It’s the Waiting That’s the Hardest Part

Waiting for a slot machine to hit is like waiting for paint to dry. You know it has to happen sometime, it just doesn’t necessarily happen either quickly or while you are in the room. A large part of the excitement with the slot machines however is that waiting game that you play, knowing that someone has to hit it big at some point, and just hoping that the someone is you.

The slot machines are the biggest money maker the casinos have for they pay, but they take more than they pay. People think that they pay big because they hear about all of those that have won big, and walked away with million dollar jackpots. However, the fact of the matter is that no matter how often they seem to hit, they still don’t hit enough for the casinos to not make a large profit off of them.

On average, the slot machines keep about seven cents for every dollar put into them. Therefore, if they payout $1 million to someone, that means that they have made at least $70,000 off of that million. Now, let’s say that they pay out $10 million? Well that would be $700,000 for them – not exactly petty change. And they know that it is a matter of time before they will pay someone out – but they also know that they will have made money off of the millions that they pay out every year.

Volatility is the amount of money that is returned to the players of the slot machines. Slot machine manufacturers know that some players want the high volatility experience, where they get a chance at those bit wins, while others want low so they get to play longer. No matter what kind of player you are, the slot machine manufacturers know that they have to make both kinds of machines to bring the players in. Otherwise, they will only be speaking to half of the gambling population.

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