As modern stots have found their way more and more into the high limit room, more variations of games, especially in how they’re configured, has become the norm. A player observed this and wondered if there’s anything to watch out for around it, particularly when it comes to pay lines:
How come some of the high bets have more lines and some just have 5 lines? Does this make a difference?
Charmaine B.
Presuming the bet size is the same (say, $25 on $1 denomination), the number of lines available will distribute the money differently. A 25 line game will place $1 towards each line at a $25 bet, while a 5 line game will place $5 against each line.
Presuming the same game and pay table, a win on a line on a 5-line game will be five times more, because the wager on that line is five times higher. But there will be 1/5 the lines available so the wins will be less frequent. In essence, less lines are more volatile, because you’re putting all of your eggs in less lines, but bigger payouts when you win.
In the long run it’ll largely wash out, so it just depends what sort of journey do you want – a more steady one with the money spread across more lines, or a more roller coaster like one where less frequent, but bigger, wins are on offer.
As to why this exists, it often depends on what the base denomination of a game will be. A Dragon Link that starts with penny denomination will likely have a 5 line $1 denomination offering, where as one where the base denomination is 10 cents might look different and offer 25 lines. And the Million Dollar Dragon Links out there will likely offer 50 lines at $1 denomination.
Fortunately, that means there’s choices for players, and you can decide the number of lines (and the cost per spin) that makes the most sense for you. Ultimately, that’s the only core difference when comparing different versions of the same gae, especially at the same denomination, where payback is expected to be the same/similar across machines within a casino.
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