Slots at the Venetian
 

How are the slots at the Venetian

We put in a $20 as we were leaving a show at the Venetian and won over $800, but that may have just been a fluke! I'm definitely not an experienced gambler (far from it) but I get the impression that the higher end the hotel is, the tighter the slots are.

You can look up the payout ratios--they're occasionally published. No need to guess or weigh different people's individual stories.
In checking summer 2002 I noted that of 70 reporting casinos in LV, Venetian was dead last at 87% return on their slots (right next to Bellagio and Mandalay Bay). The average is 91% citywide.
In case you didn't know, casinos set each slot machine to pay out a certain %. Some are set higher, some lower. Here's a quote from MSNBC:
"Machines don?t become hot or cold, or played out. Nor do they lapse into predictable cycles. They pay (or don?t pay) randomly.
Do casinos set different return rates? Sure they do. The way a casino sets the payback percentage depends on a number of business determinations: the desired profit margin, the sophistication of the customers, and the competition, among others. The problem is, there?s no way for you to know what those percentages are. The same machine that a Strip megaresort sets for a 3% hold could be set for a 7% hold in one of the grind joints in downtown Las Vegas or for a 10% hold on a riverboat in Missouri. All the machines look exactly alike, so there?s no way to determine this just by looking at the machine; only the casino knows".

I have no idea if this is true or not, but I was told that various machines within a casino may be set at different percentage rates of return. That 91% figure, for example, is an average of all their machines. I was told that when they first introduced video poker machines they generally had the highest rate of return, but as their popularity swelled, most casinos have reset them to offer the lowest return, as they've become their biggest moneymaker.

JUst got back from staying at the Venetian. My sister won 300$, I won nothing, neither did my husband. Tried some slots at Harrahs won a little bit. I am not a gambler, just did it for fun and to pass time. Judy

Patrick, that's true. Within each casino there are some basic rules as regards slot settings. The ones in high traffic areas are usually set to pay lowest. The ones next to the exits, near the elevators, wherever there's plenty of random foot traffic. That's because people are more likely to randomly walk by and drop in money as they exit or enter, and low payout won't deter business.
The above numbers are averages.
The casinos in many states are required to publish their payouts by denomination. That is, you can look up return by slot type (nickel, dollar, etc). LV casinos aren't held to the same disclosure standard as many of the non-Nevada casinos.

I find that the downtown slots are generally "looser".