Megabucks progressive slots generally have the worst win percentage because the huge jackpot outweighs the bad odds. The best win percentages came from high-roller slots. Slots that accept denominations of $5, $25, and $100 returned 94.05%, 94.97%, and 94.35%, respectively. Slots might have the best risk to rewards difference, but they aren't the best when it comes to odds. In fact, you have a much better chance of winning some of the other popular casino games. If you want to walk away with more money than you brought to the casino, you'll need to choose the games you play wisely. The casino game Blackjack has the best chances of winning in every Vegas casino. The regular house edge for this game is just 1%, or for most online operators ‑ 0.13%, which is why the odds with Blackjack are so good. However, this game often leads to people getting banned from the casino, so be very careful when you play!
- Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Powerball
- Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Money
- Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Slots
- For games in a casino, the odds of winning are expressed in RTP. Essentially, RTP is the percentage of money bet on a game that the game will ultimately pay back to players. If a game has a 90 percent RTP, for every $100 bet on it, a player should expect to win back $90. Click here for top NJ online slots with best chances of winning.
- The difference between the odds of winning and the payout odds is where the casino makes its money. How Slot Machines Work Now. Modern slot machines use a computer program called a random number generator to determine the outcomes of the various spins of the reels.
Slot machines are the most exciting casino games in the world. The combination of simplicity and huge jackpots - along with plenty of psychological factors designed in the game (best explained in Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by Natasha Dow Schull) ensure that Americans keep pouring billions of dollars a year into slots. The downside for customers? You'll lose by a wide margin in the long run, and in general the bigger the jackpot, the more of an edge the slot machine has over you.
You can increase your chances in the long run, though, by choosing the right games at the right casinos -- it's not unheard of that you will lose five times the amount on average that you would have lost if you chose the best slot machines and played at the best online casinos.
Top US Sites in 2020 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Site | Rating | Bonus | Visit |
1. | 8.45 | 100% up to $1,000 | Play Now | |
2. | 8.00 | 200% up to $1,000 | Play Now |
The intention of this slot machine guide is to explain everything you need to know about slot machines in order to minimize your losses and give yourself the best chances to win money. If you're just looking for a high-quality, reliable slots online casino to play at, here are my top recommendations:
- Bonus: 100% up to $5,000.
- Fantastic mobile casino.
- Quick cashouts.
- Ran by the team behind 'Bodog' brand.
How Real-Money Slots Work - The Basics
A slot machine has no feelings. The amount of winnings it pays are dictated by the EPROM chip and the random number generator ('RNG') inside the machine. It doesn't consider whether someone has recently won or lost -- every spin of the reels is random.
It's possible to influence your chances of winning at slots. When you press Spin, the RNG generates a random number (between one and a billion, for example) for each reel of the machine. Every number represents one of the symbols (the more numbers represent a symbol, the more it is 'weighted' in the machine).
The EPROM chip then determines whether you've won with the combination of symbols or not; the more winning combinations there are, and the more the player wins per winning combination, the higher the odds of winning and the payback of the machine.
Casino theme photo booth props. Suggesting you have all the information available, calculating your chances of winning at slots is simple: multiply the probability of each outcome with what those outcomes pay, and then sum the results. It's always under 100% (otherwise casinos would make no profit) and often near 90% (casinos make a lot of money from slots).
Here's an example of an imaginary slot machine (let's call it King of Cats) with three winning combinations -- a real-life slot machine works the same way, but likely with more ways of winning at slots:
Combination | Pays | Probability | Return |
Three Lions | 2500 | 0.001% | 0.025 |
Three Tigers | 1000 | 0.015% | 0.15 |
Three Jaguars | 400 | 0.05% | 0.2 |
Three Leopards | 50 | 0.5% | 0.25 |
Three Cheetahs | 5 | 7% | 0.35 |
Total | 3955 | 7.566% | 0.975 |
The slot machine above would return 97.5% to players in the long run. However, we rarely know the odds of slot machines. We do know the paytable - how much each winning combination pays to players - but we have no idea of the probability of getting that winning combination.
To calculate the probability of a winning combination, we need to know is how many stops there are for each symbol. For example, in the machine above there could be 45 stops and one of them would be a Lion symbol. By calculating (1/45)*(1/45)*(1/45) we get 0.001%, or the probability of hitting three Lion symbols in a row.
In real world, those symbols would have been weighed differently so that they're more likely to come on the first two reels and much less likely to come on the last reel, resulting in a near-miss situation.
I advise you not to play at all because slot machine odds are never good, but if you're going to play anyway, here's how you can find the slot machines that likely have better odds than others.
Why We Lose At Slots
We lose at slot machines because they're set to give back less than they take on average. It's impossible to play slot machines better; you can just press spin and hope for the best. With that said, though, you can improve your odds of winning at slot machines greatly by making good decisions before playing and having a good strategy when entering a casino - more about that lower on this page.
Generally, the more decisions you can make in a casino game, the lower the house edge is (with optimal play). Since there's almost no room for decisions when playing slots machines - again, your only decision is to press spin - the house edge is high at slots when compared to other popular casino games. And since you play slot machines for real money so fast (400-800 spins an hour), you lose more at slots than at any other casino game. (Read how slots work to understand them better.)
Like most casino games, a slot machine is a game of independent trials (the previous game has no influence on the next game). Your chances of winning with each spin are the same regardless of whether you've lost or won. So, there's absolutely no room for in-play slot machine strategy.
How Much Do Slot Machines Pay Back?
A slot machine's payback percentage could be anywhere from 75% to almost 100%, but of course, always lower than 100% (otherwise, the casino would make no profit). You can calculate a casino game's house edge by subtracting its payback percentage from 100% - this is how much the casino makes per bet in the long run. For example, with a 5% house edge, casinos make $5 per every $100 bet.
Calculating a slot machine's payback percentage is easy if you have all the information available: multiply the probability of each outcome with what they pay, and the sum is how much the slot machine returns in the long run, also known as its 'payback.'
But most of the time we don't have that information. We're in the dark -- sure, casinos can claim certain payback or payout percentages but how do we know they're truthful? Some online casinos get their payouts reviewed by private auditors, but how do we know if the auditors are honest?
It's a different situation with games like blackjack or roulette; in both cases we can calculate the house edge because the rules are known. If you care enough to make the calculations (and you should), you'll know exactly how much you stand to lose or win in the long run.
You could argue that casinos make so much money from slot machines that they have no reason to cheat. I agree, but you can still get a raw deal even if they are honest (setting a low payback percentage is not cheating). I want to have an idea of what kind of a return I get for my money regardless of the honesty of the casino. (See how to pick slot machines to find the best slots to play.)
Not only do casinos keep slot machine players in the dark about payback percentages, they have also weighed slot machine reels differently, resulting in as many near-miss moments as possible, which encourage future play. The first reel is the likeliest to hit something, the second reel is less likely to hit and the third reel is even less likely to hit.
NOTE: Some casinos are tested by auditors that publish monthly payout percentages for everyone to see online - now, 'payout' is different from 'payback.' The actual money that the casino has returned to players through their games is 'payouts' and the theoretical money that the slot machines are set to return is 'payback.' Payouts can be influenced by huge jackpot wins, for example, in which case a month's payout would look much better than the games have been set to pay back.
How You Can Win More
Here's the truth: the best thing you can do is to stay far away from slot machines (and stay clear from myths). Losing less is winning more and you can lose the least by never playing slots, even if you knew how to play slot machines the optimal way.
But you came here to learn how to play slots for real money, so I have to assume that you will play them at some point. Good news: you can win more (or, in fact, lose less) by playing the right slot machines at the right casinos.
The main consideration is always payback but you should also pay attention to casino comps and other benefits (such as cashback) that come along with playing at casinos.
Why to Play Slots
Some of you may wonder why to play slot machines at all. Exactly. They're a terrible investment -- think of a machine that you put $1 in and receive $0.95 back. That is basically a slot machine, except for all the sounds and animations, and of course a chance to win a lot of money, perhaps even millions of dollars.
The odds are heavily against you winning that money though. Meanwhile, in the long run, the casino takes your dollar bills and gives you back less. So if you agree to participate in this weird transaction, the least you can do is to find the casinos and slot machines that give you back the most money.
How to Find the Best Casino Slots to Play
If you're going to play in Las Vegas or some other popular gambling destination, take a look at this survey. It'll give you a good idea of how the location of the casino affects the general payback percentage of its slot machines; the best Las Vegas casinos are located mainly in North Las Vegas, not on the Strip. You can use the same logic in other places where there are many casinos around, although if you're 'stuck' with only a few, I'm not sure if location makes much of a difference.
After selecting a casino that potentially has a high payback percentage on average, an important part of a good slot machine strategy is to immediately join the casino's Slot Club (could be called 'Player's Club' as well). Contrary to popular myths, Slot Club members have the same house edge in their games as other players; the difference is, casinos can track Slot Club members (you have to insert a Club membership card to the slot machine when you play) and it helps them to give you comps when you deserve them (otherwise you may miss-out on them). You'll likely receive something extra just for signing up - free money to play with or a free drink, for example.
Additionally, most casinos give Slot Club members cashback (0.5% per bet, for example) and that is almost like playing against less house edge, although not literally. You don't win more likely but you receive a portion of your bets back.
Now, look around the casino. I bet you feel the temptation to head over to the flashiest slot machines with the biggest jackpots. That's what most slot players do and it's exactly the opposite of the best way to play slots. Unless your only goal is to win a million dollars (regardless of how unrealistic it is), playing progressive jackpot slots is the worst slot machine strategy you can choose. Many make that mistake and it's no wonder why US casinos get 70% of their revenues from slot machines.
Odds in Progressive Jackpot Slots
The only way you can win a million dollars playing slots is to play slot machines with progressive jackpots, however, you get even worse odds to win than you would get if you played flat-top slots.
The odds of winning a jackpot are usually way better on the first reel of the machine than on the last one. The casino wants to create as many 'near-miss' moments as possible -- it is a psychological trick, designed to make the player want to to play more.
It's easy to see why near-misses work: if you're one symbol away from winning a jackpot, it'll leave you with a different feeling than if the jackpot wasn't close at all.
In reality, it only seemed to be close.
In Nevada, the regulations state that one stop on the reel can't be weighted more than six times the stops before and after it (many have adopted this rule).
Symbol | 1st Reel | 2nd Reel | 3rd Reel |
Blank | 2 | 4 | 6 |
Jackpot | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Blank | 2 | 4 | 6 |
Progressive slot machine odds could be weighed like above; the first reel hits a jackpot symbol once out of five times while the third reel only hits once out of 13 times, often resulting in mentioned 'near-miss' situations.
But that was a simplified example. Hitting a progressive jackpot usually has more symbols, of course, and way worse odds. The chances of winning the biggest of them all, Megabucks, are somewhere in the 1:50,000,000, according to John Robinson at Casino City Times.
Progressive slot machine odds are worse than flat-top machines (the ones without a progressive jackpot) -- this is because a part of the bet goes to the jackpot while the casino takes its own cut. Unless the size of the jackpot is huge - in which case playing jackpot slots could be worth it - it always makes sense to choose a simple fixed jackpot slot machine.
So which slot machine types are best for you?
The simplest slot machines, also known as 'straight' or 'flat-top' slots, are your best choice financially. No, you can't win a million dollars playing those machines, and yes, they're less flashy than other slots, but they're the best slot games to play at a casino. For every dollar you bet, you may have to lose 10 cents more to flashier machines with progressive jackpots - that's a huge difference in the long run.
So now that you've chosen a simple machine, let's think about your betting strategy for slot machines (I'm not referring to progression betting systems; they don't work):
- Choose the highest denomination. The higher the denomination, the lower the house edge. For example, nickel slots have a higher house edge than dollar slots.
- Bet the maximum amount of coins. There's usually an incentive to bet maximum coins. For example, the jackpot becomes bigger relative to the bet, giving you a better return from the machine (odds stay the same but payout increases relatively more than bet size).
- Bet slowly. Not because pressing the Spin button fast or slow would impact your odds of winning at slot machines, but because it's a viable slot machine strategy because you have more time to play with your money and the longer you stay at a casino, the more comps you'll probably receive.
When it comes to determining the Atlantic City casino with the best slots, there is really only one statistic that matters: return to player rate (RTP).
For games in a casino, the odds of winning are expressed in RTP.
- Essentially, RTP is the percentage of money bet on a game that the game will ultimately pay back to players.
- If a game has a 90 percent RTP, for every $100 bet on it, a player should expect to win back $90.
Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Powerball
Try one of these Atlantic City Online Casinos
Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Money
Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Slots
- Bonus: 100% up to $5,000.
- Fantastic mobile casino.
- Quick cashouts.
- Ran by the team behind 'Bodog' brand.
How Real-Money Slots Work - The Basics
A slot machine has no feelings. The amount of winnings it pays are dictated by the EPROM chip and the random number generator ('RNG') inside the machine. It doesn't consider whether someone has recently won or lost -- every spin of the reels is random.
It's possible to influence your chances of winning at slots. When you press Spin, the RNG generates a random number (between one and a billion, for example) for each reel of the machine. Every number represents one of the symbols (the more numbers represent a symbol, the more it is 'weighted' in the machine).
The EPROM chip then determines whether you've won with the combination of symbols or not; the more winning combinations there are, and the more the player wins per winning combination, the higher the odds of winning and the payback of the machine.
Casino theme photo booth props. Suggesting you have all the information available, calculating your chances of winning at slots is simple: multiply the probability of each outcome with what those outcomes pay, and then sum the results. It's always under 100% (otherwise casinos would make no profit) and often near 90% (casinos make a lot of money from slots).
Here's an example of an imaginary slot machine (let's call it King of Cats) with three winning combinations -- a real-life slot machine works the same way, but likely with more ways of winning at slots:
Combination | Pays | Probability | Return |
Three Lions | 2500 | 0.001% | 0.025 |
Three Tigers | 1000 | 0.015% | 0.15 |
Three Jaguars | 400 | 0.05% | 0.2 |
Three Leopards | 50 | 0.5% | 0.25 |
Three Cheetahs | 5 | 7% | 0.35 |
Total | 3955 | 7.566% | 0.975 |
The slot machine above would return 97.5% to players in the long run. However, we rarely know the odds of slot machines. We do know the paytable - how much each winning combination pays to players - but we have no idea of the probability of getting that winning combination.
To calculate the probability of a winning combination, we need to know is how many stops there are for each symbol. For example, in the machine above there could be 45 stops and one of them would be a Lion symbol. By calculating (1/45)*(1/45)*(1/45) we get 0.001%, or the probability of hitting three Lion symbols in a row.
In real world, those symbols would have been weighed differently so that they're more likely to come on the first two reels and much less likely to come on the last reel, resulting in a near-miss situation.
I advise you not to play at all because slot machine odds are never good, but if you're going to play anyway, here's how you can find the slot machines that likely have better odds than others.
Why We Lose At Slots
We lose at slot machines because they're set to give back less than they take on average. It's impossible to play slot machines better; you can just press spin and hope for the best. With that said, though, you can improve your odds of winning at slot machines greatly by making good decisions before playing and having a good strategy when entering a casino - more about that lower on this page.
Generally, the more decisions you can make in a casino game, the lower the house edge is (with optimal play). Since there's almost no room for decisions when playing slots machines - again, your only decision is to press spin - the house edge is high at slots when compared to other popular casino games. And since you play slot machines for real money so fast (400-800 spins an hour), you lose more at slots than at any other casino game. (Read how slots work to understand them better.)
Like most casino games, a slot machine is a game of independent trials (the previous game has no influence on the next game). Your chances of winning with each spin are the same regardless of whether you've lost or won. So, there's absolutely no room for in-play slot machine strategy.
How Much Do Slot Machines Pay Back?
A slot machine's payback percentage could be anywhere from 75% to almost 100%, but of course, always lower than 100% (otherwise, the casino would make no profit). You can calculate a casino game's house edge by subtracting its payback percentage from 100% - this is how much the casino makes per bet in the long run. For example, with a 5% house edge, casinos make $5 per every $100 bet.
Calculating a slot machine's payback percentage is easy if you have all the information available: multiply the probability of each outcome with what they pay, and the sum is how much the slot machine returns in the long run, also known as its 'payback.'
But most of the time we don't have that information. We're in the dark -- sure, casinos can claim certain payback or payout percentages but how do we know they're truthful? Some online casinos get their payouts reviewed by private auditors, but how do we know if the auditors are honest?
It's a different situation with games like blackjack or roulette; in both cases we can calculate the house edge because the rules are known. If you care enough to make the calculations (and you should), you'll know exactly how much you stand to lose or win in the long run.
You could argue that casinos make so much money from slot machines that they have no reason to cheat. I agree, but you can still get a raw deal even if they are honest (setting a low payback percentage is not cheating). I want to have an idea of what kind of a return I get for my money regardless of the honesty of the casino. (See how to pick slot machines to find the best slots to play.)
Not only do casinos keep slot machine players in the dark about payback percentages, they have also weighed slot machine reels differently, resulting in as many near-miss moments as possible, which encourage future play. The first reel is the likeliest to hit something, the second reel is less likely to hit and the third reel is even less likely to hit.
NOTE: Some casinos are tested by auditors that publish monthly payout percentages for everyone to see online - now, 'payout' is different from 'payback.' The actual money that the casino has returned to players through their games is 'payouts' and the theoretical money that the slot machines are set to return is 'payback.' Payouts can be influenced by huge jackpot wins, for example, in which case a month's payout would look much better than the games have been set to pay back.
How You Can Win More
Here's the truth: the best thing you can do is to stay far away from slot machines (and stay clear from myths). Losing less is winning more and you can lose the least by never playing slots, even if you knew how to play slot machines the optimal way.
But you came here to learn how to play slots for real money, so I have to assume that you will play them at some point. Good news: you can win more (or, in fact, lose less) by playing the right slot machines at the right casinos.
The main consideration is always payback but you should also pay attention to casino comps and other benefits (such as cashback) that come along with playing at casinos.
Why to Play Slots
Some of you may wonder why to play slot machines at all. Exactly. They're a terrible investment -- think of a machine that you put $1 in and receive $0.95 back. That is basically a slot machine, except for all the sounds and animations, and of course a chance to win a lot of money, perhaps even millions of dollars.
The odds are heavily against you winning that money though. Meanwhile, in the long run, the casino takes your dollar bills and gives you back less. So if you agree to participate in this weird transaction, the least you can do is to find the casinos and slot machines that give you back the most money.
How to Find the Best Casino Slots to Play
If you're going to play in Las Vegas or some other popular gambling destination, take a look at this survey. It'll give you a good idea of how the location of the casino affects the general payback percentage of its slot machines; the best Las Vegas casinos are located mainly in North Las Vegas, not on the Strip. You can use the same logic in other places where there are many casinos around, although if you're 'stuck' with only a few, I'm not sure if location makes much of a difference.
After selecting a casino that potentially has a high payback percentage on average, an important part of a good slot machine strategy is to immediately join the casino's Slot Club (could be called 'Player's Club' as well). Contrary to popular myths, Slot Club members have the same house edge in their games as other players; the difference is, casinos can track Slot Club members (you have to insert a Club membership card to the slot machine when you play) and it helps them to give you comps when you deserve them (otherwise you may miss-out on them). You'll likely receive something extra just for signing up - free money to play with or a free drink, for example.
Additionally, most casinos give Slot Club members cashback (0.5% per bet, for example) and that is almost like playing against less house edge, although not literally. You don't win more likely but you receive a portion of your bets back.
Now, look around the casino. I bet you feel the temptation to head over to the flashiest slot machines with the biggest jackpots. That's what most slot players do and it's exactly the opposite of the best way to play slots. Unless your only goal is to win a million dollars (regardless of how unrealistic it is), playing progressive jackpot slots is the worst slot machine strategy you can choose. Many make that mistake and it's no wonder why US casinos get 70% of their revenues from slot machines.
Odds in Progressive Jackpot Slots
The only way you can win a million dollars playing slots is to play slot machines with progressive jackpots, however, you get even worse odds to win than you would get if you played flat-top slots.
The odds of winning a jackpot are usually way better on the first reel of the machine than on the last one. The casino wants to create as many 'near-miss' moments as possible -- it is a psychological trick, designed to make the player want to to play more.
It's easy to see why near-misses work: if you're one symbol away from winning a jackpot, it'll leave you with a different feeling than if the jackpot wasn't close at all.
In reality, it only seemed to be close.
In Nevada, the regulations state that one stop on the reel can't be weighted more than six times the stops before and after it (many have adopted this rule).
Symbol | 1st Reel | 2nd Reel | 3rd Reel |
Blank | 2 | 4 | 6 |
Jackpot | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Blank | 2 | 4 | 6 |
Progressive slot machine odds could be weighed like above; the first reel hits a jackpot symbol once out of five times while the third reel only hits once out of 13 times, often resulting in mentioned 'near-miss' situations.
But that was a simplified example. Hitting a progressive jackpot usually has more symbols, of course, and way worse odds. The chances of winning the biggest of them all, Megabucks, are somewhere in the 1:50,000,000, according to John Robinson at Casino City Times.
Progressive slot machine odds are worse than flat-top machines (the ones without a progressive jackpot) -- this is because a part of the bet goes to the jackpot while the casino takes its own cut. Unless the size of the jackpot is huge - in which case playing jackpot slots could be worth it - it always makes sense to choose a simple fixed jackpot slot machine.
So which slot machine types are best for you?
The simplest slot machines, also known as 'straight' or 'flat-top' slots, are your best choice financially. No, you can't win a million dollars playing those machines, and yes, they're less flashy than other slots, but they're the best slot games to play at a casino. For every dollar you bet, you may have to lose 10 cents more to flashier machines with progressive jackpots - that's a huge difference in the long run.
So now that you've chosen a simple machine, let's think about your betting strategy for slot machines (I'm not referring to progression betting systems; they don't work):
- Choose the highest denomination. The higher the denomination, the lower the house edge. For example, nickel slots have a higher house edge than dollar slots.
- Bet the maximum amount of coins. There's usually an incentive to bet maximum coins. For example, the jackpot becomes bigger relative to the bet, giving you a better return from the machine (odds stay the same but payout increases relatively more than bet size).
- Bet slowly. Not because pressing the Spin button fast or slow would impact your odds of winning at slot machines, but because it's a viable slot machine strategy because you have more time to play with your money and the longer you stay at a casino, the more comps you'll probably receive.
When it comes to determining the Atlantic City casino with the best slots, there is really only one statistic that matters: return to player rate (RTP).
For games in a casino, the odds of winning are expressed in RTP.
- Essentially, RTP is the percentage of money bet on a game that the game will ultimately pay back to players.
- If a game has a 90 percent RTP, for every $100 bet on it, a player should expect to win back $90.
Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Powerball
Try one of these Atlantic City Online Casinos
Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Money
Casino Slot Machines With The Best Odds Of Winning Slots
However, RTP indicates the longterm performance of a game. This means it may take more than $100 in bets for the game to pay back that $90. Nothing is guaranteed, particularly in the short term, and a player may not ever see a slot's true RTP realized before they run out of money playing it.
That said, RTP remains the best indicator of which casino has the loosest, and therefore best slots.
NJ online slots with high RTP + best promo codes & bonus offers: December 2020
Use links below to play and claim new casino promo codes, bonus offers, free spins, deposit bonuses and more:
Online Slot Machines Similar to Atlantic City Slots
Atlantic City casino slots: Always look for RTP
According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement's Atlantic City Casino Industry Casino Win Data For Calendar Year 2017 document, slots at the seven Atlantic City casinos operating last year had an overall average of 92.1 percent RTP. It's no wonder slots are so popular.
The average RTP is actually much lower for the penny slots that appear to be the busiest in most Atlantic City casinos.
In fact, the one cent and two cent slots at Atlantic City casinos had an average of 88.7 percent RTP in 2017. The penny slots at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa were the best among them at 89.8 percent RTP. However, Borgata's overall average RTP among slots of all denominations was 91.89 percent, below the industry average and far from the best in the business.
High roller slots pay much better across the board. The best $25 slots can be found at Bally's Atlantic City Hotel & Casino, where they had a 94.4 percent RTP last year. The Atlantic City average for $25 slots in 2017 was 92.5 percent RTP.
For $100 slots, Resorts Casino Hotel and Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City posted 94.1 and 94.2 percent RTP respectively last year. Numbers that were well above the 91.7 percent RTP industry average for $100 slots.
The loosest slots among the thousands at Atlantic City casinos in 2017 were actually the five-cent slot machines at Tropicana. These slots posted a 95.2 percent RTP on their way to becoming one of Atlantic City's best bets last year.
Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City
Plus, they helped Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City post an overall average of 92.59 percent RTP on slots of all denominations, making the Trop the Atlantic City casino with the loosest and best slots.
Here's a look at the average RTP on slots of all denominations for all seven Atlantic City casinos:
- Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City: 92.59 percent
- Caesars Atlantic City Hotel & Casino: 92.24 percent
- Bally's Atlantic City Hotel & Casino: 92.23 percent
- Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa: 91.89 percent
- Resorts Casino Hotel: 91.82 percent
- Golden Nugget Atlantic City: 91.66 percent
- Harrah's Resort Atlantic City: 91.44 percent
Slots at The Trop
One of the oldest and most storied casino properties in Atlantic City, the Tropicana currently boasts three floors of casino gaming with more than 3,000 slot machines and 135 table games. Resort amenities also include more than 2,000 hotel rooms, 26 restaurants, 25 shops, 20 bars and lounges, four pools, an IMAX Theater, a spa and a 2,000-seat showroom.
Tropicana prides itself on being a casino games innovator and boasts a selection of more than 2,400 different games it says surpasses the offerings of other Atlantic City casinos.
In terms of slots, the list includes everything from the newest slots available to a wide variety of classics. The games are in areas with engaging themes. Many feature linked and individual progressive jackpots. There also a rather large video poker area and a stylish and inviting High Limit slots lounge with a private concierge, restrooms, and hundreds of high-denomination slot games.
Tropicana's history in Atlantic City
The origins of Tropicana Casino and Resort lie in The Ambassador Hotel, circa 1919.
The Ambassador infamously played host to the Atlantic City Conference for organized crime bosses. The likes of Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano all attended.
The Ambassador closed in the 1970s. However, Ramada brought its bones back to life in 1981. The organization actually purchased the Ambassador in 1978 with plans to remodel. Ramada was forced by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and then-Gov. Brendan Byrne to demolish the property and build a new hotel and casino practically from the ground up, reusing only the steel framework from the old hotel.
Ramada bought the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas in 1979 and decided to call the under-construction Boardwalk property Tropicana Atlantic City.
It opened in November 1981, with a 521-room hotel and casino. Renovations continued throughout the 1980s, adding a showroom, a second hotel tower, and the Tivoli Pier indoor amusement center. Tropicana Atlantic City became TropWorld Casino and Entertainment Resort.
Tropicana changes hands
Ramada ended the 1980s by selling the Las Vegas Tropicana. The mid-1990s saw another new hotel tower added and further renovations. A new poker, keno and off-track betting area opened, and the property was renamed Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City.
The early 2000s saw another new hotel tower, a parking garage, and increased meeting and convention space added. Plus, The Quarter at Tropicana, a 200,000-square-foot entertainment complex and shopping mall opened up.
Ownership landed in the hands of a company called Columbia Sussex in 2005. However, Columbia Sussex was denied a casino license in 2007. Ultimately, a trustee took control.
Carl Icahn steps in and out
A group of creditors led by billionaire Carl Icahn bought Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City out of bankruptcy in 2009.
Icahn ran the property under his Tropicana Entertainment Inc. umbrella. The company has made more than $200 million in upgrades, renovations, and enhancements since 2013.
However, Icahn announced plans to sell Tropicana Entertainment Inc.'s US casino properties, including Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City, to real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties in early 2018.