For or To?

28 May 2023

By John Grochowski

QUESTION: Whenever I read about video poker, I see payoffs "for one," like a flush might pay 5-for-1. In other games, I'm used to 5-to-1, or 5-1, or 5:1. Why does video poker specify "for"?

ANSWER: Odds-for-1 mean your original bet is included in the payoff. Odds-to-1 mean you're getting that payoff in addition to keeping your bet.

When you make a bet on machine games such as video poker, your bet is immediately deducted from your credit meter.

To make an example easy, let's make a hypothetical 1-credit bet. Five-credit wagers are common n video poker, but let's keep the for-1s simple.

Imagine you start with 80 credits. A 1-credit bet would reduce the meter to 79. If you then drew a flush with a 5-for-1 return, the 5-credit payoff would increase the credit meter to 84. The 5-credit payoff brings back your wager plus a 4-credit profit.

If the payoff was 5-to-1, you'd have kept your bet and the 5-credit payoff would have increased the meter to 85.

A 5-for-1 pay brings a 4-credit profit; a 5-to-1 pay brings a 5-credit profit.

Payoffs on slot machines also are on a for-1 basis. If you bet 40 credits, then line up five high-paying symbols for a 300-credit payoff, the 40 credits are deducted from your meter, then the 300 are added for a 260-credit profit.

Table games usually are paid at odds-to-1, though a small percentage of craps tables pay odds-for-1 on one-roll propositions.

But at the tables, the dealer doesn't take your bet until it's decided. In blackjack, you get 3-to-2 or sometimes 6-to-5 on two-card 21s, but most bets are paid 1-to-1. Win a $5 bet and you keep your $5 and make a $5 profit.

If the payoff was 1-for-1, the hand would be a push. That's the case at the bottom of the video poker pay table, where on many games pairs of Jacks or better pay 1-for-1. Your bet is deducted when you make it, then your high pair payoff brings your back where it started. You just get your money back, as you would in blackjack if your hand tied the dealer's.


QUESTION: Just in casual conversation on the ride home from a casino, I started off, "Ever since the Liberty Bell ..." My sister's husband broke right in and said, "That wasn't the first. There were slots before the Liberty Bell."

I asked what he meant, and he couldn't give any examples, but insisted the Liberty Bell wasn't the first slot machine.
Was it?

ANSWER: That depends on what you mean by "slot machine." The Liberty Bell, invented in 1894 by San Francisco mechanic Charles Fey, was the first three-reel slot machine. It was the first in the line that led to modern slots. Today's players would instantly recognize it as a slot machine.

In early days, any coin-operated mechanical device was referred to as a slot machine. In bygone times, machine didn't have to be a gambling device to be a slot machine. Coin-operated beverage dispensers and mechanical candy vendors were slot machines.

There also were coin-operated mechanical gambling devices before the Liberty Bell. Among them were games with large wheels mounted to the front. The wheels were divided into segments, and each segment had a colored arc at the top. Players would bet on a color. The wheel would rotate and when it stopped, your color was in the top segment, you'd win.

So if the question between you and your brother-in-law was, "Was the Liberty Bell the first coin-operated mechanical gambling device," then no, it was not.