Slots theoretical loss vs actual loss
My wife and I have enjoyed gambling for 15 years. Me blackjack her SLOTS!! We get great comps from her slot play as she is max bet only. I understand the theoretical loss is just a example of what may happen but she loses her bankroll nearly every time. We were in Vegas May 1-2 for a short weekend trip as we live in Texas. $4000 bankroll on slots for the 2 days. Gone lost it all. She got 41000 tier credits at MGM properties with a total coin in of about $13000 and 2400 tier credits with Total rewards coin in of $12000. We gamble all over the country and this has just become the norm 9 out of 10 times. I am not complaining about the losses as we do have a great time and only gamble what we can afford it just seems that the actual loss at the end of the trip is 100%. I completely understand that she turned $4000 of actual into $25000 worth of play over the 2 days. However all of that was lost too so actual loss 100%. I know slots are a horrible bet but does anyone else see this happening to them as well. Just curious. New member to this site as far as a posting have been reading it for a few years and have enjoyed it.
Comments
If she put $25,000 coin-in, then assuming an expected return of 95%, she would expect to lose $1250.
On an expected return of 90% from slots, she would expect to lose $2500.
On an expected return of 80% from slots, she would expect to lose $5000.
I would guess (not knowing the expected return or variance of any slot machines), that a $4000 loss is not an improbable event. The Wizard wrote about them here: http://wizardofodds.com/games/slots/
Bring your wife around to the idea of playing video poker for a better expected return (but with lower comps).
I'm sure she is not putting the $4k into action just once, but recycling it.
If the machine has a 93% return, say, that is not so bad for slots, and on average sending the bankroll through once would mean $3720 left by obvious math of multiplying $4k by 93% . But the next time she sends it through, it's [on average again] $3720 * 93% to expect to have about $3460 left.
And so on until it is gone.