Simple definitions every
slot player should know by Henry Tamburin
Do you really know what a slot machine's return percentage means? How about a machine’s hit frequency or its volatility? What about the difference between a buy-a-pay vs. a wild pay slot machine?
These terms and others make up the language of slots, and if you want to fully enjoy the slot experience, you need to be familiar with them. To help you out, here are some important slot terms and what they mean:
Return Percentage
Casinos publicize this number and often brag about it in their advertisements. The return percentage is the amount the slot machine returns on average for every dollar played into the machine.
For example, a casino that advertises a "certified 98% return slot machine" means that machine will return to players 98 dollars for every 100 dollars played over the long run. This doesn't mean that the machine will always pay off exactly 98 dollars for every 100 dollars played. Sometimes the machine will pay back more than 98 dollars; other times a lot less or even nothing. But on average, after many, many hours of play by thousands and thousands of people, the return percentage will balance out to 98 percent.
As a general rule, the higher the denomination of machine, the greater the return percentage. Thus, a $1 machine will return more to players than a nickel machine.
Slot Win (or Payout) Percentage
The term "slot win" or "slot payout" is used interchangeably with "return percentage." They mean the same thing. A machine that has a 98 return percentage also has a slot win percentage (or payout) of 98 percent.
Strictly Slots and Casino Player magazines publish the slot win percent every month for casinos in different regions of the US. Specific casinos or regions with the greatest slot win percent means that their slot machines over the past month have returned more of the coins played to players. By looking at the published win percentages over time, a player can get an idea which regions or specific casinos have been returning more.
Hold Percentage
This is the percentage of coins played that is kept by the casino. It is the opposite of the return percentage.
In the above example, a machine with a 98 percent return has a hold of 2 percent. For every 100 dollars played into the machine, on average, 98 dollars is returned to the player and 2 dollars is kept by the casino. Remember we’re talking about long term percentages; over the short term, the win and return percentages can deviate greatly from the slot machine’s long term percentages.
Casino Advantage
For slot machine play, the casino advantage is the same as the hold percentage. A machine that returns 98 percent of all the money played has a casino advantage or hold percentage of 2 percent. The latter means the casino will keep on average $2 out of every $100 played.
Tight Machine
A "tight" slot machine is one that has a lower return percentage compared to other similar denomination machines. Tight machines return less money to players over the long term and, therefore, the casino keeps more.
Loose Machine
A "loose" slot machine returns more to players over the long term compared to other similar denomination slot machines.
Coin-In
Slot machines have a meter that totals the cumulative amount of coins played. This is known as the machine’s "coin-in." If you bet $1.25 per spin, and play 1,000 games (about 2 hours), your coin-in is $1,250. If you got back $1,125, then the machine kept 10 percent of your coin-in (which means the return percentage was 90 percent and the casino’s hold was 10 percent).
Casino managers use a machine's cumulative coin-in to determine which models of machines are getting the most play from slot players. The machine’s coin-in also allows managers to determine the percentage the machine is winning (i.e. the machine’s hold percentage).
Cost Per Play
This term indicates how much it is costing a player for each play. It’s calculated by multiplying the amount played by the slot machine's theoretical casino advantage. For example, the cost for inserting $3 into a slot machine with a 5 percent casino advantage is 15 cents. This is an average figure that will be achieved after many hours of play.
Casino’s Expected Win
If you multiply the cost per play by the number of games played, you can calculate how much the casino will expect to win (or how much you can expect to lose). Most slot players play about 500 games per hour. After one hour of play, playing $3 per game with a 5 percent casino advantage, the casino's expected win is $75. In real time, you’ll most likely win or lose more than the expected $75, but, over the long haul, your average result will be pretty close to $75.
RNG
RNG stands for "random number generator." It is the computer program that determines which symbols line up on the reels. Its sole purpose is to generate a sequence of numbers in milliseconds. Each random number it generates corresponds to a reel combination.
Even when a slot machine is not being used, the RNG keeps doing its job of generating numbers. Whatever random number was generated the split second you pull the handle (or hit the "bet one" or "max bet" button) will result in the corresponding reel combinations that appear on your screen. The RNG doesn't care how much you bet, whether you bet one coin or five, whether you pulled the handle or hit the spin button, whether it's your first play or last, whether you are winning or losing, or whether you are playing with or without your slot card. It just continually generates random numbers. If you happen to be the lucky player that plays the very split second the RNG generated a number corresponding to a jackpot reel combination, you'll be a big winner.
Hit Frequency
The hit frequency of a slot machine is a number that represents the percentage of the time that a slot machine pays out.
For example, a machine that is programmed with a hit frequency of 20 percent means that for every five plays, on average, one will result in a payback of some sort. Keep in mind, this is a long term frequency. You could pull the handle five times on a slot machine with a 20 percent hit frequency and get no payments, or you could hit the jackpot. But over time, the machine will average a payout about once in five plays.
The range of hit frequencies for slot machines varies from about 8 to 30 percent, with the average hovering at around 15 percent. Strictly Slots magazine publishes the average hit frequency for different makes of slot machines. This information will give you an idea of how frequently a specific slot machine will pay out some type of award.
Number of Spins for a Hit Average Hit Frequency
3 33%
4 25%
5 20%
6 17%
7 14%
8 12%
9 11%
10 10%
11 9%
12 8%
On the surface, a machine with a high hit frequency sounds good. But a hit doesn't necessarily mean a win. If you play three coins on every spin and always win two coins, you will lose money, even though the machine has a 100 percent hit frequency. Of course, this type of slot machine would not be very entertaining for players, so slot manufactureers must provide different amounts of payouts on each hit to make it exciting. Some of the hits will result in small payouts, some larger, and a very tiny percentage of the hits will result in a player winning the jackpot.
Overall, if you add up the amount of the payouts each time the machine hits and divide it by the number of coins played (coin-in), you will eventually come close to the machine’s programmed return percentage.
Volatility
This is a number that casino managers use to determine whether or not the results (i.e. a machine’s hold percentage) are in line with expectations, or whether something is wrong and needs investigating.
Slot manufacturers provide casino managers with a slot machine's volatility index (the latter is a function of the total number and amounts of the payouts, and the number of games). This number can be used by casino managers to calculate a range of expected hold percentages (based upon the number of games played). The latter can then be compared with the actual performance of the machine to determine if there is anything out of line.
In general, a slot machine's actual hold percentage could be very different than the theoretical hold percentage after a relatively small number of plays. For example, a slot machine with a 10 percent volatility index and a 15 percent hold percentage could have an actual hold percentage of negative 17 to positive 47 percent after only 1,000 games. However, as the number of games increases, the expected hold percentage will narrow and approximate the theoretical hold percentage. After 1 million games, for example, the expected hold percentage is 14 to 16 percent, which is very close to the machine's actual 15 percent hold.
Number of Games Expected Hold Percentage
1,000 -17% to 47%
10,000 5% to 25%
100,000 12% to 18%
1,000,000 14% to 16%
From the player’s perspective, what this means is that, in the short term, your results could be very different from a machine's theoretical return percentage. With a casino hold percentage of 15 percent, you expect to get back 85 cents on the dollar, but in practice, you will most likely end up getting back anywhere from 53 cents to $1.17 after 1,000 games. However, the longer you play, the closer your average results will approach a return of 85 cents for every dollar played.
Multipliers
This term refers to slot machines on which the number of coins played multiplies the winning payoffs. For example, one cherry on the pay line might pay two coins with one coin played, and 10 coins with five coins played.
On most multiplier machines, the payoffs are proportional to the number of coins played—except for the jackpot. You usually get a bonus payoff for maximum coins played when you hit the top award. For example, hitting three 7's on the payline might pay 100 coins for one coin played, but if you play two coins, you would win 500 coins (instead of 200 coins—a bonus of 300 coins).
The overall return percentage for these machines includes the bonus jackpot payoff; therefore, if a player plays less than maximum coins, the theoretical return percentage is lower. This feature encourages players to bet the maximum amount on each spin.
There are some machines, however, that pay off in direct proportion to the number of coins played (e.g. in the above example, the machine would pay 200 coins for two coins played). With these types of slots, you are not penalized with a lower return percentage for playing less than the maximum number of coins.
Buy-a-Pay
These types of machines are the most confusing to players. Their characteristic feature is that each coin played activates a set of jackpot symbols. In essence, when you insert more coins, you are "buying" additional jackpot symbols.
An example is a "Sizzling 7s" machine. If you inserted one coin and three Sizzling 7s showed on the center payline, you would not win a thing. It's only after you insert the second coin in these machines that the Sizzling 7s jackpot becomes active (with one coin played, the single bars, double bars, triple bars, etc. are active, but not the Sizzling 7s).
It's very important if you play these types of machines that you play the maximum coins. You would not feel very good if you hit a winning combination—or worse, a jackpot—and then discovered that because you didn't play enough coins, you’re not going to get a dime.
How do you recognize a buy-a-pay machine? Check the payout schedule on the face of the machine. If you see a different combination of winning symbols when a second coin is played, that’s a buy-a-pay slot.
Nudge
On these types of slot machines, once the reels stop spinning, symbols will move to the center payline from just above or below it. The most common nudge machine is a version of "Double Diamonds." Some of the bars and diamonds will drop to the payline.
On these machines, you could end up with a winning spin even if no winning symbols appeared on the center pay line when the reels first stopped. This is the draw that gets players to play.
Wild Pay
This refers to a specific type of slot machine where you have the chance at double, triple, even five and 10 times the winning payout if a wild symbol lines up on the pay line. If more than one wild symbol lines up, the payout is multiplied again. Examples of these types of slots are "Double Diamonds," "Five and Ten Times Pay," and "Treasure Tunnel."
Second Chance
On some of the newer slot machines, players have a second chance to win thanks to "slot bonusing." An example is the bonus wheel on the "Wheel of Gold" slot machine. When the bonus symbol appears on the pay line, the bonus wheel on top of the slot machine spins. When it stops, it awards a player a bonus payout. The bonusing concept encourages players to play longer because, psychologically, they win something they didn't expect.
Progressives
A progressive slot machine takes a percentage of all the coins that are played and adds it to a jackpot that increases in value. When a player hits the winning jackpot symbols, he wins the total accumulated in the jackpot. The progressive meter then resets the jackpot to a minimum payoff.
In general, casinos have a leeway on what percentage of coins played is added to the jackpot (usually it's between 0.5 percent and 2 percent).
There are two types of progressives. The Megabucks and Quartermania are examples of progressive slots that are "linked" to other similar machines in different casinos. By linking the machines, the jackpots often exceed several million dollars. These progressives are known in the industry as "revenue participation games" because the slot manufacturer owns the machine and the casino essentially leases the floor space to them. The revenue from these machines is shared between the manufacturer and the casino.
The other types of progressives are the "multiple progressives" like the Cool Million slots. On these machines, you can win any one of three progressive jackpots by lining up specific symbols corresponding to them.
Henry Tamburin is one of America's premier gaming writers and author of six best-selling books. For a free catalog containing his books and videos, call toll free 1-888-353-3234 or visit his web site for more gaming tips at http://www.smartgaming.com.