Ask The Slot Expert

Dear John,

I well understand the numbers behind the expectations of the various games one is offered at a casino. I often read how the experts deride the 5.26% advantage a casino has on Double Zero Roulette. Given this, why do slot machine reports, some in the same magazines for which many of your contributors work, show a 94% payback as a good thing? Is this not a 6% casino advantage? If one is not to play a table game with 5.26% disadvantage, then one should avoid almost every slot machine in existence. Perhaps, I am missing the point.

Barnacle Tom

Dear Tom:

On the contrary, Tom, you have the point exactly. Almost every bet on every table game has a lower house edge than the house edge on almost every slot machine. That's why I recommend people learn to play video poker and Frank recommends people learn to play blackjack, craps, and baccarat. If one's goal is to play at the lowest house edge possible, then one should avoid slot machines, because there is no way to know the exact house edge of a machine.

Keep in mind, too, that those slot reports are comparisons among slot machines in a jurisdiction. A 94% payback may indeed be good for, say, quarter machines in Atlantic City. It's not good compared with the house edge on the pass line in craps, but it may be good for a quarter slot machine in AC.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos!
John

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@home.com.

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