Slot industry standards
Suppose I see a 3-reel single-payline game with a single top-line progressive (like, by getting 3 wild/jackpot symbols on the payline). The reset value for the jackpot is relatively high (say, 1500x the bet). All other payouts are from a fixed pay table (there are no smaller progressives)
Obvously there's no way to know how high the jackpot has to be for the game to be +EV. I would need to know the RTP. for the machine (which I can make an educated guess about) and how much of that payback comes from the top line pay's reset value. For example, if the slot returns 90% and 2% of that payback comes from the top line pay, then the jackpot would need to be 6x the reset value to be break-even. If the top line pay accounted for 1% payback then it would need to be 11x. For a comparison, the payback for a royal in most VP games is about 2%.
Is there an industry standard for the amount of return that comes from the top line pay? Obviously it's going to be different for different games, but is there a "standard" range that it's usually in? Or maybe a different "standard" that different companies like to use, even if it's not industry-wide? I'm just looking for a starting point when I see a game that I don't have any other info on.
I think there's a gaping hole in people's wallets on these games unless they hit the Grand JP early then find another game to play, like Black Jack.
My luck has been like this guy's first session in the video below; losing half of the coin-in. He also has some advice to round off the cash-out of free play to the nearest dollar before pushing that cash-out button because the cents may not carry-over to the next machine. At the end of the video he does a rare experiment to see how inserting 20X $1 bills for $5 last chance spins will do. He has to cash out every win before the next bill goes in. He gets some real luck and cashes out a lot.
I typically have to wait 50+ spins to get to a bonus round, and the bonus payouts are abysmal. He is denom-hopping hoping to catch a break.
I finally won on Dragon Link & later a Dragon Cash high limit miracle! - StoryTime Slots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9-K4RhOSc
Quote: SkinnyTonyThis question is mostly for people who have worked in the industry, done slot math, etc.
Suppose I see a 3-reel single-payline game with a single top-line progressive (like, by getting 3 wild/jackpot symbols on the payline). The reset value for the jackpot is relatively high (say, 1500x the bet). All other payouts are from a fixed pay table (there are no smaller progressives)
Obvously there's no way to know how high the jackpot has to be for the game to be +EV. I would need to know the RTP. for the machine (which I can make an educated guess about) and how much of that payback comes from the top line pay's reset value. For example, if the slot returns 90% and 2% of that payback comes from the top line pay, then the jackpot would need to be 6x the reset value to be break-even. If the top line pay accounted for 1% payback then it would need to be 11x. For a comparison, the payback for a royal in most VP games is about 2%.
Is there an industry standard for the amount of return that comes from the top line pay? Obviously it's going to be different for different games, but is there a "standard" range that it's usually in? Or maybe a different "standard" that different companies like to use, even if it's not industry-wide? I'm just looking for a starting point when I see a game that I don't have any other info on.
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I would say no there was not really a standard. The big progressives like Megabucks used to put around 3% to the progressives. The ones I worked on would put about 2.5% to the large meter, 0.5% to the smaller meter. When the large meter reached a certain level we would only put 2% in an apply the other 0.5% to a hidden meter that would be applied to the large meter after reset.
