Where can you find low stakes slot machines in Las Vegas?
I’ve found little that’s really helpful on other websites related to this topic. In fact, most of the pages ranking for “low stakes slot machines in Las Vegas” seem to just echo each other.
I did find a page on 100bestcasinosites.com, which is a site my former boss used to own, about the best casinos for low rollers. It was helpful, but it was a broad approach to the topic that focused on listing casinos rather than specific slot machines. It was probably the most helpful page I found in the search engines for this topic.
The Best Casinos in Las Vegas for Low Rollers
If you want to find the best low stakes slot machines in Las Vegas, starting with a list of casinos is probably as good a way to do this as any other. This is the list provided on 100bestcasinosites.com:
- El Cortez
- Boulder Station
- Santa Fe Station
- East Cannery
- Red Rock Casino
- Texas Station
- Arizona Charlies
This list mostly focuses on blackjack and other table games, which are better bets than slot machines for a variety of reasons.
Here’s why:
Low Rollers Should Try to Lose as Little Money per Hour as Possible
You can estimate how much money you’ll lose on a gambling game per hour with a simple formula:
Average bets per hour X Average bet size X the house edge = Expected average hourly loss
Increase any of those 3 factors, and you’ll see a larger average hourly loss.
Decrease any of those factors, and you’ll see a smaller average hourly loss.
Let’s say you’ve found a $10 per hand blackjack game with standard rules and that you play with perfect basic strategy. The house edge on such a game is about 0.5%.
The average blackjack player might play 200 hands per hour if he’s playing head-to-head with the dealer, but a game with stakes this low is almost always full. This means fewer hands per hour, maybe 50 to 75. Let’s call it 75.
So, you multiply the 3 factors: 75 bets per hour X $10 per bet X 0.5% = $3.75 in average expected losses
Who wouldn’t want to enjoy that kind of entertainment at a cost of just $3.75 per hour.
Average Hourly Loss for Low Stakes Slot Machines
Slot machines are an entirely different kettle of fish. For one thing, you’ll be placing a much larger number of bets per hour — between 500 and 600 per hour. Let’s assume that you play slowly to try to keep your hourly losses as low as possible.
Let’s also say that the house edge for the game you’re playing is 6%. That’s the average for slot machines on the Boulder Strip according to USA Casino Guide from Steve Bourie, which is a site you should bookmark if you haven’t already.
And further, let’s assume you’re playing 3 paylines at a dollar per line per spin, putting $3 per spin into action.
Your predicted hourly loss for this relatively low stakes slot machine is:
600 bets per hour X $3 per bet X 6% = $108 in expected losses per hour.
Even if you’re only betting $1 per spin on a penny slot, you’re looking at $36 per hour in losses.
You’re far better off sticking with blackjack — unless you hate blackjack and only like slot machines.
Which Are the Best Low Stakes Slot Machine Games, Though
I haven’t been able to find a good list of low stakes slot machine games. I did see several lists that you can safely ignore during your searches, though:
Any article that mentions Mega Moolah being one of the best low stakes slots in Vegas should be ignored.
Here’s why:
Mega Moolah is an online-only casino game available from Microgaming. According to their website, Microgaming leases games to online casinos, and they only offer their games to players outside the United States. Since they don’t offer Mega Moolah to brick and mortar casinos, and since they don’t accept players from the United States, it’s obvious that Mega Moolah CAN’T be one of the best low stakes slots in Vegas.
Why did it get listed as such?
Most online casino sites don’t perform a lot of quality control on their content. Also, many of them just copy and paraphrase content from other sites. Someone inexperienced in the industry just listed the game in error, and other websites just assumed that the first site had done their research.
This is one of the reasons you can’t trust anything you see on the internet.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for low stakes slot machines, consider learning to play blackjack instead. It’ll cost you a LOT less money.
If you insist on playing low stakes slot machines in spite of this good advice, keep in mind the following:
- You can probably ignore the game suggestions from most websites, especially if those suggestions come from articles that don’t seem to be written by an expert.
- You should consider denomination first, but look at the minimum bet in dollars. A penny slot isn’t really a low stakes game if your minimum bet is $4.00, is it?
- You’ll probably find the sweet spot in the quarter slots category. If you can get anything for under a dollar a spin, you’re playing a relatively low roller slot machine game.
Finally, avoid progressive slot machine games as much as possible. They always have a higher house edge than the other slot machine games on the floor.
