This is an age-old question that bettors have been trying to figure out by giving them an upper hand. There are a few ways to answer this though, that would suggest that yes there are specific times where payouts are higher, and also that no, there are not. Unfortunately, we can’t get hold of the MythBusters to try and tackle this one so we’ll have to do it ourselves.
Now technically speaking, the odds of any game do not change. They remain constant throughout unless the rules of the game become modified. The only ones that could potentially have altered payouts are slot machines because their firmware allows them to set a win percentage. However, due to legal regulations, any casino saw doing this, would potentially lose any gambling license and risk their entire business.
Now, whether you believe that they would avoid doing anything that could affect the odds or not is up to you. We’ve done some research, and there are plenty of rumors around that certain casinos have electromagnets under their roulette wheels, to guide where the ball will land. Others claim that they’ve been victims of croupiers deliberately spinning balls too hard or not hard enough, and there, they do have a point about consistency, but, is that enough to affect the randomness of the location where the ball lands? Probably not.
I think the best way going forward is to address some of the rumors and facts that we can prove, and disprove, about whether casinos do payout more at certain times.
Facts
Casinos may show out as paying out more at certain times for one reason. It’s a busier period of the day when more people are playing games. The more people who play, the more chances there are to payout, and the more money they will pay out to successful gamblers. Therefore, if they usually have a rush of people coming to spend time in the casino at say 7 pm, this will show as the casino paying out more at this time. But it’s purely a numbers game. It doesn’t mean that you have a better chance of winning money.
That is unless you play Blackjack. With this classic card game where the aim is to make 21, the more players you have on the table, the more control the table has over the game, no matter what variation of Blackjack you play. Cards will be more divided, you can see more cards that have been dealt out to give you a better idea of what is left to come out, allowing you to better assess whether to hit or stick. It doesn’t guarantee a higher payout, but it can help some players minimize their losses at least. But it only really works if the whole table plays the game together.
Another fact that could mean higher payouts at certain times, is a bit of a tricky one because it’s not set at a specific time. And that is when a casino has a guaranteed daily jackpot to giveaway. Now, these are usually available on slot machines, which suggests in some way, the results are fixed because somebody has to win it. However, if it hasn’t been won early in the day, and the daily jackpot is still available in the evening, then your chances of winning it increase slightly more with each passing minute, as it has to be paid out before midnight.
The only issue is it’s random when it gets paid out, so it could go at any second. However, an upside is you can win the jackpot even if you use something like a BetMGM sportsbook bonus. You normally see these types of bonuses when sports betting, whether that be on football, rugby, or the NFL. They basically offer you free bets on sports when you make a deposit in your account, but you can also get them for online casinos too. Usually, they are in the form of free spins on slot machines, but there are some out there too that offer free bets on other games as well.
Rumors
Now there are some rumors out there, and you’ll have to take them with a pinch of salt. Much like the one we mentioned earlier about the roulette wheel. Because some can and can’t be proven to be true.
One such thing is when you get some kind of bonus, people believe your odds of winning are higher, in order to draw you in and make you spend more money. It would certainly be a clever tactic if that were to be the case. However, when you claim free bets or spins, they’re usually a minimum stake, and so the winnings you get won’t be very big anyway, so payouts won’t increase that much even if someone does win.
Another rumor that circulates around is that the best-paying casinos don’t really want you to win. They have spurts, it is suggested, where they mainly allow new players to win to get them hooked and keep them coming back for more. Now, it’s no secret that casinos would love to make more money than they payout, and if they didn’t they wouldn’t be staying open. But you can understand the logic here, especially when in many casinos, tactics like counting cards are banned because it puts the odds in the favor of the player, not the croupier. That said, many casinos try to combat this now by having automatic shufflers so any random card can come out at any time. But still, you can calculate the probability of what it may be, and the casinos don’t like that.
Final Words
So what do you think? Do casinos pay out more at certain times? Like we say, statistically, they probably do, with those times being their busiest periods where more people play. However, the rumors, except for the one where we know that casinos ban players from counting cards to prevent them from increasing their odds, do seem a little far-fetched, if somewhat logical. Let us know your thoughts anyway in the comments below or on our social channels.