The cheaper the game, the lower the payout: slots that charge $5 per round pay better than slots that charge a penny. Based on what is published, however, it’s a fair generalization that a player can expect to lose 10% to 15% of his or her stake at every session. In others, that information is kept confidential. Some states require casinos to disclose their payouts. Others leave that decision up to the casino, as in Georgia and California.
Some states set a required minimum: 83% in Arkansas, for example. Slot machine payouts vary state by state. It’s the problem gambler who keeps the casino in business. The IAV report cites a Canadian study that finds that the 75% of casino customers who play only occasionally provide only 4% of casino revenues. The industry as a whole targets precisely those who can least afford to lose and earns most of its living from people for whom gambling has become an addiction. Small “wins” are administered at the most psychologically effective intervals, but the math is remorseless: the longer you play, the more you lose. The typical casino gambler sits at a computer screen, enters a credit card and enters a digital environment carefully constructed to keep them playing until all their available money has been extracted.
Modern casino gambling is computer gambling.
