You won’t like the answer.
High-Limits Demystified
If everyone wants a handpay, then why isn’t the high-limits room packed?
The most exciting and nerve-wracking time in Vegas is gambling high-limits. When we started playing slots in 2024, betting $50 per spin was unimaginable, but it ended up being the reason we started this website and our YouTube channel.
86% of our handpays were won in the high-limit room
In 2024, we won just shy of $20K in handpay jackpots and had a coin-in of $127K. Compared to millionaire slot players, it’s a pittance…except we did it with a $1,000 – $2,000 bankroll. The biggest change was regularly visiting the high-limit room. Bet sizes went up, but so did our wins.
Experience isn’t an advantage on slots
It’s entirely possible for a new gambler to get a handpay with no previous slot experience. If you doubt this, watch any Dlucky video. New slot players often confuse the expertise required for table games like poker. Absolutely no skill is required to win other than pushing the correct button. Everyone has the same odds of winning, regardless of experience.
High-Limit Slots We Recommend (and play)
Many slot players—especially new gamblers—play a limited number of slots. That may be holding you back.
If that suits you, that’s fine, but if those slots aren’t giving you the handpay you desire, here are a few slots you may not have considered. There is no guarantee that this will work, but everything below is based on the handpays we’ve won.
Diamond Queen – Slot Strategy
Bonus round pay outs on Diamond Queen can be mind-blowing, but they’re difficult to get. The base Diamond Queen game is pretty boring, and both of our Diamond Queen handpays required a large bankroll AND getting the “Mystic Bonus”. Diamond Queen can be fickle. After five or six $20-$40 spins, we’ll stop and come back later to see if someone else has played it (and not won), then try it again ourselves.
Cleopatra & Cleopatra II – Slot Strategy
These two classic games are our current favorites and for good reason. On a relatively low bet ($18-20 per spin), there’s a decent chance of getting a handpay if you play all 20 lines. The higher the multiplier, the better your odds. The base game on Cleopatra is also fun because large line hits happen frequently. Cleopatra is the only slot we’ve recommended to our family members who wanted a handpay.
Double Top Dollar – Slot Strategy
Almost everyone recommends Double Top Dollar, and there’s a reason. We’ve won two handpays on Double Top Dollar: one for $8,500 and one for $2,000; the former cost $300 and the latter cost $60. Depending on the machine, Double Top Dollar can be extremely volatile with dozens of dead spins; that’s fine at a lower denomination, but at $50 per spin it can quickly drain a bankroll.
Wolf Run – Slot Strategy
Wolf Run is the oddball in this group, since you don’t really need to get the bonus to get a handpay. The line hits on Wolf Run can be gigantic, which means it’s more likely you’ll get a large pay even if you don’t break the $1,200 ceiling. We use Wolf Run to build our bankroll, since we’ve been able to win $300-$400 with a few $20 spins, far more than we’ve ever won on Double Diamond Deluxe for that amount of money. And it’s not as boring.
Handpays Come With Strings
If you itemize your federal and state taxes, go for it.
If you asked us whether we would prefer ten $1,000 jackpots or one for $10,000, I’d opt for the latter because we itemize our federal taxes.
The only gambling income tracked by the US government is that from wins of $1,200 or more (a handpay) which is why every handpay comes with a W-2G form. This is used by the casino to report your win to the IRS. If you don’t want your slot winnings taxed, you don’t want a handpay.
Is it even worth it?
The minimum bet in the high-limits room is around $9 per spin, which means that a typical $788 bankroll of a Las Vegas tourist can be gone in 88 spins. We highly recommend watching the slot videos posted by Dlucky, which demonstrate again and again that new gamblers can get their first handpay jackpot in 10 minutes with a $1,000 bankroll. This is exactly how we learned it was possible.
Betting Options
There are slots we will never play because of the investment required. I’m talking about the $100 (or even $1,000 a spin) slots. Statistically, we SHOULD be playing the $1,000 a spin slot because a tiny line hit (a cherry) would mean a $2,000 handpay.
High-limit slot denominations typically start at $5 with a minimum bet of $10. One thing to consider is whether to make the same bet on a lower denomination slot because it may improve your odds; for example, a $15 spin on a 5¢ (a huge multiplier) vs. betting the same $15 on a $5 denom slot (a 3x multiplier). On some slots, the larger the denomination or bet, the better your odds.
ANECDOTE: When we started gambling, I used to bet half my bankroll on roulette (red or black) to bolster my bankroll because the odds were better. If I won, we could gamble more; if we lost, we’d go back to our hotel room and watch TV.
Playing the slots in the high-limits room can forever alter your perception of what’s possible from a slot machine.
If you’ve never won a handpay jackpot, high-limits is probably where it will happen. Expect bets starting at $9 per spin. Large bets typically require a bankroll of $1,000 or more. While we’ve won a $2,000 handpay with $60, we’ve also lost $500 in a minute.
Also be aware that some slots ONLY give you the bonus on the maximum bet. The most well-known of these is Pinball. I was playing $25 denom Pinball in the high-limits room and got the pinball symbol, but didn’t get the bonus because I was only betting one credit to save money—$300 down the drain. The $10 version was sitting 15′ away. Lesson learned.
CAVEATS: It’s extremely easy to lose a large amount of money quickly in the high-limits room. Please do not gamble money that you need for essential expenses. Slot are not a way to make money.