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Ask the Slot Expert: Does a slot machine automatically raise the payout amounts when one bets more?

Question: Is there a way to find out the total payout percentage for a particular casino I visit? I live in Idaho, and I am pretty sure there are only three casinos in the state. A small town just across the border between Idaho and Nevada gets quite a lot of business. It actually is so small, it's not really a town, I've been told by one of the residents.

I have some questions about the slot game Dragon Lines. You can play different denominations when you start to play, and change anytime you want.

There are two different bonus rounds. One is obtained by having the flaming coins, six of them, land on the screen as a result of the spin. The other is to land three special symbols on the screen as a result of the spin. Then you will get six free spins, and it is possible to get the flaming coins, as well. With that feature, you will get six free spins and you hope that those coins will show up again. Each time one gets those six coins, it will add up the amounts on the coins and that will be your win.

There are also many wilds that will match other numbers and symbols. The amounts on the flaming coins may also vary depending on how much you are betting, 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, one dollar.

The thing I've noticed is the amounts on the coins can be quite large when betting the higher denominations, but not always. And I have seen some larger amounts land when the bet is smaller.

There is also a multiplier when you are playing more than 1 cent a line. An example would be like this: If you are playing 5 cents a line, then you get the result of the flaming coins multiplied 5 times, 2 cents it is multiplied twice, and so on for the other corresponding amounts.

So my question is this, does the machine automatically raise the pay amount when one bets more? I have noticed it does. Occasionally. But many times it just offers the small amounts. As an example, it often only pays back what the original bet was.

I had read an article from you referring to a game which is similar, and you said that the amounts won on these types of games are not affected by the amount when the bet is increased.

Which way is it?

Answer: Can you find out a casino's payout percentage? The answer is a definite maybe. It all depends on where the casino is.

According to 500nations.com, "there are seven Indian casinos owned and operated by four Native American tribes in Idaho." The other four casinos are in the panhandle. The compacts that the tribes have with the state do not require the casinos to release payback statistics -- nor do they specify a minimum payback percentage.

You mentioned the Idaho-Nevada border, so the town you're referring to must be Jackpot, Nevada. According to its Wikipedia page, "Jackpot is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Elko County, Nevada." I've never been, but I've heard that is has that small census-designated-place charm that you don't find in the big city. "The population was 1,195 as of the 2010 census."

Payback reporting in Nevada is significantly better than in Idaho, but still not good enough. Statistics are reported for general areas only, and not by individual casino. It doesn't do us any good, but New Jersey reports slot paybacks by casino.

Moving on to your questions about Dragon Lines.

When you speak of multipliers, you might be comparing two different things. Let's say you choose the 2-cent denomination and hit six flaming coins. The numbers on the coins add up to 35, but your credit meter increases by 70 cents. Wins are reported in credits, but dollars and cents get added to your credit meter -- which frequently displays cash instead of credits today.

That's one possible explanation, but maybe not the right one. You mentioned betting more than one cent per line. Another possibility is that the sum on the coins is multiplied by the line bet. I couldn't find any documentation for Dragon Lines online and I also couldn't find any videos of people hitting the flaming coins on YouTube. You can check the help screens on the machine to learn how denomination and bet affect how much the coins pay.

You mentioned that the values on the flaming coins varies with the denomination. If the coin values are displayed in dollars and cents, then a coin that pays $1 when betting pennies would pay twice as much at two cents, five times at nickels, and 100 times at dollars -- all the while having the same ratio between coin amount and denomination.

It's also not unusual for the values of the coins to be a randomly chosen multiple of your line bet. It's also not unusual for the highest multiplier to be greater at larger bets.

So, does a machine automatically raise the pay amount when you bet more?

If you raise the denomination, a combination will pay more but that's because a credit is worth more. A 10-credit win at pennies is a dime, while a 10-credit win at dollars is a sawbuck.

Changing denomination sometimes causes a machine to use different reel layouts and sometimes even a different paytable. You can see when changing denominations changes the paytable. If changing denominations changes the reel layouts, then the game screen will display a message indicating which reel layouts are in use. In both cases, the help screens will explain what, if anything, happens when you switch denomination. Sometimes changing denomination has no effect on a machine. You just lose your money five times more quickly playing 5-cent versus playing 1-cent.

A combination can also pay more when you bet more per line. In this case the help screen will say that the combination pays a certain number of credits times your line bet.

As with changing denomination, changing your line bet can also cause a machine to use different reel layouts. The help screens will explain that and the game screen will tell you which reel layouts are in use.

If denomination or line bet do affect a machine, the change is designed to give the players betting more a higher long-term payback.

I wish I knew the article to which you are referring. I think what I meant was that all things (reel layout and paytable) being equal, the amount you bet has no effect on which symbols land on the payline.

Now that we're starting to open up and relax some of the Covid mitigation efforts, I've seen many talking heads on TV criticizing the speed at which the CDC and other government officials are lifting restrictions.

None of these talking heads have anything at stake. They might have a different opinion if they had to make the decisions and they were the ones who would be criticized if they said to open up and then there was another outbreak.

Every year -- well, not last year, but every other year -- the news has a food safety expert on to talk about food safety and holiday parties. I remember a spot with a guy a few years ago. There were things he said he would never do that I bet you wouldn't hesitate to do.

For instance, it's 3PM and there are a few slices of pepperoni pizza left in the box. Would you take a slice for a mid-afternoon snack? I would -- and I have. Cold, or rather, room-temperature pizza. Next best thing to hot.

He said he wouldn't touch those leftover slices. They've been sitting in the temperature danger zone for too long.

He has to give conservative advice. People might get sick if he didn't.

One of the talking heads acknowledged that, despite his opinion that restrictions could be looser, the CDC has no choice but to be conservative. As the Fowch said at the beginning of the pandemic, "we should be overly aggressive and get criticized for overreacting".

I'm reminded of what someone said about Y2K. It was a big nothing, she said. Everyone was worried for no reason.

I tried to explain to her that the reason there weren't massive problems after the year changed to 2000 was because programmers updated software to be Y2K-compliant and companies replaced old hardware with new Y2K-compliant hardware. IT warned about the problem and companies heeded the warning.

From her perspective, nothing happened so IT overreacted. But the reason nothing happened is because IT acted.

Here are the latest figures from https://www.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_totalcases.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.

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