Casinos will sometimes do big giveaways, whether gifts, gift cards, cruises… and so some wonder what that means for the slots those days:
Can casinos make the payouts less on days they have giveaways? Or is it the same percentage of payout everyday?
Julie T.
Casinos have settings in the slots where they can make changes. As a practical matter changing the entire floor is time consuming and doesn’t happen. Casinos set a bank up and leave them alone.
So you don’t need to worry about them being generous in one way and being stingy in another. What the slots will make over time, and what the giveaways will give back, are all part of the casino’s math.
Casinos will generally offer somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent back of a player’s expected losses in comps. Those who qualify for giveaways have effectively already paid for them based on their previous play, because offers will look backward to previous casino visits to determine what a player will qualify for on their next visit.
Offers work under the assumption players will generally play at a similar level each visit. When they don’t, the offers will get adjusted up or down accordingly to reflect any shifts.
Giveaways are offers, and are baked into the math, so casinos don’t need to make changes to the machine’s payouts to account for them – the payback percentage a machine has is already set up to do what it needs to do so a casino can make those giveaways possible.
Slots have among the highest hold percentages for the house (the percentage the casino keeps over time) of games on the casino floor. They take less labor than table games, too, making them quite valuable. The good news for us is that means they comp us well for playing them, and payouts are generally consistent. The bad news is our money won’t last as long as playing games with a smaller percentage being held for the house on similar bets.
Since the Mirage is closing and news reports are saying people are flocking to the Mirage, playing in the casino trying to get in on some of the winnings, what will happen after their doors are finally closed and the casino still has money that was not won on the casino floor? Can you explain the process a casino must do when closing their doors?
Hey Cheryl! It’s a topic we can look more into, but we did share this recently about the progressive jackpots which may answer at least some of your questions:
https://fliptheswitch.com/the-mirage-is-closing-what-happens-to-its-progressive-jackpots/
I’m loving my gift so far it is Amazing !!!
Gotta love the free gift!
Hi, Brian! So my husband and I watched you trial low bet to high bet but I’m wondering if you could try high bet to low bet to see if that alters the results. I loved your comments about how you met your friend, Julie and began your gamboling journey. I laughed when you said we in Buffalo have an accent! Your Canadian accents were very noticeable to this Buffalonian! Lastly, Have you ever trialed time of day on these slots machines? I “feel” like they do better earlier in the day, especially in Vegas!
Hey Kathy! We haven’t tried it the other way around, in part because many players seem to like the building up to the bigger bets, but we’ll keep that idea in mind for the future! As far as the time of day, we’ve written an article on this here at Flip The Switch:
https://fliptheswitch.com/what-is-the-best-time-of-the-day-to-play-slot-machines/