A certain locals casino chain has a few banks of poker machines labeled “100% Payback.” There is an advisement on each that the slot club benefits are limited. Even so, why aren’t these always being played hard and heavy by the pros? I know there must be a reason.
[Editor's Note: The best person to answer this question is Bob Dancer, so he did.]
You’re right. There's a reason most pros aren’t playing these games heavily. It’s because they're not good enough! The games you’re talking about are barely higher than 100% -- with very limited slot club benefits.
Let’s look at 10/6 Double Double Bonus with no slot club, as an example. The game returns 100.07%. If you’re a quarter player playing 800 hands per hour ($1,000 coin-in) and can play this game perfectly, you’re set to make 70 cents per hour. Dollar players, playing four times as much and hitting taxable W-2Gs on aces with a kicker (every 19,000 hands) and royals (every 40,000 hands), make $2.80 an hour.
Assuming that when you say "pro," you mean a player who makes his or her living gambling, it’s tough to live on $2.80 per hour.
Long ago (i.e., way back in 2019 and before), there used to be Full Pay Deuces Wild (100.76%) in several of these casinos for quarters. Playing at the same speed as above, you can make $7.60 at this game. Assuming you have Social Security coming in, and maybe a pension, you can live on that, albeit very frugally. And many senior citizens did. But those games are largely gone now -- except maybe at Sam’s Town and a few other places.
I basically don’t leave the house to play games for less than $25 per hour. That amount is not obtainable playing these 100% machines. It can be made, though, playing lesser games for higher stakes during promotions, including point-multiplier days. It includes progressives, which can average that much and more, but with much larger swings. That $25 per hour includes mailer benefits.
Where those games exist varies from month to month. Many of them would be ruined by being publicized as a “$60-per-hour game.” For this reason, I’m not naming them. You can find them yourself. They're definitely out there.
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Apr-03-2020
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