When you see an online casino advertising that they have high payout machines, as high as 98% what does that mean? It means that the payback is the overall percentage that a machine will return to the player in the long run. These percentages are programmed into the machines. In live casinos they can range anywhere from 75 to 99 percent. Some states regulate the minimum payback that a machine can return. Typically, online casinos have a higher payout rate than a live casino. Online casinos don't have all the overhead that a live casino has. That's why they can afford to payout more to their players.

Many players believe they will win more on a machine that pays out 95 percent compared to a machine that pays out 90 percent but generally speaking, this is not true.

The payback percentage is the profit that the casinos can expect to earn over the lifetime of the machine. The average player will never play long enough to see the overall return. Just because a machine has a payback of 99 percent that does not mean you will win back $98 for every $100 you play through the machine.

You might play $100 through a slot machine with a 94 percent payback and win $5,000 and then sit down and play $100 through a machine with a 99 percent return and lose it all in a few hours. It is not possible to determine your overall return from a machine if you are only going to sit down and play it for a couple of hours.

You will usually find that higher denomination slot machines have a greater overall payback percentage than lower ones. If you can afford to play the higher denomination slot machines with the higher payback percentages then you should. But again, only if you can afford it.

If your bankroll is limited and you want to ensure that you can play for awhile then you may be better off playing a slot machine with a lower denomination. One other thing to keep in mind when playing slots is that many machines have multiple pay lines. So you may be playing 3 or 4 coins at that denomination to give yourself better chance of winning.

The main thing that you should be focusing on when playing online slots is to have fun. Play the highest denomination that you can afford and only worry about payback percentages if you are going to be playing for long periods of time and many sessions. If not, then the payback percentage doesn't mean a whole lot.