Recently we wrote about the difference between tough slots and tight slots – players declare a slot is tight, because they haven’t won on it, but it may not be tight at all in terms of the generosity of the overall payback, but it’s designed to reward a few people generously – it’s tough, not tight.
We see similar confusion in terminology around a slot’s odds, as in the chances of winning, vs. payback, the overall percentage it pays back over time. It’s in a similar bucket as the previous conversation, so we thought it was a good time to approach this and discuss the difference.
Slot Machine Odds
When discussing a slot machine’s odds, this refers to how often a particular scenario occurs. The odds of a bonus, for instance, might be something like 1 in 100. The odds of a line hit might be 1 in 3. The odds of winning overall will vary based on the design of the slot and where the payouts are located.
Because the odds of a game tend to be similar regardless of denomination or payback percentage, because that’s what keeps a game feeling similar at all bet levels, we often get questions about whether the odds of a game improve when betting higher, which isn’t the same as saying it’s payback percentage.
The odds of a win could be identical, even if the long term payback could be higher, because the wins might simply pay a bit more, as opposed to having dramatically more frequent wins at a higher payback level.
Slot Machine Payback
By comparison, a slot machine’s payback percentage is the percentage of money relative to the amount wagered it will pay back over time. For example, if a slot pays back 90 percent, in the long run for every $100 that is wagered on the machine, it’s expected to pay back $90.
Of course, in reality, you could wager $100 and win just a bit, or hit a jackpot. That’s variance, and what can make or break a particular session on a slot machine.
A slot machine reaches its intended payback over millions of spins, so a given session can go in all sorts of different directions.
Takeaway
A slot with long odds can still pay back a significant percentage over time – that money may just be locked into difficult to reach places.
