Best Slots to Play in Vegas

Downtown casinos sure want you to believe it is. Signage advertising looser slots can be found up and down Fremont Street. Casinos like Plaza and Las Vegas Club run entire marketing campaigns on the notion they offer gamblers the most favorable odds. El Cortez claims they have the loosest slots for miles around. And, as a whole, the Fremont Street Experience campaigned that slots downtown pay back 11.61% more than those on the Strip. That all sounds great, but theres more to the story.

The problem with all of these claims is that they are exceptionally vague and often misleading. Terms like best payback and loosest slots are thrown around, but wheres the data to back them up, and how recent is it? With nearly every downtown casino claiming to offer the best returns, somebody isnt being entirely truthful.

The data that is available is often outdated and manipulated to make downtown look as favorable as possible. That 11.61% better payback stat? Its from 2010. The downtown of today is not the downtown of five years ago (if it was we wouldnt be paying resort fees) so why are we using its figures? And, the number is presented as the percentage difference between the win rates, as opposed to the absolute win percentage numbers, which arent quite as impressive. For 2010, the Strips slot win was 7.22%. Downtowns? 6.37%.

Also important to note is that these figures include video poker which really helps to pad downtowns numbers. Players of the more popular, reeled slot games wont see anywhere near an 11% improved return over the Strip. In fact, if we stick with 2010 data and look at only the most popular games (penny slots), downtowns win percent was 10.97% vs 11.55% on the Strip. Funny, how you dont see those numbers on any billboards.

You would think the Gaming Control Board would step in and put a stop to such disingenuous advertising practices, but for the most part, they seem to look the other way. How can one downtown casino have the best slots while another, just next door, has the loosest? Across the street you can find the hottest, but whos actually keeping track? Odds are, no one. Claims of offering the best odds from Downtown Vegas casinos seem to be regulated about as well as claims of having the best burger are in the fast food industry.