Stick to dollar slots. The American Casino Guide reports that the house edge on dollar slots in Las Vegas in 2009 was about five percent, but increased to more than 10 percent for penny slots. Generally, the lower denomination on the slot the higher the house edge you must beat to win. Golden Egypt — When the odds favor playing. Harley Davidson — When the odds favor playing. Details and analysis of almost 4000 actual spins on a Reno slot machine 2003 Las Vegas slot machine rankings 2002 Quarter and dollar returns for Las Vegas slots. How to Win at Slot Machines. New slot machine players are going to find a lot of advice for beating the slots.Have a healthy skepticism when a slots expert tells you they know how to beat the slot machines.
Roulette wheel | Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Spending a weekend gambling in Vegas may be fun, though you’ll probably have an even better time if you win big at the tables. If you’re hoping to beat the odds at the casino, the game you choose to play matters. You’re more likely to come home a little bit richer if you sit down at the blackjack table rather than settling in with the gray-haired set at the slots.
It all comes down to math. Amateur gamblers may hope luck is on their side when they walk through the doors of the Bellagio or Caesars Palace, but what they really need to think about are the odds of winning at different games. While the house always has an edge, it’s much bigger in some situations than in others. That’s why you never see smart gamblers wasting their time playing keno or wheel of fortune – games where you’re almost guaranteed to lose money.
Casino games with the best odds
Savvy gamblers are going to cluster around the blackjack tables, where the casino’s edge is usually between 0.5% to 1%, though the number varies depending on the number of decks and other rule variations. You can calculate the house edge on a particular game of blackjack using the Wizard of Odds online calculator. Those numbers also assume you’re playing with what’s known as basic strategy, or making the best possible decision based on the cards you’ve been dealt. For the average player who’s going to make some mistakes, the house’s edge increases to 2%, according to the University of Nevada’s Center for Gaming Research.
Blackjack table | Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
“Blackjack is one of our easiest games to play,” Jay Bean, a floor manager at Caesar’s, told Cleveland’s Newsnet5. “You’re just looking for a number that beats the dealer’s number without going over 21.”
“You are somewhere between 44% to 48% in every single hand of winning,” Michael Magazine, a professor of analytics at the University of Cincinnati, said of blackjack.
After blackjack, the games with the best odds are baccarat and craps. In baccarat, which is a game of chance rather than skill, the odds are close to 50/50, though your chances are slightly better if you bet on the banker rather than the player. At the craps table, the house edge on a pass line bet is 1.4%.
Roulette is one of the easiest casino games to play, and the odds are also fairly good. If you only bet on red or black or evens or odds (as opposed to a specific number) the house edge is 5.26%, assuming you’re playing in an American casino with double zeros on the wheel. Your odds of winning are better in a European casino with a single-zero wheel.
Video poker is another game with fairly good odds for players. “For video poker the statistical advantage varies depending on the particular machine, but generally this game can be very player friendly — house edge less than 3% is not uncommon and some are less than 1% — if played with expert strategy,” per the Center for Gaming Research.
Casino games with the worst odds
Slots may be less intimidating to novice gamblers than table games like blackjack, but the house is more likely to take you for a ride. Each slot machine is different, but the Wizard of Odds estimates the house edge for penny slots at between 6% and 15%. If you can’t resist the slots, chose a higher-denomination machine, since these tend to have a higher payout percentage than lower-denomination slots.
How To Beat Slots Machines
“The average slot machine is probably two, three times more costly to players than the table games,” Bill Zender, a former professional gambler, told Mental Floss.
Even worse than slots are “sucker games” like wheel of fortune and keno. The house advantage on keno averages 27%, according to the Center for Gaming. For wheel of fortune games (which also go by names like “big six” and “lucky wheel”), the house edge ranges from 11% to 24%, depending on your bet.
Whether you choose to take a chance on the wheel of fortune or are a high-roller playing baccarat, understanding how the game is played will put you ahead of most other players.
“Ninety percent of the people who walk into a casino have no idea of the odds stacked against them,” Zender said.
Also keep this in mind: The more you gamble, the likelier you are to lose. An analysis of online gamblers found that those who bet the least also had the highest winning percentage. But even then, the numbers weren’t great. Seventeen percent of the lightest gamblers ended up in the black over a two-year period. Only 5.4% of the heaviest gamblers came out ahead.
How To Beat The Odds At Slots Online
“[T]he average person doesn’t understand the math” of the multiplier effect, Jim Kilby, who has written books on casino management, told the Wall Street Journal. “Casino games are nibbling machines, and the more nibbles you have, the bigger your losses.”
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Promotional ads from affiliates and misinformation from the clueless, it’s hard to know if the statistics you read are correct. When searching for the easy to win at slots, it’s better to search for the types of games which offer the best odds. When you learn how to spot these game elements, you’ll be able to find the best slots on any casino website online.
Below we’ve provided a list of casinos with online slot games that we found easy to beat. You will also find our tips that should help you to find the easier to beat slot games. This includes things like playing with free money, finding casinos with low bonus requirements, etc.
Where to Find Slots with the Highest Payout Percentages
Beat The Odds Program
7 Tips to Find the Easiest To Beat Slot Casinos
#1 – Look for Payback Percentages – Search for slot machines which post their payback percentage. The higher the percentage offered, the better for you. If you’re playing in a land-based casino in a regulated area like Nevada, you can trust these are the correct percentages. If you find posted payback percentages at an online casino, be a little bit more leery. In many cases, the site wouldn’t be legally obligated to post the correct stats. Better put, you’d have no legal recourse if you found out they were advertising falsely, though the bad reputation if the truth came out keeps the larger, more established, and better regulated sites from posting false information.
#2 Play with House Money – One of the gaming trends in the last few years has been “no deposit bonuses”. This is freeplay money offered to people who register an account. To get your no-deposit bonus, you don’t have to deposit any money yourself. Because the casinos have wagering requirements so players don’t immediately cash out the bonus, the house edge is going to take most of that money back from players. That is, most or all of the bonus is likely to be gone by the time you meet the playthrough requirement. Some people get lucky, so you should always play with the free money first. In casino gambling, never turn down free stuff.
Many of the no deposit bonuses are tiny, between $5 and $10. Some are a little more substantial, between $30 and $50. These offers are a good way to sample online casinos to see if you like them. Look at the freeplay bonus like getting an entry into a freeroll, which lets you check out a casino’s slot game software, gameplay, and player community under real money circumstances. Many of the wager requirements stipulate you have to play slots instead of video poker or blackjack, but that’s no problem for slot machine gamblers like yourself.
#3 Casinos with Low Playthrough Requirements – The same concept applies when choosing casinos according to their welcome bonus. These are the more traditional types of bonus offers, given when players make their first deposit. The less exacting the wagering requirement or “playthrough” is, the quicker you get to cash out your bonus and the more likely you’ll walk away with some money. The easiest way to be a winner and not a loser at slots is to have people hand you money. The VIP rewards and welcome bonus are the online equivalent of the slots club. Look for terms like “welcome bonus”, “match bonus”, or “initial deposit” when searching for these offers. Most slots casinos have them posted in can’t miss fashion on their homepage.
#4 Join a Slots Casino – Slots casinos are sites made only for slots players. These are rare in an age where operators want to offer as many games as possible to appeal to the widest possible customer base, but the slots-only casino has to compete by offering either better graphics, bigger jackpots, or a higher payback percentage. You can find some good deals at the online slots palaces.
#5 One Payline Slots – Slot machines with one payline often have a better payback percentage than the multiple paylines with 9 lines, 25 lines, or 50 lines. Those games require you to pay a whole bunch of coins to activate lines, which swells the amount you have to pay to play. Much of the time, you’ll be paid back with unsatisfying single line “wins” which don’t even cover the cost of the spin. This gives the sense of winning, without really doing it. Single payline machines are also less confusing–winning on a single payline means you know exactly what the score is.
#6 Avoid Progressive Jackpots – Along the same lines, if you want a machine which is easier to beat, play the flat-top slot machines instead of the progressives. Progressive have to collect a lot of money before they pay out those huge jackpots, so the game designers have to set the probabilities of winning other jackpots and prizes real low. If you play on a non-progressive jackpot where the biggest prize is a few thousand coins, the chances of hitting the jackpot is much greater.
#7 Play Higher Coin Denominations – If you can afford to play at the next higher coin denomination, do it. The bigger the coin is you use, the lower the house edge. Casinos welcome high rollers, because they stand to win more money from the high dollar games. To draw in premium players and sharks, all casinos offer better odds to the people who bet the most. Only play higher denomination coins if you really can afford to lose the money you might lose. Remember, no matter how low the house edge, the casino has an advantage. In the long run, you’ll lose your money. The house edge just determines the speed with which you lose.