- Luckily, there are plenty of fabulous casinos around the United States where you can hit the slots without forking over hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket. Here's where you can find the loosest real money slots without flying to Las Vegas. WinStar World Casino (Oklahoma) To begin with, the WinStar World Casino is the largest casino in the.
- Loose Slots Near the Door One common theory is that casinos place 'loose' slots near the doors of the casino. Gamblers coming into the casino see other players winning at the slots and decide they want to play.
Slots by the same developers constantly being mentioned, certain casinos being identified as possessing loose slots, and slot machines by name that have proven to be big earners for players.
We may earn money from the companies and products mentioned in this post.
Finding Loose Slot Machines
Casinos in Las Vegas are required to report their gaming win to include slot hold percentage (amount they win from players) to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. With 2018 behind us, the Board recently reported their gaming win statistics for the past year which we will break down below. This data should assist us in identifying where we can find the loosest slots in Las Vegas!
We will be looking at all 'non-restricted' locations (essentially the big casinos) and their data from the past year (Jan 1, 2018 – Dec 31, 2018).
The reporting we're looking at doesn't drill down to the individual casino level, rather, groupings of casinos by geography. We'll help you identify the casinos in each reporting zone that have machines featuring a lower casino win percentage (or hold) so you can play where your money will last.
Related:$20 trick in Vegas: What is it? Should you give it a shot?
As a matter of housekeeping, casino slot 'win percentage' is defined as the % of the total amountwagered by the player that the casino held as profit. For instance, a 7% casino win percentage means the casino, on average, kept 7 cents of every dollar bet on slot machines.
Finding Loose Slot Machines
Example: A player put $10 into a slot machine and made his money last for a bit playing a total of $100 in spins before losing it all. The total amount wagered by the player was $100 and the casino won, or held, $10 resulting in a 10% casino win rate.
Now we get down to brass tacks. Where will we find the loosest slots in and around Vegas in 2019? Slot machines in the North Las Vegas and the Boulder reporting areas tended to be looser than those on the Strip and on Fremont with a 6.58% and 5.81% casino win percentage respectively.
If chasing slots that pay out is more important than being in Vegas, the slots in Reno offered a player friendly casino win rate of only 5.45% in 2018.
Since the area immediately surrounding Las Vegas is divvied up in to separate reporting areas, it can be difficult to know which casinos fall into which.
Casinos in the looser Boulder reporting area include: Sam's Town, Eastside Cannery, Arizona Charlie's, Boulder Station, Sunset Station, M Resort, Fiesta Henderson and Green Valley Ranch.
Casinos in the looser North Las Vegas include: Jerry's Nugget, Silver Nugget, The Cannery, Fiesta Hotel and Casino, Texas Station, Cannery and Aliante.
It's clear from the chart above that the more popular an area is with tourists, the tighter the slots get. Slots on the Las Vegas Strip had a win percentage of 8.12% and Downtown Las Vegas was only slightly better at 7.64%.
It's also interesting that slots on the Strip and Downtown have gotten continuously tighter over time – 2018 was no exception. Slots on the Strip held 8.12% of money in 2018 vs. 8.04% in 2017. In the year 2000, slots on the Las Vegas Strip held only 6.02%. We're going the wrong direction!
The same tightening trend is apparent Downtown as slots held 7.64% in 2018 vs 7.34% in 2017. Looking back to the year 2000, slots Downtown held only 5.33%.
Was there a specific denomination of slot that rewarded players more regularly in 2018? It won't likely surprise you that higher denominations are looser than smaller.
Megabucks were by far the tightest slots in Vegas at an astounding 13.12% casino win percentage. Penny slots, the most popular denomination with gamblers, were not overly generous at a 10% casino win rate.
One mistake I see many gamblers make is playing $1, $2, $3, or more per pull on a penny slot. If you are wagering that much per pull anyway, play a larger denomination to improve your chances of winning.
We hope this helps you find slots that pay out in and around Las Vegas! Just remember, it's better to get off the beaten path and play larger denominations when it makes sense.
See Also:Yes, you can buy the exact same fragrances Las Vegas casinos use for home use!
Once a month this column will answer reader questions about things you experience in Bay Area card rooms. The following recently came in from a player in the North Bay:
Question
We may earn money from the companies and products mentioned in this post.
Finding Loose Slot Machines
Casinos in Las Vegas are required to report their gaming win to include slot hold percentage (amount they win from players) to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. With 2018 behind us, the Board recently reported their gaming win statistics for the past year which we will break down below. This data should assist us in identifying where we can find the loosest slots in Las Vegas!
We will be looking at all 'non-restricted' locations (essentially the big casinos) and their data from the past year (Jan 1, 2018 – Dec 31, 2018).
The reporting we're looking at doesn't drill down to the individual casino level, rather, groupings of casinos by geography. We'll help you identify the casinos in each reporting zone that have machines featuring a lower casino win percentage (or hold) so you can play where your money will last.
Related:$20 trick in Vegas: What is it? Should you give it a shot?
As a matter of housekeeping, casino slot 'win percentage' is defined as the % of the total amountwagered by the player that the casino held as profit. For instance, a 7% casino win percentage means the casino, on average, kept 7 cents of every dollar bet on slot machines.
Finding Loose Slot Machines
Example: A player put $10 into a slot machine and made his money last for a bit playing a total of $100 in spins before losing it all. The total amount wagered by the player was $100 and the casino won, or held, $10 resulting in a 10% casino win rate.
Now we get down to brass tacks. Where will we find the loosest slots in and around Vegas in 2019? Slot machines in the North Las Vegas and the Boulder reporting areas tended to be looser than those on the Strip and on Fremont with a 6.58% and 5.81% casino win percentage respectively.
If chasing slots that pay out is more important than being in Vegas, the slots in Reno offered a player friendly casino win rate of only 5.45% in 2018.
Since the area immediately surrounding Las Vegas is divvied up in to separate reporting areas, it can be difficult to know which casinos fall into which.
Casinos in the looser Boulder reporting area include: Sam's Town, Eastside Cannery, Arizona Charlie's, Boulder Station, Sunset Station, M Resort, Fiesta Henderson and Green Valley Ranch.
Casinos in the looser North Las Vegas include: Jerry's Nugget, Silver Nugget, The Cannery, Fiesta Hotel and Casino, Texas Station, Cannery and Aliante.
It's clear from the chart above that the more popular an area is with tourists, the tighter the slots get. Slots on the Las Vegas Strip had a win percentage of 8.12% and Downtown Las Vegas was only slightly better at 7.64%.
It's also interesting that slots on the Strip and Downtown have gotten continuously tighter over time – 2018 was no exception. Slots on the Strip held 8.12% of money in 2018 vs. 8.04% in 2017. In the year 2000, slots on the Las Vegas Strip held only 6.02%. We're going the wrong direction!
The same tightening trend is apparent Downtown as slots held 7.64% in 2018 vs 7.34% in 2017. Looking back to the year 2000, slots Downtown held only 5.33%.
Was there a specific denomination of slot that rewarded players more regularly in 2018? It won't likely surprise you that higher denominations are looser than smaller.
Megabucks were by far the tightest slots in Vegas at an astounding 13.12% casino win percentage. Penny slots, the most popular denomination with gamblers, were not overly generous at a 10% casino win rate.
One mistake I see many gamblers make is playing $1, $2, $3, or more per pull on a penny slot. If you are wagering that much per pull anyway, play a larger denomination to improve your chances of winning.
We hope this helps you find slots that pay out in and around Las Vegas! Just remember, it's better to get off the beaten path and play larger denominations when it makes sense.
See Also:Yes, you can buy the exact same fragrances Las Vegas casinos use for home use!
Once a month this column will answer reader questions about things you experience in Bay Area card rooms. The following recently came in from a player in the North Bay:
Question
'On a recent visit to the Bay Area I visited a casino in the North Bay and overheard some other patrons describe the slot machines there as 'loose.' What does this mean? Are some slot machines really more likely to pay out jackpot money than others? How can you tell loose machines from 'tighter' ones?'
Answer
Here's what Russell Kinney, vice president of slot operations at Cache Creek Casino in Brooks (Yolo County), had to say:
'When casinos talk about slots being 'loose,' they're talking about the payback percentage. Machines are set to pay back a certain percentage of everything that players put in. The catch is that this is calculated over millions of pulls. Most $1 machines and above pay back at 95 percent, so long as you are playing (the maximum number of) coin (lines). Over 1 million pulls, this means you'll make back 95 percent of what you put in. Of course if you sit down with $100 and play for 20 minutes, it is possible for the machine to take your money and not give you anything.'
'Payback percentage also relates to entertainment value. If you walk into a Strip casino in Vegas, and you put in $100 but only get 32 minutes of entertainment, that's not the best entertainment value. Well, if you go to a local casino and you get 45 minutes of entertainment for the same amount of money, you're getting more value, and the paybacks on the local machine are probably better.'
'For the best entertainment value, guests need to look for machines with the lowest top award. Think about it - at a payback of 95 percent or better, these machines are going to have a higher frequency of hits. If you have a $1 machine that has a top award of $1,000, it is going to hit over and over and over again for $10, $20, $50 and so on. Let's say you find another machine with a $50,000 top award. The program running that machine was written in such a way that it won't give you as many small pays because it has to pay out $50,000 at the top end. It's a trade-off; machines with higher top awards will take your money faster, but you have the opportunity to win big.'
'Of course the most aggressive paybacks - the 'loosest slots' - in the casino are usually video poker; paybacks here can be up to 103 percent. If you find a poker machine that has a 7/10 payback, I'd play it. That means that when you win, you get seven coins on a flush and 10 coins on a full house. Most paybacks in California are 5/8. Every once in a while you see a 6/9. Keep in mind that these rates are only if you play max coin, and only if you play by the same rules as the computer itself.'
