How Slot Machine Jackpot Payouts Work

Knowing how slot machines work is the first step to learn the best slots secrets and tips to improve your chances to win. Despite the popularity of these games, slots are not easy to beat both when you play them on the best online casinos and at land-based slots rooms. Slots are games of chance.
As a result, NetEnt, one of the world’s leading casino gaming providers, introduced a new community jackpot system, known as Starbust PowerPots. Through this new system, players can play together to fill a PowerPots progress bar that activates the slot machine’s community jackpot.

While a slot machine has a chip that controls its payout percentage, casinos operate these chips on computer systems. A casino can control the payout percentage of slot machines by adjusting their RTP, but this is also regularly inspected and regulated by independent gambling authorities.

Introduction to Taxable Jackpots

One of the most popular slot machine questions on Google searches is: How do slot machines pay out taxable jackpots? I’ve assumed this question is about the mechanics of the payout process. A different upcoming post deals with explaining when slot machines pay out.

Slot machines are special-purpose computers, like a lot of equipment found in our lives. Specifically, standard tools are televisions, electronic watches, gas station pumps, cash registers, bank ATMs, automobiles, baby monitors, and the list goes on and on.

Each of these devices has one or more computer microprocessors, visual display, audio speaker, and some may also have a way to accept and/or dispense money either physically or virtually online.

Beyond controlling the multiple interfaces to and from the player, the computer within a slot machine also manages the odds of a player winning.

At its core, a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) is a calculation. This PRNG is an element of the computer programming algorithm used by slot machines.

PRNGs (or more commonly RNGs) determine the outcome of a player’s bet based on the pre-determined odds of winning as set by the casino operator within the limited options provided by the slot machine manufacturer.

As previously mentioned elsewhere, winning a jackpot involves using the PRNG twice:

To determine if a jackpot is won
To determine how much was won

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The Slot Machine Gambling Process

Once a player selects a specific slot machine, that machine operates to accept or reject the inserted cash, ticket voucher, and reward card.

Next, it accepts the player’s selection for denomination amount and amount of credits to be bet, although it will merely reject one or both settings if insufficient funds are available to make such a bet.

When the bet is placed, the machine immediately selects the latest random number generated by its RNG to determine the outcome of the bet and well as updating the players club card with the points earned for placing the bet.

At the end of this process, the machine turns the reels to show the outcome of the bet. See below for this player-machine sequence of events.

During slot machine gambling, a sequence of actions and reactions take place between the player and machine. The player:

selects a specific machine, inserts money in the form of cash or ticket voucher
chooses from the denominations available
chooses the number of credits to bet
places a bet
observes the results of the bet including any bonus round
receives winnings from the bet (if any)
then, either:
- leaves the machine empty handed
- cashes out any remaining funds and leaves with a ticket voucher
- continues playing the machine.

The player may choose to insert a player card at any time before or during play, then later remove it before leaving the machine.

Jackpot!

Between determining the outcome of the bet and turning the reels, the machine executes programming code that sets the reels.

The reels turn in a way the machine’s game designers consider most entertaining to the player – such as stopping on reel symbols for non-wins which are next to the symbols for sizable jackpots.

As mentioned, the bet’s outcome is determined when the bet is placed, not when the reels stop moving, despite the entertainment value derived by the player when observing the “action” of the slot machine.

In the event of a win, the machine executes further programming to activate sequences of lights and sounds while updating the information display for the player, which is referred to as a roll-up.

Now What? – The Jackpot Pay Out Process

If a jackpot less than the taxable limit is won, slot players can simply proceed with continuing to play or cash out from that slot machine. The current taxable jackpot limit is $1,200 in the United States.

Meaning, if you have a win of $1,200.00 or more at a slot machine, there is an immediate tax bill resulting in an IRS Form W-2G. If you have a win of $1,199.99 or less, there is no immediate tax bill.

Jackpots that require immediate payment of taxes results in the slot machine locking up.

Many, many slot players have been surprised by their slot machine locking up when a taxable jackpot is won. It can only be unlocked by a casino employee, a slot attendant.

Whether a casino is old or new, a slot attendant will arrive shortly to administer a hand payout. During a hand payout, a slot attendant

collects personal identification sufficient to both complete a tax form as well as any other state-required documentation
performs the hand payout (if they have adequate cash on hand)
unlocks the machine to allow the player to continue.

If the attendant is not carrying enough cash with them, or if the player wishes to have a cashier’s check instead of a cash payout, the slot attendant leaves the player with a receipt and returns a short while later with the check or cash.

Slot Machine Jackpots

If the attendant leaves, they typically unlock the slot machine beforehand to allow the player to continue betting while waiting for the slot attendant to return.

Summary of Taxable Jackpots

The most important thing to remember about winning a jackpot is to make sure you’ve brought your government-issued I.D. If you don’t have it, then you cannot receive a taxable jackpot.

And, no, your friend sitting next to you cannot claim the jackpot for you – the eye in the sky knows it’s your winnings and not someone else.

The second thing to be aware of is what is or is not a taxable jackpot, a single win of $1,200 or higher. Many people have never won a taxable jackpot, so it can be challenging to get useful information on this unless you’ve done it more than a few times. But I have.

If the machine locks up, it’s either had an error or you’ve won a taxable jackpot. Being out of paper is a machine error, for example. Either way, a slot attendant will show up shortly to help. For goodness sake, don’t walk away until you know which!

As a final note, as of this writing, a decade ago, casinos moved away from using coins. Nowadays, they use cash, checks, and vouchers redeemable at cash machines and cages.

Slot Machines: The Basics

Each slot machine comes with a randomised outcome thanks to the technology in the very crux of it – the Random Number Generator (RNG). RNGs are cutting-edge algorithms that guarantee the “complete randomness” at a casino. The RNG is needed to help computers create randomness, as they are programmed to predict an outcome and don’t understand “random” the same way you and we do.

When it comes to actual casino play, there is absolutely no way of knowing when a jackpot will arrive. The average pay cycle for each game will vary. It’s worth logging your spin outcomes as it can help you determine when the jackpot window has a more probable chance of being open. However, the complete randomness of the RNG makes it impossible for anyone, be that a supercomputer or a mathematical wiz, to determine the outcome or be able to call the exact time a big jackpot will actually hit.

Tempted by the idea of imminent big slot wins, many players have been persistent in their determination to spot the patterns.

Progressive Jackpot Patterns in Slots

It’s worth spending more time observing rather than playing yourself. In 2016, the win cycles for Mega Moolah happened every 70 days, give or take, but it’s worth noting that there were only four payouts the entire year.

The payouts started early in April and continued through late November. In 2019, we’ve already witnessed slightly more hectic results that haven’t followed a particular pattern so far. The first win came on January 30^th, 2019, followed by another one on March 5^th and then another one on March 6. If the wide-spread trend repeats itself, we can expect the next jackpot to hit 33 days from March 6^th, around April 8^th or before that.

This would be a fair observation. In 2017, the space of each was at least a month, but not exceeding two months. There were 13 wins in total, the game’s largest number on record.

Does capturing historical statistical data help determine when a mega jackpot is likely to payout?

Jackpot Jump Slot Machine Jackpots

The answer is – not really. While there is some evidence to suggest that payout cycles happen in a window of one or two months, we have no way of knowing how many slots wins there are going to be on any given specific year.

There is a reason why certain games never manage to amass a multi-million jackpots, this has to do with the return to player (RTP) rates and the volatility.

Slot Machine Jackpots On Youtube

Consider the RTPs in Slots Online

Just because an outcome is random, doesn’t mean we can’t pick the games statistically more likely to payout. Whether it’s a progressive jackpot or a fixed jackpot, the Return to Player (RTP) will tell you a little something about what to expect.

Now, here’s the thing about RTPs. They are accurate, but in order to get them right, you will need to play around 10,000 spins. Anything below that, and you may end up with deviations. Playing less than 10,000 RTPs can still turn out accurate, it’s just for the most accurate results, you will have to play through towards that figure.

It’s like flipping a coin 10 times vs flipping it 1000 times, you can certainly expect that 50-50 outcome to be more accurate after 1000 times than 10 times when a freak outcome of 80-20 is more probable. RTPs don’t factor the bonus amount, so when considering them you must keep that in mind and regard them as something that will help you extend your stay at a casino and keep a healthy budget.

If you do avoid the progressive games, you can guarantee yourself a slightly more controlled type of play and less risk in exchange for more frequent returns.

Slot Volatility: Pay Attention

‘Volatility’ in slots and other casino games refers to the payout frequency a slot has and how much is paid. Again, this is more applicable to your regular slots wins rather than the big slot wins you want to get by landing a mega jackpot. And yet, volatility will help you plan your bankroll just a little bit better.

Playing high volatility games means that the payouts will be bigger, but you will also have more cold streaks when the spins won’t get you any return. With low volatility, you will enjoy frequent payouts, but not really big winnings.

There are trade-offs and depending on your budget, you will find both slots applicable. When it comes to jackpots, Mega Moolah, which we used as an example here, is definitely on the high-end of the volatility spectrum. So don’t be too disappointing if you have a run of 10 or 20 spins with no payouts at all, that’s just the nature of a high volatility slot game.

If you are looking for low-volatility jackpot games, you can opt for a game such as Dead or Alive by NetEnt. The standard jackpots payout around 200-1000 coins a payout, making this game a perfect pick for those of you who enjoy slot machine jackpots but don’t have a larger bankroll than you need to play through for the mega jackpots.

Staying on Top of Your Bankroll

If you are keen on getting some decent slot wins, you needn’t necessarily go after the highest-risk games. It’s quite possible to build slot wins incrementally, indulging in games that have steadier, even if somewhat smaller payouts.