Do Louder Machines Have a Higher Payback?

Recently, a slot channel said in jest (at least I think so) that louder slot machines have a higher payback. It sent some in the slot community searching for confirmation of this. So let me help you out:

STATUS: Sound settings do not impact slot payout. Whomp whomp.

Many slot players are superstitious and believe all sorts of urban legends, which is why I spend as much time posting these each time I see them. I’m hoping someone, somewhere, hears this and it finally clicks. The sound one has floated around before and I think the joke scratched just the right itch for those who believed it.

Like other external factors like your player’s card or a host, the sound button on a slot machine is not connected with the RNG that’s cycling through numbers to determine your outcome on a slot machine, or even the external decision maker on Bingo machines or lottery terminals.

What does impact the payback of a slot machine is the casino you’re playing at. They get to choose from a number of presets in the machine that a slot manufacturer makes available. Based on their choice, that will determine the machine’s expected long term payout. Nothing else.

Since the slot manufacturers determine what payback options a game has, a casino might choose not to offer a game because the payback options aren’t within a range they’re happy with. But when you turn up the sound on the game, it doesn’t change the machine’s payback.

So no sound setting, player’s card, day of the week, fiscal year or anything else will have any impact on a slot’s payout, unless the casino goes in and makes the change in the software, which they do rarely.