Gamblers have wondered what kind of tricks the house uses since the dawn of gaming. Such is true of slot machines because players want to know what slots tricks are at play
The reality is that there are no illegal tricks being used. Otherwise a casino would quickly lose its license.
But you will find that casinos do certain things to skew the odds in their favor. Let’s look at a few things that many brick-and-mortar casinos do to ensure profits.
Trick #1: Casinos Lower Slots Payback as Needed
Many gaming establishments keep their payback competitive with surrounding competition. After all, they don’t want word getting around that they offer the lowest slots payback.
However, casinos will also order lower-paying machines as needed.
This isn’t to say that you’ll be dealing with 88% payback or worse. But don’t be surprised if you’re only getting between 90% and 93% payback on most land-based machines.
The problem is that the United States is saturated with more casinos today than ever before. This leads casinos to lower their payback slightly in hopes of offsetting the costs of losing players.
Trick #2: Casinos Count on Uninformed Players
In an age where you can find just about anything on Google, most players can find relevant slots payback info. But casinos are also relying on customers that don’t look up this information.
If you’re offering lower payback than the casino two hours away, you’re not going to attract informed players. But you can still draw plenty of locals who don’t know any better.
This is the sole reason why many casinos still feel comfortable offering lower payback.
Trick #3: Casinos Lower Video Poker Payback or Try to Move these Players to Slots
Video poker is looked at as the holy grail because some games offer over 99.50% payback. But don’t count on finding too many of these machines in casinos today.
Gaming venues don’t make much money off video poker because most players know the strategy. Therefore, they either offer lower pay tables or try moving these players to slot machines with incentives.
Regarding pay tables, the average casino will offer 8/5 Jacks or Better (97.30% payback) instead of 9/6 (99.54% payback).