Can the casinos set pokies to pay out only small wins?

Dear Adam,

Is it possible for casinos to set machines to only pay out small wins over a long period as opposed to letting it pay out big wins then small wins and so on? Wouldn’t it be better for the casinos to set them up to only pay small wins and keep the cash in their bank longer?

Jimmy T (address supplied)

Jimmy,

Basically if the paytable on a machine states that it can pay out 100 coins for a certain combination or 1000 for a certain combination, the machine legally HAS to be set to ‘possibly’ pay out that amount. The casino has very little to do with how the machines pay out. The software in pokies is designed in a factory and shipped with the machine, the casino can’t make any adjustments to the payout probabilities ‘on the fly’.

However, just because a payout is possible, does not necessarily mean it’s likely.