper pays. The good news for players is that max bet requirements aren’t the norm, but oftentimes betting enough to reach that cost to cover mark requires more than a minimum bet as well.
