I am sure this has been discussed before, but are slot odds decreased on bets going higher from 25c x4 or the same as $1. I mean, is it better to play on a 25c machine rather than 5c betting x5 or 5 lines? Do odds and payouts remain the same no matter how much you bet, but do change if you go from a 1c, 5c, to 25c, to $1 machine? If a slot has 3 wheels, each with 10 pics, all 3 cherry odds are 1:1000. In VP, only the Royal Flush on max bet is much higher; otherwise, payout is just doubled based on credits bet. Comparing to NY Scratch Off games, $1 card odds and payouts are worse than $5 and $10, with $20 cards having more chances to win and best odds; ifcourse, I could buy 4 $5 cards instead of a single $20.
Agreed, your best bet to win larger jackpots is to play the biggest denomination you can afford, always smarter to play $1 machines than penny or nickel, but sometimes its hard to do this. Most machines out there these days are pennies, and most $1 and above are older 3-5 reel machines. Although you will have plenty of options to play games like Wheel of Fortune, Pinball, Top Dollar at the $1 level. There are video slots in higher denoms, but usually they arent the newer or sometimes funner games. It all really comes down to the fact of how much of a bankroll you have and do you play just slots or tables as well.
Theoretically yes, the casinos target to meet a competitive hold percentage vs their competitors at certain slot denominations. Also if we are talking about Vegas, the NGC establishes minimal hold rate for casinos. One item that I am not sure is a still a proven fact today, is that percentage of hold always stays true for video based multidenominational slot machines. Things have changed due to the evolution of new gaming technology. There are questions now if casinos adhere to fixed hold rates for new server gaming. The newer technology allows casinos to easily change payback percentage centrally from a main computer, without sending a tech to the floor do conduct chip removal or replacement. It's my understanding the current legislation allows for casinos to change hold percentages on demand as long as it meets established hold ranges established by NGC. The casino follows rules for changing paytables and hold, exampes of this are amount of time the machine has been idle and a message on screen reflecting a change is being made. So again in theory a casino could adjust hold higher at given times that are favorable to them. Again this is speculative since no evidence has ever come out for this, and it would most likely reflect negatively on a casino that admitted to this practice. I am only aware of video poker which has published pay tables at specific denominations as types of gaming machines that can be accurately measured by individuals and payback rate tracked by individuals. Everything else is speculative since we can only go by what the NGC publishes as hold percentages by denomination across all LV properties. These are aggregated averages compiled over a monthly or quarterly period. Hold percentages are so important to casinos, even competitors will look for any advantage. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/feb/14/peppermill-faces-1m-fine-slot-machine-spying/
From various reports I think this is in the ballpark: Penny machines: 12% HA Quarters: 8% HA Dollars: 6% HA Five dollars: 4% HA (Single units. You most likely really play all of these with 2x 3x or 40x on the pennies).
Most of them are... but not all. And any that are tied to a progressive jackpot will be at a set denomination.
The big thing here is: it should, but that doesn't mean it does. Like if a casino has three of the same video slot sitting side by side eachother and one is a penny machine, one is a nickle and the third is a quarter per line you would expect that the quarter machine has the better payback, the nickle has the second best payback and the penny machine is the worst... but thats what you would expect, doesn't mean it has to be that way. Likewise, a casino could have two of the same machine sitting side by side both set at the penny level and they could have different paybacks where one is set much higher than the other. Also you can't just sit down and play a bunch of spins on a machine and have an idea if its got a better payback than another.
So if I play 1c slot at 10 lines x10 for $1, is it the same as playing a $1 slot? Or is it better to play $1 for 10 lines?
Other than if the machine has a progressive (and even then it only depends sometimes) how much you bet per line usually doesn't matter because the payout is the same amount multiplied by your line bet. IE: five of the top symbol might pay 1000 credits... so if betting 1 per line you get 1000 credits, betting 2 per line and you get 2000 credits, betting 10 per line and you get 10000 credits. With progressive jackpot machines they are either going to be: - you must be a certain amount to have a chance to win a progressive or - the more you bet the better chance you have to win the progressive As for your original question: the dollar machine *SHOULD* have the better payback, but in that case you are betting $10 per spin versus only $1 per spin on the penny machine.
If I recall correctly, it doesn't get much better than 3%-4% even at the highest denominations. Their take per spin is large so you'd think they could trim the edge to be very small, but they also have to factor in that they generally won't get a lot of spins per day on these very high limit machines.