Skip the Glamour – Look Deep Into Their
Paytables
4 May 2007
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark: I recently saw an advertisement from
a casino that said their slot and video poker
machines are the loosest. How do they determine
what loose is? Stan F.
What you saw, Stan is advertising gobbledygook;
moreover, no one can truly give you a
quantitative answer as to what "loose" really
means, especially when it comes to video poker
machines.
For slots, "loose" can mean one of two things,
"more payouts" or "higher paybacks." Now add
this kicker, Stan: a slot machine's payback is
not necessarily related to the number of
payouts.
You also might want to challenge the
advertisement's frame of reference. Does it
imply that their casino slots are looser than a
neighboring casino's slots, looser than all the
other slots in its gaming jurisdiction, that a
select few of their own slots are looser than
the rest of the machines on the gaming floor, or
that their slots are now looser than in the
past, meaning, Stan, that possibly their slot
machines are now set for a slightly higher
payback than they were last month.
As for loose video poker machines, no such
animal creeps or crawls in the green felt
jungle. Because every hand is dealt randomly,
tightness and looseness of a video poker machine
are strictly based on the machine's paytable. A
6/5 paytable (6 coins returned for a full house,
5 for a flush with one coin inserted) would be
considered very tight on a Jacks-or-Better
machine, whereas a 9/6 machine (9 for a full
house, 6 for a flush) would be loose.
You pin down the looseness of a video poker
machine by standing directly in front of it,
introducing yourself, and INSPECTING THE
MACHINE'S PAYTABLE. The paytable reveals what
the casino pays for a pair of Jacks-or-better,
two pairs, three-of-a-kind, flushes, a full
house, etc.
Scrutinizing one video poker machine's paytable,
versus another's, Stan, is the simplest – nay,
the ONLY way to determine loose versus tight.
Dear Mark: There are certain slot machines that
I like to play on a regular basis. Yet it seems
over the past few years it doesn't make any
sense to be loyal to any one particular machine
because once you finally find a machine you
like, the next time you go in it's gone. Why is
that? Ruth B.
Slot machines, Ruth, are a lot like reality-show
contestants. They can and do get booted off the
island. Their survivability is based on their
showing reasonable results.
Slot managers place their machines strategically
to maximize customer appeal and potential casino
earnings. Unfortunately, Ruth, I can't give you
a tried-and-true reply as to how slot managers
place their machines, because no two casinos do
it exactly alike.
What I can tell you, though, is that a slot
machine's performance is measured by two
factors: the amount of coins wagered daily
("coin in") and the amount collected daily by
the casino ("win"). If a machine's performance
(the ratio of "win/coin in") falters ever so
slightly, a slot manager could decide a change
is warranted in the physical positioning of
machines on the casino floor (what they call
"slot mix"), possibly involving the deep six for
a favorite of yours.
As for your love and devotion to any one
particular machine, well …remember, though maybe
fun and cute, it was only in it for your money.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: There is no such
thing as a "good" roulette player. Being a good
roulette player is like being a good smoker." --
Peter Griffin
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