For slot machine enthusiasts, there’s no place on Earth quite like fabulous Las Vegas. Most of the 40 million tourists who flock there each and every year stay on the Strip, where corporate operators like MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment run mega-casino resorts.

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But during its heyday, all the action was confined to Downtown Las Vegas, where iconic casinos like the El Cortez and Golden Gate lined fabulous Fremont Street. Over time, Las Vegas’ outlying areas—including the suburbs of Summerlin and Henderson, the “Boulder Strip,” and North Las Vegas—attracted mid-market operators like Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming.

If slots are your game of choice, ditching the Strip is best. This page presents the seven best off-Strip casinos in Las Vegas for slot players based on the venue’s average payback percentage.

A Quick Look at Las Vegas Slot Payback Percentages

According to the latest Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) survey of Las Vegas casino operators and their respective slot machine payback percentages, which are commonly referred to as return to player (RTP) rates, the Strip is home to the “tightest” slots in town.

Las Vegas Slot Machine Payback Percentage Rates (by Region)

The NGCB also provides data on regional slot machine payback averages broken down by the player’s preferred coin denomination.

Las Vegas Slot Machine Payback Percentage Rates (by Coin Denomination and Region)

1¢ Slot Machines

5¢ Slot Machines

25¢ Slot Machines

$1 Slot Machines

$1 Megabucks Machines

As you can see, the data reveals the Strip to be the worst place in Las Vegas to find “loose” slots, or machines which offer a higher than average payback percentage.

If you don’t mind ditching the fountain shows and $14 cocktails behind for a better bargain, taking your slot machine bankroll to an off-Strip casino offers the best bang for your gambling buck. Keep reading for the seven best off-Strip casinos to play loose slots in Las Vegas.

1 – Palms Casino Resort

The best slot machine selection in Las Vegas can be found at the Palms Casino Resort, home to more than 1,500 machines which combine for an average payback rate of 93.42%.

Given the 91.47% and 92.67% payback rates found on the Strip and Downtown, respectively, spinning slots at the Palms immediately provides an improvement of over 1% over the long run.

And fortunately for the folks who still like hitting the Strip for shopping or a show, the Palms is located just minutes from all the action.

Just head to Caesars Palace and turn westbound onto Flamingo Road, cross over the Interstate 15 bridge, and drive for another minute or so before looking to your left for the ultra-modern Palms tower.

Locals love the Palms for combining the look and feel of casinos on the Strip with perks like 3:2 blackjack, single-zero roulette, and of course, the loosest slots in Las Vegas.

You’ll find all of the greatest slots here too, including Megabucks and its $10 million starting progressive jackpot award, Wheel of Fortune with its unique prize wheel waiting up top, and every major new release from designers like Aristocrat, Scientific Games, and International Game Technology (IGT).

2 – Gold Coast Hotel and Casino

If the loud music and pool parties that make the Palms so attractive for younger gamblers just aren’t your thing, don’t fret, because the nearby Gold Coast boasts a completely different vibe.

Located directly across Flamingo from the Palms, Gold Coast is a classic “old school” off-Strip casino. The same staff members have worked here for decades, so they know their regulars by name and treat them like royalty.

The odds are always the best available on table games and video poker, and the slot machine menu running 1,900+ machines strong sports a 92.84% average payback rate.

One of the iconic venues operated by Boyd Gaming, the Gold Coast supplements its casino with a massive bowling alley upstairs, and comfort food like Subway and TGI Fridays.

While the amenities lean towards the quaint and casual side, the Gold Coast offers one of the more modern slot machine menus in Las Vegas. Using the website’s convenient slot search tool, you can easily pull up complete listings for either reel-based or video slots that can be further sorted by coin denomination.

The reel-based lineup includes staples like 88 Fortunes, Blazing 7’s Progressive, Double Diamond, Megabucks, and Super Times Pay.

And over in the video slot section, you’ll find popular titles like 50 Dragons, Aztec Temple, Buffalo, Geisha, Mr. Cashman, Sex and the City, and White Orchid.

When you use the search tool, don’t forget to click the little “MAP” tab to the right of every game’s entry. This will pull up a color-coded map of the Gold Coast showing the section where your favorite slot machine games can be located.

3 – Ellis Island Hotel, Casino, and Brewery

You’ll only find a couple hundred slot machine installations at the independently owned Ellis Island Hotel, Casino and Brewery, but it’s the last part there that makes this place something special.

Well, all the cold suds you can drink and a 92.56% average slot payback rate, that is…

The bulk of Ellis Island’s selection is devoted to slots and other machines, but you’ll also find a few blackjack, craps, and roulette tables, too.

It’s the slots that bring sharp spinners here though, as the overall payback percentage is better than any of the glitzier and more glamorous casinos towering overhead on the Strip. And whether you win or lose, you can always tip back a brew or two straight from the source.

4 – El Cortez Hotel and Casino

If you appreciate a sense of history to go along with your gambling, paying a pilgrimage to El Cortez downtown is a true “bucket list” item on the agenda.

After first opening its doors in 1941, El Cortez hasn’t closed them for 77 years and counting, making it the longest continuously operating casino in Las Vegas.

The joint was owned by legendary mobsters Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Sedway in the early days, and with its exterior signage unchanged all this time, El Cortez is home to an unmistakable air of nostalgia writ large.

Fittingly, you can find over 200 coin-operated three-reel slots that still use nickels and quarters to grease the reels. That lineup is supplemented by hundreds of modern video slots as well, a combination providing the best of both worlds for players. And so does the 92.56% average payback rate, which makes El Cortez the loosest slot parlor found along famous Fremont Street.

5 – The Orleans Hotel and Casino

Another member of the Boyd Gaming family, the Orleans Hotel & Casino is like a slightly more hip, Mardi Gras-themed version of the Gold Coast.

In the casino, hundreds of slot machines ranging from traditional to modern will be running to the tune of 92.56% payback.

6 – Fiesta Rancho Hotel and Casino

The wilds of North Las Vegas are home to the best penny slot machines in Sin City at an average payback rate of 90.88%.

And of all the North Las Vegas casinos to choose from, the best of the bunch is Fiesta Rancho, which combines class-leading penny slots with higher denominations for a 92.53% overall payback average.

Getting here is a bit of a trek. Take the I-15 North to Highway 95, head west, then hit the 95 northbound for a while. But trust us, this Station Casino property is worth the extra mile.

Per the Las Vegas Review-Journal annual rankings, Fiesta Rancho regularly earns the “Best-Paying Slots” and “Best Slot Club” awards as judged by local players.

7 – Arizona Charlie’s (Decatur and Boulder)

Loose Slot Machine Rankings

The two Arizona Charlie’s casino locations in Las Vegas can be found on Decatur Boulevard and Boulder Highway.

Both offer a generous 92.50% payback rate on average for slot players, along with a long lineup of new games, including the exciting titles found below:

• $1 Wheel of Fortune
• Bally Quick Hits
• Buffalo Legends
• Buffalo Golds
• Buffalo Grands
• Dollar Mega Bucks
• Downton Abbey
• Elvira
• Good Fortune
• Konami Selexion
• Lightning Link
• Lock It Link
• New Generation Megabucks
• Space Invaders
• Wacky Races
• Walking Dead II
• World of Wonka

Conclusion

Venturing away from Las Vegas Boulevard to score improved odds has been a time-honored tradition among savvy gamblers for decades now. Forced to compete with their corporate counterparts on the Strip just to survive, off-Strip gambling halls like the seven listed above do everything in their power to attract customers.

That means selecting slot machines that offer generous payback percentages across the board, while still providing the best in modern slot game design.

For slot machine grinders like me, the Holy Grail that motivates me to keep playing is the pursuit of loose slots.

Now, before I go any further, let’s discuss what the term loose really means in the slot machine industry.

Many players mistakenly believe that individual machines can be programmed to play loosely – paying out winning spins more frequently – while others are programmed to play tight. In fact, as you make your way through the slot world, you’ll meet players who believe with all their heart that loose machines are always placed on the end of a machine bank, or casinos loosen the games on weekdays, or any number of similar myths and misconceptions.

Fortunately for reasonable slot enthusiasts, that’s just not how it works.

Any given slot machine model is designed and manufactured by a particular company –Aristocrat, International Game Technology (IGT), WMS Industries and so on. Before a machine ever hits the casino floor, these companies build random number generators (RNGs) into the game cabinet, and these RNGs provide truly random results on the reels.

Those results are based on the game’s probability of hitting certain combinations on the reels, and the payouts are related to those combinations. That’s it, and that’s all.

A machine can be designed to payout small winners relatively often, with large jackpots sprinkled in as long shots. Or, the designer may opt for a flatter pay out scheme, with small and large wins occurring with the same frequency. That’s all up to the folks creating the game, and with thousands of slot machine models out there today, you’ll find plenty of variety when it comes to payback percentage.

When a machine arrives at the casino, operators there have no control whatsoever over those probabilities and payouts. They’ve been pre-programmed into the random number generator, and for the duration of the machine’s life, they’ll remain constant and steady.

Most slot machine beginners don’t realize this is how it works, which is where the idea of loose and tight machines, as it is commonly understood, came from. After all, wouldn’t casinos want to tightly control the odds being offered to players?

Well, they do just that.

But not by influencing an individual machine’s pay out frequency from on high. Rather, a casino can modulate its own slot machine payout rates by choosing which types of slots to carry.

Remember, some slots are designed to be “people pleasers,” paying out small winners every other spin or so. These games run with payback percentages between 93 percent and 97 percent, and can occasionally go even higher.

On the other hand, many machines – especially those offering progressive jackpots – pay out winners much less often. But when they do, the returns are typically larger than the people-pleaser games. For these machines, the payback percentages usually range from 87 percent to 92 percent – rates I’d refer to as “tight.”

While a casino operator can’t control each machine’s payback percentage, they can pick and choose how many of the loose and tight machines are offered on the floor. One venue may elect to spread 20 loose games to 10 tight games, while the joint next door rolls with a 20 tight/10 loose arrangement.

In this way, every casino you visit will hold an inherent payback percentage for its slot games, which is calculated by averaging the payback rates for all machines on the floor. When a casino operator wants to tinker with its own paybacks – perhaps to provide a higher profit margin for owners – it doesn’t need to reduce the “looseness” on individual machines. Instead, the operator can simply remove a few high payback machines from the floor, while replacing them with lower paying machines to bump the casino’s overall average payback rate down.

Now that you know what loose slots really are, let’s dive into the important stuff: where to find the loosest slot machine games in your area.

The following guide is intended to help players anywhere in America locate the nearest loose slot games. I’ll run through as many individual states as possible, but before I do, take a look below at a prime directive for finding loose slots:

Popular Spots = Tighter Slots

One item of advice that regular slot players will regale you with involves the old Strip vs. Downtown dichotomy.

Boiling it down, these players believe that casinos on the Las Vegas Strip run much tighter slots than you’ll find elsewhere in the Off Strip or Downtown areas of Sin City. Unlike the many slot machine myths out there, however, this one is definitely true.

Take a look at the following table, provided by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which covers July 2015 through June 2016:

$1 Slot Machines in Las Vegas

As you can tell, slots found on The Strip average a much lower payback rate (93.03 percent) than their counterparts Downtown (94.78 percent), on the Boulder Strip (95.60 percent) or in North Las Vegas (95.74 percent).

The reason for this discrepancy is quite simple to grasp, and is based entirely in economics.

Casino operators on The Strip – and any area’s most popular casino destination for that matter – know that a steady stream of recreational gamblers will be flocking to the floor. These venues are practically guaranteed to receive action from the hordes of tourists wandering about, so they don’t need to offer competitive payback percentages.

Venues on The Strip tend to spread slightly tighter machines, thereby bringing their property wide average down.

And why not?

Loose Slot Machines

The players will be there regardless, spinning away without paying close attention, so ensuring a slightly higher profit margin is in a business’ best interest.

On the other side of the coin, casinos in the Downtown district, the Boulder Strip, or North Las Vegas don’t receive the same guaranteed flow of patrons like venues on The Strip. These properties must compete for a smaller slice of the Las Vegas gambling market, and competition always provides a better climate for customers.

For this reason, casino operators running things at an Off Strip venue tend to purchase looser slots, increasing the average payback percentage across the property.

Knowing these facts, you should always be prepared to go off the beaten path as you pursue the loosest slots around. Generally speaking, the more popular a casino is, the tighter its machines will be – so branch out and explore some of the lesser known gambling halls in your area.

Pay the Piper for Higher Paybacks

This one’s simple, so we’ll keep it short and sweet.

No matter where you play, the coin denomination you use tends to be linked directly to average payback rates.

For penny slot players, the average will lean towards the lower end of the spectrum. High rollers, on the other hand, are afforded a higher average overall.

With this in mind, remember that the high limit slot parlor in your local casino will always offer a higher average payback than the regular machines. And even if you don’t make your way to the high limit room, moving up in stakes from penny slots to nickel, quarter, or dollar is a surefire way to increase your average payback.

State by State Slot Guide

Every state that offers legalized gambling, either in commercial or tribal casinos, is subject to its own gaming regulator.

In many cases, these regulators mandate a “floor” for slot machine payback rates, ensuring that a minimum payback is met. Otherwise, some unscrupulous casinos would simply spread the worst paying games in the world, counting on players to not know any better and blow off their bankroll in a hurry.

The Arizona Department of Gaming, for example, requires any tribal operator to run slot machines with an average payback between 80 percent and 100 percent. In Maine, the Gaming Control Board mandates an 83 percent payback rate or higher for slot games.

These statewide systems can vary wildly, so it can be useful to break things down on a state by state basis to see where the loosest slots in your area can be found.

Below, you’ll find a listing of all states that make their slot machine payback rates public, complete with venue or area specific payback rates. If you don’t see your state listed here, that’s because regulations don’t require slot machine payback information to be released.

Arkansas

The Oaklawn Racing and Gaming facility is the state’s best slot destination, with an average payback rate of 93.23 percent

Southland Park Gaming and Racing is quite close, however, averaging a payback of 93.11 percent.

Colorado

Payback rates for the three major casino regions in Colorado are below, with the highest for a given region in bold:

Connecticut

The table below highlights average payback rates at the Foxwoods casino complex – and its main rival, Mohegan Sun – as recorded by the Connecticut’s Division of Special Revenue:

Foxwoods

Mohegan Sun

Delaware

Per data released by the Delaware Lottery, which covers the period between July 26, 2015 and June 26, 2016, slot machine paybacks at the state’s three “racinos” breaks down as follows:

Florida

Average payback rates – as recorded by the state’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Gaming from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 – are as follows:

Illinois

Property averages, provided by the Illinois Gaming Board, can be found below:

Indiana

Property averages, provided by the Indiana Gaming Commission, can be found below:

Iowa

Property averages, provided by the Indiana Gaming Commission, can be found below:

Louisiana

Regional averages, provided by the Louisiana State Police Riverboat Gaming Section, can be found below:

Maine

Per the Maine Gaming Control Board, between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016 the average payback percentage for the state’s various slot providers breaks down as follows:

Mississippi

Regional* averages, provided by the Mississippi Gaming Commission, can be found below:

*Key

• Coastal = Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay Saint Louis
• North = Tunica, Greenville and Lula
• Central = Vicksburg and Natchez

Missouri

Property averages, provided by the Missouri Gaming Commission, can be found below:

Nevada – Las Vegas

Regional averages for The Strip, Downtown, the Boulder Strip, and North Las Vegas can be found below:

1¢ Slot Machines

5¢ Slot Machines

25¢ Slot Machines

$1 Slot Machines

$1 Megabucks Machines

All Slot Machines

Nevada – Laughlin

Average payback rates by coin denomination for Laughlin’s casinos, as provided by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, are as follows:

Nevada – Reno

Average payback rates by coin denomination for Reno’s casinos, as provided by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, are as follows:

New Jersey

Property averages, provided by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, can be found below:

New York

Property averages, provided by the New York Lottery, can be found below:

Ohio

Property averages, provided by the Ohio Casino Control Commission, can be found below:

Pennsylvania

Property averages, provided by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, can be found below:

Conclusion

Finding the loosest slot machine games depends on where you’re located and how far you’re willing to travel. Use this guide of where to find the loosest slot machine games right now the next time you want to venture out to play slots.