The casino
Five machines. Every one of them keeps a little of what goes in, and that is how they pay for themselves.
What each one gives back
Over a lot of spins, this is the share of what is put in that comes back out. It is worked out from the paytable each machine really uses, so this cannot say one thing while the machine does another.
- Forty Lines
- 99.37% The best odds in the building.
- Roulette
- 97.30% The same on every bet on the table.
- Slots
- 92.01%
- Wheel of Fortune
- 90.00% The worst odds, and the biggest single hit.
- Blackjack
- Depends on how you play it. Nothing else here does.
None of them reaches a hundred. Over enough spins the house takes the difference, and there is no machine and no bet where that is not true.
The bets
- Smallest
- £100
- Biggest
- £50,000,000
The jackpot
Every machine has its own pot and they do not share. 50% of every spin goes into the one you are playing, so a machine nobody has touched pays nothing extra and one that has been hammered all day is worth going near.
A pot starts at £1,000,000 and grows until somebody takes it. Winning it does not change what the machine pays the rest of the time: the jackpot money came out of the spins that built it.
Taking it is not the same on both machines.
- Slots
- Three sevens in a row from the left. About 1 in 4,630 spins.
- Forty Lines
- A seven showing on 4 of the 5 reels, anywhere in the column. About 1 in 3,822 spins.
It does not have to be on a line on Forty Lines. Four columns with a seven in them anywhere takes the pot, which is why it is worth watching the whole screen rather than tracing the lines.
Roulette
37 pockets, one of them a zero. 18 red and 18 black.
The zero is the whole edge. Every bet on the table gives back the same share because of it, so there is no clever bet and no bad one - a number, a colour and a dozen are all worth the same over time. Pick whichever you enjoy losing on.
Forty Lines
Forty lines paid at once, and free spins when enough scatters land. Free spins are played out at the same stake you triggered them on, so a big spin that wins them is worth more than a small one.
The thing worth knowing
The casino is not an earner. Crimes are.
Every other way of making money in this game is measured against what crimes pay and set BELOW it on purpose. The casino is the one place where the number is under a hundred by design and the only question is how fast. It is there to spend money on, not to make it.