Best Odds On Slot Machines
- Best Odds Penny Slot Machines
- Best Odds On Slot Machines In Vegas
- Best Odds On Slot Machines In Las Vegas
- Best Odds On Slot Machines In Las Vegas
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The best slot machine games, where payouts are concerned, are always online based. The percentage falls dramatically live as compared with online. Where the general online average RTP percentage tends to hover around 95%, land based casinos can – and often do – offer percentages as low as 75%. To see how slots pay less than true odds to give the house an edge, let’s set up an example that’s as streamlined as slot odds can get, a game of the type used in the early decades after Charles Fey invented the three-reel slot machine in 1895. A hypothetical three-reel slot game with one 7, two bars, three cherries and four watermelons per.
I never play slot machines. If I want to play at a gambling machine, I usually stick with real money video poker.
I have various reasons for this, but one of the most important reasons is because the odds of winning at video poker are far better than the odds of winning at a slot machine game.
How do you know what the odds of winning on a video poker machine are? I can offer some guidance in this post. To learn more, keep reading below.
Probability and Video Poker
Before you can calculate the probability of winning at video poker, you need to understand some of the basics of probability math.
The first and most important thing to understand is that an event’s probability is just a number between 0 and 1. The closer that number gets to 1, the likelier it is to happen.
By definition, something with a probability of 0 will never happen. Also by definition, something with a probability of 1 will always happen.
And if you add the probability of something happening with the probability of it not happening, you’ll also always get a total of 1.
That probability can be expressed in multiple formats, but the most useful formats are odds and percentages.
Everyone knows what a percentage is. It’s just a measure of how many times out of 100 you expect something to happen. If something happens 20% of the time, that means it happens 20 times out of every 100.
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Odds, on the other hand, can measure probability. But they also measure the amount a bet pays out. Something with a 20% probability of happening has odds of 4 to 1. You have four ways it can happen and one way that it can’t.
Like other fractions, odds can be reduced. To get to that 4 to 1, we just converted 20% into 20/100, which reduces down to 1/5. That means it happens 1 out of 5 times.
Gambling Machines Measure Their Odds in Terms of Payback Percentage
When you’re dealing with a slot machine, you have a variety of symbols on each reel, each of which comes up a certain percentage of the time. You don’t have any way of estimating how often that symbol will show up, but the slot machine manufacturer knows.
When they take all the possible combinations and their percentages of coming up, they balance that against the payout for each of those combinations to create a profitable game for themselves.
Let’s say you have a really simple slot machine game with four potential winning combinations:
- You’ll get three bars 25% of the time and win even money.
- You’ll get three cherries 10% of the time and win 2 for 1.
- You’ll get three plums 5% of the time and win 3 for 1.
- You’ll get three pumpkins 1% of the time and win 5 for 1.
It’s easy to calculate the expected return (another phrase for “payback percentage”) for a game like this.
You start by calculating the expected value for each of the possible prizes. You just multiply the probability of winning by the amount you’ll win.
- 25% x 1 unit = 25%
- 10% x 2 units = 20%
- 5% x 3 units = 15%
- 1% x 5 units = 5%
Add those up, and you have the payback percentage for the game:
Over time, on average, you’ll get back 65 cents for every dollar you bet on that slot machine game.
In the short run, over an hour or so, you might win some money or lose more than that. But over time, your average should get close to this.
The Advantage of Video Poker Over Slot Machines
My problem with slot machines is that they’re the only game in the casino where you don’t know what the odds of winning are.
When I’m rolling a pair of dice, I can calculate the probability of winning. When I’m playing blackjack, I can estimate the odds of winning, because I know what the odds of getting specific cards are. When I’m playing roulette, I know how many red and black outcomes are on the wheel.
But since slot machines are run by a random number generator, I have no way of knowing what the probability of getting three cherries in a row is. It could be 8 to 1, 16 to 1, or 1000 to 1.
All I know for sure is that the odds of getting each payout are lower than the payout odds for that combination.
Video poker, on the other hand, is based on a deck of 52 cards. I know how many of each card is in the deck, so I can estimate the odds of getting specific combinations.
When you combine that knowledge of probability with knowledge of the payouts for those combinations, you wind up with the payback percentage of the game.
Jacks or Better Is the Original Video Poker Game
For the most part, all video poker games are just variations of Jacks or Better. It’s a simple enough game. You bet between 1 and 5 coins and get dealt a virtual five-card poker hand. You then decide which of those five cards you want to discard and which you want to keep. The machine deals you replacement cards and pays off your bet based on the poker hand you wind up with.
The best possible hand is a royal flush, which pays off at 800 for 1 odds if you bet five coins. If you’ve bet fewer coins than that, it only pays off at 200 for 1 or 250 for 1, depending on the machine.
So, you should always bet the full five coins to take advantage of that higher payout. If you play with something approaching optimal strategy, you should get a winning hand about 45% of the time on a Jacks or Better video poker game.
That’s the short answer to “what are the odds of winning on a video poker machine,” by the way. It’s roughly 45%. But that’s not going deep enough. You should know more about it than that.
Since we know the probability of winding up with various combinations of cards, we can calculate the overall payback percentage for such a game. You just do the same calculations we did for the simple slot machine above.
You multiply the probability of winning each prize by the amount of that prize and add them all together to get your payback percentage.
- A pair of jacks or better comes up about 21% of the time and pays off at 1 for 1.
- Two pair comes up about 13% of the time and pays off at 2 for 1.
- Three of a kind comes up about 7%of the time and pays off at 3 for 1.
- A straight comes up about 1% of the time and pays off at 4 for 1.
- A flush comes up about 1% of the time and pays off at 6 for 1.
- A full house comes up about 1% of the time and pays off at 9 for 1.
- A four of a kind comes up about 0.2% of the time and pays off at 25 for 1.
- A straight flush comes up about 0.01% of the time and pays off at 50 for 1.
- A royal flush comes up about 0.002% of the time and pays off at 800 for 1.
Multiply those and add them all up, and you have a game with a payback percentage of about 99.5%.
But Not All Video Poker Games Are the Same
Of course, Jacks or Better is just one variation of video poker. You can find dozens of different video poker variations on the market. All of them are based on Jacks or Better, though.
With some of these variations, the big difference is the inclusion of wild cards. In Joker Poker, the game uses a 53-card deck with a joker that acts as a wild card. In Deuces Wild, the deck has the same 52 cards in it, but the twos are wild cards.
With games like these, the payouts for the various hands change based on how much more likely the higher hands are to appear.
But that’s not the only way casinos and game manufacturers vary their video poker games. They also change the payouts on various hands.
If they change those payouts enough, you get a different game. Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and Bonus Bonus Poker are basically variations of Jacks or Better that provide higher payouts for four of a kind hands of a certain ranking.
But even within a single narrow band of a game, like Jacks or Better, you can find multiple pay tables available. The differences in these pay tables change the payback percentage for the game.
With Jacks or Better, the pay table I used as an example is the best possible example. When manufacturers want to create a Jacks or Better game with better odds for the house, they have smaller payouts for the full house and the flush. Changing those payouts from 9 and 6 to 8 and 5 reduces the payback percentage from 99.5% to 97%.
Your Decisions Matter
One of the other fun things I like about video poker is that your decisions have an effect on the outcome. These payback percentages that I mention assume that you’re playing your cards optimally. In other words, you’re making the right decisions about which cards to keep and which ones to throw away.
Imagine what your payout would be if you broke a pair every time you got one. Can you see why that would hurt your results in the long run?
Conclusion
Best Odds On Slot Machines In Vegas
What are the odds of winning at video poker? On a single hand, on most games, it’s about 45%. But that only tells a small part of the story.
Video poker offers a nearly endless amount of complexity when it comes to payback percentages and correct strategy. It’s a game worth learning to play.
Introduction to Minnesota Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2020
Minnesota slot machine casino gambling consists of 19 tribal casinos with slot machines.
Theoretical payout limits exist due to tribal-state compacts. Actual return statistics are not publicly available.
This post continues my weekly State-By-State Slot Machine Casino Gambling Series, an online resource dedicated to guiding slot machine casino gambler to success. Now in its third year, each weekly post reviews slots gambling in a single U.S. state, territory, or federal district.
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Relevant Legal Statutes on Gambling in Minnesota*
The minimum legal gambling age in Minnesota depends upon the gambling activity:
- Land-Based Casinos: 18/21
- Poker Rooms: 18
- Bingo: 18
- Lottery: 18
- Pari-Mutuel Wagering: 18
Minnesota prohibited gambling for nearly a century which, to this day, still influences legalized gambling. The Minnesota House Research Department documented the convoluted history of legalizing gambling from 1945 to 2005 in Gambling in Minnesota: A Short History.
Establishment of tribal gaming regulations was through compacts. Minnesota’s eleven federally-recognized American Indian tribes were the first to negotiate and sign tribal-state gaming compacts. The 22 negotiated compacts produced 19 tribal casinos in the state.
Each tribe has two compacts, one for video games-of-chance and a second for card games. Tribal casinos operate under a combination of state law, tribal ordinance, and tribal-state compacts. Class II games-of-skill machines are unregulated by the state.
These gaming compacts permit non-video Class III Vegas-style, games-of-chance, slot machines. However, blackjack and non-banked card games such as poker and video games-of-chance are explicitly restricted. Also banned are electronic video games like video poker, video keno, video slots, and others.
The gaming compacts stipulate the Minnesota Department of Public Safety is responsible for the inspection and approval of these video gaming machines. Both parties agreed that the compacts should be effective in perpetuity but re-negotiations can occur if desired by both parties.
Minnesota makes all tribal-state compacts publicly available at Tribal-State Gaming Compacts, consisting of 100 downloadable pdf files.
*The purpose of this section is to inform the public of state gambling laws and how the laws might apply to various forms of gaming. It is not legal advice.
Slot Machine Private Ownership in Minnesota
It is legal to own a slot machine privately in Minnesota.
Gaming Control Board in Minnesota
Minnesota has six gaming control boards for various aspects of gambling oversight. The gaming compacts provide for inspection and approval of video gaming machines by the Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AEGD).
Further, compact gaming regulations approve the licensing casino employees, machine payout percentages, and regulation of the play of blackjack. Specific responsibilities of the AEGD includes:
- Licensing of manufacturers and distributors of gambling devices.
- Gambling criminal enforcement and investigation.
- Assure compliance with tribal-state compacts.
Casinos in Minnesota
There are 19 American Indian tribal casinos on reservations in Minnesota.
The largest casino in Minnesota is Mystic Lake Casino Hotel with 4,000 gaming machines.
The second-largest casino is Treasure Island Resort and Casino with 2,200 gaming machines.
Commercial Casinos in Minnesota
Minnesota’s two pari-mutuel facilities Canterbury Park and Running Aces offer blackjack and non-banked card games such as poker. However, both racetracks can’t offer slot machines.
Tribal Casinos in Minnesota
Minnesota’s 19 tribal casinos are:
- Black Bear Casino Resort in Carlton located 22 miles southwest of Duluth.
- Fond-du-Luth Casino near downtown Duluth.
- Fortune Bay Resort & Casino in Tower located 91 miles north of Duluth.
- Grand Casino Hinckley located 82 miles north of Minneapolis.
- Grand Casino Mille Lacs in Onamia located 97 miles north of Minneapolis.
- Grand Portage Lodge & Casino located 144 miles northeast of Duluth a few miles from the Canadian border.
- Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel in Morton located 113 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
- Little Six Casino in Prior Lake located 26 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
- Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake located 27 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
- Northern Lights Casino & Hotel in Walker located 128 miles west of Duluth.
- Palace Casino & Hotel in Cass Lake located 140 miles northwest of Duluth.
- Prairie’s Edge Casino Resort in Granite Falls located 129 miles west of Minneapolis.
- Seven Clans Casino Red Lake located 180 miles northwest of Duluth.
- Seven Clans Casino Thief River Falls located 235 miles northwest of Duluth.
- Seven Clans Casino Warroad located 251 miles northwest of Duluth a few miles from the Canadian border.
- Shooting Star Casino Bagley located 186 miles northwest of Duluth.
- Shooting Star Casino Hotel in Mahnomen located 211 miles west of Duluth.
- Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Welch located 46 miles southeast of Minneapolis.
- White Oak Casino in Deer River located 99 miles northwest of Duluth.
Other Gambling Establishments
As an alternative to enjoying Minnesota slot machine casino gambling, consider exploring casino options in a nearby state. Bordering Minnesota is:
- North: The Canadian Provinces of Manitoba and Ontario
- East: Wisconsin Slots and, across Lake Superior, Michigan Slots
- South: Iowa Slots
- West: North Dakota Slots and South Dakota Slots
Each of the links above will take you to my blog for that neighboring U.S. state to Minnesota.
Our Minnesota Slots Facebook Group
Are you interested in sharing and learning with other slots enthusiasts in Minnesota? If so, join our new Minnesota slots community on Facebook. All you’ll need is a Facebook profile to join this closed Facebook Group freely.
There, you’ll be able to privately share your slots experiences as well as chat with players about slots gambling in Minnesota. Join us!
Payout Returns in Minnesota
As written into tribal-state gaming compacts, the minimum and maximum theoretical payout for slot machines are 80% and 95%, respectively, over the lifetime of the game.
Further, video keno and similar games specifically cited have a theoretical payout requirement of no less than 75% applied to each number of spots marked per wager.
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Video games of chance affected by player skill such as video poker and video blackjack have a minimum and maximum payout return of 83% and 98% again over the lifetime of the game. These limits assume optimal play.
Minnesota’s tribal casinos don’t offer return statistics to the public.
Summary of Minnesota Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2020
Best Odds On Slot Machines In Las Vegas
Minnesota slot machine casino gambling consists of 19 tribal casinos with video-style slot machines.
Minimum and maximum theoretical payout limits are 80% and 95% for video slot machines. Video keno has a lower payout return limit of 75%. Skill-based games like video poker and video blackjack are instead 83% and 98%, but assume a perfect playing strategy for optimal play. No return statistics are publicly available.
Annual Progress in Minnesota Slot Machine Casino Gambling
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In the last year, there has been no significant changes in slots gaming industry of Minnesota.
Related Articles from Professor Slots
Other State-By-State Articles from Professor Slots
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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC