Updated December 3, 2025
Why do it?
The monthly revenue reports by the Nevada Gaming Commission are among the few reliable sources of data for slot players (and gamblers in general). Here’s how to read them.
What's important?
The part of the monthly revenue report we find useful is the Casino Win Percentage. Here’s why…
The Casino Win Percentage shows how much the casinos within a particular geographic area won from players. Slots, table games, sports betting are all covered in the report. For the EXACT definition, see the section below.
Slots bring in more than double what table games do in Nevada, about $940 million every month.
Casino slot win percentages are reported by denomination, although multi-denomation games (like Dragon Link and many modern slots) are lumped together into a single category.
Demystifying Nevada Gaming Definitions
Like most government reports, the verbiage used can be opaque. Here’s exactly what the report says along with our translations.
The “Win Percent” for slots devices provides a ratio which represents the report win amount divided by the total dollar amount played by patrons.
> Translation: the % the casino kept out of ever $100 gambled.
The minimum number of location in any revenue range or area is four.
> Translation: This means that if there are only two casinos that fall in a revenue range, their data isn’t reported or is lumped into “rest of county”.
Additionally, if there are fewer than three locations reporting revenue for a specific gaming unit, the information for that gaming unit will be included in the other revenue categories.
> Translation: If there are only two casinos with $1,000 denomination slot machines (the Bellagio has one), they are listed under “Other”. See the report screenshot below.
A Note About RTP
Return to Player (“RTP”) is often used to characterize the overall return a slot machine is programmed to give back to players in the form of wins.
For example, if there are three Phoenix Link slots side-by-side, they may have an RTP of 90%, 92%, and 75%, but a slot player will NEVER know this. Never.
While Internet gurus profess to knowing a slot’s RTPs, that information is only known to the slot manager at a casino unless they have one of the reports Canadian researchers acquired under the Freedom of Information Act.
- One version of Double Diamond Deluxe
- Eight versions of The Phantom of the Opera
- Seven versions of Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania
- Seven versions of Money Storm
Here’s a screenshot of the revenue report for July 2025. As you can see, each slot denomination has its own set of data, from 1¢ to $100. Multi-denomination slots which now dominate casinos floors are lumped together.
Let's look at a couple of reports...
Based on these two reports, 1-cent slot machine RTP increased by 1.15%. If you look at multiple reports, it’s clear that this isn’t a linear trend. Slot RTPs change from month to month.
- Jan 2025: 12.54%
- Feb 2025: 10.95%
- Mar 2025: 10.71%
- Apr 2025: 11.29%
- May 2025: 9.48%
- Jun 2025: 11.17%
- Jul 2025: 11.50%
- Aug 2025: 8.75%
- Sep 2025: 12.18%
- Oct 2025: 10.35%
Just like body snatchers...
Some YouTube slot channels go on about how difficult it is to change the RTP of a slot. But we’ve watched a Vegas Strip casino swap out an entire carousel of slots (six machines) with IDENTICAL slots in less than a day. It’s that easy.
A smart tip comes rom Jackpot Famous, who tells people to write down a slot’s inventory number if they like it.
Penny slots are the best...for casinos
As you can see, the report is broken down by
- Annual revenue
- Geographic area
- Slot denominations
There are 26 casinos making $72M annually on the Vegas Strip. Multi-denomination slots are lumped together into one category comprising 60% of all slots (as of December, 2025), so in the near future the denomination categories will likely become meaningless.
“Other” is where $1,000+ denomination slots are listed. 475 machines have a coin-in of $6.9 million ($15K a month per slot), about the same as all 25¢ and $5 slots combined. The report doesn’t explain why the win % is missing.
As you can see above, penny slots have the WORST odds in a casino. The RTP is 88.50% collectively. Some penny slots may have a high RTP (e.g., 96%), but the overall return is dismal.
Compare this to $5 slots, where the RTP is 96.14%, a full 8% higher than 1¢ slots. The higher the RTP, the better it is for the player. Does this guarantee you will win if you play a $5 slot. No, but the odds are 8% in your favor compared to penny slots.
It’s interesting to track this over time. Each of the Nevada Gaming Commission reports includes data for the past 3 months as well as the preceding 12 months. Reports are posted a month or so after the close of the month (e.g., the Aug. report will show up around Sep. 30th).
Why we "play the math"
When we decided go leave the Vegas Strip for one of the casinos in an areas called the “Boulder Strip” (the casinos along State Route 582) in eastern Las Vegas, the number and amount of our wins increased.
The Vegas Strip casino win percentage for slots overall is 8.01% (July 2025, casinos with $72M or more in revenue). On the Boulder Strip, it’s 6.63%. That 2% translated into $3K in wins with the same $2K bankroll we use on the Strip.
While it’s true that this could be explained by a streak of good luck, it’s a streak that continued for three separate visits in three different months on 30 different slots. Judge for yourself.