I’ve been writing about slots for approaching a decade now, and one of my favorite topics over the years has been the idea of low rolling in high limit slots rooms.
Part of this has come down to the company I keep. I’ve known Brian Christopher for the bulk of that time, and Brian certainly likes to spend at least part of his time in high limit. But I don’t have a Brian Christopher budget, so getting creative has been part of the mission.
Sometimes, it was finding alternative ways to bet, such as less lines, or games like Dancing Drums where you could opt out of the progressives and just focus on the line hits (1 gold symbol, 8 credits, dime denomination is an 80 cent bet).
But as the minimum bet on new games creep up, and multi-denomination games become more commonplace, a strange thing is happening where more accessible bet options are becoming available in high limit rooms. So I’ve found myself playing in them a bit more often, and coming away with some good wins to show for it.
With many new penny denomination slots with starting bets at $1-$1.25, and some games in high limit on nickel denomination beginning at $2.50, I’m finding it comfortable to play at that level or a bit above with a portion of my casino budget. Granted, there is still a delta
I can’t do it with my full budget, especially if things don’t go my way, because I could burn through it too quickly to stay alive for a full casino visit, but the volatility of today’s slots are such that I can light money on fire on $1/spin nowadays too, so it’s an interesting challenge to work through.
This year the high limit room has yielded me two substantial wins. Of course, Brian shared one on his channel (as I was playing next to him) when I got the double major on a high limit Phoenix Link machine back in April. And earlier this month, I got a second high limit jackpot, this time on a $3.75 bet, but with a sturdy 750x win on Piggy N’ More Bankin,’ reminding me of my greatest jackpot, a Grand on Eureka Reel Blast.
In fact, that $3.75 bet was among quite a few options in the Park MGM high limit room during our visit that had bets below $5/spin. Thunder Empire, a newer Aristocrat game, was configured for as low as $2.50 in high limit, and I got some good action on that as well. In part I was playing the $3.75 spins on Piggy N’ More Bankin’ because I managed to build up a ticket on Thunder Empire.
Earlier that trip I was eaten alive on lower bets on the main casino floor. We’ll often advise not to take a crazy swing in high limit to try to get something in just a few spins, but when your bet sizes aren’t terribly different from the main floor, that swing isn’t as crazy anymore.
I had a few other pretty solid wins in that high limit room, enough so that as my fortunes shifted and high limit was giving me a good swing where the main floor was not, I just played more in high limit, and left considerably ahead overall.
Of course, my fortunes could have been reversed, so it’s always helpful to set caps on how much you’re willing to put at risk on higher limit games if you want to still have budget to play over the course of a window of time.
I was in Las Vegas for the Global Gaming Expo, so I was there for a total of four nights. Having my budget sustain for playing intermittently around the conference is a bit different than a 3-4 hour afternoon visit to a local or a multiday full day visit to Las Vegas. As such, it’s always a good idea to think about what makes sense for your budget and your casino trip.
