Playing to Win Play the maximum number of coins. Many machines require that a player gamble. It’s safe to say they have the most popular slot machines in Las Vegas casinos. Even though it isn’t one of the highest payout slot machines, Cleopatra is the most popular slot machine. Its RTP is just 88.98%, unlike the best paying slot machine with an RTP of 96.60% — Wheel of Fortune.
If you want to play slot machines in America, there’s nowhere quite like Las Vegas. Home to some of the biggest and best casinos in the world, let alone in the United States, Las Vegas is virtually synonymous with gambling.
And yet, many players who finally make it out to Vegas are overwhelmed by the sheer number of machines. How is a newbie in this town supposed to know which Vegas slot machines are the best and where to play them?
That’s why I’m here! I’ve been to Vegas a few times, but I’ve also spun the reels in lots of casinos across the states, in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, and at The Hippodrome Casino in London, so I know my way around most land-based slot machines.
From all of the slots that I have played and researched for this post, these are the top slots in Vegas. If you’re in Sin City, make sure you check these out.
The Top Five Slot Machines in Las Vegas
Before I give you the lowdown on each of the top five slots in Vegas, there are a few things you should understand. These are concepts which experienced slots players will already be familiar with, so it’s been written with beginner players in mind. Still, even if you’ve spun the reels more times than you can remember, this could be a good refresher for you.
- RTP – This is the payback rate of a slot machine. It’s an acronym for “Return to Player.” For example, a slot with an RTP of 96% generally pays back $0.96 out of every $1 wagered on it.
- Volatility – This determines how frequently a slot machine will pay and how big the wins are likely to be when it does. Low volatility slots pay smaller wins more often, and high volatility slots pay larger wins after longer losing streaks. Here’s a more in-depth article on slot volatility and variance if you’re interested in learning more about these concepts.
- Progressive Jackpot – Most of you will already know that a jackpot is the biggest win a machine can pay. A progressive jackpot is a collective jackpot often contributed to by multiple casinos. For example, every spin on Megabucks slot (which you’ll hear about below) contributes to the Megabucks progressive jackpot. This is why these jackpots can grow so huge.
Now, let’s shift focus and look at some of the best slot machines in Las Vegas.
1. Wheel of Fortune
The first Wheel of Fortune slot was released way back in 1966, and they’ve been a player favorite ever since. You’ll find them in most of the top Las Vegas casinos.
There are two dozen Wheel of Fortune slot machines, and which one(s) you’ll have access to depends on the casino you play at. They all have larger than average jackpots, though, and players are attracted to the money-wheel features.
Just like in the TV game show, you can access a bonus round which gives you the chance to spin a money wheel for cash prizes. If you’re lucky, a Wheel of Fortune slot machine will rain money down on you. These slots have made instant millionaires out of many hundreds of people over the years.
2. Triple Red Hot 7s
Some players don’t like lots of fancy bonus rounds and extra features, they just want to spin the reels, attempt to win jackpots, and enjoy themselves.
If this describes you, Triple Red Hot 7s is for you. It’s an incredibly simple game with an old-school feel. It has three reels and is a high-volatility machine, meaning the wins tend to be explosive when they do come.
That’s not to say that this slot has absolutely no features. It does dish out free games, and some variants have game multipliers which can triple wins. Ask the casino attendant if they offer Triple Red Hot 7s and get started spinning ASAP.
3. Double Jackpot
One of Bally Technologies’ best slot machines, this one will also appeal to players who enjoy classic slot games. You’ll see all the familiar fruit machine symbols on the reels, like cherries, bells, bars, and 7s which can appear as singles, doubles, or triple 7 combos.
Double Jackpot slot can pay big wins. Five Double Jackpot game symbols across the reels pay 50,000. Just landing a Double Jackpot symbol in a regular winning combination can win you multipliers of up to 16x.
This is a simple, no-frills slot machine. You just need to sit, spin, and hopefully win. It’s a Vegas casino favorite!
4. The Monte Carlo
There’s no doubt that the Monte Carlo slot machine is one of the most interesting looking slots ever created. These machines stand taller than the average person, and since you’ll be sitting down to play it at most Vegas casinos, they seem huge.
Monte Carlo slots offer free spins and multipliers, but the main feature of these slots is the roulette wheel above the reels. If you land a Monte Carlo Spin symbol, you’ll get a spin on it. Each pocket has different win amounts in it, and one of them will award the Super Jackpot if you’re lucky.
This unique blend of slot machine crossed with roulette has made this one of the most popular land-based games of all time. I strongly suggest you check it out. Don’t expect to enter the roulette wheel feature too often, and do walk away if you experience a big win.
5. Megabucks
Now we come to the slot machine of all Vegas slot machines, the one that could change your life forever. Before I begin, let me whet your appetite with some of the biggest Megabucks jackpots of all time.
- In 1998, a retired flight attendant played $300 on Megabucks at Palace Station and won $27.5 million.
- Elmer Sherwin, a WWII airman, won $4.6 million on Megabucks at the Mirage in 1989. Lady Luck visited him a second time when he won $21.1 million playing the same slot machine at the Cannery Casino a couple of decades later.
- A 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles won the biggest Megabucks jackpot to date when he scooped $39.7 million at the Excalibur in 2003.
You can read about more Megabucks slot jackpots here.
You can expect some free spins during gameplay, but look out for the Megabucks symbols. They can award multipliers of up to x5, and if you’re lucky enough to get them straight across a payline, you can win the Megabucks progressive jackpot. It’s this jackpot that made the above players filthy rich in a few seconds flat.
Where to Play the Best Las Vegas Slot Machines
This article wouldn’t be complete without an overview of which Las Vegas casinos are best for slots players. There’s no doubt that you’ll have plenty of choice in Las Vegas, but you’ll find that these casinos offer the best slots in town.
The Bellagio
Arguably the most famous casino in Las Vegas, the Bellagio has 2,300 gaming machines including slots and video poker games. Several of its machines offer progressive jackpots, and it also hosts regular slots tournaments with prizes worth up to $2 million.
MGM Grand
With 2,500 slot machines spread across this massive casino, this could be considered a slot player’s paradise. The MGM Grand offers popular machines like Heidi’s BeerHaus, 88 Fortunes, and Frogger: Get Hoppin’. You can play penny slots for $0.01 per spin, or you can wager up to $1,000 per spin on some of the MGM high limit slots.
Treasure Island
Another slots mecca, Treasure Island has 2,200 electronic gaming machines to choose from. Many of these are slot machines, but they also include video poker and keno. Visit the Link Lounge to play 80 progressive jackpot slots for a chance to win the biggest jackpots in Vegas.
Caesars Palace
This casino is associated with Las Vegas in the minds of many tourists. It has a massive floor boasting thousands of gaming machines, including some of the best Vegas slots as well as video poker and keno. If you’re looking for a particular game, the Caesars Palace website has a cool tool called the Slot Finder. Check it out if you ever find yourself in this Las Vegas casino.
Mandalay Bay
No, I’m not being paid by MGM Resorts to promote its casinos, several of which are on this list. They just happen to be some of the best casinos in Las Vegas, so I had to include them here. Mandalay Bay offers thousands of machines including The Goonies, Sphinx 4D, Texas Tea Pinball, and lots of others. Several of the slots listed above are available here including Wheel of Fortune, Monte Carlo, and Megabucks.
How to Win Slots in Vegas
I know you’re in Vegas to have some fun first and foremost, but wouldn’t it be awesome if you could come home with a massive jackpot, too? I can’t provide you with any surefire way to win Vegas slot machines, but I can give you a few pointers on how to win more often.
Forget Finding Loose Slots
When I first started playing slot machines, I wasted lots of time trying to find loose slot machines. What’s a loose slot machine? The idea is that it’s a machine that’s ready to pay anytime.
Slots players have different methods for finding loose slot machines. Some believe in playing after observing another player spin the reels for a long time without success. Others believe in playing a test amount of $10 or $20, and if they’re breaking events, they think this is a signal that the slot may pay soon.
I don’t believe in loose slots. I know that modern slot machines are controlled by Random Number Generators. The machine will not pay until the algorithm spits out the right number at the right time. There’s absolutely no telling when that might be, so just sit down, spin, and have some fun! If Lady Luck arrives, she arrives, and if not, there’s nothing you can do about it.
Don’t Play Progressive Slots at the Start
I know that most of the top Vegas slots I mentioned above are progressive jackpot games. I also know that the temptation of a Megabucks jackpot can be too much to turn away from. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t play progressive jackpot slots in Las Vegas, I’m just saying not to play them at the start of the night.
The chances of winning a progressive jackpot are slim, millions to one at best. Add to this that these slots have a notoriously low payback percentage, and playing them from the outset is the best way to blow your bankroll.
What I prefer to do is play low volatility slots which pay smaller amounts more frequently. It’s even better if they have a high RTP. Once I’m playing with house money and have safely tucked my starting bankroll back into my wallet, I switch to the progressive jackpot slots.
If I lose, it doesn’t matter. It was never my money until I cashed it out anyhow. That’s the mindset you have to have if you want to win in Vegas.
Trust Your Intuition
This is the one tip on this list that I can’t quantify. While I base the others on a hard-won understanding of how Las Vegas slot machines work, this tip is more mysterious, yet countless slots players will attest to its truth.
Best Slot Machines Las Vegas
Sometimes, for some unexplained reason, you just get a feeling about certain slots. You can just know for sure this isn’t your lucky machine, and other times, a seemingly random slot can grab your attention out of nowhere, and lo and behold, you scoop a massive jackpot.
Some players think this is Lady Luck guiding them, while others attempt to understand this intuition as the subconscious mind processing data you aren’t aware of. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s real. Trust your intuition when you play slots in Vegas!
Now you know the best slot machines in Las Vegas and where to play them. With these top slots tips, you’ll have a better chance of winning. Good luck, and enjoy Las Vegas!
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.We may earn money from the companies and products mentioned in this post.
Casinos across Nevada are required to report revenue figures to the Nevada Gaming Control Board to include what percentage of wagers they held as profit on slot games. A nerdy annual tradition of ours is to dig into that real world data from the previous year to help our readers find the loosest slots in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, the data we have access to isn’t granular enough to tell us how loose or tight slots were at individual casinos. Rather, the reporting will highlight groups of casinos based on where they are located (ie The Strip, Downtown, Boulder, etc). We’ll make sure to point out what casinos reside in zones identified as having looser slots.
As a matter of housekeeping, casino slot “win percentage” is defined as the percentage of the total amountwagered by the player that the casino held as profit. For instance, a 10% casino win percentage means the casino, on average, kept 10 cents of every dollar wagered on slot machines.
Example: A player put $20 into a slot machine and made her money last for a while playing a total of $200 in spins before losing it all. The total amount wagered by the player was $200 and the casino won, or held, $20 resulting in a 10% casino win percentage.
Now that we cleared that up, lets dig into where you can find slots that are more apt to pay out around Las Vegas.
Where you play matters. The graph below details casino slot win percentages by area, which lumps together all slot denominations. You can quickly surmise that casinos in tourist centers hold a larger percentage of slot play as profit.
As evidenced above, the best places around Las Vegas to play slots are the Boulder Area (5.78% casino win percentage), North Las Vegas (6.71% win percentage) and Downtown (7.78% casino win percentage). The Strip featured the tightest slots by a wide margin at a win percentage of 8.16%.
Unfortunately, slots tightened up versus last year on both the Strip (8.12% in 2018 vs. 8.16% in 2019) and on Fremont Street (7.64% in 2018 vs. 7.78% in 2019) by a slight margin.
Since penny slots are the most popular denomination with players, we also broke down where the loosest penny slot machines can be found.
Clearly, there is again a correlation between an area being “touristy” and higher slot hold rates. Downtown and Strip penny slots come in with casino win percentages of 10.94% and 11.59% respectively.
Similar to the data that looked at all slot denominations, penny slots more apt to pay out can be found in the Boulder (9.36% win rate) and North Las Vegas (9.28% win rate) areas.
Although most players aren’t able to tell the difference between a “tight” or a “loose” slot, get away from the Strip if you want to give yourself a slightly better chance of winning.
Casinos that fall into the looser Boulder and North Las Vegas reporting zones are broken down below. Not the most scenic areas, but if winning is more important to you than bright lights, fountains, and celebrity chef restaurants then order up an Uber and make the trip.
Casinos in the Boulder Area: Sam’s Town, Eastside Cannery, Arizona Charlie’s, Boulder Station, Sunset Station, M Resort, Fiesta Henderson and Green Valley Ranch.
Best Slot Machines To Play In Vegas
Casinos in the North Las Vegas Area: Jerry’s Nugget, Silver Nugget, The Cannery, Fiesta Hotel and Casino, Texas Station, Cannery and Aliante.
Keep in mind that video poker also figures into these slot statistics. Lower casino win percentages away from the Strip are in part, but not completely, due to better video poker pay tables offered by establishments away from tourist centers.
See Also:Buy the exact scents used on Las Vegas Casino floors like Wynn, Caesars Palace, and Bellagio.
Slot denominations also play a role in finding lose machines which is demonstrated by the statewide data below. In 2019, Megabucks was the tightest variety of slot in Nevada (12.78% win percentage), followed closely by penny slots (9.93% win percentage).
Taking a look at the graph above, there is a clear correlation between denomination and how loose their corresponding slot machines are. Generally speaking, the higher the denomination, the looser the slot.
If you’re a penny slot player that plays 75 cents per spin or more, you would likely give your self a better chance of winning by playing the same bet on a higher denomination machine.
While looking at the numbers is a fun exercise, ultimately, the random number generator could select you as the next big winner anywhere. Good luck, and hopefully our break down of 2019 slot data will help you on your quest in finding the best paying slots in Vegas!
Best Of Vegas Slots
Related:Staying on Fremont Street vs. the Strip – How does it compare?