LOOSEST SLOT AWARDS
Our 32nd annual survey shows players where to find the best gamble at the slots
By Frank Legato
Players around the world often identify the same games as their favorites, seeking out hold-and-spin bonuses, pot-filler features and other favorite game mechanics of the day. However, the smart players have one more question concerning their favorite casino game, and it’s a question they’ve asked for decades:
What casinos offer the best chance to win at the slots?
Our readers have always sought out the best payback percentages, or “return to player” (RTP) in trade parlance, from the games they play. Over the years, high-returning slots have come to be identified as “loose slots,” as opposed to stingy or “tight slots.”
The terms were first showcased by our sister publication, Casino Player, near the end of the 1980s. In those days, casinos were only in Nevada and Atlantic City. They were required to publicly report their “hold percentage” on slot machines. This was the percentage of all slot wagers that the casinos kept as revenue. It was also known as “slot win,” a term that particularly annoyed some slot players, since it implied they were the losers.
What Player did was to flip-flop those percentages into numbers that could be embraced by players: payback. Early versions of the charts still found on the back pages of Casino Player and Strictly Slots identified the payback percentage, or RTP, implied by the “win” numbers reported by the casinos.
Eventually, players themselves began to refer to slots with high RTP as “loose,” and the stingier slots as “tight.” By 1994, Casino Player had embraced the “loose” adjective, and that year, the magazine published its first “Loosest Slots Awards.”
Casinos were initially opposed to their revenue numbers being blasted from the rooftops, but they soon realized the marketing value of a “Loosest Slots” designation, and before long, drivers began seeing phrases like “Loosest Slots in Atlantic City!” on billboards. Loose slots became a badge of honor.
Strictly Slots having established itself as the central place for slot information, a few years ago, we transferred the Loosest Slots survey from Player to this publication.
So, welcome to our annual survey identifying those casinos that return the most to their players.
As we always say, for players, the beauty of this survey comes down to two things— objectivity and sample size. These are objective awards because they are based on historical statistics. They are not the “theoretical” payback percentages the slot suppliers publish based on computer simulations. They reflect what actual casinos gave back to actual players.
Secondly, they are based on an entire year of those statistics. Numbers for a single month can be very misleading, since a burst of luck among players in high-end rooms can skew the overall numbers. (It’s not unusual to find RTP exceeding 100 percent in the higher denominations.) Twelve months of numbers provide a reliable sample.
Those statistics, presented here, will tell you with accuracy which casinos or casino regions are the most player-friendly. This report is based on hold/payback statistics logged over the 2025 calendar year.
Before we get to the winners, we always like to provide answers to the most-frequently asked questions about our report.
First of all, not all casinos are included in this report. We are restricted to reporting on the statistics that are publicly available, and for the most part, that includes all commercial casinos and many of the largest Native American casinos. Because many Indian casinos are not required to report payback percentages to state regulatory agencies, some tribal casinos consider the statistics proprietary information, and do not report them publicly.
Our apologies if your favorite casino is not included. We are limited to those that report publicly, and that changes occasionally. Most recently, Illinois officials stopped requiring casinos to publicly report hold numbers. That’s why they are missing from this report.
Next, we are only able to report the numbers as they are reported by the casinos. That is why you will not find denominations broken out in many locations—such as New Jersey, where regulators stopped reporting separate denominations nine years ago.
Finally, the way the numbers are reported publicly also is the reason video poker paybacks are not broken out in this report. No jurisdiction reports separate numbers for slots and video poker. However, you’ll find that the casinos with the highest overall paybacks consistently offer the highest-returning pay schedules on video poker.
And the Winners Are…
For the fifth year running, the award for Loosest Slots in the U.S. goes to Nassau OTB at Resorts World New York City in Queens. This year, its 1,000 machines returned a remarkable 97.3 percent of wagers to players, topping the last two years.
And for the fourth year in a row, the second- through fourth-loosest slots in the nation are in Nevada. Reno once again lands the award for Loosest Slots in Nevada, returning 94.72 percent, slightly topping last year’s 94.59 percent. Just behind that at 93.52 percent are the “Balance of County” casinos, which include off-Strip properties in Clark County in the Las Vegas market, such as the Palms, Orleans and Rio. Not even making the top three last year, they replace Mesquite as the state’s second-loosest market.
Third in Nevada and fourth in the nation at 93.51 percent is the Boulder Strip, home to casinos including Sam’s Town and Arizona Charlie’s.
Elsewhere, in Atlantic City, the top two casinos are identical with the last three surveys, with Harrah’s offering the loosest slots in town at 91.5 percent and Borgata at 90.65 percent, essentially the same levels as last year. Hard Rock repeats at No. 3 with 90.65 percent, half a percentage point below last year.
In other highlights, Central City has dethroned Cripple Creek, which had Colorado’s Loosest Slots award six years running. At 92.26 percent, it won by the closest of margins over Black Hawk’s 92.17 percent, which nabbed second place.
Perennial winner Cripple Creek came in third this year, at 91.81 percent, fueled by Johnny Nolon’s Casino and Colorado Grande Casino owned by Rocky Mountain Gaming, which repeated its Strictly Slots Loose Slots certification early this year.
In Connecticut, Mohegan Sun flipped the results with Foxwoods, earning its first Loosest Slots Award in several years at 91.6 percent, just two-tenths of a point ahead of Foxwoods.
In Indiana, Horseshoe Indianapolis wins its sixth straight Loosest Slots crown, returning 90.53 percent, essentially the same as last year. In Massachusetts, it was a repeat for Plainridge Park Casino, which once again edged out Encore Boston Harbor, 92.76 percent to 91.1 percent.
In Mississippi, the results were the same as last year, with the North River Region (92.37 percent) edging the Coastal Region (91.93 percent) and the Central Region (91.93 percent). In Missouri, Ameristar St. Charles (90.99 percent) edged Hollywood Casino (90.8 percent), last year’s winner. In Louisiana, Lake Charles (90.49 percent) flipped spots with Baton Rouge (90.26 percent), reclaiming the Loosest Slots Award after four years.
In Pennsylvania, Wind Creek Bethlehem retains its Loosest Slots crown with 91.19 percent, about the same as the past three years. In Ohio, Hollywood Columbus claims its fourth straight crown at 92.69 percent.
Our congratulations to the Loosest Slots winners. Our readers will recognize your properties as tops in slots.
CLICK HERE to view the winners in all regions.
