There's been a lot of talk in entertainment news recently of fifty cent, though most of this has nothing to do with fifty cent slots. Perhaps casinos should consider greasing the identically named rap star's palm since his moniker has undoubtedly driven up traffic at fifty cent machines. Of course, that might convince some aspiring singer or performer out there to change his handle to Dolla' Slot or even Five Dolla' Slot.

A fifty-cent deposit is obviously twice as much as a quarter deposit, but is the payout twice as high? Not necessarily. While it's impossible to tabulate the numbers on every slot machine in every casino in every resort (or in every online casino, for that matter), there are some general guidelines that stand up. To understand these, it's helpful to think of slot-machine payouts in terms of payback percentages--that is, the amount the machine pays relative to the amount it costs to play.

Payouts on Fifty Cent Slots
Most fifty cent slots pay somewhere in the range of 94 to 96 percent. What that means for you is that if you had an unlimited bankroll and kept pulling the lever all day, by the time you were done you'd likely lose five percent of your money. That might not sound so bad, but unfortunately it's not that simple. For one thing you don't have an unlimited bankroll. Secondly, there are a lot of other gamblers stopping by to play slots (as well as online slots).

That means you could play for hours on end and win nothing, only to have another gamer stop by, pull the lever once, and walk off with the jackpot. To you, it's a major defeat. To the casino, this payout is already earmarked to be lost anyway. It's a small price the casino pays for the massive amounts of cash put into the machines--and not just yours, but all the machines throughout the house.