Statistics And Myths About Online Slots

January 2, 2015

Statistics do not lie, but they can tell half-truths and therefore be misleading. This is equally true of the several statistical information that you will find with regards to slot machines at online casinos. Such information has been used to create and perpetuate myths about slot machines. This article discusses some of these statistics and explains what they seemingly imply and what they really mean. The fundamental concept to understand is that each spin of the slot machine is independent of all earlier spins. Statistics only describe the past and the past is irrelevant. Statistics, in online slot machines, cannot predict the future.

You will often read in online casino newsletters that a certain slot machine delivered a return of 104%. The percent return from a slot machine is the amount that it has paid out during a period of time divided by the amount wagered on it during that time expressed as a percentage. Even the loosest of online slot machines will have an average return of about 96% in the long run. A period of at least a year would qualify as “the long run”. If a slot machine gives an average return of more than 100% in the long run then the online casino running that machine would go broke. One or two big hits on a slot machine can jack up the average return for that week to over 100%. It is this short term average return that some online casinos report in order to induce traffic on a particular slot machine. You will notice that the same slot machine is not reported having delivered returns over 100% week after week and month after month. The slot machine can deliver and return of 104% in one week and 90% in the next.

The average time between hits is a piece of statistical information often cited in connection with progressive jackpot slot machines. The time period between hits for the last five or ten hits is determined and the average computed. The imputation is that if the time from the last hit is greater than the average time between hits then the next hit on the progressive jackpot is imminent. This conclusion is incorrect. If you take a progressive jackpot with an average time between hits of two months you may find two hits in the same week and then no hits for four months. There is simply no way to predict when a progressive jackpot will be hit.

Other Recent Articles Added to 777 Online Slots