Roulette versus Slots

31 December 2023

By John Grochowski

QUESTION: I read the house has a 5.26 percent advantage on roulette, and I guess the house edge on slot machines has a wide range depending on what you're playing and where you're playing.

What if I know the slot machine I'm playing also has a 5.26 percent house edge. If I bet the same amount, say $5 per spin, am I any better off on the slot machine or on roulette, or do I wind up in the same place.

ANSWER: If all you're looking for is the bottom line, then the primary difference is that slot machines play a lot faster than roulette. You make many more bets per hour on slots and put more money at risk.

Depending on the game, how much time you take between spins, whether frequent bonus events slow your play and other such factors, a dedicated slot player can get in hundreds of spins per hour. In the days when three-reel slots ruled the floors, one slot manager told he expected roughly 200 spins per hour. Today, 1,000 is possible, though most players don't approach that. A nice, steady pace will bring 500 spins or so.

Roulette is a more leisurely game. The dealer has to give players time to make their bets, and it takes time for the ball to circle the wheel, drop and settle into a number slot. Spins per hour range roughly from 30 to 60. The game is slowest at a crowded table and fastest with fewer players.

Let's do a little arithmetic based on 500 spins per hour on a slot machine and 50 spins at roulette, each with your specified 5.26 percent house edge, which is the edge on double-zero roulette.

If you bet $5 per spin, you'd risk $2,500 on the slot and take an average loss of $131.50. in 50 roulette spins, you'd risk $250 with an average loss of $13.15.

Speed of play leads to larger losses at slots if house edges and bet sizes are equal. Most players don't bet as much per spin on slots as they do per spin, roll or hand at table games, and there's good reason.

QUESTION: How often do four Aces come up in video poker games like Double Double Bonus Poker where they're worth a big jackpot compared to Jacks or Better and games with smaller four of a kind payoffs? Do they come up a lot less often when they pay more?

ANSWER: Four Aces come up more often in games where they pay more because player adjust their strategies to chase them.

It's the strategy that determines how often specific hands occur. One example: Dealt Ace-Ace-8-8-4, Double Double Bonus players hold the Aces and discard the other three cards. Jacks or Better players hold both pairs, eliminating the possibility of drawing four of a kind. That leads to more frequent Ace quads in Double Double Bonus.

Bigger four-Ace jackpots are possible because of payoff reductions elsewhere in the pay table. Two-pair payoffs of 2-for-1 in Jacks or Better vs. 1-for-1 in DDB make an enormous difference.

Let's look at four-Ace frequency in a variety of games. I'm going to use middling pay tables, but the principal is the same at other levels.

Four-Ace frequencies include once per 5,106 hands in 8-5 Jacks or Better or 7-5 Bonus Poker; once per 4.463 in 9-6-5 Double Bonus Poker, or once per 4,263 in 8-5 Double Double Bonus. That last includes four Aces with the low kicker for the 2,000-coin pay for a five-coin bet as well as quads without the kicker for an 800-coin return.