In the short term, anything can happen, even when it comes to casino games. But over the long-term, you can make remarkably accurate estimates of how much money you can expect to lose playing games like slot machines over time.

The first factor is the number of spins you make per hour. The average slots player makes 600 spins per hour, but if you’re playing on a budget, the first way to maximize the amount of play you get for your money is to slow down and make fewer spins per hour. A good target is 300 spins per hour.

How do you slow down? Practice some mindfulness techniques. Breathe deeply and pay close attention to what happens when you spin the reels. Focus intently on the sounds and sights of the casino. It’s hard to be mindful in a casino situation, because there are so many different sights and sounds trying to distract you, but it’s great for your mental health to be able to focus in this way.

Another way to slow down your play is to get chatty with the people you’re with. Of course, this is hard to do when you’re playing a slots game on the Internet, but if you’ve traveling with friends, spend some time socializing with them while you spin the reels. Chat sections are becoming more popular at online casinos and this can be another good way to socialize and slow down your play.

It's difficult to determine the specific payback percentage for any particular slot machine game, but most people estimate that in legitimate casinos that it’s at least 90% or so. Since you’re playing low limit games for real money, it could be as low as 85%.

The payback percentage is a mathematical estimate of how much money out of each spin that’s going to be paid back to you. The difference between the payback percentage and 100% is the amount that the casino expects to keep from each wager. This is a long term estimate, and it won’t apply to a specific gambling session, but it can still be useful when deciding what kind of bankroll you need to play at certain stakes.

Let’s say you’re playing a penny slot machine game and you’re slowing down to 300 spins per hour. That means you’re putting $3.00 per hour into action. 15% of that is 45 cents, which is an estimate of how much you can expect to lose over the long run playing such a machine.

That makes penny slots one of the most affordable gambles in the casino, even if the odds are worse than the odds of most other casino games. A player with a bankroll of ￡45 can probably get in a good 100 hours of gambling.

If you’re smart, you’ll take advantage of the free drinks and the casino offers, too. The cocktail waitresses don’t visit the penny slots players as often as the high limit players, but you can still get a free beer now and then. And if you’re only losing 45 cents per hour, then you might even be showing a net profit. (But only if you would have paid for a beer in the first place.)

Be sure to only bet a single penny on a single payline, or you’ll wind up wagering a lot more per spin and per hour than you anticipated. That’s okay, in fact, I’d even encourage it, but just because a slot is a penny machine doesn’t mean you’ll only wager a single penny per spin. New players often make that mistake and then wonder how their money disappeared so fast.

Various software providers offer low limit slots on the Internet. Some of the larger names in the industry include companies like Aristocrat, Bally, Betsoft, Cryptologic, IGT, Konami, Microgaming, Playtech, Realtime Gaming, Vegas Technology, and WMS. All of these companies offer low limit slots games.

If you’re a low roller in the United States, you’ll find that many of the casinos powered by some of these software companies don’t accept players from the U.S.A. Realtime Gaming powered casinos often do accept real money players from the United States, and so do Betsoft powered casinos, but Microgaming, Playtech, and IGT all forbid real money play for US players.

Of the software packages that do accept US players, we like some of the following low limit slot machine games:

Food Fight is one of our favorite low limit slots from Realtime Gaming. It’s a five reel game that you can play for as little as a penny a spin or for as much as $5 per spin. The maximum bet is 45 coins. If you’re playing the progressive version of the game, be aware that you can’t win the progressive jackpot without making the max bet, but many Internet casinos don’t even offer the progressive version.

Jazz Time is another penny slot from RTG. Like Food Fight, it has 5 reels and 9 paylines, but this game has a music theme. Some casinos also offer it in a progressive version, and the same restriction applies to winning the progressive jackpot there; you have to bet max coins to win the progressive jackpot.