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Do More Paylines Result In Higher Returns

Do More Paylines Result In Higher Returns

Added: January 29, 2014

Online slot games have a vast range of paylines. The question that obviously arises in the mind of a new online casino player is whether the number of paylines affects the average return that the slot game offers. The earliest video slots were released with 9 paylines. Some of these, like Agent Jane Blonde, are still popular at online casinos. Over time the number of paylines began to increase. Today most video slot machines offer 20 or 25 paylines. But there are slot games that offer 40, 50 and even 100 paylines. One of the most well-known slot games with 100 paylines is Cashapillar. The latest trend is to release slot games with all possible combinations as valid paylines.

As the number of paylines increases, the frequency of payouts will also increase provided all other parameters are kept constant. Consider video slots with three rows of symbols across the reels, which is the most frequent structure. In all there are 243 combinations possible. In a 9 paylines slot game only 9 out of 243 combinations can support wins, which is about 4%. Similarly in a 25 paylines slot game about 10% of the combinations support wins and in a 100 paylines slot game about 41% of the combinations support wins. In an all pays slot game 100% of the combinations support wins.

But the crucial factor is that all other parameters are not kept constant. Summer Holiday is a 100 paylines slot game. The software provider has increased the number of rows to four. As a result the number of combinations that support wins has decreased from 41% (for three rows) to 10%. Another factor that software providers can play with is the payout table. They can decrease the average payout for winning combinations. Therefore by increasing the number of paylines the frequency of payouts can increase, but the payout quantum is reduced. This nullifies the advantage of increasing the number of paylines. These two changes are visible to the player. There is a factor that the online casino player has no clue about. This is a number of different types of symbols on each reel. These determine the probability of getting like symbols in a payline. The configuration of the symbols can be so adjusted so as to nullify the advantage of increasing the number of paylines.

As can be seen, the software provider has a number of parameters that can be adjusted. If one of the parameters is made favorable to the player, another parameter is tweaked in the opposite direction. In practice the whole combination is so chosen that the average payout of the slot machine is around 95%.