Someone betting $10 on a spin of each slot machine needs a 120x win to achieve a handpay betting $20, like 20-line Cleopatra II at a $1 bet, a 60x hit would constitute a handpay. This really isn’t possible without exotic bets like the Fire bet on craps or a progressive jackpot at a Blackjack or other table game, so the chances of seeing it are incredibly rare.Īnd this is where the problem of glorifying a handpay starts to occur. You would have to win 300x your bet to get a “handpay” at a table game. Table games don’t have this problem because they consider what you bet to determine the situation. If you play $5 credit video poker, getting a straight flush on a standard Jacks or Better pay table, which is a rare occurence but not hugely so, would trigger a handpay.

On slot machines where you can bet $1 or $5 credits (with bets of $10-50 not unusual), handpays could come more easily than you think. The biggest problem with the handpay number is that with newer machines and higher bet levels, it can be really easy to get a handpay. $1,200 is certainly a big number and sounds exciting. They will return after entering the data with cash, and will pay you directly into your hand, hence the term handpay. As such, when a game pays that amount or higher, regardless of the bet, the machine locks up in a special state and an employee of the casino has to take information so they can report the win. The United States requires all slot machine wins of $1,200 or more to be reported. In this post, let’s examine what a handpay is, and whether or not it’s really a big deal.

It creates a bit of a frustration point sometimes on those who have been gambling their entire lives and never having seen one, while others are getting them with frightening regularity.

In many of the slot communities that I am a part, there’s always conversations about handpays and how some people get tons of them and others have never had any.

Biggest handpay jackpot