Do higher-denomination machines hit more often?

First I must say that I appreciate your insightful posts.

I have a question for you. I have heard that higher denomination machines have better chances of hitting. I was wondering is this also true with the machines where you can select the denomination you want to play it for? I play in Atlantic City and I can choose $1, $2, $5 or $10. Can one machine have different payouts for each denomination or are the chances the same no matter which denomination you choose?

Hopefully I have made my question clear. Keep up the great work!

Robert

Dear Robert,

Thanks for the kind words about my columns.

It's not true that higher denomination machines have better chances of hitting. What is true is that higher denomination machines tend to have higher long-term paybacks than lower-denomination machines. Your chances of hitting something on any given spin may or may not be better than on lower-denomination machines. The chances of hitting something is called hit frequency.

On a machine on which you can change denominations, the reel layouts (and therefore the long-term paybacks) may or may not be the same for the different denominations. The video poker pay tables usually get better when you increase denomination, so the slot paybacks may also get better. We can tell the long-term paybacks of different video poker pay tables, but unfortunately we can't tell a thing about slot paybacks.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John

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