How Long Will Your Money Last?

       Here’s some fun you can have before your next trip to play the slots at your favorite casino. 

       One of my favorite gamers, Random $$ Slots, recently sent me the link to his slot calculator from Digital Media (DIGDIA). It’s an entertaining tool that will let you calculate how much money you can expect to win/lose playing your favorite games and how long your bankroll will last. You can vary the amount you bet, the speed at which you play, the game’s RTP (return to player - the payback percentage), and the volatility of the game. Based on this information, the handy little machine will do the rest and tell you how much you can expect to win or lose after any chosen number of spins.  If you’re a member of slot fanatics, you may have seen this before. If you’re not, you’ll be eager to try it out I know. The calculator is at RandomSSSlots.

       The variables you enter are pretty straightforward, but you might not be familiar with the term volatility, also called variance.  With a few exceptions, the games we play don’t advertise their volatility so we have to estimate it usually. Volatility is a measure of how wildly the wins vary. Some games have frequent wins that don’t pay very much. These are low volatility games. Others don’t hit so often, but when they do, you can win large amounts of money. These are high volatility games. The pull down panel next to  the menu for volatility with the calculator gives you one example each for low, medium, medium high, high or very high volatility games that you might be familiar with.

       Another listing for games of various volatilities can be found at dproxima.com. This prolific videographer lists many games currently on the casino floors with various levels of volatility, You can view the games you are not familiar with on his YouTube videos. This will give you a feel for the volatility of the games you usually play. 

       If you don’t see your game on these lists, there are other suggestions on the internet to help you determine your game’s volatility. Search for “volatility“ or “variance” and you’ll find a lot of articles to read. John Robison, who writes for Casino City Times, says as a general rule, the higher the lowest reward on the payable, the lower the hit frequency & the higher the variance.  Another rule of thumb, he says, is that machines with multiplying symbols have lower hit frequencies than machines without multipliers. Low hit frequency means higher volatility. Every rule has its exceptions, however.

       Everybody you read says to check the payable. The higher the maximum win, the longer you’ll have to play to win it.  Another indication of a high volatility machine is a payable with 5 of a kind paying 10 or 15 times as much as 4 of a kind. They all say just play the game, and you’ll quickly get a feel for the game’s volatility.

       Which type machine should you play? That’s up to you. Are you playing for fun or for fortune? Do you want to be entertained for a long time without losing too much, or do you want to risk it all for less time on device but more chance to win big?

       You want to play low variance games if you don’t have a very large bankroll, if you want to play as long as possible, and you mostly just want to be entertained. You want to play high volatility games if you’re chasing a big win and have cash to spare, and you’ve accepted the fact that you’ll probably walk out with less than you came in with, and you don’t mind blowing your budget now and then. 

       And you want to play with Random $$ Slot’s calculator before you go and risk your real cash. See what it predicts you’ll have to take home when you’re done and how long it thinks you’ll be able to play on your bankroll. If that doesn’t discourage you from ever setting foot in a casino again — and it won’t because we always think we’ll be the exception to the rule —  then have a good time and win a lot of money and remember to “view, like, and subscribe” on YouTube to thank these videographers for their contributions.  Thanks, DProxima, for ranking the games on your site, and a very special thank you to Random $$ Slots for sharing his cool calculator with us all.