Ask the Slot Expert: Slot payouts in dollars or credits

A few months ago, I received an email asking for my help in a slot payment dispute. Here are some key details from the email:

• It was a penny slot machine.
• I was playing $.10 (ten cents) so 10 Xs the denomination.
• I won $94 in a free games bonus round.
• The payout should have been $940.
• I have a photo of the total payout along with my bet.
• The gaming commission employee took photos and my information and was supposed to investigate. I never heard back (surprise)

I replied asking the writer to send me a copy of the photo. I never heard back.

At first I thought that maybe the player thought that the amount won display was for pennies and should be adjusted for denomination when it is added to the credit meter (10 Xs the denomination, $940 versus $94). If a payout is displayed with a dollar sign, then that is how much you will win regardless of the denomination you are playing.

I found a video online of someone getting the free games bonus round at the dime denomination on this machine. The winnings from the free games is displayed in credits.

Let's say the player was playing the penny denomination, betting 10 cents per spin. Maybe the player thought the bonus winnings should be multiplied by the line bet. I hesitate to say that I've never seen a machine in which a bonus is multiplied by the line bet, but I can't think of one off the top of my head. In any case, this scenario is a non-starter because the minimum bet is higher than 10 cents on this machine.

So we have to assume that the player changed the denomination to 10 cents. At the end of the free games bonus, the amount won display should have said 940. There's no dollar sign, so the figure is in credits not dollars. Converting dime credits to dollars, 940 credits is $94. Maybe it is credits versus dollars confusion after all.

Figuring out how much payouts are worth can be very confusing when you play something other than pennies or dollars. I think this player thought that a win meter that displayed in credits was actually displaying dollars.

The writer said it was not surprising to hear nothing from the gaming commission. It's not right that the gaming commission never sent a final report to the player. It's also not right to assume that the commission is biased in favor of the casino.

Even the news media can further this supposed bias. How many times have you seen a report saying something like you shouldn't count on being paid the next time you hit a jackpot at a casino and that the gaming commission supported the casino's refusal to pay?

Casinos pay jackpots every day. Suncoast used to announce some jackpots over the PA system. Now jackpot announcements appear on the card reader screens. Casinos even pay big jackpots (2 jackpots worth $503K hit at same Strip casino). If there's nothing unusual or suspicious about how jackpots are hit, casinos pay them regardless of the size.

Even there is something unusual, the player may get paid. Even though I think players shouldn't be penalized because a button on a video poker machine is sticky and didn't hold a card the player wanted held, it is the player's responsibility to ensure that the held cards are correct before hitting the Deal button.

A man was playing a video poker machine a few machines down from me. He called over a slot floorperson because a button malfunctioned and didn't hold a card he wanted held. He missed out on a pat hand.

Long story short, the slot supervisor filled out some paperwork and paid him for the hand. He was playing nickels, so the amount was small. But I've heard of casinos paying public-relations jackpots of a few thousand dollars figuring that it was better to pay money a player didn't really win than deal with bad publicity.

Gaming commissions rarely find in favor of players not because they're biased in favor of the casinos, but because the players can't make a case that they deserve what they're trying to get.

Question: Interesting that someone agreed with my previous comment about much higher table minimums from my August trip. This November trip was similar, so again, I chose not to play table stakes that I am uncomfortable playing.

Birthday bonuses: nothing from Harrah's, MGM, Coast, or even Boyd although they sent very nice (sarcasm) emailed birthday wishes! Funny thing though -- my son gave us some money to try the 'Silver Strike' machine at 4 Queens casino. I registered at the slot club, where the very nice associate wished me a 'Happy Birthday', also gave me a voucher for a free meal (BOGO). Nice touch, and we went on to 'win' several Silver Strike collector tokens. [Note: the original tokens had actual silver content in the tokens, these newer reissues do not.]

You mentioned being dissed by your fav machines. This last trip literally every casino I visited dissed me. I don't have the patience to count how many times I hit the 'play button'. I tabulate my won/lose of beginning of the day to the end, then wake up the next day, rinse and retry. I go with a fairly good attitude, knowing the 'house' always has the edge, but simply put, this was NOT one of the memorable journeys.

As an aside: ate at two very good buffets: Makino's for sushi lunch, and South Point's buffet for dinner. It is nice to know some establishments recognize this niche can be profitable, have quality, be accessible. We have found this to be a nice 'money management' tactic; you cannot lose money while you are eating!

My last observation: while I have used my charge cards almost exclusively since Covid, for most purchases, groceries, restaurants, gas, etc., where I used to use cash, I am not comfortable to go Gaming via the Cashless route. You have a very good understanding of the nuances of the APPs to get your coffee, etc., I've struggled to load a Burger King APP on my phone (I see all those 'eye-rolls' and general thoughts of 'Who is this person?'). Easiest to say, I work too hard for my greenbacks, to make them too easy to access, (or potentially hacked) NOT the way I choose to allocate my vacation stash.

Final thoughts: thank you for posting the Covid statistics. Seems I'm fortunate that most of my trips are at the lowest incidents of cases. Looking forward to the next adventure, probably in March.

Answer: In terms of high table minimums and vanishing buffets, casinos are reporting record profits quarter after quarter. I don't see anything changing in the near future. As the responsible gaming signs say, "Bet with your head. Not over it."

I had forgotten that the old Silver Strike tokens had real silver in them. I'm sure I have a bunch of the old tokens with the silver insert in my casino collectibles box.

Most people stop playing Silver Strike once they have a complete set of tokens. I wonder whether Silver Strike might be one of the better machines to play.

The machines seem to pay the tokens frequently. The casino wants you to walk away with a souvenir and a pleasant memory of winning it. The casino doesn't want you to leave grumbling about how much money you spent trying to complete your set. It seems like I always get a few tokens for not a lot of play.

Maybe the casinos treat these machines as loss leaders and they're close to breakeven, assuming you redeem the tokens.

Don't feel bad about having problems with an app. Every app has a bunch of negative reviews from people who have problems with it no matter how many five-star reviews it also has. Sometimes your phone or its operating system is just too old. Maybe you have some setting or other software that is interfering with the app.

I'm still figuring out the best way for me to use cashless. I think I'm going to settle on funding the account right before a visit and emptying the account back into my checking account at the end. In other words, I'm not going to keep a balance in the cashless accounts.

If there is a fee going in or coming out, I don't know what I'll do. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Even though Covid-19 rarely gets mentioned on the news now, it's still the third leading cause of death in the United States. I have been meaning to mention that reporting has gotten a bit haphazard over the past few months. Many jurisdictions are reporting their data less frequently now. The date I list is still the date that I retrieved the data, but the data is not necessarily current as of that date or the date before.

Don't be overly concerned if there is a spike one week and don't be relieved if you see a drop. The peaks and valleys might be a result of inconsistent data reporting.

Click here for the latest Covid data.