Loose Slots

Loose slots are something that plenty of slots players go looking for, but the term ‘loose’ is by no means an absolute. Nothing in the slot world is black and white – or even a specific shade of grey – and there is a big difference between loose programming and actual performance.
 

Generally speaking, loose machines can be defined as those that are programmed to pay back a greater percentage of the total monies played than similar machines elsewhere. But what is loose for one casino could be tight for another. For example, a loose machine in Casino A might be programmed to return 98% of money played, but in Casino B across the street a loose machine might be programmed to return just 92%. The term loose also has different meanings in different geographical locations. A return of 92% on £1 machine would be considered loose in London, but the same return would be considered tight in Reno.

Until slots start wearing name tags, players can do no better than insert their coins and take their chances. A player could easily have two Red-White-Blue machines sitting side-by-side, identical in appearance, one programmed for that 98% payback, the other for much less.
 
Many casinos advertise that they have “loose” machines with a 98% payback, but this statement, while narrowly true, can be misleading. Always examine that 98% manifesto with some suspicion. In small print, (make that microscopic lettering), is the expression “up to”, meaning that in the casino there are some machines, out of the thousands waiting there, that pay “up to” 98%.

When a casino advertises that its slot machines return 98%, it means the machine is pre-programmed to return 98% of every pound or dollar played “over the long term” Do not expect that for each pound inserted you will hear 98p automatically trickling into the tray. The phrase to be mindful of here is “over the long term”, which could be weeks, months, or even years on any given machine.

But let’s assume that the machine you were playing was actually paying off 98p for every £1 bet. Using a liberal definition of “loose” we will allow the casino a measly 2% edge. Well, if you were to insert £60 per minute into a 98% payback slot machine (not difficult on a machine at £3 a whack using a credit button), you would lose about £72 an hour. Multiply that by eight hours of play and you will come up £576 short in the purse. So, even on those advertised high payback machines, the casino has a way of dissolving your gambling capital.

The bottom line is that you can play a loose slot machine that returns 98% and realise a return of 1000% or just 30%. As we said at the outset, the term ‘loose’ is by no means absolute.

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