What's the Odds of Hitting a Jackpot in Slots?
Have you ever wondered when you pulled that reel down what your chances were of winning? First off we will explain how slot machines work before we get into a little bit about the odds.
In most video slot machine, the odds of hitting a certain payline or set of symbols is based upon how the virtual reels are set up. Each stop on an real reel may match up with more than just one stop on a virtual reel. Basically, your odds of hitting a particular winner depends on the frequency that a particular icon or symbol stops on the reels.
After you spin the reel, or to push the spin button on the machine sitting in front of you the slot machine generates a symbol to go into each row and column of the slot machine. Those symbols are chosen from a random generator that is almost constantly working at about 1000 symbols per second.
The ones chosen at the exact moment that you push or pull the spin are the ones that show up on your screen. Immediately after the numbers are chosen for your spin the outcome of your spin will be scored, and you will know if you had won or if you haven’t.
Now we will get to the more difficult ways of telling you the odds of your machine. First off you have to find out what value the machine uses. Let’s say you have one with the value of 15 to process what they call the RNG Generated Sequences the chances that the jackpot image to land in reel one is 1 in 15. Now, the odds off getting all three jackpot images in a row would be 15x15x15. That would equal up to 1 in 3,375 chances of getting all the jackpot images to appear in a row.
How you figure out the odds? Basically if the value of your machine is 15 then the chances of getting that jackpot image in that first box is 1 in 15. So, in order to figure out your odds of getting jackpot all across that row you had to times 15 by 3. So it would look like 15x15x15, and if you multiply that up it equals 3,375. So your odds of hitting that jackpot row would be one in 3,375.
In a typical weighted slot machine, the jackpot icon (the highest paying symbol) for each reel corresponds to only one virtual stop. This means your chance at receiving a jackpot symbol on a reel is 1 in 64. If you are able to play multiple paylines, you three chance to land the jackpot icon on the reel. This ends up being about a one in 22 chance of getting a jackpot on a specific reel.
In a three reel slot machine, if every reel is set up the same, your chances of hitting the jackpot symbol on all three reels is a 1 in 64 chance to the third power , or once every 262,144 spins. For machines with larger progressive jackpots, the virtual reel could have many more stops which means less odds that a jackpot item will come. This will decreases your odds of winning that jackpot significantly.
Let’s do another example quick. Let’s say you had a machine with the value of 32 your chances of getting the jackpot image in one is 1 in 32. So the problem for figuring out a row of the jackpot images is 32x32x32. If you multiply that it comes out to 32,768. So now your odds of hitting the jackpot images are 1 in 32,768.
If you have a machine that pays out a larger maximum jackpot they will have a higher value number. They can be as high as 64, 256, and 512 stops. This basically means that your odds of winning are decreased even more.
The slot machine RNG, which determines the payout percentage, is regulated by the gaming department to pay out the minimum percentage of the funds that are put into that machine. Because of the irregular sequences of symbols or numbers created by the RNG, you have the same chances of winning every time you play.
So a ready to play machine is a myth due to the fact that the slot machine is controlled by a computer chip, and the only way to change your odds are switching out that chip. Which you cannot due as a customer at a casino or wherever you were to play.
I hoped this helped you determine some of your odds at hitting that jackpot spin. Good luck at the reel.
