Penny Slots vs. Video Poker

[FloridaPhil]

As recreational players, my wife and I are more concerned with short term enjoyment than long term gain.  This was the whole idea behind CS, as it takes a cheap rather boring game and turns it into an exciting game with the addition of a possible max coin jackpot.   Recently, my wife and I have become somewhat bored with VP and have started to play penny slots.  Some of these games are very entertaining offering a lot of bang for the buck.   Personally, I also like the ability of increasing or decreasing my bet as play.  Is there anyway to know what the odds of a particular penny slot might be?  We realize the games are negative and unbeatable from a math standpoint.   This does not concern us as we are not gambling for profit.  It seem to us that a penny slot may be fairly close to the payout of some of today's low denomination video poker games.   Just curious...

[jetermacaw]

I don't know the odds but if you put an equal amount of money into a penny slot machine as you put in a VP machine your offers should almost double.

[Tedlark]

Phil my brother in law hit for 15k on a .05 video slot machine a couple years ago in Tunica.

[alpax]

To answer your direct question; there is no precise way to know the payout of a slot machine.

Some states (not all) have provided payback information to the American Casino Guide

Link

1. Do not ditch Video Poker completely.

2. Avoid games requiring you to bet the maximum to achieve progressive wins.

3. Play only on multiple point days.

4. Hustle for comps, if not, move to a different casino

5. Swings are about or worse than DDB

6. The slot payback percentage includes the top prize which can be 1 in 262,000+ where as Video Poker is 1 in 40300 - 43800 for the Royal Flush depending on the game.

7. Since the hold can be close to 10%, play a finite amount of spins about 2000 times

8. Play these penny slots if you cannot find a 99% quarter VP game

9. Avoid slots that have big progressive values

10. Avoid slots that are based on a TV show, famous actor/actress (e.g. Dean Martin, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Ellen DeGeneres, Wonder Woman), or any intellectual property. Those have a slightly bigger hold in the form of royalties.

I can provide more tips later...

[FloridaPhil]

We've already decided to avoid slots that require max coin play for their progressive jackpots.  The slots we like the best have minor and major jackpots using multipliers for bigger play.   We like slots with more features other than watching the reels go around.  It's been a long time since we played slots.   The variance on the newer penny slots seems to be a lot calmer with free spins and bonus payouts more common.  I'll bet the payback is close to some of the worst video poker games.  We're not giving up on video poker, but days of it at a time are getting somewhat ponderous.  We might try a little Black Jack too.

[FAA]

Ted, luck certainly runs in the family!

[FAA]

A mere ten minutes of craps adds all the variety I need. Yo!

[Tedlark]

Ted, luck certainly runs in the family!


You're absolutely right FAA; my brother in law sure was lucky to marry into my family.

[alpax]

We've already decided to avoid slots that require max coin play for their progressive jackpots.

We're not giving up on video poker, but days of it at a time are getting somewhat ponderous.

That is already a good way to approach the slots. It is almost like having to bet 5 credits to get the 800 for 1 payout on the Royal Flush rather than the 250 for 1 you get for betting less. It is somewhat tricky but you must read the Help pages on every slot you are not familiar with to see if MAX bet is required for a great payout. Otherwise the maximum number of lines with 1x multiplier is the way to go (higher multipliers will cost you more to play).

The reason I state that the swings can be like DDB or worse is that slots are prone to have dry streaks where the bonus rounds do not trigger for hours (usually 3 or more scattered symbols) just like a quad drought in video poker. Sometimes the games are reliant on bonus rounds to provide decent payback. Do not chase for the bonus rounds, just play a finite amount like 1 hour and accept the end result as a win or loss.

Again, penny slot players are the most valuable to the casino. At least in Vegas the mailers that come in are far more lucrative but it came at a cost of a greater loss. I still think the worse VP games are better than the best slots, but if you could discover the right balance between the amount of slot you play and the mailers you get it can be a better play than the terrible VP game.

I learned that these past few months that even the professional gamblers force themselves to play a bit of these time to time to prevent being booted from the casino properties. Except these players try to find the most optimal "Must Hit By (certain amount)" slot plays. It will trick the casino to view they have slot play under their record to make it look like they are playing under a high disadvantage when they are really not.

[FloridaPhil]

Thanks for the advice. We just started to play around with penny slots recently.  So far, we have not had a problem walking away without too much damage, but we haven't hit one of the long dry spells either.  Like any gambling game, I'm sure this happens with some regularity.   What we're looking for is something entertaining to occupy our time with between losing video poker sessions.  We don't mind paying to play as long as we feel like we're getting our money's worth.  $100-$200 an hour or more is a little steep in our opinion to watch numbers flashing by and the promise of math turning our loses into winnings doesn't give us much confidence.