Are casinos allowing customers to win less, because of the economy?

Slot machine (and other) odds are set by state law, there are no “loose” slot machines or “tight” slot machines.

(“loosest slots in town” isn’t a misnomer—they’re all the same odds)

I recently saw a commercial on tv for Harrahs Casino in Metropololis, Ill. the commercial stated “our slots are paying more now than ever before”. what exactly does this comment mean? i assume it means the slots were tight, but are now loser. what else could this mean? if this statement means what i think it means, it sounds as if the casinos have control over whether people can or cannot win. do they still post the aggregate payout of the day in each casino?

Grumpy is right. They are required by law to pay a certain percentage of what they take in.

“our slots are paying more now than ever before” could mean we have more customers now. So 95% of 1 million dollars is more then 95% of 900K dollars. Welcome to marketing and spin.

johnpowell, so what you are saying is that the more people that are in casino means the more money the casino allows you to win? what about an early Sunday morning and hardly any gamblers are there, does this mean i should come back another time, when more gamblers on onboard and the payout will be higher? if so, this sounds like the casinos are controlling their payouts to customers, based on quantity of players there. am i right or wrong?

@john65pennington The odds are straight—at any given time, the odds are identical.

So the casino pays out, say, 50% of the money played. If I play $100, chances are I’ll only lose $50 (but the casino has “paid out” that $50).

If 10 people play $100, the casino has now paid out $500 (at 50% odds)

If 100 people play $100, the casino has paid out $5000, or paid “more than before”.

If 105 people play $100, the casino has paid out $5250, or again, “more than before”

The odds don’t have to change for the total dollar amount paid out to change.

Thanks grumpy. i was just attemtping to determine which day and time would be best for us to go and maybe have a chance at winning some money. i know its a game of chance. i once saw a sign on a casino boat that read: Aggregate Payout Today is: 92.7%. i realize that each turn of a slot machines wheels is not going to give me back that percentage for each dollar invested. a group of ladies went to a casino with $100 dollars to play the slots. they read this aggregate sign and thougt, “the most we can lose is 6.3% of our $100 dollars”. sorry this did not happen this way. they sued the casino boat and lost. what this means is this: onboard that casino boat, there is one slot machine that pays the aggregate posted amount. you just have to find that slot machine. this is the way the casinos circumvent the law, like the old bait and switch.

“our slots are paying more now than ever before”. what exactly does this comment mean?”
It is nothing more then a sucker ploy. Simple marketing for the simple minded.
No disrespect meant.

They say there’s one born every second nowadays.

Vegas House Odds:
Blackjack, depending on how many decks are used: In favor of the house, .60% to .63% (6 -8 decks played)
Craps (differs on the bets placed): well, check it out yourself.

ChazMaz, none taken. i had a friend that was a security guard on one of the casino boats. he told me that a slot machine will hit the big jackpot every 300,000 different roations of the wheels. he also said that the casinos knows which machines are about to hit. their onboard computer notifies them of this. one Sunday morning at a casino boat, this worker came around to my wife and said, “honey, you are playing three coins in that machine, aren’t you?”. my wife said yes. in about 4–5 minutes, this machine hit the big jackpot. why did the worker tell my wife this? she knew it was about to hit. the casino employees know these things. i have given five dollars for this information and its been proven true, 60% of the time. and, lets talk about Reward Cards. those little plastic cards you insert into the slot machine you are playing? this is supposedly to keep up with your money and time played for “future rewards”. this may be true, BUT does it not stand to reason that if the signal from the slot machine can be sent to an onboard computer, that the same signal can come back to your slot machine to allow you to win? i have noticed that the lights surrounding your card input slot on a slot machine, begins to rotate in a circle, just before a win is given. notice this the next time you play a slot machine.

No, casinos are already optimized to make as much money as they can.

Interestingly, I’ve heard that the optimum winning percentage they use is ~90% (much higher than you’d think). Why? Because if you win 90 cents for every dollar you play, you end of getting lots more positive reinforcement, think you’re doing better for longer, and ultimately play much longer and lose much more. It’s a very specific psychology that casinos have spent an incredible amount of time and money mastering.

Sometimes I’d like a business where people show up, put money in my machines, and leave.

@ben It’s an awesome business model, isn’t it?