Regular visitors to physical casinos know that there’s the notion of high limit slots – these are generally slots with higher denominations, and accompanying bets, specifically designed for players with bigger budgets. (Of course, as we have shared in the past, you can sometimes low roll in high limit too!)
One reason why this mattered was because, traditionally, casinos would set higher payback percentages on slots with higher denominations. In more modern times, total bet is another factor that may be considered – games with higher bets, regardless of denomination, might see higher paybacks vs. those with lower overall bets.
Until recently, that wasn’t the case online.
How Things Were, and Still Mostly Are
Online, you would generally see one game, listed with a much broader array of bets. For lower bettors you’d often see bet options down to 20 cents, or sometimes even lower! And for bigger bettors, seeing bets that climb into the 10s or even hundreds of dollars a spin wasn’t unusual.
The key, though, was all bets were linked to a single payback percentage – there was no advantage to betting up in terms of long term performance – regardless of bet amount, your expected return over time was the same percentage.
Introducing High Limit Slots
Recently, a few popular titles are seeing high limit variations appear. The most prominent of these is IGT’s Cash Eruption, which has long been a top performer online with U.S. casinos. Whereas the low limit version has a range of 20 cents to $40 on DraftKings, the high limit version, named Cash Eruption High Stakes, starts at $10 a spin and goes up to $400 a spin.
Other than that main change, visually it’s the same game you already know and likely play often. So the gameplay is consistent, but what about the payback?
As Always, Do Homework on Payback
We were mildly surprised to see both the low limit and the newer high stakes version of Cash Eruption had the same 95% payback on DraftKings when we looked. This means, even with a separation of low and high limit, there’s no real difference. (That said, 95% is pretty great at any bet level for a slot.)
We checked two other games DraftKings had that had a high limit variation, another slot and a video poker variation. On those two, we saw a 1% difference between the two, with the higher limit version having the better payback. This is more in line with what we expected.
Takeaway
If you are a higher limit player that enjoys betting higher, it’s worth keeping an eye on what high limit options your preferred online casino is bringing online. You might find that the high limit version gives you a better longterm payback, which means it’s a better gamble for your dollar.
