Enjoy the listing, and feel free to send me your comments or an email.

Slot machines with FREQUENT HITS and MODEST WINS
50 Lions
Black Rhino
Canary Riches
Heart of Gold
Incan Pyramid
Love Birds
Macaw Magic
Money Storm
Money Tree
Outback Jack
Ramses Prox
Where's The Gold
Wild Cougar
Wild Goose
Wild Jungle

Slot machines with MID-RANGE HITS and MEDIUM WINS
Adonis
Aloha Magic
Arabian Jewels
Buccaneer
Corrida De Toros
Desert Gold
Dolphin Treasure
Geisha
Get Eggcited
Golden Canaries
Golden Gong
Golden Pyramids
Good Fortune
Grizzly
Helen Of Troy
Hollywood Dreams
House of Hearts
Jungle Jive
King of Neptune
King of The Nile
Koala Mint
LA Gator
Lucky Jack
Miss Kitty
Money Beans
Money Bears
Monkey In The Middle
Moon Festival
Moulin Nights
Musketeer
Mystic Mermaid
Nerds Gone Wild
Orchid Mist
Owl Capone
Oz Great Chase
Oz Jungle
Oz Lost City
Oz Safari
Panther Magic
Pelican Pete
Penguin Pays
Pot of Gold
Queen of The Nile
Rapid Riches
Return of the Samurai
Roll Up Roll Up
Seal The Deal
Show Me The Money
Spring Carnival
Super Stars
Superbucks 2
Superbucks 3
Superbucks 4
Sweet Hearts II
Triple Tigers
Venetian Nights
Viking Warrior
White Russia
Wicked Winnings
Wild Hearts
Wild Thing
Winning Streak

Slot machines with LESS FREQUENT HITS and LARGER WINS
5 Dragons
Anthony & Cleopatra
Big Ben
Brazil
Centurion
Choy Sun Doa
Crystal Springs
Dragon Lord
Dream Catcher
Fire Dancer
Fox On The Run
Genghis Khan
Golden Incas
Inca Chief
Inca Sun
Indian Dreaming
Island Delight
Kakadu Dreaming
Line King
Magician
Ms Foxy Fortune
Mystic Chief
Mystic Power
Peacock Magic
Phoneix Fantasy
Pompeii
Pride Of Africa
Queen Of Sheba
Red Baron
Star Drifter
Sun Queen
Temple Of Zeus
Tiki Torch
Water Margin
Whales Of Cash
Wild Africa
Wild Ways
Wings Over Olympus
Zorro

Appendices
Slots Analysis
Miscellaneous

Introduction

The following table ranks the Las Vegas casinos according to the looseness of their video display reeled nickel slot machines. The returns are based on a sampling of five different types of machines. The data collected goes back as far as October 2001 so the information is a bit dated. Slot app win real prizes.

Las Vegas 5 Cent Slot Survey

Rank	Casino	Average Return
1	Palms	93.42%
2	Gold Coast	92.84%
3	Sahara	92.81%
4 (tie)	Bourbon Street	92.63%
4 (tie)	Imperial Palace	92.63%
4 (tie)	Slots a Fun	92.63%
7	Key Largo	92.60%
8	Western	92.57%
9	Ellis Island	92.56%
10	El Cortez	92.56%
11	Orleans	92.56%
12	Circus Circus	92.56%
13	Gold Spike	92.55%
14	Fitzgeralds	92.54%
15	Fiesta - Rancho	92.53%
16	Arizona Charlie's East	92.51%
17	Barbary Coast	92.50%
18	Terrible's	92.49%
19	Arizona Charlie's	92.49%
20	Hard Rock	92.47%
21	Town Hall	92.47%
22	Longhorn	92.47%
23	Riviera	92.23%
24	California	92.14%
25	Lady Luck	92.10%
26	Nevada Palace	92.06%
27	Plaza	91.94%
28	Luxor	91.92%
29	Paris	91.92%
30	San Remo	91.88%
31	Excalibur	91.84%
32	Palace Station	91.84%
33	Ballys	91.82%
34	Las Vegas Club	91.76%
35	Four Queens	91.75%
36	Texas Station	91.71%
37	Casino Royale	91.67%
38	Boulder Station	91.55%
39	Aladdin	91.5%
40	O'sheas	91.48%
41	Hilton	91.40%
42	Boardwalk	91.28%
43	New York New York	90.99%
44	Horseshoe	90.96%
45	Sam's Town	90.89%
46	Santa Fe Station	90.87%
47	Flamingo	90.86%
48	Golden Nugget	90.85%
49	Stratosphere	90.8%
50	Tropicana	90.71%
51	Golden Gate	90.64%
52	Silverton	90.57%
53	Main Street Station	90.56%
54	Westward Ho	90.40%
55	Fremont	90.37%
56	Castaways	90.36%
57	Monte Carlo	90.24%
58	Stardust	89.97%
59	Frontier	89.91%
60	MGM Grand	89.81%
61	Harrahs	89.32%
62	Treasure Island	89.32%
63	Mirage	89.3%
64	Caesars Palace	89.05%
65	Mandalay Bay	88.87%
66	Rio	88.72%
67	La Bayou	88.26%
68	Mermaids	88.26%
69	Bellagio	87.42%
70	Venetian	86.66%
71	Airport	85.02%

Excluded Casinos

The Suncoast and Rampart Casino in Summerlin do not allow playing slots and taking notes at the same time. I can not include any casino that prohibits the method in which I gather data.

Location Averages

The next table shows the average return by location.

Returns by Region

Location	Average Return
Off strip	92.07%
Downtown	91.66%
Strip	91.47%
Total	91.74%

The above sign can be found across the street from the Palms. Although I did the study Anthony Curtis published it in the LasVegas Advisor, which is how it become well known. The'..' in the sign encompases quite a bit of information,which was conveniently left off the sign. Actually the study only says that the Palms had the lowest nickel video slotsof the casinos surveyed in Las Vegas. The small print at thebottom says, 'Independent study conducted between November2001-February 2002 on Austin Powers, Fortune Cookie, Reel'em In, and Wheel of Fortune games. They left off LeopardSpots, and the study began in October.

Observations

There seemed to be no truth behind slot placement myths. Machines on the end of a bank did no better on average than those in the middle. There was also no correlation between return and proximity to such things as the main door, table game pit, high traffic areas, and low traffic areas.

Most casinos were very consistent in their slot returns.If one nickel machine had a return of x% then all others like it also returned x%. However some casinos did mix up loose and tight machines, most notably Treasure Island and the California casinos.

Methodology

A kind and anonymous source provided me with par sheets for the games in question. The EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) chip is what tells the machine the order of the symbols on the reel, in some cases how the stops are weighted, how much each winning combination pays, and any other pertinent information about how much the machine pays.It is up to the slot manager to select which EPROM chip to order according to the return percentage desired. On atypical game there might be about 8 different possible return percentages, ranging from about 85% to 98%.

Each of the different par sheets has five sets of distinct reels. On video display slots the stops are not weighted; in other words all stops are equally likely. The distribution of each symbol on each reel is what determines the theoretical return of the machine. For example a higher paying machine may have more of the higher paying symbols.

On the machine itself three consecutive symbols arevisible on five different reels. By comparing actualobservations of results to the par sheets it is possible todetermine which reels the machine uses, and thus which par sheet and which return. There are various three-symbol combinations that appear in at least one but not all par sheets. So if one of these combinations occurs on an actualmachine it narrows down the possible par sheets. By playingenough the player can narrow down the possible par sheets tojust one.

Casino Slot Payout Percentages List

To help identify the unique combinations I wrote a computer program for each game, which had the exact reel order of all 5 reels of all the par sheets. The program then counted the number of par sheets with each possible three-symbol combination. If the number was greater than 0 and less than the maximum then that combination was identified along with the associated par sheets it belonged to.

It is then a matter of simply playing the game and comparing the outcomes to the list of partially unique combinations. It only takes about 5-10 plays per machine to narrow down the possibilities to just one par sheet.

The averages in the table are actually an average of averages. For each kind of machine at each casino I took an average return. Then I took the average of these averages over the five kinds of machines I tested for.

Slot Machine Definition

There is some confusion about what constitutes a 'slot machine' or 'slot.' My definition, and that of most gamblers, is a gambling machine with either actual spinning reels or video representations of the them.

People in the gaming business and regulators generally refer to a slot machine as any gambling machine, including reeled slots, video poker, video keno, video blackjack,etc. For purposes of statistics both casino managers and regulators combine all the electronic gambling machines together. For example, the Slot Chart in Casino Player magazine and reports by the Nevada Gaming Control Board do not isolate just reeled slots but consider all electronic games a 'slot.' Therefore my return percentages should not be expected to agree with those reported by the casinos or regulators. Gemstone games free online. As far as I know mine is the only source to isolate just the return of reeled slots.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Rob Feldheim for helping with the slot play and record keeping. Rob helped me with most of the casinos on the east side of town and part of downtown. I would also like to thank par Sheet Pete (not his real name)for providing the par sheets, without which this project would not have been possible.

Internal Links

Go to slot machine appendix3B (Jean/Primm slot returns).
Go to slot machine appendix 3D(Henderson slot returns).
Go to slot machine appendix 3E(Las Vegas quarter and dollar slot returns).
Go to slot machine appendix 3F(Montreal slot return).
Go back to slot machines.

External Links

What Slot Machines Have The Best Payouts

The main-stream media has covered this study in depth. Here are links to some articles.

Turning'em loose, an article that appeared in the Las VegasReview Journal on May 19, 2002, about the possible effectsof this study.
One-Armed Bandit or Robin Hood?, an article by myself for Contingencies Magazine explaining the methodology, results, and weaknesses of the study.
Play by the rules and the one-armed bandits will still win. Boston Globe article about slot machines, in which my Las Vegas survey is mentioned and my advice quoted. (cache)

Written by: Michael Shackleford