The 'best' games to play

28 February 2016

By John Grochowski

QUESTION: If you were me what would you recommend playing at the casino that would give you the highest chance of walking away with a profit?

I have been gambling for 10 years and the other night I put over $700 in the same penny machine at $1.25 max bet. The day before that, I put over $500 in the same type machine and didn't win anything over $16 the entire time.

Ever since this happened I've been playing $1 and $5 machines and done considerably better.

ANSWER: Since you ask which games give you the best shot to win, I’m going to walk away from the slots here, but will come back to them in today’s second question.

The standard casino games that have the lowest house edges and give you the best chance to win are blackjack if you learn basic strategy; craps if you stick to the best bets; and the best video poker games.

There are minuses for all those options. Craps can get expensive if you're taking the free odds and making multiple bets. Video poker is hit and miss. Some casinos have games with house edge of 3% and 4% instead of less than 1%, and there's a lot of variance since 2% of the payback is tied up in royal flushes that come only about once per 40,000 hands.

Blackjack is less volatile than video poker and you don’t have multiple bets working at once as in craps, but you have to be willing to put in the time to learn basic strategy.

In general, table games have lower house edges and give you a better shot to win than machine games, with the best video poker games being an exception. Speed also is an issue, and we make a lot more bets per hour on machine games than on table games.

But you have to choose games that suit your personality, too. I can't tell someone who really loves slots, "You should be playing blackjack instead."

Most of my play is on video poker and blackjack, but the strategy aspects are what I love. Others just want to play and not bother with study time. You need to find your own niche.


QUESTION: Lately I have been playing high-limit, mostly $5 slots and noticed the payout seems
much better and slots seem much looser than say a penny or quarter/dollar machine.

Is this true on all high-limit slots or have I just been lucky lately in finding the right machine to play?

ANSWER: The payback percentage is higher on $5-and-up slots than on other slot machines. These vary from game to game and casino to casino, but as averages, you can expect roughly 86 to 88% paybacks on pennies, 91 to 93% on quarters, 93 to 95% on dollars and 95 to 97% on $5 machines.

Keep in mind that you're taking on extra risk with you play the higher denominations. Most quarter three-reel machines accept three coins at time, so if you're betting 75 cents per spin on a quarter machine and getting 92% return, then in 1000 spins you risk $750 and lose an average of $60. Many $5 three-reel games accept only two coins at a time, so if you're betting $10 per spin on a $5 machine hat returns 96%, then per 1,000 spins you risk $10,000 and lose an average of $400.

You're getting a much higher payback percentage on the $5 game, but you lose more because your bets are so much bigger.