Should A Slot Machine Have Its Long-Term Payback Posted On It? by John Robison

I recently received a letter from someone who thought that each slot machine should have its long-term payback posted prominently on it so slot players could make an intelligent decision about which games they play, in much the same way that many table games players only play the games and make the bets that have the lowest house edges.

Having payback information posted on each slot machine is an intriguing proposition. Let’s take a closer look at it. First, let’s see if there is a precedent for disclosing house edges anywhere else in the gambling world? Table games don’t have placards giving the house edges on the various bets available in the games along with the minimum and maximum bets placards, but we have enough information about the devices (cards, wheels, dice) used to determine the outcome that we can calculate the house edges. The table games’ house edges are not secrets.

Lotteries are another part of the gambling world. In a lotto-type drawing, your chances of hitting are published on the lottery’s website and on the back of the pick slips (at least in New York and New Jersey). I’m not sure if that’s enough information to calculate the house edge (how much of the money played is returned to the players), but at least we do know the chances of having a winning ticket.

For instant lottery tickets in New Jersey, each game has a page on the New Jersey lottery website. The page tells the total number of tickets that were printed for the game, how many tickets had each possible prize amount, and the percentage of money allocated to prizes, i.e., the house edge.

It seems like slots are the exception in the gambling world. We don’t know our chances for hitting any particular winning combination and, therefore, we don’t know anything about the house edge against us. All of the other gambling games I can think of give at least some information about what the player is up against. The only thing slot players are ever told is that a machine under a marquee or in a separate room pays back 92% or whatever. And sometimes even this information is couched in ambiguity with a phrase like “up to,” so we can’t even count on the posted payback. Let’s suppose that each machine must have its exact long-term payback posted on it. Would players use that information?

Many years ago, I was playing slots in Circus Circus one night with my cousin’s boyfriend. Circus Circus had (and may still have) a spinning turntable, like a carousel with slots instead of horses, in the casino. There was a neon sign advertising that the machines paid back 98%, or something, above the change booth in the middle of the turntable. We spent a lot of time playing those machines and did quite well. It was one of those magical times when every machine was hitting and everyone’s coin tray was overflowing with coins. There was a long line of people redeeming stacks of trays of dollar coins at the change booth.

Later that night, my cousin’s boyfriend decided to play the same type of machine that he had played on the carousel, but on the main casino floor, where no claim was made as to the machine’s payback. He ended up giving back most of what he had won. He wouldn’t necessarily have won had he gone back to the machine on the carousel, but at least he would have known what he was up against. Many casinos have banks of machines under signs giving an indication of the long-term paybacks of the machines. The paybacks on these machines may not be any better than the paybacks of other machines on the slot floor, but the implication is that these are the better- paying machines in the casino. Yet many times I see these machines sitting idle and players playing the same type of machine on the main slot floor.

If players don’t use the general long-term payback information available for these special banks of machines, would they use exact long-term payback information if each machine had it posted? Would they search all the dollar Double Diamond machines to see if there’s one or two that pay back more than the others? Would they use the information to see if looser machines were really in the visible locations? Would they use the information to choose where they play? I told my correspondent that in the interest of making all gambling games transparent, the long-term payback should be posted on each machine. But I also said that most players would ignore the information. People keep playing Megabucks and buying lottery tickets despite the long odds against them and the high house edges. I guess the dream beats the mathematical reality.

— John Robison is an expert video poker player and author of The Slot Expert’s Guide to Playing Slots, $6.95, by Huntington Press (800) 244-2224. He is the managing editor of the gaming pages at rgtgaming.com. Email: slotexpert@comcast.net.