- Whether playing online slots or on slot machines, players should max bet if they can afford it. Slot payouts are exponentially higher when making the maximum bet compared to the minimum bet. This means when a winning payline lands, players can receive a much bigger jackpot.
- The maximum bet is 45 coins. If you’re playing the progressive version of the game, be aware that you can’t win the progressive jackpot without making the max bet, but many Internet casinos don’t even offer the progressive version. Jazz Time is another penny slot from RTG. Like Food Fight, it has 5 reels and 9 paylines, but this game has.
Slot machines are the most popular game in any casino. Sure, people bet more on the lottery, and the worldwide sports betting market is huge. But slot machines are the game du jour in most casinos, especially in the United States.
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Sadly, slot machines games also offer the worst odds in the casino except maybe for keno. The compounding effect of making hundreds of bets per hour at the slots make these games a bigger moneymaker for the casino than keno.
There’s no science to playing slots. You put your money in, spin the reels, and hope for the best. The only decisions you make are which game to play and how much to bet.
This post covers how much you should bet. You’ll often hear so-called gambling experts say you should always place the maximum bet on slot machines.
This isn’t true for most games.
There Are Two Kinds of Max Bets on Slot Games
You’ll only find one “Max Bet” button on a slot machine game, but some games allow you to adjust the number of paylines you bet on. These are older games. They preceded the guaranteed “243 ways to win” games.
The first time I saw one of these games, a friend of mine called them “penny slots.”
The minimum bet was 10 cents per payline and the game had 25 paylines. The minimum bet was, to my way of thinking, $2.50. You could never bet just a penny on that “penny slot” game.
The maximum bet was $1 per payline. This was a sneaky way of getting the players to lay down more money. If you hit “Max Bet” on that machine, it took $25 in credits from your balance.
The More Complicated the Slot Game, the Less Likely You’ll Win
If you don’t understand how much you’re betting when you push a button on a slot game, there’s something wrong with the game. Perhaps the gaming industry just went through a phase of bad design.
But just because a slot machine game has multiple paylines, you shouldn’t assume that you’ll lose money if you bet on fewer paylines. Each bet on each payline is a separate bet, so playing all the paylines at once might make you more likely to see a winner. But you’ll also see more losing spins on the other paylines to compensate (in the long run, anyway).
The game is still programmed to spin as if all the paylines are active. I watched in horror, as that $25 bet spun the reels. I got lucky and the machine paid a low prize. I didn’t lose $25.
You can save money on a slot machine like this in two ways.
- You can bet on fewer paylines.
- You can lower the size of your bet.
My buddy disabled all the paylines and played $1. We saw a big prize combination come up but it didn’t pay anything. It was on a deactivated payline. There was no pattern on the one active payline.
A Few Older Games Increased Your Probability With Your Bet Size
This kind of game worked in the opposite way. You didn’t disable or enable paylines. The game’s help screen said some features were only enabled for the max bet.
We deduced that meant the theoretical return to player was calculated only for the max bet. And if the game wasn’t allowing you to use all the features with lesser bets then it must have had a lower RTP.
I went back to play some blackjack that night but my friend stayed and played that game. He did okay, not great. He said it made a big difference to play the max bet.
A Basic Slot Game Doesn’t Change the Probabilities
Whether it’s a 3D video slot with monsters running around the screen or just a classic three-reel game, if the slot game doesn’t disable paylines or require max bets, then the probabilities don’t change.
You can bet the minimum or maximum credits, and it won’t affect the outcome of the game. You simply change the number of guaranteed spins you can play.
If you have $300 and a game has a $1 minimum, you can play that game 300 times. If you make a maximum bet of $5 on every spin, then you can only play the game a maximum of 60 times (if you lose every time).
This makes a difference to some players. Other players say you’re not going to lose 60 times in a row, so why worry about that? Bet the max and get the most from your prize.
Most Progressive Slot Games Only Pay on Max Bets
If you’re playing a progressive slot game, then you need to make a maximum bet. I’ve seen a few games with multiple progressive jackpots where you only needed a max bet for the biggest jackpot.
If you have two versions of the same slot game, one is progressive and the other is not, you might as well play the max bet on the progressive version of the game.
Progressive slot games have a mixed reputation. I’ve talked to people who refuse to play them. They’re convinced the payouts are less on progressive games.
And I know people who almost exclusively play progressive slot games. They would rather win a big prize beyond whatever the machine itself pays. They don’t have to win $1 million if they can come away with a few thousand.
I’ve seen it play out both ways. I’ve never been in a casino where someone won more than $10,000.
The Math Says Max Bets Put You Ahead Faster
Assuming you find a slot machine that pays reasonably well, maybe it’s on a “hot” streak despite its regular RTP, why not play only max bets?
If the maximum payout is 1000x your bet, you’ll make $999 on a $1 bet or $4995 on a $5 bet. That’s a really simple equation, so why doesn’t everyone bet that way?
If you’re down to your last $20, you may decide to “roll it up. ” But what’s the difference between rolling up $20 and rolling up $200?
It comes down to how many spins you can guarantee yourself. This is a psychological game we play with ourselves. The odds of winning on the next spin are the same regardless of how much you bet.
There Is Another Advantage to Not Making Max Bets
If you want to play a lot of different games and you don’t have an unlimited bankroll, then playing minimum bets allows you to spread your time around.
Some players like to test the games when they visit a casino for the first time. They make a decision based on luck.
Max Bet Slot Wins Today
I remember watching a man approach a slot machine late one night. I was getting ready to leave. He put a dollar in the machine and spun the wheels.
He went down the line of machines until one of them paid. There, he stopped and began playing.
Conclusion
Slot game designs have become more polished, but their rules are less confusing. People want to push a button and win some money.
I think caution is only warranted if you’re unfamiliar with the games and you don’t know immediately if they have any special rules. It’s always a good idea to read the pay tables first.
And if you’re a little confused by the game rules, then only play minimum bets until you understand what the game is doing.
There’s no need to rush into max bets if you’re not ready to take that chance.
Forget the old rule of always betting max coins
Is It Better To Bet High Or Low Slots
By John Grochowski
There is no magic formula for winning on the slots. No betting pattern, no duration of play before moving to a new machine, no pauses between spins, no using or withholding your players club card can sway the random number generator from making its appointed rounds.
However, there is one rule that’s been drilled into slot players’ heads for generations: To get the highest payback percentage, you have to bet maximum coins.
That’s a message I received the first time I spoke with a slot attendant in the 1980s, and it was in every book I read when I first got serious about casino games at the beginning of the 1990s. The Trump casinos long have used a character named “Max Coins” to deliver that very message: If you want the most a game has to offer, you have to bet the max.
But the slot world has undergone a complete transformation since I started play. And one of the things that has changed is this: Betting the max doesn’t always increase your payback percentage. On many machines, betting one coin per line yields the same percentage as betting the max.
There are exceptions in the cases of mystery bonuses and some progressives. But before getting into all that, let’s recap some of the ways slots have changed.
Before the video age, slots all had three mechanical reels, most had a single payline and maximum bets were either two or three coins. Nearly all progressive jackpots were one tier, with only the top-paying combination having a progressive payoff. Bonus events? Nobody had even heard of such a thing. They were still a few years in the future.
You can still find such games today, but the large majority of slots are on video today, usually with five reels instead of three. Bonus events are a given, often with several possibilities in the same game, including free spins, wheel spins, pick’em bonuses and more. Progressives usually are multiple tiers, and sometimes require a side bet.
And we’re not dealing with single paylines. We’re dealing with 20, 30, 40 and more lines, along with Reel Power-style no-payline games with 243 ways to win – and more with reels that are four symbols deep instead of the usual three.
To top that off, we’re presented with options of betting not one, two or three coins, but sometimes five, 10 or even 20 coins per line. A three-reel quarter game might take wagers of 25, 50 or 75 cents. A penny slot with 30 paylines and a max bet of 10 coins per line tops out at a $3 wager – that penny machine has a max bet four times the max bet on an old-style quarter game.
Many newer video slots are “forced bet” machines in which playing fewer lines is not an option. On a 40-line penny game, you might find buttons for bets of 40 cents, 80 cents, $1.20, $1.60 and $2, with no way to play just one line, a penny at a time.
With the potential for wagers that large, players naturally wonder if the old “bet the max” adage still applies. Check out a couple of recent emails to land in my inbox:
MARIE: “I don’t make max bets anymore. I can’t afford it! So I cover all the paylines and bet one or two coins per line. Still, it nags at me because we always were told to bet the max on slots. How badly am I missing out by not betting max?”
KARLA: “My mom is a slot player from way back. She’s in her 80s, and I’ll bet she’s been playing slots for at least 40 years. She told me to always bet the max on the slots, but even she doesn’t do it now. When I look around, nobody is betting the max. Should you?”
In most cases, no, there’s no advantage to it. To see the reason, let’s look at why max bets were recommended in the first place.
Larger bets do not make winning combinations occur more often. The random number generator works with the same number set no matter how many coins you bet, and the proportion of reel combinations you see will remain the same regardless of your bet size.
However, most slots with three mechanical reels have incentives to bet the max in the form of disproportionate top jackpots. On a hypothetical three-reel game with a three-coin maximum wager, you might find a top jackpot of 1,000 coins for a one-coin wager and have that doubled to 2,000 coins if you bet two coins instead.
If you bet the three-coin max, the jackpot on our hypothetical game doesn’t jump just another 1,000-coin increment to 3,000. It leaps to 5,000.
Instead of a jackpot being worth 1,000 credits per coin wagered, the max-coins bettor gets 1,666.7 credits per coin wagered. That higher per-coin payoff means the payback percentage is higher when you bet max coins.
Best Bet Slots
Most video slots aren’t like that. Touch the screen to call up the pay table, and you’ll see the payoffs are proportionate throughout. If the top jackpot is 1,000 credits for a one-coin wager, it’ll be 2,000 for two, 3,000 for three and so on.
With no disproportionate jump, your average return per coin is the same at any bet size. The payback percentage remains the same, and betting the max will not increase the payback percentage. But that does not mean video slots have no incentives to make larger bets.
Here are a few reasons to play more than the minimum:
PROGRESSIVE JACKPOTS WITH SEPARATE BET
If you play progressive machines, it’s important to make sure you’re eligible for the jackpots.
On three-reel games with a single jackpot, progressives give a ramped up version of the usual incentive to bet the max. The hypothetical game that has a top jackpot of 1,000 coins with a one-coin wager, 2,000 for two coins and a leap to 5,000 with three instead pays 1,000, 2000 and then jumps to the progressive pot if you bet the max. If you don’t bet the max, you can’t win the progressive.
That was tried in the early days of video slots. It didn’t work very well. The difference between the minimum bet and maximum is so large most players didn’t see a progressive jackpot as reason enough to bet out of their comfort zone. Nickel slots drew most of the play early in the rise of video slots, and players who had no qualms about betting 75 cents on a 25-cent progressive weren’t about to bet $3.75 on a 15-line video slot with a max bet of five coins per line.
Today, you’re much more likely to see a penny game with multitiered progressive jackpots that require separate bets to be eligible. Players who bet the minimum per line are eligible for the same jackpots as those who bet the max, as long as they make the side bet. The side bet could be 10 coins, 15 coins or more depending on game and manufacturer.
Youtube Minimum Bet Slot Wins
If you’re going to play these games, you’re going to want to be eligible for the progressives. Make the side bet. If you don’t want to bet that much, choose a different game.
PROGRESSIVE JACKPOTS WITH MYSTERY TRIGGERS
When all players at a bank of machines can play for the same jackpots, regardless of bet size, you’re looking at mystery jackpots. Jackpots and bonus events leading to jackpots aren’t won by lining up matching symbols; they just come as a surprise.
Minimum Bet Slot Wins Losses
Usually, mystery jackpots are triggered when a player makes a bet that pushes the jackpot total to one that matches a target set by a random number generator. As on all progressives, a percentage of all wagers are added to the jackpot. If the RNG sets the target at $124.37, then the player whose wager pushes the pot to $124.37 wins it.
Players who bet more contribute more per play to the jackpot growth, and therefore have more chances per play for their bet to push the pot to the target. If you play mystery progressives, then betting more per spin does give you a better chance at winning a jackpot.
MYSTERY BONUSES
Even some non-progressive games incorporate mystery elements, where a bonus launches without landing trigger symbols on the reels. One way to set that up is to have an RNG set a target amount of play since the last mystery bonus. The more you bet, the less time it takes to push that wagering total to the target amount and launch a bonus.
Minimum Bet Slot Wins Prizes
On some games, that requires a separate bet. The base game carries the same payback percentage regardless of how many coins you wager, but you’re not eligible for the main attraction if you don’t make the extra bet.
But progressives and mystery payouts aside, the reason to bet more than the minimum on most games starts and stops with a desire for bigger payoffs, with a recognition that betting more also means risk of bigger losses. For the majority, payback percentages do not increase with bigger bets and there’s no reason for even a small twinge at betting less than the max.