The wife and I are taking a trip to Vegas in the next few weeks, and have considered a side trip to Laughlin as part of the trip. It has been a long time since we've played there, but I remember that at one time, Laughlin was pretty decent with slot payouts. And, with an estimated 200,000 machines in Las Vegas alone, you have plenty of choice and opportunities to win. People like different games for different reasons but the most popular slots are the.

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Casinos across Nevada are required to report revenue figures to the Nevada Gaming Control Board to include what percentage of wagers they held as profit on slot games. A nerdy annual tradition of ours is to dig into that real world data from the previous year to help our readers find the loosest slots in Las Vegas.

Unfortunately, the data we have access to isn’t granular enough to tell us how loose or tight slots were at individual casinos. Rather, the reporting will highlight groups of casinos based on where they are located (ie The Strip, Downtown, Boulder, etc). We’ll make sure to point out what casinos reside in zones identified as having looser slots.

As a matter of housekeeping, casino slot “win percentage” is defined as the percentage of the total amountwagered by the player that the casino held as profit. For instance, a 10% casino win percentage means the casino, on average, kept 10 cents of every dollar wagered on slot machines.

Example: A player put $20 into a slot machine and made her money last for a while playing a total of $200 in spins before losing it all. The total amount wagered by the player was $200 and the casino won, or held, $20 resulting in a 10% casino win percentage.

Now that we cleared that up, lets dig into where you can find slots that are more apt to pay out around Las Vegas.

Where you play matters. The graph below details casino slot win percentages by area, which lumps together all slot denominations. You can quickly surmise that casinos in tourist centers hold a larger percentage of slot play as profit.

As evidenced above, the best places around Las Vegas to play slots are the Boulder Area (5.78% casino win percentage), North Las Vegas (6.71% win percentage) and Downtown (7.78% casino win percentage). The Strip featured the tightest slots by a wide margin at a win percentage of 8.16%.

Unfortunately, slots tightened up versus last year on both the Strip (8.12% in 2018 vs. 8.16% in 2019) and on Fremont Street (7.64% in 2018 vs. 7.78% in 2019) by a slight margin.

Since penny slots are the most popular denomination with players, we also broke down where the loosest penny slot machines can be found.

Clearly, there is again a correlation between an area being “touristy” and higher slot hold rates. Downtown and Strip penny slots come in with casino win percentages of 10.94% and 11.59% respectively.

Similar to the data that looked at all slot denominations, penny slots more apt to pay out can be found in the Boulder (9.36% win rate) and North Las Vegas (9.28% win rate) areas.

Although most players aren’t able to tell the difference between a “tight” or a “loose” slot, get away from the Strip if you want to give yourself a slightly better chance of winning.

Casinos that fall into the looser Boulder and North Las Vegas reporting zones are broken down below. Not the most scenic areas, but if winning is more important to you than bright lights, fountains, and celebrity chef restaurants then order up an Uber and make the trip.

Casinos in the Boulder Area: Sam’s Town, Eastside Cannery, Arizona Charlie’s, Boulder Station, Sunset Station, M Resort, Fiesta Henderson and Green Valley Ranch.

Casinos in the North Las Vegas Area: Jerry’s Nugget, Silver Nugget, The Cannery, Fiesta Hotel and Casino, Texas Station, Cannery and Aliante.

Keep in mind that video poker also figures into these slot statistics. Lower casino win percentages away from the Strip are in part, but not completely, due to better video poker pay tables offered by establishments away from tourist centers.

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Slot denominations also play a role in finding lose machines which is demonstrated by the statewide data below. In 2019, Megabucks was the tightest variety of slot in Nevada (12.78% win percentage), followed closely by penny slots (9.93% win percentage).

Taking a look at the graph above, there is a clear correlation between denomination and how loose their corresponding slot machines are. Generally speaking, the higher the denomination, the looser the slot.

If you’re a penny slot player that plays 75 cents per spin or more, you would likely give your self a better chance of winning by playing the same bet on a higher denomination machine.

While looking at the numbers is a fun exercise, ultimately, the random number generator could select you as the next big winner anywhere. Good luck, and hopefully our break down of 2019 slot data will help you on your quest in finding the best paying slots in Vegas!

Related:Staying on Fremont Street vs. the Strip – How does it compare?

Slot machines are usually considered as the worst-paying games in the casino. They’ve earned this reputation to some degree.

After all, may penny slot machines only deliver between 88% and 90% RTP. This payback is really poor compared to most casino games, such as video poker and baccarat.

However, slot machines aren’t always so bad. In fact, numbers from Las Vegas reveal that slots are actually among the fairest games.

Is everything that you’ve been told about slots all along a lie? I’ll answer this question by covering more on slots’ reputation along with why they pay better than many other games in Las Vegas.

Slot Machines Normally Carry a Terrible Reputation

You need only look at the fact that real money slots are nicknamed one-armed bandits to realize these games don’t have a great reputation.

The term one-armed bandit comes from two aspects:

Slot machines used to feature pull levers.
Many gamblers lose a significant amount of money on these games.

You can tell from the first point that one-armed bandits is an antiquated phrase. But the part about the heavy losses is still valid today.

The reason why gamblers lose so much through these games isn’t because slot machines don’t pay much back. Slots are actually competitive with many other casino games in terms of RTP.

For example, American roulette and Caribbean stud feature 94.74% and 94.78% RTP, respectively. You even need to use perfect strategy in Caribbean stud to achieve 94.78% payback.

The average slot machine in a land-based casino delivers between 94% and 96% payback. The typical online slot offers between 95% and 97% RTP.

Few gamblers sit around and blast Caribbean stud for its below-average payback. Why do they do so with slot machines, though?

Many gamblers don’t even realize that the primary reason why they lose so much with slots is due to the play rate—not the payout percentages.

Slow machines play at a faster rate than any other casino game. The only game that matches the speed of slots is video poker.

Here’s a comparison between land-based slots and American roulette to show how play rates affect losses:

American Roulette

House edge is 5.26%.
You play for one hour.
You make one $5 bet each round.
The table sees 50 spins during this hour.
50 x 5 x 0.0526 = $13.15 in theoretical hourly losses

Slot Machine

House edge is 5.26%.
You play for one hour.
You make one $1 bet per spin.
You perform 600 spins in this hour.
600 x 1 x 0.0526 = $31.56 in theoretical hourly losses

You’re risking 5x more with each roulette bet. However, you’re still suffering greater theoretical losses with the slot due to the faster speed.

Simply put, slots expose you more to the house edge. You’re playing more rounds per hour, which increases the chances that you’ll lose money.

Vegas Slots Aren’t Actually That Bad

As covered above, play rate is the biggest culprit for why gamblers lose major money through slots. However, the house edge

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