How Often Do Slot Machines Payout

Since jackpots online and offline have been in existence, people have asked themselves the eternal question, how often do slot machines hit the jackpots?

It’s been a question inviting both hope and trouble. We’re here to discuss the odds of slot wins and look under the hood of how big slot wins online and offline work, and more importantly, how often they occur. There’re several key aspects of the experience to consider before you can make an informed decision. The main things you should be looking into when it comes to playing slots are:

  • The Return to Player (RTP) rates of the game
  • The slot volatility, i.e. frequency of payout
  • The actual probabilities of landing a big slot win

Before we delve into the essence of how often slot machines payout, we must be perfectly honest with each other; we can’t distil the nature of slot payouts to a pristine formula and no matter how good we are at understanding the why behind these games, there will be a substantial part that will depend on pure luck alone, even if you play at the best paying slots sites around.

Slot Machines: The Basics

Each slot machine comes with a randomised outcome thanks to the technology in the very crux of it – the Random Number Generator (RNG). RNGs are cutting-edge algorithms that guarantee the “complete randomness” at a casino. The RNG is needed to help computers create randomness, as they are programmed to predict an outcome and don’t understand “random” the same way you and we do.

When it comes to actual casino play, there is absolutely no way of knowing when a jackpot will arrive. The average pay cycle for each game will vary. It’s worth logging your spin outcomes as it can help you determine when the jackpot window has a more probable chance of being open. However, the complete randomness of the RNG makes it impossible for anyone, be that a supercomputer or a mathematical wiz, to determine the outcome or be able to call the exact time a big jackpot will actually hit.

Question: Re: the question you discussed about receiving relatively small payouts for a large number of free spins on penny slots. I just returned from a trip to A.C. Two days ago and won 80 free spins while playing $1 per spin. Before you start spinning the reels, find out the payout percentage of the selected slot machine — don’t play anything that has the RTP below 95 percent. If you are a high roller, go for the high volatile games and chase the main jackpot. The most common payout percentage found on the majority of slot machines will be between 94% and 96% and as such for example when you are playing a slot machine offering a payout percentage of say 96% over your long term play you can expected to get 96.00 returned as winning payouts for every 100.00 you play through on that machine.

Tempted by the idea of imminent big slot wins, many players have been persistent in their determination to spot the patterns.

Progressive Jackpot Patterns in Slots

It’s worth spending more time observing rather than playing yourself. In 2016, the win cycles for Mega Moolah happened every 70 days, give or take, but it’s worth noting that there were only four payouts the entire year.

The payouts started early in April and continued through late November. In 2019, we’ve already witnessed slightly more hectic results that haven’t followed a particular pattern so far. The first win came on January 30th, 2019, followed by another one on March 5th and then another one on March 6. If the wide-spread trend repeats itself, we can expect the next jackpot to hit 33 days from March 6th, around April 8th or before that.

This would be a fair observation. In 2017, the space of each was at least a month, but not exceeding two months. There were 13 wins in total, the game’s largest number on record.

Does capturing historical statistical data help determine when a mega jackpot is likely to payout?

The answer is – not really. While there is some evidence to suggest that payout cycles happen in a window of one or two months, we have no way of knowing how many slots wins there are going to be on any given specific year.

There is a reason why certain games never manage to amass a multi-million jackpots, this has to do with the return to player (RTP) rates and the volatility.

Consider the RTPs in Slots Online

Just because an outcome is random, doesn’t mean we can’t pick the games statistically more likely to payout. Whether it’s a progressive jackpot or a fixed jackpot, the Return to Player (RTP) will tell you a little something about what to expect.

Now, here’s the thing about RTPs. They are accurate, but in order to get them right, you will need to play around 10,000 spins. Anything below that, and you may end up with deviations. Playing less than 10,000 RTPs can still turn out accurate, it’s just for the most accurate results, you will have to play through towards that figure.

It’s like flipping a coin 10 times vs flipping it 1000 times, you can certainly expect that 50-50 outcome to be more accurate after 1000 times than 10 times when a freak outcome of 80-20 is more probable. RTPs don’t factor the bonus amount, so when considering them you must keep that in mind and regard them as something that will help you extend your stay at a casino and keep a healthy budget.

If you do avoid the progressive games, you can guarantee yourself a slightly more controlled type of play and less risk in exchange for more frequent returns.

Slot Volatility: Pay Attention

‘Volatility’ in slots and other casino games refers to the payout frequency a slot has and how much is paid. Again, this is more applicable to your regular slots wins rather than the big slot wins you want to get by landing a mega jackpot. And yet, volatility will help you plan your bankroll just a little bit better.

Playing high volatility games means that the payouts will be bigger, but you will also have more cold streaks when the spins won’t get you any return. With low volatility, you will enjoy frequent payouts, but not really big winnings.

There are trade-offs and depending on your budget, you will find both slots applicable. When it comes to jackpots, Mega Moolah, which we used as an example here, is definitely on the high-end of the volatility spectrum. So don’t be too disappointing if you have a run of 10 or 20 spins with no payouts at all, that’s just the nature of a high volatility slot game.

If you are looking for low-volatility jackpot games, you can opt for a game such as Dead or Alive by NetEnt. The standard jackpots payout around 200-1000 coins a payout, making this game a perfect pick for those of you who enjoy slot machine jackpots but don’t have a larger bankroll than you need to play through for the mega jackpots.

Staying on Top of Your Bankroll

How Often Does A Slot Machine Payout

If you are keen on getting some decent slot wins, you needn’t necessarily go after the highest-risk games. It’s quite possible to build slot wins incrementally, indulging in games that have steadier, even if somewhat smaller payouts.

Jackpot hunting is a tough game and while quite a few people report big slot wins you will have to remind yourself that luck has no small part to play in the final outcome. Only after realising this can you use the other information you have learnt here to better your odds at securing a hefty prize.

Every slot machine you will find online, at a mobile casino site or even in a land based casino is going to have its own unique preset long term expected payout percentage.

The payout percentage is displayed somewhere on the slot machine, pay table or on the help files of each game and is going to allow you to see how much money you are likely to win from that slot machine over the long term.

The most common payout percentage found on the majority of slot machines will be between 94% and 96% and as such for example when you are playing a slot machine offering a payout percentage of say 96% over your long term play you can expected to get 96.00 returned as winning payouts for every 100.00 you play through on that machine.

How Often Do Slot Machines Payouts

However, keep in mind that the long term could be a very long time and as much whenever you do play a slot machine you are going to find the payout percentage and your winning payouts on that single session can vary greatly and be much lower or higher than the payout percentage the slot machine has been designed to return.

Locating the Best Paying Slot Machines

How Often Do Slot Machines Payout

It is always possible to locate and play a slot machine that is going to return a payout percentage of over 96%, as it will be dependent on how long you play that slot machine for and how much you are lucky enough to win when playing it.

You could sit down to play a slot machine, play it for 1.00 per spin for example and then on your very first spin achieve a winning payout via the base game or via any bonus game or bonus feature you are lucky enough to trigger of say 10.00, in such circumstances your payout percentage at that point is way over 100%!

The best tip we can give you for actually locating the best paying slot machines is to pay a visit to any of or featured casino site websites and hunt around for the payout percentage information.

If the casino you are looking over via their website is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission that gaming regulator demands that all of their license holders lists somewhere on their website the payout percentages that each slot machine has been set to payout, so by looking up that information you can find which are the highest paying slots and stick to playing them!

All Slots are Random

The one thing that you need to keep at the forefront of your mind is that all slot machines are going to give a completely random outcome to players. Therefore you are going to win and lose at different times when playing them.

You could win and win and win when playing one single slot machine or if you are not lucky you could end up playing a slot player that does nothing more than gobble our money up!

You are going to be best advised to always have in mind a budget to play slot machines, and always stick to that budget for it can be very tempting to continue playing when you have quickly lost you initial set aside bankroll in the hope you can in it back and more besides.

However, also have a winning goal in mind when playing real money slot machines anywhere, and if you do reach that amount then cash out those winnings and your initial starting bankroll and stop playing, you will feel better about winning if you do cash out as opposed to losing your winnings back by continuing to play on!

Conclusion

How Do Slot Machines Payout

One thing that is going to allow you to get more play time from your gambling budget is a casino bonus, in fact out are going to find there are no shortages of casino sites that are giving any some high valued bonuses to both their new first time depositing players and also their regular players too.

How Often Do Slot Machines Payout

As such please consider using a bonus to help extend your play time and possibly your winning chances too, but only claim bonuses that have a very fair set of terms and conditions attached to them.

How Often Do Slot Machines Payout

Casino comps are another way to help you get more playing value and what you are going to find is that many casino sites will be offering you a loyalty scheme or comp club scheme when you play their slot machines for real money.

How Much Does A Slot Machine Payout

However, be prepared to do some shopping around for the value of the comps awarded at different casinos and the redemption rates can and will vary from casino to casino, and by playing at a generous casino site with a good comp club scheme in place you will get more extras from your gambling action!