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How Payout Rate Works (Part 3)

Adding up all the payouts, you find that this simple three-reel machine with 10 symbols on each reel pays out only 756 coins for every 1,000 it consumes. That’s a payout rate of 75.6 percent—not very good for the player.

By the mid-1930s slot machines were already a good deal more complex—but the odds for the player were no better. In fact, they had grown a little worse.

The Mills machines made during the peak of the depression had 20 symbols on each of three reels for (20 X 20 X 20) 8,000 possible combinations. For every 8,000 plays, the machine paid out 6,010 coins. That’s a payout rate of 75.1 percent.

By the mid-1970s the odds for the player had improved a great deal. Let’s take a look at a 1975 Bally machine that had 22 symbols on each of three reels.