Slot denomination calculator: what one spin costs
A slot machine counts in credits, and one credit is not one cent. Set the three numbers that make the price — the lines you play, the credits you bet on each line, and what one credit is worth — and the price of one press is worked out below.
The three numbers that set the price
You choose the lines you play and the credits you bet on each line. The value of one credit is set inside the machine by the casino; look for it on the panel, where it is often in the smallest type.
25 lines, with 1 credit on each line, is 25 credits a spin.
One credit is worth 1¢ on this machine, so one spin costs $0.25.
The $100 you brought pays for 400 spins at that price. That is the money you brought divided by the price of one spin, and it is division rather than a forecast of your evening: a spin that pays something back puts credits on the meter and buys you further spins, and how many it buys nobody can say beforehand.
At 600 spins an hour, $150 goes through the machine in an hour. That is the money you feed in and bet again, and it is not the money you lose: what an hour costs on average is the money through the machine multiplied by the share the machine keeps, and that share is a separate figure with a separate source.
One line with one credit on it would cost $0.01 on a machine where a credit is worth 1¢. What you have set costs $0.25, which is 25 times as much. The lines you play and the credits you bet on each line multiply together, so raising either one raises the price of every spin you make after that.
Every figure above is that one multiplication and nothing else: the lines you play, times the credits on each line, times the value of one credit. Nothing on this page knows what a machine pays back.
A credit is neither a coin nor a press
A credit is the unit the machine counts in, and the casino sets what one credit is worth in dollars. That value has a name — the denomination — and it is the one number of the three that you do not choose.
What a credit is worth
The denomination or value of a credit is rarely the same as the cost of a spin on that machine. Even machines called “penny” or “nickel” may actually have minimum bets that are much higher. In other words your spin will never cost only one cent on a penny machine.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
So a large number of credits is not a large amount of money. 200 credits is $2 on a machine where one credit is worth 1¢, and $50 on the machine standing beside it where one credit is worth 25¢. The reels are the same and the symbols are the same; only the value of a credit differs, and the bet differs by that much.
The same reels at two values of a credit
Worked out: 200 credits × 1¢ a credit = $2; 200 credits × 25¢ a credit = $50.
Slots machines typically have three or more “reels,” each of which has a number of symbols on it. The combinations of symbols the machine lands on are called “paylines.”
A payline is a lineup of specific symbols on which a payout will be awarded.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
The name on the machine is not the price of a spin either. A machine called a penny machine values one credit at a cent, and a spin costs a cent only when you play one line with one credit on it. Play 25 lines with one credit on each line and that same penny machine takes $0.25 every press.
What one spin costs, machine by machine
Down the side, what one credit is worth. Along the header row, the credits a spin takes, which is the lines you play multiplied by the credits on each line. Every cell is those two numbers multiplied.
| One credit is worth | 1 credit | 25 credits | 40 credits | 45 credits | 200 credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1¢ — a penny machine | $0.01 | $0.25 | $0.40 | $0.45 | $2 |
| 2¢ | $0.02 | $0.50 | $0.80 | $0.90 | $4 |
| 5¢ — a nickel machine | $0.05 | $1.25 | $2 | $2.25 | $10 |
| 10¢ | $0.10 | $2.50 | $4 | $4.50 | $20 |
| 25¢ | $0.25 | $6.25 | $10 | $11.25 | $50 |
| $1 | $1 | $25 | $40 | $45 | $200 |
| $2 | $2 | $50 | $80 | $90 | $400 |
| $5 | $5 | $125 | $200 | $225 | $1,000 |
The shaded cell is the one an operator publishes worked out in full. It is repeated below in the operator’s own words.
The one example published with its arithmetic
Nine paylines, five credits on each line, on a machine where one credit is worth five cents, is 45 credits a spin; and 45 credits at five cents each is $2.25 a spin. Ontario’s operator publishes that example with both halves of the arithmetic in it, and this page recomputes both halves and gets the same two numbers.
Nine lines on a five-cent machine
Worked out: 9 paylines × 5 credits on each line = 45 credits a spin, and 45 credits × 5¢ a credit = $2.25 a spin.
Example: If you bet the max of nine paylines on a nickel machine, the credits per spin will be 45. Since the machine calls for five cents per credit, the total cost per spin (and of your bet) is $2.25.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: How to Set Your Bet in Slots · read
Betting more does not raise what the machine pays back in step. The lines you play and the credits on each line set what you pay for a press; what comes back is set by the machine’s pay table, and that is a different thing.
Betting more and what comes back
When playing slots it’s important to know that increasing your bet does not always increase your potential payout.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Betting on slots · read
How it is worked out
The price of one spin. The lines you play are multiplied by the credits you bet on each line, which gives the credits one spin takes. Those credits are multiplied by the value of one credit, which gives the price in money. The multiplication is done in whole cents, so a price such as $2.25 is exact and not rounded.
The spins your money pays for. The money you brought is divided by the price of one spin and rounded down to a whole spin. That is all it is: a spin that pays something back puts credits on the meter and buys further spins, and this page does not guess how many.
The money through the machine in an hour. The price of one spin is multiplied by the spins an hour you pick. Two of the three speeds were timed with a watch at a casino in Ontario: about one spin every six seconds on reel machines, which is 600 an hour, and about one every three seconds on video machines, which is 1,200 an hour.
Spins an hour, timed with a watch
We estimated the speed of play by using the second hand on a watch. … traditional mechanical reel slot machine games, the player can play approximately every 6 s, which is approximately 10 spins per minute, or 600 spins per hour. On the two video slots games, the player can play approximately every 3 s, which is 1,200 spins per hour.
Spins an hour, as the operator states it
Worked out: 14 spins a minute × 60 minutes = 840 spins an hour.
Slot machines play at super speed – around 14 spins per minute.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — strategies: Make the most of your play · read
What this page does not do. It does not know what any machine pays back, so it says nothing about what you will win or lose, and it does not tell you which value of a credit to play. The average cost of an hour is the money through the machine multiplied by the share the machine keeps, and that is worked out with its own sources on Price of an hour. The lesson that reads these three numbers off the panel of a machine is Reels, lines and what a spin costs.
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