Gaming Guru

Do Paybacks Change When You Change Denomination?

Dear John,

When playing a machine that allows the player to select the denomination of a credit (.01, .05, .10, .25), do the payback percentages change based on the denomination you select?

I really appreciate your column, keep up the good work.

Carla

Dear Carla,

Thanks for the kind words about my column.

The answer to your question is a definite maybe.

Long-term paybacks on video poker games on multi-denomination machines tend to increase when you increase denomination, so it's possible. We can tell the payback changed for a video poker game because the paytable changed.

On a slot game, nothing visible changes when you change denomination, so we don't know whether the payback changes too.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.