Slot Machine Odds and Probabilities

Everyone’s heard the theories of when a Slot machine is ready to pay out. These theories relate to how many coins have been put in, when the last payout was, which image flashed 6 times and then beeped….They’re all rubbish!

There is no time when a slot machine is “ready to pay out”. All modern machines work on the basis of random number generation and therefore you can figure out the odds of winning, but it has nothing at all to do with timing.

Does 90% payback mean 90% probability of winning?

Right from the outset the player is at the disadvantage; a 90% payback percentage, whilst it sounds great actually means that on average you will get 90% of your money back from that machine on every coin you put in. If, for example you started with $10 in $1 coins, you put all of them in and you get $9 back because you got your 90%; then, of course you put those $9 back in. Well, this time you get $9 back minus 10% i.e. $8.10. Again, you put you ‘winnings’ in and true to the 90% form advertised, you get back $8.10 minus 10%, $7.29. This continues until you have nothing; and that is just taking into account the payback percentages.

Don’t forget also, that you will rarely have a one line machine and with coinless slot machines taking off, the spins are happening faster than ever, which means that this credit diminishing process occurs quicker than ever before.

Figuring out Slot Machine Odds

Figuring out slot machine odds isn’t actually as hard as it sounds. If you have a simple 32 stop, 3 reel slot machine with each stop corresponding to a different symbol, you can figure the odds of a particular symbol appearing on one reel; 1/32 as there is one chance of each of the 32 stops being stopped on. A 2 reel match would therefore be 1/(32x32) i.e. 1 in 1024; and a three symbol match would be 1/(32x32x32), go on, you do the math, it’s really simple…that’s right, 1 in 32,768. The more the virtual stops the larger the odds are and therefore the less chance there is of hitting the jackpot.

The important thing to remember is that whilst the percentage payout can be taken into account, as can the number of stops on a machine, each spin is completely random so you actually have the same chance of winning every single spin.

Are Slot Machine Odds Good

The favorability of a slot machine’s odds depends mostly on the above two formulas regarding payback percentages and the number of stops, but also on your skill and of course luck. Slot Machines these days whether you are playing in an online slot room or in a land based casino, are run by random number generation programs which are absolutely fair and random. Each spin on a slot is an individual event and therefore the chance of each symbol appearing on each reel is as likely as any other appearing, irrelevant of what came before.

Marissa Patterson