Introduction to Colorado Slots Return-To-Player
Along with nineteen other U.S. states, the state of Colorado published return statistics. Let’s examine the state of Colorado slots return-to-player (RTP).
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
Keep Reading … or Watch Instead!
An Overview of Colorado’s Slots Industry
Legalized gambling arrived in 1991 for Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek. In November 2020, voters approved Amendment 77 of the Colorado Constitution with 60% of residents in favor. The amendment gives local control to residents of Central City, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek to vote to add new casino games and raise the maximum bet limit, capped at $100 since 2008.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
The Colorado Division of Gaming regulates gambling in the three historic mountain towns. This gaming control board is within Colorado’s Department of Revenue’s Enforcement Division.
There are 29 commercial casinos within the historic mountain towns of Black Hawk with fifteen casinos and 50 miles west of Denver, Central City with five casinos and 1.4 miles west of Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek with nine casinos and 112 miles south of Denver.
Central City is relatively more historic than the other two mountain towns. Black Hawk is much more of a typical casino town, nearly reminiscent of Las Vegas. Cripple Creek feels like a bit of both.
Black Hawk and Central City are just over a mile apart. Consequently, there is a heated competition between these two towns for revenue since gambling legalized in 1991.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
Regulation of gaming at Colorado’s two tribal casinos is through their negotiated tribal-state compacts allowing Class III Vegas-style electronic gaming machines and table games.
Colorado has two tribal casinos:
- Sky Ute Casino Resort in Ignacio, 330 miles southwest of Denver near the Arizona border, operated by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.
- Ute Mountain Casino Hotel in Towaoc, 400 miles southwest of Denver near the southwest corner of Colorado and 112 miles west of Ignacio, operated by the Ute Mountain Tribe.
Colorado’s Theoretical Payouts for Slots
No theoretical payout limits exist for Colorado’s commercial or tribal casinos.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
Colorado’s Return Statistics for Slots
Colorado’s two tribal casinos do not have publicly available return statistics.
The Division of Gaming offers return statistics by slot machine denomination for Colorado’s commercial casinos. These hold percentages come state-wide and are for each of the three historic mountain towns, but not by individual casino within those towns.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
When researching state-by-state return statistics, we learn that slot machines are not entirely random. As well see shortly, Colorado’s frontier towns have different monthly results despite each having the same state gaming regulations.
True randomness doesn’t allow for this kind of behavior. It doesn’t allow for a target to be set on all the results for a single frontier town. Yet, each has.
Why is this important? Because statistics of random data doesn’t allow for future prediction of results. This principle is a well-known concept in statistics.
But because we can see that penny machines have had the worst returns in Black Hawk for 23 of the last 24 months, we are able to predict future results. We can say that next month penny slots are likely to have the worst odds in Black Hawk.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
But what else can we say? Quite a lot. Past results can be used to predict future results. Yeah!
Colorado’s Win% by Frontier Town
The return statistics for Colorado’s frontier towns go back to 2011. But let’s focus on the beginning of 2019 through the end of 2021, which I’ve plotted for each Frontier Town for every slot machine denomination.
The gap in data is from when Colorado’s casinos closed for two full months as a public health response to the pandemic. In general, Cripple Creek has far better returns than Blackhawk or Central City.
The large upward spike and two downward dips in Central City return statistics are due to the penny slot machine denomination machine, as we will uncover.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
Let’s examine each slot machine denomination for each frontier town. We’re looking for the town with the best odds of winning for that denomination. See the graphs for relative differences but, in general, the towns with the highest odds by denomination appear to be:
- Penny: Cripple Creek
- Nickel: Central City
- Dime: Black Hawk (neither Cripple Creek nor Central City dime machines)
- Quarter: Cripple Creek
- 50-Cents: Black Hawk (Central City has no 50-cent machines)
- 1-Dollar: Central City
- 2-Dollar: Black Hawk (neither Cripple Creek nor Central City 2-dollar machines)
- 5-Dollar: Varies from month-to-month
- High (greater than 5-Dollar): Varies between Black Hawk and Cripple Creek (Central City does not have these denominations)
- Multi-Denomination: Varies from month-to-month
Colorado’s Win% by Frontier Town and Denomination
When we examine each frontier town individually, we see which slot machine denomination has the best and worst odds of winning for that town.
- Black Hawk: Penny slots are the worst while $1, multi, and high denominations are the best.
- Central City: Penny slots are the worst quarter while $1 denominations are the best in the last few months.
- Cripple Creek: Penny and nickel slots are the worst while quarter denomination is often the best.
Get Your FREE Guide Revealing…
Central City as a single “High” denomination slot machine which is fluctuating wildly. In one month, someone would have won big and given it a greater than 120% return while the next month its return would be worse than penny slots.
Summary of Colorado Slots Return-To-Player
Past behavior can predict future results when data isn’t entirely random. So, looking at Colorado slots return-to-player for the last 24 months allowed us to make a few predictions for 2022.
Related Articles from Professor Slots
Other Articles from Professor Slots
- Previous: Rhode Island Slots Return-To-Player – Forthcoming!
- Next: Connecticut Slots Return-To-Player, 1996 Thru 2022