Max Bets or Maxed Out? How Much to Bet on Slots Games

Slot machine games cater to players of all bankrolls. With low minimums and high maximums, slots are perceived as everybody's game. As a result, operators encourage players to place the maximum possible bets on slots.

Back in the day, New Jersey-based Trump Casinos and casinos in Indiana featured an anthropomorphic Gold Coin character known as Max Coins. This digital rendering encouraged players to play maximum bets for maximum payouts.

Is it correct to place maximum bets? Is that how you win more on slot machine games? Players want to know if they should place the maximum bet with online slot machine games, classic slots, video slots, and progressive jackpot slots games. We will reveal the answers to these questions in this guide.

Each slot machine game is different. Plus, each specific slot game type also has unique requirements. So let's take a look!

The Highest Jackpot with Maximum Bets

When multi-coin games appeared in the 1960s & 1970s, slots players typically placed maximum bets. Almost every slot machine game, including video slots played out on three spinning reels, back in the day. Most of them featured a single payline, and the majority had an outsized jump in the topline jackpot when players placed maximum bets.

One of the most popular three-reel slots is Double Diamond Deluxe. Consider the payouts for different sized bets in this slot machine game:

•    A one coin bet – 800 coin payout
•    A two-coin bet – 1600 coin payout if 3X Double Diamonds appear on the centre payline

Here's the kicker: A three-coin bet should pay 2400 coins, but it pays 2500 coins. So that is the disproportionate element with the three-coin bet.

Put differently; a one-coin bet pays a jackpot of 800. But a three-coin bet – the maximum bet – has a payout of 833.33 for each coin bet on Double Diamond Deluxe slot game.

This payout ratio changes all the stats in the game. When you ramp up your bets from one coin to three coins, the payback percentage on the slot machine game is higher. That's why players believe it pays to play at three coin bets per spin.

Reality check: While the payouts may reflect improved odds, all slot machine games are governed by RNGs. These random number generators determine which symbols line up in combination or not. Therefore, maximum bets do not guarantee profits, nor are they a failsafe technique for winning slot machine games.

There is a common variant of this slot game played on C$0.25 machines with an RTP of 92.6% for players. That return to player percentage applies to betting one or two coins in the game. However, if you decide to play three coins in the game, the RTP jumps to 92.7%. The average RTP is, therefore, 92.6% for this game.

Believe it or not, the house has an edge on every bet you place. So it doesn't matter if the RTP is higher when you play three coins. But, more importantly, the house profits more when you play three coins because you risk more money on every spin.

Believe It

Any time you see a disproportionate jump in the RTP between betting the minimum number of coins and betting the maximum number of coins, you will have a higher RTP at maximum bets. Still, you also stand to lose the biggest amount overall because your bet sizes are bigger.

Online Slots and Video Slots Games

Video slots games and online slots are configured with five spinning reels, sometimes three reels. These are virtual reels. Of course, there are outliers, with more spinning reels like six, seven or even more.

Now, these reels also feature multiple paylines. For example, one of the most popular video slots games featured five lines back in the day. Then, the number of paylines gradually increased to 9, 15, 20, 30, and even more. Nowadays, it's perfectly feasible to see slots games with 40, 50, or even 100+ lines in play.

A growing number of slot machine games don't even use paylines in the traditional sense. Rather, they use a pattern to link symbols on adjacent reels from left to right. This pattern system explains how players can form winning combinations. For example, a standard five-reel slot with three rows may feature 243 ways to win. Hence the name – 243 ways to win!

Back in the early days of video slots, manufacturers attempted to use the standard three-reel slot format. They wanted to have the topline jackpot disproportionately bigger than the lowest minimum payout. Unfortunately, players weren't biting.

In the 1990s, many popular five-line video slots accepted up to 5 coins for each payline – 25 credits maximum. While some players decided to bet maximum, most decided to play all paylines at less than maximum bets. They were playing at a level they could afford but covering all the lines. The average bet was between two and three coins.

Slots makers had to adjust their approach because disproportionate jackpots didn't persuade players to make the extra bet.

It's rare nowadays to find a video slot machine game with a disproportionate jackpot on the maximum bet. As a result, there is no advantage to playing the maximum bet on slots!

Believe It

Always cover all paylines when you play slot machine games. It doesn't matter if you play maximum bets or not; there is no added advantage in terms of payback percentage.

Progressive Jackpot Slots

There are many ways to design progressive jackpot slots games. Each option requires that a small percentage of every real money bet be added to the jackpot. The attractiveness of progressive jackpot games lies in the fact that every time somebody plays these games, the jackpot increases until it is hit.

Once a player strikes gold, the jackpot resets to the seed amount.

Progressive jackpot slots started as three-reel slots with an added incentive to chase down the mega jackpot.

Let's continue our analysis with the Double Diamond Deluxe slot machine game. Remember that the jackpot increased from one coin at 800 coins, two at 1600 coins, and three at 2500 coins. The third coin offered a disproportionate jump in the jackpot size, making it enticing for players to play three coins.

In a progressive jackpot game, what happens when the jackpot looks like this: 800, 1600, 5000+?

The jackpot has made it much more attractive to players in its overall payback percentage. Players understand that by betting the maximum of, three coins, there is an opportunity to win 5000+ in payouts.

Online slot machine games and video slots games typically include multiple progressive jackpots. Expect anywhere from two jackpot levels up to 12 jackpot levels. Lower-tier jackpots are much smaller than higher-tier jackpots. So you can get away with placing a small bet on a low-tier jackpot. But when you get to the upper tiers, the jackpot payouts are in the thousands, or significantly more than that.

Multi-tier progressive jackpots come in several different variations:

Bet Max to be Eligible for Symbol-Driven Jackpots

A rarity with online slots and video slots, symbol-driven jackpots have higher payback percentages when placing the maximum bet. You are unlikely to find many of these games online or at land-based casinos.

No Extra Bet Needed for Symbol-Driven Jackpots

This jackpot is funded from the lower payback in the base game. It's largely unrelated to funding from similar slots. These are also a rarity, but you should place the maximum bet to be eligible for the jackpot if you find one. You could also try a different game for the progressive jackpot.

Never settle for lower payback percentages without being eligible for the maximum jackpots.

Place an Extra Bet for The Symbol Driven Jackpot

Online slots players tend to place a wide variety of bets at any given time. This wide range of bets presents game designers with a challenge. The challenge is how to entice the player who plays just one penny on a 40 line game to qualify for the same jackpots as a player who plays ten coins on every line. A useful workaround is a split system where base game bets are different from progressive jackpot bets.

Players may have the option to bet C$0.15 or another coin value to be eligible for the jackpot. You can effectively bet whatever you want during the main game, but you must bet a certain amount to qualify for the jackpot. 

There are lower returns in the base game of progressive jackpot slots. That's why it makes sense to place the required progressive jackpot bet to enjoy the higher returns. However, if it's out of your budget, choose a non-progressive jackpot game.

Mystery Jackpot Slots

When it comes to online progressive jackpots and video slots progressive games, mystery jackpots are an instant hit with players.

An RNG (random number generator) selects a number within set parameters. This includes the total bet size, jackpot size, number of spins, or time. Assuming that the parameters in this instance are the size of the jackpot, the jackpot must be at least C$100, but no more than C$250. Therefore, the random number generator will select a value between these parameters – C$100 and C$250.

A video slots player whose bet triggers the jackpot to that amount will win it.

With progressive jackpot games, the bigger your bet size, the greater the likelihood that you will reach the set total of the jackpot. For example, let's assume that one penny gets added to the jackpot for every C$0.25 bet. Therefore, a player who bets C$2.50 increases the jackpot by C$0.10.

Each penny gives the player the chance to match the random number generator number. In this example, a slot player betting C$0.50 increases the jackpot by C$0.02, with a smaller attendant chance of pushing the jackpot to the required amount.

It stands to reason that players placing bigger bets have proportionally bigger chances of winning the jackpot than players placing small bets. Regardless, a low-stakes bettor still has a shot at winning the jackpot with the same payback percentage as players placing bigger bets.

Believe it

If you want to play progressive jackpot slots, always bet whatever is required to be eligible for the jackpot. Except for three-reel slots and single progressive jackpot games, you don't usually have to bet the maximum.