Another Spin?

13 February 2022

By John Grochowski

QUESTION: Why does the casino floor person make you press the spin button on a slot or the deal button on video poker after you are lucky enough to get a hand payout? What if you refuse?

ANSWER: Casinos have long asked players to spin off big winners. The idea is to avoid discouraging other players by leaving a jackpot result on the reels or screen. Results are random and past payoffs have no effect on future outcomes, but many players believe a machine that has just paid big is not ready to pay again. Hence the "one more spin" request.

That practice has become less common over the years. Some casinos no longer ask for a respin. And with ticket pays, some results that used to be hand pays, such as $1,000 royals on quarter machines, now are just added to your credit meter.

The respin request is just a request. The casino can't refuse to pay you if you decline to make another bet. In some casinos, slot attendants are instructed to use house money to make a minimum bet to get that one more spin.


QUESTION: I play mostly Ten Play 25-cent video poker. I really enjoy playing Dream Card poker. I was playing Ten Play Dream Card Deuces Wild and I was down to my last bet. I was dealt three deuces in my first four cards and the Dream Card gave me the fourth deuce. That was $250 times 10! The $2,500 pay was the biggest pay I have ever won.

I have found two different types of Dream Card poker. The first pays well below what a full pay machine would pay and the Dream Card comes up 33 percent to 50 percent of the time depending on the game. The other type pays either very close to full pay and in some cases even higher than full pay, but the Dream Card only comes up 11 percent to 17 percent of the time. Can you tell me which machine has the better payback? Is there a way to tell what the payback is on a Dream Card machine?

I also have a second question. I do play multi-denominational video slot machines. I am very skeptical that the higher denominations have a better payback than the lowest denomination. What is your take?

ANSWER: IGT video poker games such as Dream Card that require extra bets to activate bonus features are designed so the payback percentage on the bonus is as high or higher than on the main game. Activating the feature usually raises the overall payback percentage.

However, the feature doesn't raise the return enough that a lower pay table becomes better than a higher pay table. At the wizardofodds.com site, Michael Shackelford gives an analysis of Draw Poker with Dream Card that lists four versions of Deuces Wild. The 25-15-9-4-4-3 version nicknamed "Illinois" or "Airport" Deuces returns 98.91 percent with expert play on the main game. That's raised to 99.13 percent with the Dream Card active.

Other Deuces versions are raised from 97.58 to 98.01; 96.75 to 97.03; and 95.96 to 96.03.

The higher pay tables still pay more than the lower pay tables, regardless of whether the Dream Card is in play.

As for multi-denomination slots, casinos have options in selecting games and paybacks to be active on the machines, but higher denomination games usually have higher returns than lower denominations. Unfortunately, that can't be illustrated with examples from state gaming board results. Many state revenue reports lump all results on a machine together, regardless of which denominations are being played.