Surprisingly, from the $1.99 buffets. 
I dunno about that. The last time I was driving through that part of the world I got a room at the Buffalo Bill’s in Primm for $12 (!), which I hear is the lowest they are allowed to charge by state law. That’s less than I paid on average for tent camping during that trip! I’ve found some rooms in Vegas that were certainly reasonable, but nothing like that.
A lot of people do like the off-strip or even out of Vegas places precisely because the comps for most low-dollar gamblers have largely dried up on the strip. I’ve had trouble even paying for a drink on the strip, let alone getting a comp one, whereas when I’m near such northern Nevada metropolises as Winnemucca or Jackpot, I can drink all night with a couple bucks in the machines. If the gambling and drinking are the main attraction, what does it matter if you’re gambling in a building shaped like a castle or not?
To some extent, I’ll guess that big bettors and small bettors “need” each other. The big bettor wants a busy exciting place and wants to be envied. The small bettor can view the big bettor as someone to envy (or pity :dubious: ).
A lot of data there, somewhat hard to interpret. It appears quarter slots are biggest revenue, followed by dollar and the very small denominations. A quarter-slot player isn’t necessarily a “low roller” – can’t you lose nearly $1000 in an hour of continuous quarter-slot play? One comment in the pdf was interesting: slots may act as sort of a “gateway drug”. 
(BTW: Why do we warn about pdf links here?)
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I do know that some casinos go to exceptional lengths to court high rollers. The casino I work for offers to fly big gamblers to vegas in the company jet, and gives them suites up tO 3500 square feet with marble floors and 50th storey balconies with a jacuzzi. These rooms can not be rented and are never listed through travel agents, but are comped for exceptionally high stakes players. They can gamble in rooms not accessible to regular players, if they desire.
The sheer volume of medium-stakes players might make up for the extravagent wagers of the infrequent ultra-high rollers, but there are also quite a few high rollers that are not so outlandishly wealthy. If you count the players who make 500 dollar bets or higher, I wouldnt be surprised if it equals or exceeds low-stakes slots income.
Some Dopers are browsing the dope on machines that cannot view PDFs or cannot open them quickly. Imagine a less smart phone being used to browse or a person who still has to use dial-up.
Local law mandates a minimum payout from slot machines (in Nevada it is 75%). Casinos often are more generous as a means of advertising and attracting customers so you often see them touting 90% payouts or better.
That said, the “payout” is a bit misleading. While technically true it does not really translate into the casino paying out 75% (or whatever) of the money dumped into the machine. As you play you will have lots of little wins which add credits to your total. This is part of the 75%. It is a three steps forward, four steps back model. As a result you can play more without adding money.
My one experience in Vegas had me rather surprised how fast you can burn through money at a slot machine. Even quarter slots can gobble $20 in minutes. I did not expect to really win anything and considered my money spent as entertainment but I was sorely disappointed in how little entertainment that money bought me (maybe 15 minutes…I forget exactly as it was years ago).
As a result I looked for the penny slots and noted they and the nickle slots were among the most popular.
Indeed. This is also the case in Atlantic City. Though, I’ve seen reports of random tests showing the minimum payout is almost never seen.
Apparently, the worst slot payouts come from convenience stores and McCarran airport while the best ones come at off-strip casinos competing for dollars. Competition keeps most of the strip casinos from excessively reducing the payouts.
Also, the minimum payout is enforced for all machines on the floor. So, it is certainly possible to get a particular ‘hot’ machine that is paying out more than 100% on average. Casinos will vary the slot payouts to have a few machines give out more money as a form of advertisement and to increase the gambling instinct in customers (that “hunch” that a particular machine is lucky may just be correct). The payout rates on each machine are adjusted periodically while keeping the overage average for the floor the same.
The penny machines are even worse than the quarter machines if you’re not paying attention. Quarter slots/video poker tend to have a max bet of x5, so $1.25 a pull/hand, but all the penny slots I saw had a bewildering number of options, to the point where if you just hit Max Bet you were paying $3.00 a go.
No.
They really don’t need to test for payback percentages because the amounts are set at the factory. Any attempt to doctor the machines would result in the immediate loss of gaming license. Ditto changing the payout percentage once the machine is installed. That is a really big deal, requiring lots of labor and a state inspector. It isn’t something they can do by flipping a switch. It’s hard-wired into the RNG. It’s easier to switch machines completely than it is to adjust a machine already on the floor.
Just for a POI: the win percentages in Nevada in March 2011 (the last date I have data for) were:
Quarter Slots
Balance of County - 94.5%
Boulder Strip - 97%
Downtown Las Vegas - 94.4%
Lake Tahoe - 90.7%
LV Strip - 91.5%
Laughlin - 94.1%
North LV - 96.7%
Reno - 94.7%
Big bets can cause big short term losses for the casino too. The high rollers and small time players are all playing games with the same overall odds in the casinos favor. The casino is looking at the big picture. They could lose several million in one night to a good run at a blackjack table by a high roller, and still give him a complimentary suite and a private plane ride, because they might make several million from a bad run. Its like offering a free lunch coupon to a non-high roller, the plane and room are a marketing investment commensurate with the returns they hope to get.
My guess is that if you added up all the free drinks, complimentary buffet or show coupons, etc. that get handed out like candy to the small-time gamblers they would add up to as much or more than the big suites and private jets they comp to high rollers.
According to this month’s Strictly Slots magazine, slot machines account for 65% of the gambling winnings in Nevada casino. So the slot players provide the volatility, at least.
I wish I had a cite, but several years ago I was reading up a ton on the gaming industry (had a dream of being the gaming librarian at UNLV), and as I recall, the powers that be tended to do their accounting on a square footage basis and the slots were easily the most profitable per sq. ft. Poker rooms were not profitable per sq. ft. but it was sort of one of those things you had to have to be in the industry.
Just as an aside, scratch-off tickets are the worst bet in the USA. New Hampshire funded their entire lottery system from a very short period of selling scratch offs. Damn I wish I remembered what book that was.
Missed the edit window.
I think it might have been Jokers Wild: Legalized Gambling in the Twenty-First Century. It’s publication date is a bit older than I thought though.
Is this really clear, for computer-controlled machines? Is the source code independently verified? (Even if it is, Ken Thompson proved famously some decades ago that Trojans can be hidden invisibly even at the source level.) In principle, couldn’t a machine be programmed to switch payoff schedules in some particular case (e.g. after a specific sequence of bet sizes)?
I vaguely recalled reading of a case some years ago where poker machines had been programmed as I described, with the culprit programmer caught because his subsequent exploitation was too obvious.
Screamingly illegal under Nevada law. That’s a “lock you up with the father-rapers” offense. No casino would risk their gaming license for such a thing. They don’t need to. The edge is built into the chip. They are state inspected and verified before the machines leave the factory.
For that matter, no manufacturer would do such a thing. See the above reasons. The chance of getting caught is great, the penalties almost Capital, and the payoff inconsequential.
No kidding, I did guess it was illegal. :smack: And my question perhaps was tangential – it seems far more likely that a programmer at the slot/poker machine manufacturer would do this, for his own profit.
My question was not about the legality; rather your post suggested it would be difficult to rig the machines clandestinely, and I’m doubtful about that.
Again, see the “father-raper” clause. I have no doubt that you are right. A skillful programmer could tweak a chip or two. But since every machine is under constant video surveillance, the chance of someone actually getting away with it are slim, bordering on none.
It’s not just that, the places that write the software for the machines are just as suspicious of their employees as casinos are of theirs. They have someone looking over that programmer’s shoulder every step of the way. Then after rigorous internal testing, they ship the code to an independent auditor who certifies the chip is programmed exactly as the source code says.
Then, as noted by **silenus, **the casinos watch the machines, the players, and their employees so closely that it would be hard to exploit a tampered machine even if one made it to the casino.
Once about 10 years ago I hit three big, over $1,000, jackpots on slot machines within about 10 minutes of each other at Harrah’s in Vegas. While the bells and buzzers from the first one were going off and I was waiting for the attendant, I put some money into the machine right next to it and just as the attendant arrived, more bells and whistles. Two machines side by side both with big jackpots.
A guy in a suit came over with the attendant for the second win, to have me sign a tax form and show my ID, and congratulate me. I went over to where my friends were playing and put some in a machine next to theirs… another big win, more bells and buzzers.
This time, the guy in the suit was on the way over, but no attendant. A “customer” standing behind me in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts showed me his badge, he was a plain clothes gaming commission agent. He ran the machine through about 30 minutes worth of self tests. They have a key that puts it into test mode, it shows them every single spin I had made (by actually re-rolling the reels to those positions) They looked me up and down, asked for my ID again and had me sign another tax form, and finally paid me. But with a much less congratulatory tone about it. I think if I had hit one more big win in there I’d have been on my way to “the little room”.
You’re thinking about this wrong. I don’t turn down an opportunity to make $50 just because I can also make $100 in parallel by some other method.
They will take every profitable opportunity available. They may or may not make more money from high rollers but even if they do, that’s no reason not to also make somewhat less from riff raff.
Actually, I think the opposite – even if they’re the same odds, lots of small bets have a lot less volatility than a few big bets. So, compared to high-rollers, slots are much more steady in terms of profit.