We get lots of questions about slots, and this one’s a bit different as it also incorporates a bit of information that a player was told:
When a slot is not being played, does the chip continually keep going? Also I was told that no matter what the bet is, $1.00 or 10.00, the outcome would be the same. Of course the amount of money would make a difference.
Carolyn D.
The first question is a bit easier to address because it’s governed by regulation. The random number generator is always at work, regardless of if a machine is active or not, as anyone can activate a wager at any time. So to ensure the randomness, it continues to work 24/7.
Regarding that other element of what you were told, that was probably more true in a different era than it is now. In an earlier era, there was the amount of lines you bet, and the bet multiplier, and so if you were betting 1x vs. 5x and had the same number of lines active, it is likely true that the outcome would be the same, just the total amount won would differ based on that bet multiplier.
But there’s a lot of other things going on now with slots. A few elements that can impact things:
- Multi-denomination slots: Slots can be set to different payback settings on each denomination, which would shift the set of outcomes available, and change what the outcome would have be.
- Slots with progressives that can be won at any bet: Your odds of winning these prizes improves with an increase in the overall bet amount, which means there could be situations where the outcome would be different.
- Games where some payouts require max betting, or betting above a certain amount: If you’re betting at a level where a payout wasn’t available to you, that would differ vs. a bet where it was active.
- Uneven bet increments: Some games have bet increments that aren’t even. So say it’s 80 cents for a 1x bet multiplier but $2.50 for a 3x – that $2.50 is higher than 3x, so you’re paying more, usually for better bonuses or features. But that means the outcome wouldn’t be the same either in at least some cases.
It makes sense that as slot developers get more sophisticated, and the games do in turn, what was once done to keep things simpler and easier to manage would now look different.
And so the changing of the bet amount can actually make a difference, although we as players will never have all the information (what would the other bet have yielded) so it’s never something we’ll know for sure, and best to not worry about accordingly.
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